[Some say the media ignores an epidemic of missing and murdered
Native American women.] [[link removed]]

MEDIA FASCINATION WITH THE PETITO MYSTERY LOOKS LIKE RACISM TO SOME
NATIVE AMERICANS  
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Kamila Kudelska
September 21, 2021
NPR
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_ Some say the media ignores an epidemic of missing and murdered
Native American women. _

Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native American Women and
Girls 2, by Seattle City Council (This image was marked with a CC BY
2.0 license.)

 

On Sunday, remains believed to be the body of 22-year-old Gabrielle
Petito were found in Wyoming. The mystery around the death of the
photogenic young white woman with a carefree social media presence has
been headline news
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the country.

And that's frustrating to people who say the media ignores an epidemic
of missing and murdered Native American women in the state.

Since the year 2000, indigenous people have made up 21% of homicides
in Wyoming, even though only three percent of the population is
Indigenous. That's according to a state report released in January
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Cara Chambers, chair of the task force that released the report says
only 30% of indigenous homicide victims had any media coverage. That
number is closer to 51% for whites. 

"The themes and media portrayal of homicide victims that when you had
an indigenous victim, the articles were more likely to have negative
character framing," Chambers said, "more violent and graphic language,
really focusing more on sort of like where the homicide occurred
versus anything about the victim."

Chambers says those kinds of portrayals can deter people from
reporting that their loved ones are missing to the media or police.

"It's kind of heart wrenching, when we look at a white woman who goes
missing and is able to get so much immediate attention," said Lynnette
Grey Bull, who is Northern Arapaho and a leading advocate for
improving Wyoming's response to missing and murdered indigenous
women. 

"It should be the same, if an African American person goes missing, or
a Hispanic person goes missing, a Native American... we should have
the same type of equal efforts that are being done in these cases." 

Both she and Chambers hope more people will recognize differences in
the urgency and attention cases of missing Indigenous women get, and
improve response to them in the future.

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