How many Native Americans/ First Nations People/ Indigenous people do you personally know? Do you know how many Natives died this month? Not natural deaths, not “walking on,” but being murdered, or dying under suspicious circumstances? My answer by this writing, is at least 4, if not 6. Media attention is all over the horribly unjust killings of others this summer, but is relatively silent of the murders of Native people.
oey Tiiah English Calgary, Alberta Canada
A Native woman, Joey English was dismembered, and yet the man caught for it was just granted bail. Joey Tiiah English was 25.
Native man Cyril Weenusk was beaten to death last week while in Winnipeg Manitoba to help his dad with cancer treatments. There are no suspects.
Jocelyn George Calgary, was arrested, and died the next day after one night in police custody. The 18 year old woman was a mother of 2..
Crow Agency Native Roylynn Rides Horse 28, of Montana was beaten and burned alive, dying much later in a hospital.
Back in March ( 27 ) Loreal Tsingine was shot to death by police In Winslow Arizona. She was reportedly wielding a pair of scissors after being accused of shoplifting. Not guns. Scissors.
There are over 2000 ( some reports estimate as many as 4000) Murdered or Missing Indigenous Women in Canada, many of whom vanished along one stretch of road informally called the Highway of Tears.
Native Americans are the race/ethnicity with the highest number of people per million to be killed by police. (3.4 per million according to The Counted, a website that tracks People Killed by Police in the US.) So why is there virtually no news coverage of Native deaths? According to US Census Data for 2015, there are 4,500,000 Native Americans in the USA. Or as Siri puts it, statistically Natives just don’t exist.