Humboldt County Yurok Tribe Grapples with California’s Epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

“In Indian Country, everybody seems to know somebody who’s gone missing or been murdered,” begins LA Times reporter Hannah Wiley’s reporting on the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls in California. The Sovereign Bodies Institute reports that at least 183 indigenous women and girls have disappeared or were murdered in California, a figure it says could be many times higher owing to incomplete data. Their disappearances are part of the legacy of anti-Indigenous violence, experts say, and perpetuate cycles of generational trauma. We hear how Northern California’s Yurok Tribe is addressing the crisis and trying to achieve justice for those who have disappeared in their own community and nationwide.

Guests:

Hannah Wiley, politics reporter, Los Angeles Times

Honorable Abby Abinanti, chief judge, the Yurok Tribal Court

Blythe K. George, associate professor of sociology, UC Merced; member of the Yurok Tribe

Chief Greg O'Rourke, chief of police, Yurok Tribal Police

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