Congressional Hearings
OVERSIGHT HEARING ON UNMASKING THE HIDDEN CRISIS OF MURDERED AND MISSING INDIGENOUS WOMEN (MMIW): EXPLORING SOLUTIONS TO END THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE
Congressional Hearings
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| AUTHORITYID | CHAMBER | TYPE | COMMITTEENAME |
|---|---|---|---|
| hsii00 | H | S | Committee on Natural Resources |
[House Hearing, 116 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
UNMASKING THE HIDDEN CRISIS OF MURDERED AND MISSING INDIGENOUS WOMEN
(MMIW): EXPLORING SOLUTIONS TO END THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE
=======================================================================
OVERSIGHT HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE UNITED STATES
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
Thursday, March 14, 2019
__________
Serial No. 116-8
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Natural Resources
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Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
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Committee address: http://naturalresources.house.gov
__________
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COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
RAUL M. GRIJALVA, AZ, Chair
DEBRA A. HAALAND, NM, Vice Chair
GREGORIO KILILI CAMACHO SABLAN, CNMI, Vice Chair, Insular Affairs
ROB BISHOP, UT, Ranking Republican Member
Grace F. Napolitano, CA Don Young, AK
Jim Costa, CA Louie Gohmert, TX
Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, Doug Lamborn, CO
CNMI Robert J. Wittman, VA
Jared Huffman, CA Tom McClintock, CA
Alan S. Lowenthal, CA Paul A. Gosar, AZ
Ruben Gallego, AZ Paul Cook, CA
TJ Cox, CA Bruce Westerman, AR
Joe Neguse, CO Garret Graves, LA
Mike Levin, CA Jody B. Hice, GA
Debra A. Haaland, NM Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, AS
Jefferson Van Drew, NJ Daniel Webster, FL
Joe Cunningham, SC Liz Cheney, WY
Nydia M. Velazquez, NY Mike Johnson, LA
Diana DeGette, CO Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon, PR
Wm. Lacy Clay, MO John R. Curtis, UT
Debbie Dingell, MI Kevin Hern, OK
Anthony G. Brown, MD Russ Fulcher, ID
A. Donald McEachin, VA
Darren Soto, FL
Ed Case, HI
Steven Horsford, NV
Michael F. Q. San Nicolas, GU
Matt Cartwright, PA
Paul Tonko, NY
Vacancy
David Watkins, Chief of Staff
Sarah Lim, Chief Counsel
Parish Braden, Republican Staff Director
http://naturalresources.house.gov
------
SUBCOMMITTEE FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE UNITED STATES
RUBEN GALLEGO, AZ, Chair
PAUL COOK, CA, Ranking Republican Member
Darren Soto, FL Don Young, AK
Michael F. Q. San Nicolas, GU Aumua Amata Coleman Radewagen, AS
Debra A. Haaland, NM John R. Curtis, UT
Ed Case, HI Kevin Hern, OK
Matt Cartwright, PA Vacancy
Vacancy Rob Bishop, UT, ex officio
Vacancy
Raul M. Grijalva, AZ, ex officio
--------
CONTENTS
----------
Page
Hearing held on Thursday, March 14, 2019......................... 1
Statement of Members:
Cook, Hon. Paul, a Representative in Congress from the State
of California.............................................. 4
Prepared statement of.................................... 4
Gallego, Hon. Ruben, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Arizona........................................... 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 3
Statement of Witnesses:
Buffalo, Hon. Ruth, State Representative, North Dakota House
of Representatives 27th District, Fargo, North Dakota...... 14
Prepared statement of.................................... 15
Questions submitted for the record....................... 17
Deer, Sarah, Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Studies, School of Public Affairs and Administration and
School of Law, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas...... 6
Prepared statement of.................................... 7
Questions submitted for the record....................... 12
Jerue, Tamra Truett, Executive Director, Alaska Native
Women's Resource Center (ANWRC), Fairbanks, Alaska......... 34
Prepared statement of.................................... 36
Questions submitted for the record....................... 42
Nagle, Mary Kathryn, Legal Counsel, National Indigenous
Women's Resource Center (NIWRC), Lame Deer, Montana........ 18
Prepared statement of.................................... 20
Questions submitted for the record....................... 25
Additional Materials Submitted for the Record:
Amnesty International USA, March 15, 2019 Letter to Chairman
Gallego, statement for the record.......................... 54
OVERSIGHT HEARING ON UNMASKING THE HIDDEN CRISIS OF MURDERED AND
MISSING INDIGENOUS WOMEN (MMIW): EXPLORING SOLUTIONS TO END THE CYCLE
OF VIOLENCE
----------
Thursday, March 14, 2019
U.S. House of Representatives
Subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples of the United States
Committee on Natural Resources
Washington, DC
----------
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:05 a.m., in
room 1324, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Ruben Gallego
[Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Gallego, Soto, Haaland,
Cartwright, Grijalva; Cook and Radewagen.
Mr. Gallego. The Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the
United States will now come to order.
The Subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony on
``Unmasking the Hidden Crisis of Murdered and Missing
Indigenous Women: Exploring Solutions to End the Cycle of
Violence.''
Under Committee Rule 4(f), any oral opening statements at
hearings are limited to the Chairman and the Ranking Minority
Member. This will allow us to hear from our witnesses sooner
and helps Members keep to their schedules.
Therefore, I ask unanimous consent that all other Members'
opening statements be made part of the hearing record if they
are submitted to the Subcommittee Clerk by 5 p.m. today, or the
close of hearing, whichever comes first.
Hearing no objections, so ordered.
STATEMENT OF HON. RUBEN GALLEGO, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS
FROM THE STATE OF ARIZONA
Mr. Gallego. Good morning to you all, and a warm welcome to
our witnesses today.
Today, we will be confronting a deeply troubling and
disturbing situation affecting Indian Country nationwide: the
hidden crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.
A 2016 National Institute of Justice report noted that 1.5
million American Indian and Alaska Native women experience
violence in their lifetime.
