Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Alaskan question

I keep reading about Alaskan native women being killed at ten times the national average. I hear charges that nobody cares about solving said murders.

So what is the belief, that native men are killing native women, or is it believed whites are doing the killing of these women, and this is why there is no interests in solving the crimes?
What is the Alaskan train of thought on that issue? Is there a consensus or a native view vs white view?

I can't say that I have seen any hard and fast statistics saying who kills who. But I will say that a lot of risky behavior exists in the rural parts of alaska.

It's neither just one or the other doing the deed, and I don't even know if it matters statistically. What I will opine is that I believe many of the rural villages, often less that 1000 people, are places where the State's law enforcement efforts are sorely lacking and investigations often nil. And it doesn't necessarily matter what ethnicity is involved. If you're "village" you're "village" and Jim Crow applies.

There are some good LEOs however, and often their roots are tied to the rural places. But many of the local LEOs (not AST) are largely untrained and often have records to equal or better those for whom they provide protection.

I have stories and opinions, some higher than others, of certain folks. Suffice it to say, I'm not surprised that there are as many murdered and missing as there are. 🤬

Klikitarik;
Good evening to you my old cyber friend, it's nice to see you posting again and hope you and yours are well tonight.

As you likely know we've got a similar situation in northern BC and Alberta, so much so that the feds at one time had a royal commission - Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women - I believe it was.

Some of the folks are quick to call it genocide - our federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh did that this week, saying it was perpetrated by white supremacists and misogynists, even though the royal commission didn't find evidence of that.

Anyways, having had family living in FN communities across much of the western north, I can only say it's complicated - as you well know.

Regardless of the grim topic, it's good to see you're still up and kicking as it were sir!

All the best to you all this Christmas Season.

Dwayne

Good tidings of the season, Dwayne, dark as it is this time of year (which just makes the light we do get that much more beautiful I reckon!)

A worthwhile peek into the topic at hand, and perhaps with some bias since we have ties, is the well made Dateline program, "A Walk in the Rain", the murder of Sonya Ivanoff by a police officer.

Even closer to home, we have waited for five years and still have heard nothing about about a young gal, a former student of mine and friend of my sons, whose hair was cut off and body dumped at the base of a bluff along the beach. A population of 400 in the village , 600 in the neighboring village 10 miles away, and the investigators have nothing! That says something, I think, for how out of touch the law is with some of the small communities.

This reflects my somewhat limited experience with the matters.

In one instance I had to file a report for a simple vehicle vandalism/theft incident. It was eye opening what the officer told me.

So then what I’m getting is that this is usually a case of limited law enforcement resources, and bad guys knowing they can get away with horrific crimes?
Makes you wonder if it’s just a few repeat offenders getting away with it, over and over?

Add to that the fact that when the law comes to the village to investigate, nobody wants to talk to them. Can't really hang it all on law enforcement.

I lived in Manitoba, where Indians(First Nation Peoples), killing Indians(First Nation Peoples) is through the roof. Thompson Manitoba is call "The Murder Capital of Canada". White people are not being killed.

That wouldn't be my assessment at all.

Everybody knows everybody in a small village, a truly 'bad guy' or repeat offender wouldn't last long.

It's not just the lack of law enforcement, there's many city niceties that don't exist.

There's seldom a jail cell for a overnight or couple day cooling off period, there's not that 'Baker Act' type facility for those that find themselves challenged by everyday life.

I see people more so willingly placing themselves in extremely high risk environments and situations that they just don't survive.

If there's a victim it's always easier if there's a villain to place blame on, but that doesn't always paint the clearest picture.

The standard relief for Natives with issues is a one-way ticket to Anchorage. Where it is just that much easier to acquire the roots of their problems. Heavy snow, homeless, drugs, alcohol, and they wonder why enabling is not working.

Post the links of where you keep on reading this. Should be an interesting read.

I wonder if its not the same as it would have been years ago really.

You know so called native life was not easy at all and wrought with death of various types.

Not saying its right, but dang sure wouldn't put up with someone calling it white supremacy like Kanada that BC mentions... ugh.

Granted life was never easy but some elders, when interviewed point at a turning point with their people.

It could pretty much be summed up as Pre and Post Missionary.

In 1890, when the first missions were established in Alaska north of Bering Strait, not a single Native in the region was a Christian.
The Inupiat and the Christianization of Arctic Alaska LINK

(Clipped from a personal interview)

They are everywhere... a quick internet search will give you plenty to read. Lots will be contradictory.

From my understanding, there are several challenges. I think Gov. Dunleavy's statement on it sums up some of them succinctly. "The need continues for stronger collaboration and allocation of resources, as well as improved coordination in response and investigation in order to increase safety and reduce the risk of harm;" The The 2018 report by the Urban Indian Health Institute is one that is widely cited, and highlights some of these challenges with data. Now, locally, the Governor's Alaska Council on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons final report was due 10/15/2022. The last meeting looks like it was in October. The first investigator that filled the role of Alaska's single MMIP investigator, Anne Sears, left after only five months on the job. Lonny Piscoya took over that role in mid-September and is tasked with providing the final report to the Gov...so my opinion is that it is not going well so far...

Well as Sitka mentioned, choose your favorite search engine and try something such as “ missing murdered indigenous women statistics”.
Not limited to one state, and Canada also, applies to all kinds of indigenous women.
I have been reading about this for years, and it comes off as a total mystery as to what is going on. Plenty of reports and statistics as to the numbers missing and murdered, but hardly nothing explaining the phenomenon.

People talk if there's trust. If AST only shows up wearing cuffs and a ticket out ASAP, that doesn't develop much trust....anywhere. OTOH, if, as some have done, they come to town, stay overnight, talk to kids, get out and see people, perhaps at store, city office, school....people are much more likely to be open. It actually works.

If you're interested in how "law enforcement" happens, in rural Alaska especially, as that might be the root of some of this, Google "Propublica and Kyle Hopkins".

Here's one example: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pr...cops-now-officials-want-it-to-change/amp

And another....(it isn't uncommon to hear people say, "you won't get hired til you've been to jail".):
https://www.propublica.org/article/stebbins-alaska-cops-criminal-records-domestic-violence

They always hold a vigil for some miss nat .. then a month later they find them dead...to much fun about half the time...