Photograph by Shay Conroy / Getty Images
Words by Ruth H. Burns
Content Warning: This story includes mentions of murder and violence.
What would you do if your loved one had been brutally slain, and their body was thrown away like garbage in a city dump?
I believe the reaction most folks would have, along with shock, grief, and anger, would be the profound desire to retrieve the remains of their loved one and lay them to rest in a manner customary to their family and community.
This deeply human need is what lies at the heart of #SearchTheLandfill, a movement centered in Manitoba, Canada, where the families of Indigenous women murdered at the hands of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki are demanding that their loved ones be recovered from Prairie Green Landfill outside of Winnipeg.
Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, were victims of Skibicki, who explicitly preyed upon Indigenous women. Both women were members of the Long Plain First Nation. Jeremy Skibicki was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Harris and Myran. He had already been in police custody for allegedly killing Rebecca Contois, 24, who was from Crane River First Nation. Skibicki was also charged with murdering another Indigenous woman who has not been identified. First Nations elders call this unidentified Indigenous woman, “Buffalo Woman.” Buffalo Woman’s body has also not been recovered, and is suspected to be in the same landfill as Harris and Myran. Skibicki has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Harris had five children. Myran’s grandmother said she was happy and trusting. Their families searched for them intently after they went missing. Winnipeg police thought that the remains of the two women had been dumped in the Prairie Green landfill but maintained that a search of the landfill just wasn’t feasible.
Interestingly, police were able to recover the remains of Rebecca Contois from the Brady Road Landfill. However, police contend that searching the Brady Road Landfill was much less complicated because it contained loose debris and she was found within a few hours of being put there. According to authorities, Prairie Green Landfill is much harder to search through because it is covered with wet, heavy construction clay, and there is asbestos and other hazardous materials present. It is also estimated that Harris and Myran were in the landfill for at least 34 days before police were aware of their presence at Prairie Green. By then, more than 10,000 truckloads of trash had been heaped upon them.
Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson backed the decision not to search Prairie Green Landfill for the women, falling back on a feasibility study done in May that claimed a search for Harris, Myran and Buffalo Woman could take as much as three years to complete and would carry a $184 million price tag. They also said that even if it was properly conducted, the search could be unsuccessful.
The families of the slain women, as well as Indigenous people all over Canada and even abroad, were heartbroken and outraged when authorities appeared to be taking the stance that their loved ones would not be brought home because it was too expensive and too much trouble.
Between 2001 and 2014, police reported that the homicide rate for Indigenous women was higher than the overall rate in Canada.
Marches bringing awareness to the issue occurred across the country. In August 2023, hundreds of people flooded the streets of downtown Winnipeg, chanting “Search the Landfill!” with some referring to the Manitoba Premier as “Heartless Heather.” Demonstrators carried signs demanding justice and performed a round dance. Symbols of MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) at the event, like red dresses and the iconic red handprint over one’s mouth, pervaded. Supporters called for action in front of the Manitoba Legislature, and left red handprints on the building’s front steps.
Supporters of Harris and Myran’s families have set up camps in Winnipeg to honor the women and help spread awareness about the call to #SearchTheLandfill. The camps have become reminders of the fight to end the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) throughout Canada, too. Relatives of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls like Tina Fontaine, a 15-year-old Indigenous child who was found in a river in 2014 after having gone missing, are going to the camps as well, and speaking out.
Some folks who are pushing for the landfill to be searched think that the refusal of the Manitoba government to do so is reflective of the mistreatment Indigenous peoples have received historically. They believe the refusal exemplifies the inaction the government—and settler society as a whole—has taken to stem the genocide that has occurred against Indigenous peoples in Canada, and shows why and how so many Indigenous women and girls have gone missing and murdered at a disproportionate rate.
Between 2001 and 2014, police reported that the homicide rate for Indigenous women was higher than the overall rate in Canada. Indigenous women make up 5% of women in Canada, but were 24% of all women homicide victims between 2015 and 2020. In 2019, a government-appointed MMIW commission said that the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls in Canada amounted to “race-based genocide.” The panel issued 231 recommendations to address the issue, but Indigenous people maintain that little in the way of solutions has been enacted.