On reservations, American Indian and Alaska Native women
experience murder rates 10 times the national average.
Additionally, an independent report found at least 5,712 cases
of missing or murdered indigenous women that were reported just
in 2016.
In reality, these numbers are much larger because
indigenous women are often unrepresented in national and local
data. A lack of comprehensive data to quantify the number of
missing and murdered women in Indian Country is just one factor
contributing to this crisis.
The witnesses we have here today will attest to many other
factors that exasperate the situation, including the following:
extreme jurisdictional challenges in our criminal justice
system leading to confusion, delays, and lack of prosecution;
and inadequate resources for tribal justice systems.
Before we begin, I would like to share with you all just a
few of the heartbreaking cases that have brought new attention
to this situation in Indian Country and that highlight some of
the failures of our current system.
Ashley Loring Heavy Runner was last seen in June 2017 on
the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. Her family and friends
spent a year searching for her on their own.
In February 2018, 9 months after Ashley went missing, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation finally joined the search. To
this day, even with the help of the FBI, Ashley still remains
missing.
In 2013, MacKenzie Howard, a 13-year-old villager from
Kake, Alaska, went missing after a memorial ceremony. After her
body was found behind a local church, it took 11 hours for
state troopers to finally arrive, during which time the village
men guarded MacKenzie's body and the crime scene throughout the
night.
In 2016, Ashlynne Mike, an 11-year-old Navajo girl, was
found dead after being tricked into accepting a ride home from
a stranger while playing after school on the Navajo
Reservation. Because of jurisdictional issues, an official
AMBER Alert for Ashlynne was not issued until 12 hours after
her disappearance.
According to a study on child abductions by the Washington
State Attorney General's Office, 76 percent of kidnapped
children are killed within the first 3 hours.
In 2017, Savanna Greywind, a 22-year-old member of the
Spirit Lake Tribe, went missing in Fargo, North Dakota. Savanna
was 8 months pregnant. Her brutal attack and murder were
perpetuated by a neighbor, and her body was found 8 days later
by a kayaker near the Red River, north of Fargo.
I know these stories are hard to hear. Trust me. It is hard
for me to read them, but we must face this problem in order to
address it. We must improve the data systems related to
murdered and missing indigenous women to truly identify the
scope of this problem.
We must prioritize intergovernmental communication to
reduce the lag time responding to these atrocities, and we must
change the law to improve the proactivity in combatting
violence against indigenous women. We must take action so this
does not keep on going.
Today, we are going to hear some invaluable testimony from
experts who are fighting on the front lines of this battle on
what is working, what is not, and what we can do here in
Congress to end the cycle of violence.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Gallego follows:]
Prepared Statement of the Hon. Ruben Gallego, Chair, Subcommittee on
Indigenous Peoples of the United States
Good morning to you all, and a warm welcome to all our witnesses
here today.
Today, we will be confronting a deeply troubling and disturbing
situation affecting Indian Country nationwide--the hidden crisis of
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
A 2016, National Institute of Justice report noted that 1.5 million
American Indian and Alaska Native women experience violence in their
lifetime.
On reservations, American Indian and Alaska Native women experience
murder rates 10 times the national average. Additionally, an
independent report found at least 5,712 cases of missing or murdered
Indigenous women were reported in 2016.
In reality, these numbers are much larger, because Indigenous women
are often unrepresented in national and local data. A lack of
comprehensive data to quantify the number of missing and murdered women
in Indian Country is just one factor contributing to this crisis.
The witnesses we have here today will attest to many other factors
that exacerbate this situation, including:
Extreme jurisdictional challenges in our criminal justice
system leading to confusion, delays and lack of
prosecution, and
Inadequate resources for tribal justice systems.
Before we begin, I would like to share with you all just a few of
the heartbreaking cases that have brought new attention to this
situation in Indian Country, and that highlight some of the failures of
our current system.
Ashley Loring HeavyRunner was last seen in June 2017 on the
Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. Her family and friends spent a year
searching for her on their own.
In February 2018, 9 months after Ashley went missing, the Federal
Bureau of Investigation finally joined the search. To this day, even
with the help of the FBI, Ashley remains missing.
In 2013, Mackenzie Howard, a 13-year-old villager from Kake,
Alaska, went missing after a memorial ceremony. After her body was
found behind a local church, it took 11 hours--ELEVEN HOURS--for State
Troopers to finally arrive, during which time the village men guarded
Mackenzie's body and the crime scene throughout the night.
In 2016, Ashlynne Mike, an 11-year-old Navajo girl, was found dead
after being tricked into accepting a ride home from a stranger while
playing after school on the Navajo Reservation. Because of
jurisdictional issues, an official Amber Alert for Ashlynne wasn't
issued until 12 hours after her disappearance.
According to a study on child abductions by the Washington State
Attorney General's Office, 76 percent of kidnapped children are killed
within the first 3 hours.
In 2017, Savanna Greywind, a 22-year-old member of the Spirit Lake
Tribe, went missing in Fargo, North Dakota. Savanna was 8 months
pregnant. Her brutal attack and murder were perpetrated by a neighbor,
and her body was found 8 days later by a kayaker near the Red River,
north of Fargo.
I know these stories are hard to hear, but we must face this
problem in order to address it. We must improve data systems related to
murdered and missing Indigenous women to truly identify the scope of
this problem.
We must prioritize intergovernmental communication to reduce lag
time in responding to these atrocities. And we must change law
enforcement protocols to improve proactivity in combatting violence
against indigenous women. We must take action so that history doesn't
keep repeating itself.
Today, we'll hear invaluable testimony from experts who are
fighting on the front lines of this battle on what is working, what is
not, and what we can do here in Congress to end this cycle of violence.
______
Mr. Gallego. I would now like to recognize the Ranking
Member, Mr. Cook, for his opening statement.
STATEMENT OF HON. PAUL COOK, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM
THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Mr. Cook. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you to our witnesses for being here today.
Today's hearing is focused on a very, very difficult
subject, but a very serious issue faced by Native communities
and especially by Native women.
