Indigenous echoes: Alaska’s stats on MMIP likely higher, according to study

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - According to the Urban Indian Health Institute, the first recorded case of a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman or Girl was in 1943. Two-thirds of all the cases gathered in a new study were from 2010-2018, which they say suggests the number of cases is much higher than the institute was able to find and identify.

The study identifies cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in 71 urban cities, including Anchorage, Bethel, Fairbanks, Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, and Utqiagvik.

Due to challenges of collecting numbers of cases and names, such as many going unrecorded and officials not responding to requests, approximately 80% of the cases in the report have occurred since the year 2000, suggesting earlier cases went unrecorded.

Alaska has the fourth-highest number of cases of MMIWG in the country, according to UIHI.

There are 229 federally recognized tribes in Alaska. That number is a repeated number in the state because there are 229 cases of MMIP in Alaska that have been reclaimed by the Date for Indigenous Justice — 80 murdered, 149 missing.

In approximately 75% of the cases identified in the study, the victim was recognized as an American Indian or Alaska Native woman or girl, with no tribal affiliation listed.

The institute identified 506 cases unique to its research. Of those, 56% were murder cases and 25% were missing person cases.

In 2016, only 116 of the 5,712 known cases of MMIWG were logged in the U.S. Department of Justice’s national database.

According to the FBI, the majority of murdered Indigenous people are committed by offenders unknown to the victim.

A 2021 study published in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine found that homicide is the third-leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls between the ages of 10 and 24, and fifth-leading cause of death among women between 25 and 34 years old.

The state’s Department of Public Safety comes out with a report on Missing Alaska Natives and American Indians every quarter of the year. Its most recent report (at the time of publication) indicates that the majority of MMIP cases were ruled environmentally related.

According to DPS, in 2023, men made up 80% of all murder suspects in the state. Men ages 25-34 were the majority of murder suspects that year.

Alaska reported 20 of 1,359 missing persons cases in January 2025. According to the Alaska Department of Public Safety, in 2024, 69% of American Indian and Alaskan Native murder victims were women and girls. That percentage decreased throughout the year, as DPS reported women and girls made up 29% of victims in the second quarter, 20% of victims in the third quarter, and 23% in the fourth quarter.

In 2023, 40% of murder suspects in the state were white, while 40% were Alaska Native.

In UIHI’s research, they call 153 cases “The Invisible,” because they do not exist in any law enforcement records and were only discovered by the institute. They still believe there are many more cases that remain unknown and are not recorded anywhere, not even on social media.

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com

Copyright 2025 KTUU. All rights reserved.