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The speaker discusses the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples, particularly women and girls. There is a lack of accurate reporting and awareness surrounding these cases, leading to a low number of solved cases and identification of victims. Indigenous individuals often lack support systems and go unnoticed when they go missing. The speaker mentions statistics for missing and unidentified Indigenous persons in Colorado, highlighting the underrepresentation of cases in the system. The need for more attention and action in addressing this issue is emphasized, followed by a call for help in the investigation of Samuel Standing Soldier's disappearance. The speaker concludes by stressing the importance of equal news coverage and awareness for all cases, regardless of race. Hi guys, what's up? My name is Ashley Miller, and I'm so excited to share this story with you guys. Today, I'm going to be talking about the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples, especially women and girls. There's a very low amount of young Indigenous women whose cases are solved, or even where the women are identified. When talking about the issue of missing Indigenous peoples, it is very difficult to give an accurate amount of missing and unidentified people. Because the number is so low and because of under-reporting of families and friends. The difference falls here. In the months and weeks after Gabby Petito went missing in 2021, she had nationwide consistent reporting on her story. TikTok was obsessed. Instagram was obsessed. People in general across the nation were obsessed. Everyone across the nation knew all of the details about her story and about her missing persons case. The same kind of reporting was never and had never been given to Native and Indigenous peoples. Since there is no accurate reporting, no one knows the true number of Indigenous women and girls that are still missing or unidentified. According to Denise Marie Ordway and the Journalist Resource, of the estimated 9.7 million people in the U.S. who identify as American Indian or Alaskan Native, only 13% live on tribal lands. In most cases, when people go missing, their family or friends will notice and report them. When an Indigenous person goes missing, sometimes they are living in a new place with little to no friends and their family is far, far away. Or they are estranged from their family and have no one to report them or identify them. Their family just simply does not hear from them and does not think anything of it. Because of this, when an Indigenous person goes missing, statistically a very low amount of their cases is never solved. In my research for this episode, I searched on NamUs the statistics of missing and unidentified persons for just Colorado alone. As of 2023, there are 369 open cases of missing Indigenous persons, 86 of unidentified persons, and 166 of unclaimed persons. These numbers are low, but these numbers are based on cases that have been entered into NamUs, meaning the number of cases in this system are only scratching the surface of the amount of missing and unidentified people. In his story on the U.S. report, Brayden Waddell wrote, A criminal justice database available primarily to law enforcement officials tallied nearly 6,000 reports of missing Indigenous women and girls in 2016. Only 116 cases had been logged into the NamUs system. The type of reporting is extremely underdone. Something needs to be done, and this needs to be changed. So, in honor of getting people's story out in the world, here's a quick call for action and help in the investigation of Samuel Standing Soldier. On October 6th, a local Colorado Springs news station, KRDO, published a story about Samuel Standing Soldier. He was last seen on October 3rd around 4 p.m. on Jamboree Drive in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He was last seen wearing a hoodie and blue jeans. He has long hair, typically worn in a ponytail, and wears glasses. Law enforcement has expressed major concern for the safety of Samuel. His tribe affiliation is Lakota, and he is 29 years of age. If you have any information unaware about this Samuel, please call 911 or CSPD at 719-444-7000. Thank you guys so much for listening today. I hope that the information that I provided really sunk in, and you can help change the problem. Every person deserves news coverage and help with solving their murders or their disappearances. Race should never be something barring law enforcement or news stations to report on the case. There is a website called Are You Pressworthy? If you go to that website and just fill in a couple things such as age, race, gender, it will tell you how many news stations and news outlets will even report on your case. Samuel only had three news stations report on his disappearance. He is an indigenous person, and that just proves the point that those kinds of disappearances are underreported, and that's extremely unfortunate. Getting the word out there and letting people know about the issue is only scratching the surface. I hope that by letting people know that it will help the issue or change something. I hope you guys enjoyed, and have a good day. Thanks!