Our history.

The purpose of our organization is to steward and take care of all of the data regarding our missing and murdered Indigenous persons in our Alaska Native community. We do this through stewardship, cultural values, and honoring our ancestors, past and present, in all of the work that we do.

We are an Alaska Native and womxn-led non-profit stewarding a database for missing and murdered Indigenous womxn, girls, and relatives.

The Alaska MMIWG2S data gaps are prevalent and unacceptable. Accurate data and reporting are an essential part to bringing justice for our community. Together, we are reclaiming and housing the MMIWG2S data to protect and care for our community.

If you are a loved one of a missing or murdered relative and are seeking justice, submit the name of your loved one to the MMIWG2S database. Know that this data and information gathered is housed with care, love, and respect.

DIJ executive director Charlene Aqpik Apok is now one of four Alaska Native womxn serving on the Anchorage Public Safety Commission to address the needed policy change and the inadequate way in which state and local police departments keep track of race pertaining to MMIP cases. This is one step in bridging the gap. Data for Indigenous Justice is the first Indigenous-led organization to collect missing and murdered data in Alaska. Other national organizations include the Urban Indian Health Institute and Sovereign Bodies Institute, organized similarly in obtaining data directly from the community.

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A few years ago, we wanted to call attention to the rates of missing and murdered Indigenous womxn and girls in Alaska by reading the names of loved ones lost. The beginning of database collection started because our organizations and community members wanted to call for justice, but did not have the data to work off of.

Federal, stat,e and local agencies all track missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP) cases differently, which creates large disparities in data. These data gaps are apparent when family members of loved ones submit requests for information on their loved one or when organizations such as DIJ request to obtain any information. Organizers like Data for Indigenous Justice's executive director, Charlene Aqpik Apok, began grassroots efforts to compile community-sourced MMIP cases. Presently, local organizations work alongside Data for Indigenous Justice to address the data gaps, create needed policy change, and infiltrate public safety commissions while working in direct response to the needs of our communities.

To this day, Data for Indigenous Justice has one of the most comprehensive amounts of data for the state of Alaska. This data is informed directly by the community that fills the gaps of where system issues have persisted.

Founding Principles

  1. To serve our Indigenous communities by working for and with them towards justice and healing through systemic change and advocacy regarding missing and murdered Indigenous persons;

  2. To protect and care for our stories through stewarding inherently intertwined qualitative and quantitative data with respect;

  3. To strategically utilize our stories found in qualitative and quantitative data to benefit the wellbeing of our Indigenous people through efforts that educate and advocate for systematic change; and

  4. To honor our ancestors’ past and future with guidance from Indigenous values and teachings; applied through respectful, self-determined, and sovereign research and reporting.