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A2 UP FRONT
Friday 1 april 2022
9 and some details are still
being worked out. For ex-
ample, it's unclear what
criteria law enforcement
will use to positively identify
a missing person as Native
American and how the in-
formation will be dissemi-
nated in rural areas, includ-
ing on some reservations,
where highways lack elec-
tronic reader boards — or
where there aren't high-
ways at all.
The measure is the latest
step Washington has taken
to address the issue. The
Washington State Missing
and Murdered Indigenous
Women and People Task
Force is working to coordi-
nate a statewide response
and had its first meeting in
December. Its first report is
expected in August.
Many states from Arizona
to Oregon to Wisconsin
have taken recent ac-
tion to address the crisis of
murdered and missing In-
digenous women. Efforts
include funding for better
Monie Ordonia, second from left, of the Tulalip Indian Tribe, joins others in singing an honor song after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee
signed a bill that creates a first-in-the-nation statewide alert system for missing Indigenous people — particularly women, Thursday, resources for tribal police
March 31, 2022, in Quil Ceda Village, near Marysville, Wash., north of Seattle. to the creation of new da-
Associated Press tabases specifically target-
ing missing tribal members.
Continued from Front for Indigenous survivors of dian Health Institute in Se- Investigations into missing Tribal police agencies that
Afterward they gifted him human trafficking. attle, but many such cases Indigenous people, partic- use Amber Alerts for miss-
with a handmade tradi- This piece of the crisis is im- receive little or no media ularly women, have been ing Indigenous children in-
tional ribbon shirt and sev- portant because in many attention. plagued by many issues for clude the Hopi and Las Ve-
eral multicolored woven cases, murdered Indige- The bill signing began with decades. gas Paiute.
blankets. nous women are mistaken- a traditional welcome song When a person goes miss- In California, the Yurok Tribe
The law attempts to ad- ly recorded as white or His- passed down by Harriette ing on a reservation, there and the Sovereign Bodies
dress a crisis of missing In- panic by coroners' offices, Shelton Dover, a cher- are often there are jurisdic- Institute, an Indigenous-run
digenous people — par- they're never identified, or ished cultural leader and tional conflicts between research and advocacy
ticularly women — in Wash- their remains never repatri- storyteller. Dover recov- tribal police and local and group, uncovered 18 cases
ington and across the Unit- ated. ered and shared many state law enforcement. of missing or slain Native
ed States. While it includes A 2021 report by the non- traditions and songs from A lack of staff and police American women in rough-
missing men, women and partisan Government Ac- tribes along Washington's resources, and the rural ly the past year in their re-
children, a summary of countability Office found northern Pacific Coast nature of many reserva- cent work — a number
public testimony on the the true number of miss- and worked with linguists tions, compound those they consider a vast under-
legislation notes that "the ing and murdered Indig- before her death in 1991 problems. And many times, count. An estimated 62% of
crisis began as a women's enous women in the U.S. is to preserve her language, families of tribal members those cases are not listed in
issue, and it remains primar- unknown due to reporting Lushootseed, from extinc- distrust non-Native law en- state or federal databases
ily a women's issue." problems, distrust of law tion. Women performed an forcement or don't know for missing persons.
Besides notifying law en- enforcement and jurisdic- honor song after the event. where to report news of a The law is already drawing
forcement when there's a tional conflicts. But Native Tulalip Tribes of Washington missing loved one. attention from other states,
report of a missing Indige- American women face Chairwoman Teri Gobin An alert system will help whose attorney generals
nous person, the new alert murder rates almost three said Washington and Mon- mitigate some of those have called to ask how to
system will place messages times those of white wom- tana are the two states with problems by allowing bet- enact similar legislation,
on highway reader boards en overall — and up to 10 the most missing Indigenous ter communication and said state Attorney General
and on the radio and social times the national average people in the U.S. Nearly coordination between Bob Ferguson, who called
media, and provide infor- in certain locations, ac- four dozen Native people tribal and non-tribal law the law "truly groundbreak-
mation to the news media. cording to a 2021 summary are currently missing in Se- enforcement and creating ing."
The legislation was paired of the existing research by attle alone, she said. a way for law enforcement "Any time you're doing
with another bill Inslee, a the National Congress of "What's the most impor- to flag such cases for other something for the first time
Democrat, signed Thursday American Indians. More tant thing is bringing them agencies. The law expands in this country, that's an
that requires county coro- than 80% have experi- home, whether they've the definition of "missing extra heavy lift," he said.
ners or medical examin- enced violence. been trafficked, whether endangered person" to in- "This most certainly will not
ers to take steps to identify In Washington, more than they've been stolen or clude Indigenous people, be our last reform to make
and notify family members four times as many Indig- murdered," she said. "It's as well as children and vul- sure that we bring every-
of murdered Indigenous enous women go missing a wound that stays open, nerable adults with disabili- body back home. .. There
people and return their re- than white women, ac- and it's something that we ties or memory or cognitive is so much more work that
mains. That new law also cording to research con- pray with (for) each person, issues. needs to be done and
establishes two grant funds ducted by the Urban In- we can bring them home." The law takes effect June must be done."q