Crime and violence, tragically, are not a new phenomenon in
Indian Country. The Department of Justice has emphasized making
law enforcement in Indian Country a priority because American
Indians are victims of violent crimes at rates higher than the
general population.
Compounding the problem is the fact that many tribal
communities are found in remote, rural areas where tight tribal
police budgets make timely and effective response to crimes on
a reservation that much more challenging.
There also appears to be a consensus among experts that the
trends of high rates of domestic violence against Native women
continue, despite the enactment of two major laws since 2010 to
tackle this problem. I am speaking of the Tribal Law and Order
Act of 2010 and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act
of 2013, of which I was pleased to support and vote for, known
as VAWA.
While reliable, timely data concerning crime and law
enforcement in Indian Country can be hard to come by, depending
on the scope and methods of each report on the topic, all have
shown there is a problem plaguing tribal communities.
I am pleased that the Department of the Interior has
included in its budget proposal a new initiative to combat
crime, specifically against Native American women in Indian
Country.
It would be helpful, and we talked about this, in the
future to have witnesses representing the Departments of the
Interior and Justice to tell us what the officers and Federal
prosecutors are doing about missing and murdered Native women,
but I don't believe we have any here today.
And the other reason is, quite frankly, they could get the
message that we are very, very concerned about that, and all of
us think that we need more funding in these vital areas to
perhaps correct that problem.
Given the complicated jurisdictional issues in Indian
Country, we must ensure that all at the table are working to
reduce these types of crimes. And I want to thank the Chairman
for allowing me to testify. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cook follows:]
Prepared Statement of the Hon. Paul Cook, Ranking Member, Subcommittee
for Indigenous Peoples of the United States
Thank you, Chairman Gallego, and thank you to our witnesses for
being here today.
Today's hearing is focused on a very difficult subject, but a very
serious issue faced by Native communities and especially Native women.
Crime and violence, tragically, are not a new phenomenon in Indian
Country. The Department of Justice has emphasized making law
enforcement in Indian Country a priority because American Indians are
victims of violent crimes at rates higher than the general population.
Compounding the problem is the fact that many tribal communities
are found in remote, rural areas, where tight tribal police budgets
make timely and effective response to crimes on a reservation that much
more challenging.
There also appears to be a consensus among experts that the trend
of high rates of domestic violence against Native women continue
despite the enactment of two major Federal laws since 2010 to tackle
this problem. I'm speaking of the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010, and
the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013.
While reliable, timely data concerning crime and law enforcement in
Indian Country can be hard to come by, depending on the scope and
methods of each report on the topic, all have shown there is a problem
plaguing tribal communities.
I am pleased that the Department of the Interior has included in
its budget proposal, a new initiative to combat crime, specifically
against Native women, in Indian Country.
It would be helpful to have witnesses representing the Departments
of the Interior and Justice here to tell us what their officers and
Federal prosecutors are doing about missing and murdered Native women,
but I don't believe any of these officials were invited to testify
today.
I hope the Chairman might join me in requesting a briefing from the
Departments of the Interior and Justice to advance our efforts to help
bring about a positive resolution to the missing, murdered Indigenous
women crisis.
Given the complicated jurisdictional issues in Indian Country, we
must ensure all are at the table working together to reduce crime.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
______
Mr. Gallego. Thank you, Ranking Member Cook, and I look
forward to working with you in this Congress to move this along
and bring some justice to our Indian Country.
Now I will introduce our expert witnesses for today. Our
first witness is Sarah Deer. She is a citizen of the Muscogee
Creek Nation, lawyer, and Professor of Women, Gender, and
Sexuality Studies at the University of Kansas, and also, she
has just recently been inducted into the National Women's Hall
of Fame.
Congratulations, and thank you for being here.
Next is going to be the Honorable Ruth Buffalo, citizen
of--and I apologize--the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation,
and member of the North Dakota State House of Representatives.
You are welcome, Your Honor, and I apologize if I have
messed up any of those names and titles.
Our next witness is Mary Kathryn Nagle, a member of the
Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and legal counsel to the National
Indigenous Women's Resource Center.
And finally, our last witness is Tami Jerue, an Athabaskan
mother of four, and Executive Director of the Alaska Native
Women's Resource Center.
Thank you all for being here.
Let me remind witnesses that under our Committee Rules,
they must limit their oral statements to 5 minutes, but their
entire written statement will appear in the hearing record.
When you begin, the lights on the witness table in front of
you will turn green. After 4 minutes, the yellow light will
come on. Your time will have expired when the red light comes
on, and I will ask you to please wrap up your statement.
I will also allow the entire panel to testify before we
begin questioning of the witnesses.
The Chair now recognizes Ms. Sarah Deer to testify.
STATEMENT OF SARAH DEER, PROFESSOR OF WOMEN, GENDER, AND
SEXUALITY STUDIES, SCHOOL OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND ADMINISTRATION
AND SCHOOL OF LAW, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
Ms. Deer. Good morning. The Honorable Chairman Raul
Grijalva, Ranking Member Rob Bishop, Chairman Ruben Gallego,
Ranking Member Paul Cook, and members of the Committee, I would
like to express my deep appreciation and thanks for inviting me
to testify before this Subcommittee on missing and murdered
indigenous women, or MMIW.
I am a citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma and
currently hold a position as Professor at the University of
Kansas. I also serve as the Chief Justice for the Prairie
Island Indian Community Court of Appeals.
Today, I am testifying in my personal capacity.
My testimony today will focus on our knowledge in terms of
the high numbers of MMIW, and I will offer some theories about
the causes of the high rates, and finally, a few suggestions on
how Congress can improve law enforcement's response to this
crisis.
I would like to mention the names of four of my fellow
tribal members from the Muscogee Creek Nation: Faren McGirt,
missing, 1999; Peggie McGuire, missing, 2015; Ruthanne McGirt
Staller Rex, murdered in March 2015; and Margie Childers, whose
body was just found 2 days ago in Oklahoma.
