Thousands of Native American women and girls disappear or are killed each year. These women and girls vanish from tribal lands, rural communities, and cities with no official accounting. TRB conducted a webinar on Wednesday, July 29, 2020 from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM Eastern exploring the unique mobility patterns of Native Americans as they travel from rural tribal territories to urban centers. Certain social structures have made mobility difficult for indigenous women and girls, and as a result, there are inadequate accounts of human trafficking from this community. Presenters discussed current federal Indian laws and tribal guidelines that may affect human trafficking, identified the social determinants and risk factors of murdered and missing indigenous women, and described the critical issues of human sex trafficking with regards to tribal jurisdiction.

This webinar was organized by the TRB Standing Committee on Native American Transportation Issues.

The slides are linked in the meeting materials. View the recorded webinar below.

Webinar agenda and presenters

1. Statistics of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW): Margo Hill, Eastern Washington University
2. Federal Indian law: Margo Hill, Eastern Washington University
3. Mobility patterns of indigenous women and girls: Kristen Joyner, Southwest Transit Association
4. Social determinants and risk factors for MMIW: Kristen Joyner, Southwest Transit Association
5. Critical issues of tribal jurisdiction in human sex trafficking: Kristen Joyner, Southwest Transit Association
6. Tribal guidelines for treatment of human trafficking victims: Margo Hill, Eastern Washington University
7. Question and answer session: Moderated by Ron Hall, Bubar & Hall Consulting, LLC

Additional resources mentioned by the presenters during the webinar are linked in the meeting materials below.