"Lighting The Way For Those Not Here": How Technology Researchers Can Help Fight the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) Crisis

The Big Picture: A Broken Compass and a Flashlight

Imagine the United States and Canada as a massive, dark forest. In this forest, many Indigenous people (Native Americans and First Nations) are going missing or are being murdered. The paper calls this the MMIR Crisis (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives).

The authors, a team of technology researchers, argue that the "compass" the government uses to find these people is broken. The police and official databases often ignore these cases, mislabel them, or simply don't look hard enough. It's like trying to find a lost friend in a dark forest using a compass that points in the wrong direction.

Because the official compass is broken, families and communities have had to build their own flashlights. They use technology—social media, websites, and apps—to shine a light on the missing, organize searches, and demand justice. This paper studies how they use these flashlights, what obstacles block their light, and how technology researchers can help build better tools without making things worse.

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Part 1: Why is the Forest So Dark? (The Barriers)

The researchers found that Indigenous communities face five main "storms" that make it hard to find their loved ones.

1. The Toxic Fog (Unsafe Online Spaces)

• The Problem: When families post "Missing Person" flyers on Facebook or Twitter, they often get attacked. People leave racist comments, harass them, or even try to scam them with fake tips.
• The Analogy: Imagine you are holding a sign in a town square asking for help. Instead of people helping, a crowd starts throwing rotten fruit and shouting insults at you. It makes you afraid to hold the sign up again.
• The Result: Families are scared to share information online, which makes it harder to find the missing person.

2. The Broken Road (Resource Inequity)

• The Problem: Many Indigenous communities live in remote areas with bad internet and no cell service. Even if they want to use technology to find someone, the "road" (internet connection) is broken.
• The Analogy: It's like trying to send a text message to call for help, but you are in a valley with no signal. Meanwhile, the police have a high-speed satellite phone but are too far away to hear you.
• The Result: Alerts (like Amber Alerts) often don't go out, or they go out too late.

3. The Unhelpful Guide (Colonial Institutions)

• The Problem: Government agencies and police often treat Indigenous families with suspicion or ignore them. They might say, "We don't have the budget," or "This doesn't fit our rules," even when a life is at stake.
• The Analogy: Imagine you go to a guide at a theme park because you are lost. The guide looks at your map, laughs, and says, "That's not a real path," then walks away. They refuse to listen to your story.
• The Result: Families feel they have to do the police's job themselves because the police won't do it.

4. The Blurry Photo (Inaccurate Data)

• The Problem: Police databases are full of mistakes. They might get a person's name wrong, mix up their race, or forget to write down which tribe they belong to.
• The Analogy: Imagine you are looking for a friend in a photo album, but someone has scribbled over their face with a marker and written the wrong name on the back. You can't find them because the picture doesn't match reality.
• The Result: Missing people become "invisible" in the system. They exist in real life, but they don't exist in the computer.

5. The Locked Door (No Data Sharing)

• The Problem: Different police departments (tribal, state, federal) don't talk to each other. Their computers don't "speak" the same language.
• The Analogy: It's like having three different libraries in the same city. One has the book you need, but the librarian won't let you leave the building to go get it from the other library. The information is stuck behind locked doors.

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Part 2: How the Community Builds Their Own Flashlights (The Actions)

Despite these storms, Indigenous communities are incredibly resilient. They aren't just waiting for help; they are building their own tools.

1. The Community Detective Squad

• What they do: Families and advocates take photos, gather evidence, and post missing person flyers on social media before the police even get involved.
• The Analogy: They are like a neighborhood watch that doesn't wait for the police car to arrive. They start searching immediately, using their phones as flashlights to scan the dark forest.

2. The Custom Maps

• What they do: They create their own databases and maps (like the "Sovereign Bodies Institute") to track missing people accurately, fixing the mistakes the government made.
• The Analogy: Since the official map is wrong, they draw their own map on a piece of paper that actually shows where the paths really are.

3. The Digital Campfire (Storytelling)

• What they do: They use podcasts, videos, and art to tell the stories of the missing. They don't just list names; they share who these people were.
• The Analogy: In the old days, people sat around a fire to tell stories so the ancestors wouldn't be forgotten. Now, they use the internet as a "digital campfire" to keep the memory of their loved ones alive and warm.

4. The Healing Circle

• What they do: They use technology to hold virtual "sharing circles" and spiritual ceremonies (like smudging) to help families heal from the trauma.
• The Analogy: Even though they are far apart, they use video calls to sit in a circle together, holding hands across the screen, to heal their hearts.

5. The Red Dress Movement

• What they do: They use art, like wearing red dresses or painting red hands, to make the crisis visible to the public.
• The Analogy: It's like painting a giant, bright red arrow on the ground that says, "Look here! Something is wrong!" It forces people to stop and pay attention.

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Part 3: How Tech Researchers Can Help (The Recommendations)

The authors ask technology researchers (people who build apps, websites, and AI) to stop trying to "fix" Indigenous communities from the outside. Instead, they should act like guests in someone else's house.

1. Hand Over the Keys (Data Sovereignty)

• The Advice: Don't take the data. Let the communities own their own data.
• The Analogy: If you are a guest in a house, you don't take the family photo album and put it in your own house. You ask the family if they want to show you the photos, and you respect their rules about who can see them.

2. Build the Tools They Ask For

• The Advice: Don't build a fancy new app that nobody asked for. Build the specific tools the families and tribal police say they need (like better alert systems or secure ways to share evidence).
• The Analogy: If a hiker says, "I need a better pair of boots," don't give them a new tent. Give them the boots.

3. Respect the Sacred (Cultural Sensitivity)

• The Advice: Understand that some knowledge is sacred and shouldn't be put on the internet. Don't treat their pain like a science experiment.
• The Analogy: Imagine a sacred garden. You wouldn't walk through it with muddy boots or take pictures of the flowers to sell them. You would walk softly and ask permission before entering.

The Bottom Line

This paper is a call to action. It says that technology has been used to hurt Indigenous people (by erasing them from records or spreading hate), but it can also be used to heal them.

The researchers are saying: "Stop trying to be the hero who saves the day. Instead, listen to the families, respect their wisdom, and help them build the flashlights they need to find their way home."