Anchorage had the third-highest number of missing and murdered indigenous women among 71 U.S. cities surveyed. The state of Alaska ranked fourth overall in the United States.

It started at Annita Lucchesi’s kitchen table four years ago.

She wanted to know how many Indigenous women and girls are murdered or go missing every year in the United States and Canada. It would seem like a simple enough question. But while different organizations do track these numbers, they are often looking at different data points, and many times cases slip between the cracks.

That’s when Lucchesi began keeping the database. She combed through police reports, news articles, social media, and personal connections with Indigenous communities in North America, and the MMIW Database was born. Read more at ArcticToday.