Missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) is a national epidemic that is just now getting the attention it deserves. Native women and girls are murdered or missing at much higher rates than other racial groups. And as of 2018, New Mexico leads the nation in missing and murdered indigenous women.
There are several reasons for this. One is that Native American women are the recipients of continued colonial exploitation. Now it takes the form of things like Indian rolling, serial killing, and sex trafficking. Some white people view Native American women as vulnerable victims, ripe for exploitation, and they target tribal nations for victims.
The other main factor is that many Native Americans suffer alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic violence due to generational trauma that haunts them to this day. Their problems were inflicted upon them by centuries of persecution and colonialism. As a result, many indigenous women suffer domestic violence and sexual violence, often perpetrated by people they know.
A lack of communication between tribal police and state and federal law enforcement often leads to these women not being reported missing nationally. Many tribal police forces are understaffed and underfunded, so they cannot investigate cases properly. Yet they do not reach out for help and when they do, their requests may be ignored by State and federal agencies. Victims’ families often report that tribal police mishandle or lose evidence, missing person reports, and more.
Many of these women are murdered by their partners and their partners are never charged due to jurisdictional confusion, inept tribal police forces, and bodies never being found in the desolate stretches of the Southwestern reservations. Others are thought to be vulnerable victims of human trafficking or serial predators. Some of these women appear to vanish into the ether and are never found. Or they are found dead and their murderers never face justice.
But their families have had enough. A huge national movement has begun to bring awareness to this issue and bring about change in how missing persons cases and murder cases are handled. Look up MMIW, and you can see how big this movement has gotten. Finally, missing Native American women are getting the attention they deserve. Missing white girl syndrome refers to the amount of media attention white women get when they go missing and how women of color are often scarcely mentioned, if at all. This movement is clapping back at that.
Now, there are Feather Alerts for when Native Americans go missing. These are like Amber Alerts and they help bring national awareness to this issue. National protests and conventions have also helped bring more awareness to the epidemic of MMIW.
No matter the reasons, these women deserve justice. For this reason, I’ll be posting 3 MMIW every Monday to highlight their cases and try to raise awareness of this social justice issue. Most of these MMIW are from New Mexico but I may feature women from other states due to the fact that tribal nations transcend state lines. Many of these cases have few or no details. Some don’t even have photos. But we can’t forget their names.
Ranelle Rose Bennett
Ranelle Rose Bennett was last seen on June 5, 2021 at her mother’s house in Hogback, NM. She has never been seen or heard from since. She even missed her ten-year-old daughter’s birthday party, which is not like her.
Her mother, Rose Yazzie, reported her missing on June 21, 2021. But the police department took days to upload the report, wasting precious time in finding her. Since then, they have failed to update the family and they often refuse to talk to Yazzie.
Frustrated, the family began to search on their own. Three months after Bennett disappeared, they located Bennett’s shoes and sweater somewhere north of Shiprock. Her brother, Jerold Harrison, works in Colorado and spends his free time searching for his sister around Shiprock. He feels that he has to do what the police are not.
Bennett’s family, especially her nephew and children, anxiously await her return. It has now been 3 years and the hope of finding her alive is growing dimmer.
Bennett is 33 with black hair and brown eyes. She has the letter B tattooed behind her left ear and “Treaston” tattooed on her right inner arm.
If you have seen her, please call Navajo Police Department Shiprock District at 505-368-1350 or 505-368-1351.
Vanessa Tsosie
Tsosie was found dead in Brook Haven Park West in Farmington on November 5, 2017. Someone called 911 about an injured woman lying in the park, but she had expired by the time police arrived. Her head was bashed in and blunt force trauma was evident on her body. Her pants and shoes had been removed, indicating rape. One of her black Nikes lay near her body and there was blood in the sole. Her wallet was missing, which made identification difficult.
Police posted pictures of Tsosie’s belongings online. Her sister recognized her sister’s things and called Farmington Police. Tsosie’s identity was then confirmed via dental records.
Vanessa Tsosie was a 29-year-old woman from Red Valley, Arizona. Tsosie was loved by many. She left behind two small children. The day she went missing, she had gone out with a man who is thought to be named Alvin Nelson.
Police got DNA and a footprint from the scene. They learned that Tsosie had been drinking at the park with three men. One was named Jimmy and DNA from Tsosie’s body matched him. They located Jimmy, who claimed he was drinking in the park with his friend Eric, when Vanessa and Alvin Nelson joined them. They were not acquainted with Vanessa or Alvin. Someone pushed Jimmy, so he left quickly to avoid a fight.
Then police found Eric. He claimed at first that he didn’t even know Alvin or Jimmy. But then he cracked and admitted that he had been there that night when Alvin murdered Vanessa.
Police were very interested in talking to Alvin. But he died by suicide before police could interview him. Blood on Vanessa Tsosie’s body also matched Alvin’s DNA profile. It is clear that he killed and raped Vanessa, but police are unsure if Jimmy and Eric was his accomplices or simply witnesses. Without evidence, they were forced to release both men.
Why Vanessa Tsosie was in New Mexico and why Alvin Nelson killed her are all unknown. I’m very suspicious of Eric and Jimmy, as well. It could have been a drunken gang rape that turned deadly.
Tsosie did not deserve this. Her children now have to grow up without a mother. Her sister and other family members have to mourn her senseless death for the rest of their lives. This crime tore apart many lives, and yet nobody has had to face justice for it. And this story has repeated for many other indigenous women.
Tiffany Reid
On May 17, 2004, 16-year-old Tiffany Reid rode the bus to school. Then she never came home.
Her mother called Tiffany’s sister, Deiandra Reid, and asked if Reid had seen her. Deiandra had not. They decided to wait for Tiffany to return home, as she sometimes would take off after school for a day. It was not like her to never call, though, and they sensed something was wrong. When they didn’t hear from Tiffany for a week, she was reported missing.
Then nothing happened for years.
The only sign of Tiffany was her makeup bag and some articles of clothing at a popular party spot near Sweetwater, AZ, in the Carrizo Mountains. But the clothes couldn’t be confirmed to be Tiffany’s and no blood or other clues were present.
When Tiffany’s cousin Becky Johnson joined the Farmington Police Department, she was determined to look more into her cousin’s disappearance. To her horror, she found that Tiffany Reid was not even in the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database for missing persons. The Navajo Nation Police Department claimed that their entries had been purged from that database and they had reentered everyone missing from their jurisdiction but they somehow missed Tiffany Reid. Her family did not consider that an acceptable answer and they advocated for Reid to be put back in the system. She is now in the national database and has a Charley Project profile.
Reid’s mother died in 2019 without ever knowing what happened to her daughter. Deiandre Reid and Becky Johnson continue to search for Tiffany Reid and advocate for MMIW and police accountability.
Bennett:
https://www.koat.com/article/mmip-ranelle-rose-bennett-disappearance/39388757
Tsosie:
https://thecinemaholic.com/who-killed-vanessa-tsosie
Reid:
https://www.koat.com/article/family-members-speak-out-on-tiffany-reid-disappearance/41072102