I think it is critical to understand that the crisis that
we are talking about today has deep roots in the historical
mistreatment of Native people throughout the history of the
United States. Native women and girls have been disappearing
literally since 1492 when Europeans kidnapped Native people for
shipment back to Europe.
Targeted killing of Native women is also not a recent
phenomenon. The history of oppression makes it difficult to
achieve buy-in for marginalized communities who have been
victims of oppression at the hands of the Federal Government.
When crafting solutions, we have to be ready to accept that
there will be no quick fix to this problem. The crisis has been
several hundred years in the making and will require sustained,
multi-year, multi-faceted efforts to understand and address the
problem.
I want to mention an organization called the Sovereign
Bodies Institute, which has been collecting the names and
stories of MMIW in the United States. Currently, that database
has over 1,870 names.
There are many questions about why these rates are as high
as they are. In my written testimony, I mention several
factors, including jurisdictional barriers, indifference from
government officials, the lack of cross-jurisdictional
communication and planning, the failure to adequately fund
tribal justice systems, and the problem of sex traffickers and
other predators targeting Native women specifically.
We know the jurisdictional questions are always at the
forefront of any question about crime in Indian Country, and
this is no different. There are a variety of legal
jurisdictional questions that immediately arise when a tribal
member goes missing.
Did they live on the reservation? Did they disappear from
the reservation? Did they disappear off the reservation? What
agency has jurisdiction? Does the tribe have concurrent
jurisdiction?
So, we need to have some resolution to these questions.
I want to now move to a more difficult factor, which is the
predatory targeting of Native women and girls.
While most women victims of homicide in the United States
are killed by someone they know, there is sufficient evidence
that there are predators who target Native women and girls for
trafficking.
In 2010, law enforcement officers in Alaska determined that
Alaska Native girls and women who traveled to Anchorage are
often targeted by sex trafficking rings, in part, because of
their marketability in the sex trade.
FBI Agent Jolene Goeden explained, ``Native girls are
targeted, in part, because they are considered versatile,
meaning they can be advertised on the Internet as Hawaiian or
Asian.''
An Anchorage-based sex trafficker named Troy Williams, who
was finally convicted after years of targeting Alaska Native
teenage girls who were struggling with rough childhoods,
poverty and addiction, trapped victims in the sex trade through
brute force, including sadistic beatings, icy baths, and sleep
deprivation.
In Canada, an investigation by reporters for Globe and Mail
Newspaper concluded that indigenous women in Canada, which has
a similar history, are seven times more likely than a non-
indigenous woman to die at the hands of a serial killer.
Thank you for allowing me to testify today. I am hopeful
that new attention on a very old problem will finally begin to
stem the crisis of murdered and missing indigenous women. As a
Nation, I believe we are better than this. Please support the
families of MMIW to find their loved ones and bring them home.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Deer follows:]
Prepared Statement of Professor Sarah Deer, University of Kansas
The Honorable Chairman Raul M. Grijalva, Ranking Member Rob Bishop,
Chairman Ruben Gallego, Ranking Member Paul Cook, and members of the
Committee, Hensci! Mvccv nettv ce homv hueret cem kerkuecetv vm
pohateckat, mvto cekicis. Svcvfvckes.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Translation from the Mvskoke language: ``Hello! I thank you for
inviting me to stand before you to testify today. I am pleased with
this invitation.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
I would like to express my deep appreciation and thanks for
inviting me to testify before this Subcommittee on Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Women (MMIW). I am a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation
and currently hold the position of Professor at the University of
Kansas and serve as the Chief Justice of the Prairie Island Indian
Community Court of Appeals. Today I am testifying in my personal
capacity.
My testimony today will focus on our knowledge in terms of the high
numbers of MMIW based on open source reporting (media reports and
family accounts). I will offer some theories about the causes of this
high rate of MMIW. Finally, I will suggest how this Committee, and
Congress generally, can improve law enforcement's response to this
crisis.
statistics: what we know
First, it is critical to understand that this crisis has deep roots
in the historical mistreatment of Native people throughout the history
of the United States. Native women and girls have been disappearing
since 1492, when Europeans kidnapped Native people for shipment back to
Europe. Targeted killing of Native women is also not a recent
phenomenon. This history of oppression makes it difficult to achieve
buy-in from marginalized communities who have been victims of
oppression at the hands of the Federal Government for centuries.
When crafting solutions, we have to be ready to accept that there
will be no ``quick fix'' to this problem. This crisis has been several
hundred years in the making and will require sustained, multi-year,
multi-faceted efforts to understand and address the problem.
Currently, there is no formal government-funded national database
that carefully and deliberately tracks cases of MMIW. Fortunately, a
Native-owned and -operated non-profit organization known as the
Sovereign Bodies Institute (SBI) has been working tirelessly since 2015
to gather as much data as possible using open source reporting and
input from family members of MMIW. I share this data with the
permission of the Sovereign Bodies Institute (SBI):
Because this database has largely been built by hand, the data
likely only represents a fraction of the true numbers.
The SBI database currently tracks the following types of MMIW
cases:
Missing
Murdered (both solved and unsolved)
Suspicious deaths
Deaths in custody (jail/prison/hospital)
Jane Does (unidentified human remains thought to be Native
women)
Currently, the database has over 1,870 MMIW names in the United
States. Most of the database is recent; approximately 75 percent of the
names of MMIW are cases from the year 2000 or later.
Demographics: The average age is 26, but over one-third
are 18 years old and under
Over 436 different tribal nations are represented in the
database
Categories: Within the database, approximately 50 percent
are murder cases, 40 percent are unsolved missing cases,
and the status of 10 percent are unknown
Foster Care: The database tracks Native girls who go
missing or are killed while in foster care. Of those girls,
over 75 percent of them were experiencing abuse in their
foster home
Mothers as Victims: The database reveals that over 85
percent of the MMIW are mothers. This means countless
numbers of youth are growing up without a mother.
