What Is Happening to Native American Women and Children?

            President Donald Trump is actively helping people who have been overlooked in the past. He pardoned military personnel who were imprisoned due to outlandish rules of conflict put forth by the Obama administration. He signed a law to give convicted felons an opportunity to change their lives. He recently signed an executive order that established the Operation Lady Justice Task Force to learn why there are so many missing and murdered Native American and Alaska Native women and children. Trump said the following at the signing ceremony in his office. 

With Operation Lady Justice, we will bring new hope to Native American communities across the nation…. We will deliver justice for the victims, closure for the families, and safety to those in harm’s way. And on behalf of every missing and murdered Native American woman or child, I am going to sign this order and it will be a great honor.

            I did not know that “More than 5,000 Native American women and children are reported missing each year” or that “Native American women are 10 times more likely to be murdered than the average American is.” This problem has been going on for years, possibly decades, but action should have been taken years ago. The Trump administration is acting now. 


            I am not connected with the Native American community, and I have not previously seen anything about this huge problem. If 500,000 women and children of any other color were missing in any single year, it would be all over the news! Earlier this year, Trump announced that May 5 will be known as “Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives Awareness Day.” I would have remembered such a thing because May 5 is the day that my mother passed away. I honor her each year, but I know that she would not mind sharing her memories with Native American women. She had many friends among the Native Americans.


            The new task force will be led by both the Justice and Interior Departments. The Justice Department will not only “issue grants to tribes for safety improvements,” but it will work tribal communities “to review cold cases and unsolved cases.”