In a room filled with grief and rage, Indigenous women leaders on Tuesday called on Minneapolis officials to declare a state of emergency, saying the city is failing to protect them from trafficking, violence, and drug-related homicides.
“Our population is shrinking,” said Ruth Buffalo, CEO of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center. “We don’t have anywhere else to flee or go to, to return to. This is it. And the lack of attention, the lack of resources, whether it’s intentional or not, continues to send a message of, oh, well, who cares? It’s just another Native, probably an overdose.”
Dozens of community members filled the room to confront city officials, including Minneapolis police officers, representatives from the mayor’s office, and the Minneapolis health commissioner about the incessant violence facing Native women and children — from sexual exploitation and human trafficking to misclassified deaths and shattered families. She called on the nationwide Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) movement to address the disproportionately high rates of violent crime against Indigenous people.
The Star Tribune has reached out to the state’s MMIR office for comment.
Some spoke through tears. Others, like Carol LaFleur, spoke from firsthand trauma.
“My daughter is a [sex trafficking] victim. And as we say, they either die or they come back,” she said. “Well, even if they come back, they’re not the same. My daughter will never be the person that people thought she was ever again. I don’t know who she even is anymore.”
She added, “It’s not just women; children are being trafficked, as well as men. So it’s an all-around issue.”
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