And the problem of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls hardly respects colonial borders. Native women and girls in the United States also have been and continue to be subjected to higher rates of violence than those from other groups. One CDC study using data from the National Violent Death Reporting System found that from 2013 to 2014, the age-adjusted homicide rate for adult Native women was 4.3/100,000—more than double the national average and second only to non-Hispanic Black women. A survey of homicides in Alaska from 1976 to 2016 found that 29% of homicide victims were Native, even though Native persons represent only 16% of the state population.
Supporters of #SearchTheLandfill also point to the case of Nathaniel Brettell, a non-Native man whose remains were successfully retrieved from an Ontario landfill in 2021 after he had been missing for eight months. Additionally, the victims’ families reference the year-long search of a 14-acre pig farm in British Columbia performed by authorities in 2002. The pig farm had been owned by Canada’s most prolific serial killer. It ultimately uncovered the DNA of 33 different women.
It is up to us, who are alive here and now, to make sure that their remains are recovered, so they may enter eternal rest and join their ancestors among the stars.
There are also experts who maintain that a responsible, successful search of the Prairie Green Landfill could be completed.
Former Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson not only refused to support a landfill search for Harris and Myran, she seemed to campaign on it —with disastrous results. At rallies, Indigenous leaders used unwillingness on the part of “Heartless Heather” to search the Prairie Green Landfill as a call to vote her out.
Lo and behold, a new Manitoba Premier was elected this October. New Democratic Party leader Wab Kinew, who pledged to #SearchTheLandfill and had said Stefanson used the dispute to “divide us,” has just been sworn into office. Kinew is meeting with the families of two First Nations women whose remains are believed to be in the Prairie Green Landfill just days after assuming his new leadership role in Manitoba’s government. Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Cathy Merrick will also be in attendance.
Wab Kinew (Onigaming First Nation) is not just Manitoba’s 25th Premier; he is the first Indigenous Premier of a Canadian province. Kinew’s party captured 34 of the 57 legislature seats on election night. Ten of those newly-elected members of the legislative assembly are Indigenous, like Kinew, and like the murdered Indigenous women who are believed to be buried in the Prairie Green Landfill at this very moment.
Kinew’s 15-member cabinet will contain, for the very first time, two First Nation women: Nahanni Fontaine (Sagkeeng Anishinaabe) as the Minister of Families; and Bernadette Smith (Anishinaabe/Metis), as the Minister of Housing, Addiction, and Homelessness. Kinew will also hold the title of Minister of Indigenous Reconciliation in addition to the title of Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and International Relations. He notes the important message this sends to leaders of Indigenous nations in Manitoba.
In America, we have seen the amazing changes that can happen when Indigenous people are placed in positions of leadership, even within colonial governments. Secretary Deb Haaland (Pueblo of Laguna), who is the first Native woman to serve as a Cabinet Secretary as the Secretary of Interior, and who was also the first Native woman to be elected to Congress, has guided the United States in taking incredible leaps in land conservation, the protection of natural resources, addressing the scathing reality of intergenerational trauma caused by boarding schools that Native children who were ripped from their families and communities were forced to attend in order to strip them of their languages and cultures, and yes, MMIW as well.
With Wab Kinew at the helm, there’s hope that oft-ignored critical issues facing Indigenous people in Manitoba will finally receive attention, and that the landfill will be searched and Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, and Buffalo Woman, will at long last, be able to go home.
These women are human beings. They are worthy of dignity and respect. It is up to us, who are alive here and now, to make sure that their remains are recovered, so they may enter eternal rest and join their ancestors among the stars. Their families deserve to grieve and embrace them one more time, so they might heal. When we honor them, we honor ourselves, and our own humanity. We are strong enough, smart enough, and have the ability to work together to find the answers we need to make it so. There is no other option.
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Inside #SearchTheLandfill Movement