Vulnerability: 29 of the 1,870 entries of MMIW have
another MMIW in their family
Police Violence: There are nearly 40 cases of deaths
caused by police brutality or deaths in custody in the
database
reasons for high rates of mmiw
While there is no single cause (no primary risk factor), that one
can point to as the reason for high rates of MMIW, experts suggest
several explanations for the disparity.
These explanations include:
jurisdictional barriers
indifference from government officials
the lack of cross-jurisdictional communication and
planning
failure to adequately fund tribal justice systems, and
the problem of sex traffickers and other predators
targeting Native women specifically
A. Jurisdiction
Native women and girls are vulnerable to violent crime because of
the complicated jurisdictional scheme that applies to Indian Country.
Whether a Native person is taken against their will from the
reservation, is being held against her will on the reservation or is
the victim of a homicide on the reservation, tribal officials will
usually be the first responders. However, tribal criminal jurisdiction
is significantly and unacceptably curtailed, particularly when the
offender or suspected offender is non-Indian.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Tribal nations lack criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians in
most cases pursuant to Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191
(1978).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
A variety of legal jurisdictional questions instantly arise when a
tribal member goes missing. Did they live on the reservation? Did they
disappear from the reservation? Did they disappear off the reservation?
What agency has jurisdiction? Does the tribe have concurrent
jurisdiction? One common scenario, for example, is that a woman fails
to show up for an important event, like a family reunion or a funeral.
Family members report her missing to the police, but there is no way to
know for sure if she went missing from the reservation or from a nearby
city or town.
In addition, when adult individuals disappear, there is often a
delayed response from law enforcement because, of course, adults have
the legal right to go where they wish. Some jurisdiction require that
24 hours or 72 hours pass before a missing person investigation can be
initiated. We may need to revisit that assumption, particularly where
Native women are involved.
There is less certainty that a crime has even been committed and
the law enforcement response is muted in many jurisdictions, but in
Indian Country this response often non-existent.
Due to jurisdictional questions, it may be difficult for the family
to determine if the tribe, the state (especially in a Public Law 280
state) or the Federal Government has primary jurisdiction for a missing
person.
B. Indifference from Officials
Unfortunately, many families of MMIW have reported receiving poor
treatment from some law enforcement agencies who fail to prioritize the
reports of missing Native women.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs' oversight hearing on
``Missing and Murdered: Confronting the Silent Crisis in Indian
Country,'' on December 12, 2018 received testimony from a distinguished
panel.\3\
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\3\ Available at: https://www.indian.senate.gov/hearing/oversight-
hearing-missing-and-murdered-confronting-silent-crisis-indian-country.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Oversight Hearing heard from Ms. Kimberly Loring-Heavy Runner.
When Ashley Loring-Heavy Runner went missing on the Blackfeet
Reservation, her family reported the crime only to find that there
wasn't much interest in the case. Her sister, Kimberly said, ``No one
took it seriously . . . They just said: `She's of age, she can leave
when she wants to.' When we talk to other families whose girls went
missing, they say that's what they got from law enforcement, too. It's
not a proper response.'' \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ Kate Hodal, A Young Woman Vanishes: The Police Can't Help. Her
Desperate Family Won't Give Up, The Guardian, (February 25, 2019),
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/25/a-young-woman-vanishes-
the-police-cant-help-her-desperate-family-wont-give-up.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another example is a Crow woman who went missing in Montana in
2016. When her mother reported her missing to the police, officers
initially said that there was little they could do because the missing
woman was an adult. Her mother said, ``It seemed like they weren't
helping at all because she jumped into the wrong crowd.'' \5\ While the
FBI is now investigating the disappearance, there are worries that
valuable time was lost because of the initial failure to take action.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Sharon Cohen & Mary Hudetz, Haunting Stories Beyond Missing
Posters of Native Women, Associated Press, September 4, 2008.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
C. Failure to Adequately Fund Tribal Justice Systems
It is not new news to this Committee that tribal justice systems
are chronically underfunded, making it difficult to have necessary
staffing, training, and resources to adequately address high crime
rates on Indian reservations. Tribal nations need to be funded at
sufficient levels so that they can respond immediately to a report of a
missing woman or girl.
In December 2018, the United States Commission on Civil Rights
(USCCR) released a report entitled Broken Promises: Continuing Federal
Funding Shortfall for Native Americans.\6\ The Commission concludes
that, ``[f]ederal funding for Native American programs across the
government remains grossly inadequate to meet the most basic needs the
federal government is obligated to provide.''
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Broken Promises: Continuing
Federal Funding Shortfall for Native Americans (2018), https://
www.usccr.gov/pubs/2018/12-20-Broken-Promises.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite numerous reports, commissions, and hearings about the
failures to fund tribal nations properly since the initial USCCR report
was released in 2003, there has been little progress toward change.
Additional funding is needed throughout the justice system, but the
number of police officers alone indicates the scope of the funding
problem uncovered by the USCCR. ``[Bureau of Indian Affairs] analysis
found that an additional $337 million in funding was needed in 2016 to
bring Indian Country law enforcement staffing levels up to par with
those of county government law enforcement nationwide (currently Indian
Country has 1.91 police officers per 1,000 residents).'' \7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ Id. at 48 (2018).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the report, ``[The Government Accountability Office]
found that because overall funding has not increased and is therefore
scarce, some tribes might need to choose between meeting the [Tribal
Law and Order Act] requirements [to exercise enhanced sentencing
authority] and shortchanging other programs, or completely forgoing
their new felony sentencing powers. The result is relinquishing
authority to the Federal Government, while knowing that the Federal
criminal justice system is inefficient for Native Americans and, at
times, even considered illegitimate by tribal communities.\8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ Id. at 43 (2018) (emphasis added) (footnotes omitted).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The report also cites to a 2011 U.S. Government Accountability
Office Report on Indian Country Criminal Justice \9\ concluding that
the Departments of the Interior and Justice should strengthen
coordination to support tribal courts. The GAO report documents the
challenges tribal courts face given their level of support.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ U.S. Government Accountability Office, Indian Country Criminal
Justice: Departments of the Interior and Justice Should Strengthen
Coordination to Support Tribal Courts, (Feb. 2011), https://
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-252.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tribes subject to Public Law 280 are particularly struggling with
the development of robust criminal justice systems because of chronic
underfunding. In September 2015, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)
provided a report to Congress entitled The Budgetary Cost Estimates of
Tribal Courts in Public Law 83-280 States.\10\ The Bureau of Indian
Affairs stated that while it was only funding 6.14 percent of the
estimated tribal court budget needs for non-P.L. 280 tribes, it was
only funding 1.22 percent of the budgetary needs ($4.2 million) for
P.L. 280 tribal courts. The BIA called for an additional $16.9 million
for P.L. 28-tribal courts. They concede this amount is neither ``robust
or perhaps even adequate,'' but is at least in parity to the dismal
6.14 percent non-P.L. 280-tribes receive.\11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ Bureau of Indian Affairs report.
