Throughout the US and Canada there are a disproportionate number of Native women and girls who go missing and/or are murdered. Oklahoma is rated as one of the top 10 states with the highest number of these incidents in the US. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) is a movement to bring recognition to this epidemic affecting Native women and girls.
This panel discussion took place with MMIW experts, artists, and policy-makers about the current issues surrounding MMIW. It was part of a series of exhibition programming for Weaving History into Art: The Enduring Legacy of Shan Goshorn.
This project was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. www.arts.gov.
This program was sponsored in part by the Cherokee Nation. https://www.cherokee.org/

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Mary Kathryn Nagle, J.D.
Mary Kathryn Nagle is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation and playwright. Her play Sliver of a Full Moon has been performed at law schools across the United States. In 2019, her play SOVEREIGNTY was produced at Marin Theatre Company, and the Yale Repertory Theatre will produce MANAHATTA in 2020. She served as the first Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program from 2015 to 2019.
Nagle is also a partner at Pipestem Law, P.C., where she works to protect tribal sovereignty and the inherent right of Indian Nations to protect their women and children from domestic violence and sexual assault.

Representative Ruth Buffalo
Representative Ruth Buffalo is a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation and originally from Mandaree, ND. Ruth has served in various capacities focused on building healthy and safe communities.
Representative Buffalo currently serves as North Dakota House State Representative for Dist. 27. She successfully introduced a package of bills for MMIP and Human Trafficking Prevention and Awareness. She is the first Native American Democratic woman elected to the North Dakota Legislature. Ruth serves as Tribal Navigator on the North Dakota Human Trafficking Task Force in addition to having served on the Fargo Native American Commission (2016-18) and the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.
Representative Buffalo has a BS in criminal justice from Si Tanka University and received Master of Management (2005) and an MBA (2010) from University of Mary and a Master of Public Health from North Dakota State University in 2016.

Caroline LaPorte, J.D.
Caroline LaPorte, J.D. is an immediate descendant of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. She attended the University of Miami School of Law and Baylor University for her undergrad.
As an attorney her professional experiences have been primarily centered on violence against Native women. Caroline has served as the Senior Native Affairs Policy Advisor for the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center and the StrongHearts Native Helpline in D.C. Her work focuses on tribal sovereignty, jurisdictional issues, access to culturally based resources, MMIW, housing, human rights, firearms and tribal justice systems all within the gender-based violence framework. She currently serves on the ABA’s Criminal Justice Task Force on Victims of Crime and is a founding member of the National Working Group on Safe Housing for American Indians and Alaska Natives. She currently works for the Seminole Tribe of Florida and is an adjunct professor at the University of Miami.

Jaime Black
Jaime Black is a multidisciplinary artist of mixed Anishinaabe and European descent. Black’s art practice engages in themes of memory, identity, place and resistance and is grounded in an understanding of the body and the land as sources of cultural and spiritual knowledge.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Cherokee Nation First Lady January Hoskin
Cherokee Nation First Lady January Hoskin has served as First Lady of the Cherokee Nation since 2019. In her role, she is a vocal advocate for the protection of the Indian Child Welfare Act and recruiting more foster homes for Cherokee children.
She also champions other causes that are near and dear to her heart, such as missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW), serving families in need after domestic violence, increasing drug treatment and rehab opportunities, and protecting natural resources. She has a long history of advocacy for social justice.
From Vinita, she attended the University of Oklahoma and is married to Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. Together, they have two children and three grandchildren.

Additional Resources
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