Theses and Dissertations Collection

Past anthropologists aided in creating Dead Indian Culture, leading to settler-colonial Indigenous erasure, as if Indigenous peoples no longer exist. The purpose of researching the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis is to use modern Anthropology as a tool of truth-telling to name MMIW as a product of settler colonialism, Christianity, and the whitewashed history produced by anthropologists. The study uses mixed methods research, which includes looking into the statistics of missing and murdered Indigenous women, the accuracy of those statistics, and personal accounts from women directly or indirectly affected by the violence. The investigation continues by examining jurisdictions, laws, and contradictions surrounding specific crimes, including the anthropological history encircling settler colonialism, past and present. The research examines the toxic atmosphere surrounding media discourse and how environmental racism contributes to gendered violence. Findings show that intergenerational trauma from settler colonialism hinders many Indigenous families from reporting violent incidents. Results further yield that the perpetrators of violence against Native women are predominantly white men, suggesting that, at its roots, this is more a white problem than an Indigenous issue; it should not be the responsibility of the oppressed to kill the ra(c)(p)ist and save the man. The research focuses heavily on critically evaluating the field of anthropology and its role in contemporary issues. Lastly, education of settler society against racism and inaccurate histories is explored as an avenue to interrupt settler violence against women.