Every year, thousands of Native American women are reported missing across the US. Many are never found and the murder rate of indigenous women is higher than for any other race in the country. Reporter Kate Hodal investigates. Plus: author Mike Carter on retracing his father’s steps on a walk from Liverpool to London

Kimberly Loring last heard from her sister Ashley in June 2017 at the Blackfeet reservation in Montana. She has been searching ever since. Ashley is one of thousands of Native American women who have been reported missing – or murdered – every year.

Reporter Kate Hodal has been investigating for the Observer what is behind the shockingly high rates of disappearances of indigenous women that some US senators are calling an ‘epidemic’. Many are never found and there is no official body that keeps comprehensive records of the missing. It’s a gap that cartographer Annita Lucchesi, a Southern Cheyenne descendant, is trying to fill by building the first ever US- and Canada-wide database devoted solely to missing and murdered indigenous women.

Also today: author and Guardian journalist Mike Carter on why he decided to walk from Liverpool to London in the footsteps of the 1981 march for jobs organised by his father. A journey that forms the basis of his new book All Together Now?

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