The Petito Case begins yet another repeat of selective media coverage

By Kaniehtonkie

Since 2000, Indigenous people have made up 21% of homicides in Wyoming, even though they are only 3% of the population. That’s according to a Wyoming state report released in January 2021. In Montana, there were 166 active missing persons cases as of April 2021. Indigenous people account for 48 of these, or about 29 percent, despite comprising only 6 percent of the state’s population in Montana.

Yet, when a photogenic young white woman goes missing, she makes headline news across the country. On Sunday, the FBI confirmed the remains believed to be the body of 22-year-old Gabrielle Petito were found in Wyoming. Her death is tragic. Its also confusing and frustrating to many Black, Latino, Asian, LGBTQ, young, old, men and boys and Indigenous people.

According to the state report Missing & Murdered Indigenous People – Statewide Report Wyoming, “Close to 51% of white women receive national media coverage, in comparison to only 30% of Indigenous women receiving media coverage. The newspaper articles for Indigenous homicide victims were more likely to contain violent language, portray the victim in a negative light, and provide less information as compared to articles about White homicide victims.”

Cara Chambers, chair of the task force that released the report, says only 30% of Indigenous homicide victims had any media coverage. That number is closer to 51% for whites.

Chamber told NPR, “The themes and media portrayal of homicide victims that when you had an Indigenous victim, the articles were more likely to have negative character framing,” Chambers said, “more violent and graphic language, really focusing more on sort of like where the homicide occurred versus anything about the victim.”

Lynnette Grey Bull, who is Northern Arapaho and a leading advocate for improving Wyoming’s response to missing and murdered indigenous women stated, “It’s kind of heart-wrenching, when we look at a white woman who goes missing and is able to get so much immediate attention. It should be the same, if an African American person goes missing, or a Hispanic person goes missing, a Native American ... we should have the same type of equal efforts that are being done in these cases.”

Those kinds of portrayals can deter people from reporting that their loved ones are missing to the media or police. Both Grey Bull and Chambers hope more people will recognize differences in the urgency and attention cases of missing Indigenous women get, leading to an improved public response.

Facing a wide disparity in justice, more than 96 percent of such crimes are committed by non-Indigenous people, and when it comes to federal prosecutors, they often decline to prosecute. In 2017, 37 percent of the cases presented to federal prosecutors in Indian Country were declined. On many tribal lands, they lack the authority to prosecute non-Indigenous perpetrators who commit crimes on tribal land because of the complex web of federal, state and tribal laws and jurisdictions.

You’ve heard of these names; Laci Peterson, Elizabeth Smart, Natalee Holloway, JonBenet Ramsey, and Chandra Levy. What are the names of the missing and murdered Native American women missing in the Unties States?