\11\ Bureau of Indian Affairs September 2015 report.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
D. Predatory Targeting of Native Women and Girls
While most women victims of homicide in the United States are
killed by someone they know, there is sufficient evidence that there
are predators who target Native women and girls for trafficking, and
sufficient evidence that some serial killers have targeted Native women
and girls. There is also some indication that certain types of
predators are aware the Native women and girls are particularly
vulnerable because of the complicated jurisdictional questions that
arise when they go missing.
In 2010, law enforcement officers in Alaska determined that Alaska
Native girls and women who travel to Anchorage are often targeted by
sex-trafficking rings, in part because of their marketability in the
sex trade.\12\ FBI agent Jolene Goeden explained, ``Native girls are
targeted in part because they're considered ``versatile,'' meaning they
can be advertised on the Internet as Hawaiian or Asian.'' \13\ An
Anchorage-based sex trafficker named Troy Williams was finally
convicted after years of targeting Alaska Native teenage girls who were
struggling with rough childhoods, poverty, and addiction. He trapped
his victims in the sex trade through brute force, including sadistic
beatings, icy baths, and sleep deprivation.\14\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\12\ Alex DeMarban, FBI, APD: Sex-Trafficking Rings Target Rural
Girls New to Anchorage, Anchorage Daily News (July 7, 2016), https://
www.adn.com/alaska-news/article/fbi-apd-sex-trafficking-rings-target-
rural-girls-new-anchorage/2010/10/07/.
\13\ DeMarban, id.
\14\ Julia O'Malley, Accused Sex Trafficker Targeted and Terrorized
Alaska Native Teens, Prosecutor Says, Anchorage Daily News (February
16, 2017), https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2017/02/15/
accused-sex-trafficker-targeted-then-terrorized-alaska-native-teens-
prosecutor-says/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Canada, an investigation by reporters for the Globe and Mail
newspaper concluded that Indigenous women in Canada are seven times
more likely than a non-Indigenous woman to die at the hands of a serial
killer.\15\ The President of the Native Women's Association of Canada
said that ``vulnerable indigenous women are being ``targeted'' in urban
centres by killers confident they will get away with it.'' \16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\15\ Kathryn Blaze Baum & Matthew McClearn, Prime Target: How
Serial Killers Prey on Indigenous Women, The Globe and Mail (November
22, 2015), https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/prime-targets-
serial-killers-and-indigenous-women/article27435090/.
\16\ Baum & McClearn, id.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Because tribal nations lack criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians,
legal-savvy predators are attracted to Indian lands because there is
less likelihood of being caught and prosecuted. This has allowed some
predators to wreak havoc for generations. Earlier this year, a
pedophile named Stanley Patrick Weber was finally charged and convicted
of sexually abusing children on Indian reservations for over two
decades. Weber was a pediatrician and worked for the Indian Health
Service right out of residency in the 1980s. Despite numerous concerns
about his behavior, he was transferred from reservation to reservation
rather than removing him from practice and was only stopped last year.
There is some evidence to support the contention that drug
traffickers and sexual predators are sharing information on lax
enforcement of laws with respect to Indian Country and Native people.
The 2011 GAO report is alarming.
"[A]n official from a South Dakota tribe that we visited told
us that the tribe has experienced problems with MS-13 and
Mexican Mafia gangs who commit illegal activities such as
distribution or sale of illegal drugs on the reservation
because, as the official explained, they presume that Federal
prosecutors may be more inclined to focus their resources on
higher-volume drug cases . . .
[A] Mexican drug trafficker devised a business plan to sell
methamphetamine at several Indian reservations in Nebraska,
Wyoming, and South Dakota that first began with developing
relationships with American Indian women on these reservations
. . .
According to a special agent involved in the case, the drug
trafficker established drug trafficking operations to exploit
jurisdictional loopholes believing that he could operate with
impunity.'' \17\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\17\ U.S. Government Accountability Office, Indian Country Criminal
Justice: Departments of the Interior and Justice Should Strengthen
Coordination to Support Tribal Courts, 15 (Feb. 2011), https://
www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-252.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
recommendations
There are currently several legislative proposals in Congress to
address this crisis. I know that my fellow witnesses will provide more
detail and insight into what these bills provide and how they can be
improved. For my part, I am providing a list of more general
recommendations that are centered on empowering the families of the
MMIW so that these missing and murdered Native women can receive the
justice they deserve. In general, I recommend that all congressional
efforts take direction from Native people themselves. While Federal
task forces and Federal reports are an important part of
accountability, perhaps the most important benchmark for accountability
for this issue is to ensure that families and survivors are treated as
the experts they are.
1. Make accurate national data collection on the MMIW crisis a
priority.
2. Restore criminal jurisdiction so that tribal governments can
prosecute non-Indians who murder, kidnap, or traffic in
Native people. Currently these crimes cannot be prosecuted
by the tribal nation if committed by a non-Indian. The
Supreme Court's Oliphant decision requires a legislative
fix. Tribal law enforcement and prosecutors should not be
prohibited from protecting the people they serve.
