Empathy for missing and murdered Indigenous women

In Alaska, Native women are victims of violence at far higher rates than women of other ethnicities. This phenomenon, known as #MMIWG (for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls), affects North America as a whole, but Alaska seems particularly hard hit. How can this be explained? We need to look at Alaska's history: its late colonization, the specific status of Alaska Natives, financial and demographic issues raised by the oil and gas sector, police resources, and so on. However, the phenomenon is not limited to Alaska and is in effect a consequence of North American colonial policies, themselves disseminated through the arts, especially literature. Thus, representations of Native women in North American literature are key to understanding how they are perceived by society, even today.