Created in 2005, Sisters in Spirit has led the way in research on missing and murdered aboriginal women. Their April 2010 report "What Their Stories Tell Us," identified the knowledge gaps that have hurt the creation of effective policies and programming to address the high number of missing and murdered aboriginal women and girls in Canada.

So it mystifies many Aboriginal women and their advocates that Sisters in Spirit was shunned by the Conservatives in a recent $10 million announcement to deal with violence against Aboriginal women.

The Conservative government opposes the use of the name Sisters in Spirit and any work on a groundbreaking database on murdered and missing Aboriginal women cases, and this is impacting any future funding the Native Women's Association of Canada expects to receive for new projects on the issue.

And the government has been slowly "smothering" the Sisters in Spirit project which is responsible for bringing to national attention the hundreds of "shocking" cases of murdered and missing Aboriginal women, say sources familiar with the file.