3. Provide funding to tribally lead local and regional efforts to
address the MMIW crisis through the Gathering of Native
Americans (GONA) curriculum. The GONA curriculum is already
endorsed by the Department of Health and Human
Services.\18\ The GONA model is an indigenous-centric model
that encourages and solicits tribal leadership to develop
solutions to difficult problems.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\18\ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,
Gathering of Native Americans Fact Sheet, (2016).
4. Improve the efficacy of the Federal NamUs (National Missing and
Unidentified Persons System) by encouraging better response
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
times for entering data.
5. Develop at least two dedicated funding streams--one for tribal
nations who wish to develop a plan for addressing MMIW
within their jurisdiction and a second dedicated funding
stream for non-profit organizations that intend to study
and support MMIW, particularly non-profits with survivors
and family members on the board of directors.
6. Any new MMIW funding for Federal agencies must require the
development of protocol guidelines for responding to MMIW.
Federal agencies should only receive funding for the
development of these guidelines if they have a plan for
meaningful consultation with tribal leaders and families of
MMIW.
7. Require action by all U.S. Attorneys to develop protocols and
collaborative efforts with tribal nations for MMIW issues.
This should apply even include U.S. Attorneys without
tribal lands in their districts, because MMIW cases often
arise off reservation, especially in cities. Tribal members
travel just as widely as other Americans, but they are not
always well served by local police departments far from
their ancestral homelands.
8. Require Federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, to
start accurately logging race/tribal affiliation in their
database of missing persons.
9. Require Federal law enforcement agencies to share information
about MMIW with tribal nations. On the basis of comity and
respect, if a Native person goes missing outside of tribal
jurisdiction, then tribal nations (as sovereigns), are
entitled to know if their citizens are missing. This is
also an important investigative step in learning more about
MMIW.
10. Require Federal law enforcement agencies to track the number of
MMIW reported in their jurisdiction to be published in the
required annual Tribal Law and Order Act report.
conclusion
Thank you for allowing to testify today. I am hopeful that new
attention on a very old problem will finally begin to stem the crisis
of MMIW. As a Nation, I believe we are better than this. Please support
the families of MMIW to find their loved ones and bring them home.
______
Questions Submitted for the Record to Professor Sarah Deer, University
of Kansas
Questions Submitted by Rep. Haaland
Question 1. As part of your ``recommendations'' in your written
testimony (suggestion #4), you stated that there should be a ``funding
stream for non-profit organizations'' to help address Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). If Congress allocated money for these
non-profits, how would that funding help address the issue of MMIW and
domestic violence in urban areas where 70 percent of the Native
American population currently reside?
Answer. I believe this recommendation is actually #5 on my list. In
terms of non-profit funding, I believe it would be helpful if urban
Indian centers were eligible for funding, based on the fact that most
Native people do not currently reside on reservations and many of the
missing and unsolved murders are reported from urban (or off-
reservation) communities. Urban Indian centers are often the only
safety net that Native people have and I believe that they are often in
the best position to help organize a response in those environments. At
the same time, we want to ensure that tribal governments are not
excluded from funding opportunities.
Question 2. What else do you think could be done in urban areas
with high populations of Native Americans/Indigenous women to help
address this issue?
Answer. It would be helpful if the Subcommittee were to hold field
hearings in some of these urban areas so that Members could hear
firsthand what families and communities need in order to stem this
crisis. Based on what I am hearing from families, there is a real
concern that law enforcement agencies often adopt a position of
indifference when a Native woman or girl goes missing. More training
might be useful, but such training should be developed and designed in
collaboration with Native organizations.
Questions Submitted by Rep. Grijalva
Question 1. In your expert opinion, what is the historical context
of the MMIW crisis, and how do you think that history exasperates the
issue to this day?
Answer. It is difficult to pinpoint an event or time when the
crisis of MMIW began, because the trafficking and abuse of Native women
has been ongoing as part of the settler colonial efforts to extinguish
Native people. Historically, the protection of Native women has not
been a priority for the United States or local governments. Even though
the official policy is no longer one of extermination or termination,
the attitudes and culture remain. Whether conscious or subconscious,
there remains within much of the law enforcement community a sense that
MMIW are not worthy of high priority investigations. While there are
certainly exceptions to the rule, I believe that training for law
enforcement agencies must include a historical component.
Question 2. Ideally, what do you feel like is the proper response
to MMIW from a law enforcement standpoint? (tribal, state, local
agencies)?
Answer. Because Native women are highly vulnerable to trafficking
and homicide, it would be ideal if law enforcement agencies had a more
immediate response to a report from family and friends. I have heard
from families that investigations are often delayed for weeks or
months.
Question 3. In your written testimony, you highlighted the colonial
history of Indigenous women. What are the current statistical gaps when
it comes to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women?
Answer. Unfortunately, we have very little data about the
contemporary crisis. Even state or local agencies that have publicly-
available data about missing adults do not specify whether the person
is Native or not. Thus, it is hard to gather enough information for a
national estimate.
Question 4. What role does tribal sovereignty play in addressing
this violence?
Answer. Native women are citizens of tribal nations. Tribal nations
should be apprised when their citizens go missing and be kept informed
as to the status of the case. Typically, when a foreign national goes
missing or is murdered in the United States, it is common courtesy to
keep their home country informed as to the investigation whenever
possible. I believe tribal nations should be accorded that same
courtesy.
Question 5. Your written testimony states that many Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women cases are ``unsolved.'' What does an unsolved
case mean? What are your recommendations for these unsolved cases as it
relates to MMIW?
Answer. By ``unsolved'' I mean there has not been a resolution to
the incident. When a Native person is reported missing, until that
person is found, there is no resolution. Families have no closure.
Cases can go ``cold'' for years. An unsolved murder is one where there
has been no determination as to the assailant(s), and so no one is held
accountable for that murder. Again, this leaves families and
communities reeling from the loss of a valued member of the community
without any resolution.
Question 6. Why are police investigations into MMIW cases plagued
with delays and missteps?
