Redefining Missing in the “Third Space of Sovereignty”

• In Event: New Research Directions in Federalism

Abstract

American Indigenous and non-Indigenous policy actors with roles in state and non-state agencies across Idaho are reliant on collaborative governance to address the scope of missing and murdered Indigenous persons. Through a mixed methods study of collaborative governance on Idaho MMIP policy, research can center American Indigenous peoples’ contributions to collaborative governance to redefine who is missing within the settler-colonial logic of US federalism. This research paper identifies three key configurations of collaborative governance with American Indigenous actors as an attempt to bring empirical insight into the “third space of sovereignty” (Bruyneel, 2007). Research findings suggest Indigenous participation in collaborative governance contextualizes and redefines missing Indigenous persons in policy outputs in legislative policy addressing data, and tribal governance policies addressing investigation and victim service provision to Indigenous communities impacted by MMIP.

Author

• Melanie L Fillmore, University of Oklahoma