While the nation mourns the death of the 22 year old, others are questioning why so much time and effort is being spent on a white woman's death and little to no effort on the death of indigenous women.
"In Wyoming, the state where Petito’s body was found, only 18 percent of Indigenous female homicide victims get newspaper coverage, compared with 51 per cent for white female and male victims, according to a state report."
“There’s a rate of violence against Native women that’s happening and it doesn’t seem to be highlighted,” Jolene Holgate, a director for the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, told New Mexico television station KRQE on Tuesday."
“The national attention and resources that were put toward that case when there’s such a high number of MMIW (missing and murdered Indigenous women) cases in Wyoming and even the neighbouring state of Montana, it did not feel good. I think there’s this practice of discounting Indigenous bodies when it comes to folks who go missing or murdered.”