Answer. I'm not sure we know enough to be able to make
generalizations about what goes wrong. Anecdotal information from
families and community members report that searches are delayed for
weeks--sometimes months. They report indifference from law enforcement
agencies who often do not make these cases a priority. It can also be
very difficult to determine which law enforcement agencies (tribal,
state, or federal) should be the lead investigatory agency.
Question 7. Your written testimony noted 40 cases of deaths caused
by police brutality or deaths in custody. Do you have recommendations
on how to address issues related to police brutality and deaths in
custody? How does this relate to violence against Indigenous women?
Answer. There are many ongoing efforts to try to address police
brutality and deaths in custody for all people of color. While most law
enforcement officers do not abuse their authority and they treat
suspects with dignity, there are significant exceptions to this rule.
Native families have reported that their loved ones have been
mistreated, abused, and even killed by law enforcement officers. I
believe there should be better screening for law enforcement officers
and swifter action when an accusation is levied. This relates to
violence against Native women because women and girls are often the
victims of police brutality. This, in turn, makes communities distrust
law enforcement and thus less likely to trust or engage with law
enforcement when a loved one goes missing.
______
Mr. Gallego. Thank you, Professor.
Next, we have the Honorable Ruth Buffalo, State
Representative from North Dakota House of Representatives 27th
District.
STATEMENT OF HON. RUTH BUFFALO, STATE REPRESENTATIVE, NORTH
DAKOTA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 27th DISTRICT, FARGO, NORTH
DAKOTA
Ms. Buffalo. Good morning. [Speaking native language.] My
name is Ruth Buffalo Woman Appears. Thank you. It is an honor
to be here in front of you to share about this important topic.
I am a member and a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and
Arikara Nation and descendent of the Chiricahua Apache.
Currently, I am representing District 27 in South Fargo. I am a
newly elected member to the House of Representatives in North
Dakota, the 66th legislative assembly.
I want to share a little bit further about my tribal
heritage. In our communities, in the Hidatsa specifically, we
are a matriarchal society, so the women carry, pass on the
clan. I am a member of the Dripping Earth Clan. So, as you can
tell, when we lose our women, it is a huge hit on our entire
community.
We still hang onto some of these matriarchal traditions,
such as our women sitting during prayer while our men stand
because the men have such great respect for our women.
I have introduced four legislative bills which address the
epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous people and human
trafficking, and I also want to acknowledge the good work that
has been done by former Senator Heidi Heitkamp with regards to
the missing and murdered and also human trafficking.
In addition, I have brought forward a study resolution to
further examine the issue of missing and murdered indigenous
people and human trafficking and a resolution urging Congress
to pass Savanna's Act. This legislation has passed through the
North Dakota House and now awaits action in the North Dakota
Senate.
It is important to note that the legislation introduced in
North Dakota is non-gender specific, as we wanted to include
all genders in using the language ``missing and murdered
indigenous people.''
House Bill 1311 would provide training for State's
Attorneys and law enforcement officers and officials regarding
missing and murdered indigenous people. The training would be
provided by the North Dakota Human Trafficking Commission,
which is comprised of key stakeholders from tribal, state, and
Federal agencies and organizations in government.
House Bill 1313 would create a state repository for missing
persons, including indigenous populations. This bill comes with
a fiscal note of $75,000 to update the software of the Criminal
Justice Information System within the Attorney General's
Office.
In addition, this bill would address the need for accuracy
in data collection of missing and murdered indigenous people.
House Bills 1507 and 1541 will provide human trafficking
prevention and awareness training to hotels, establishments,
and schools.
I wish I had more data to share with you, but the fact that
I do not is part of the reason why I am here.
As a resident of Fargo, North Dakota, I found myself on the
front lines of the search for Savanna in August 2017. Elder
women from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa asked me to
lead the search the following day.
In our culture, when someone asks you to do something, you
do not say no, especially if a female elder makes the request.
We began the search on August 27, my birthday. Later that
day, kayakers found the body of the deceased Savanna Greywind
in the Red River.
From that day forward our eyes were opened to the very real
threat before us, and we formed a local task force in the
Fargo-Moorhead area dedicated to preventing such tragedies from
ever happening again.
And we thought if and when this should ever happen again,
we did not want to waste time in having to convince law
enforcement that we are human beings and that we deserve
justice.
There cannot be, there must not be, any more stolen
sisters. We simply cannot tolerate losing any more sisters in
this way.
From my experience of being a volunteer searcher, it has
led me to find solutions. I thought of how Savanna was an
enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe, but grew up in
Fargo off of the reservation. From the start of the search, I
wanted Federal agencies to become involved. After all, she was
a member of a federally recognized tribe.
The realities of the situation dictated that we must work
with local authorities when instances occur outside of the
reservation.
One thing that will forever ring in my mind is attending
the trial and hearing what one of the murderers said that day
to the police. He told the police, ``She always goes missing,''
or, ``she is always taking off. Her parents were just here last
week looking for her,'' when we knew this statement was false.
But it raises many questions. Did this comment sway law
enforcement or not into taking swift action? That is why we
continue working for justice and for healing our communities.
Some of the recommendations that I would like to quickly
mention is a national inquiry with hearings held throughout the
United States in rural and urban areas; to go to the very
communities that suffer the loss of their loved ones; to
include language of missing and murdered indigenous women and
girls and people into the scope of work within the Office of
Violence Against Women and the Office of Victims of Crime.
As a public health professional and researcher, I know data
tells a story. Without data, there is no clear evidence that a
problem exists. Hundreds of communities hold stories of truth
from generation to generation. Our communities know which
relatives have yet to return to their families. We must help
have those stories told by giving them tools and resources to
do so and eventually bringing the lost ones home.
Thank you for allowing me to testify before you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Buffalo follows:]
Prepared Statement of Representative Ruth Buffalo, North Dakota House
of Representatives, District 27
Dosha, Mazda nuxxbaagao, Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee.
My name is Ruth Buffalo, I am a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and
Arikara Nation of northwest North Dakota and I represent District 27 in
south Fargo; I am a newly elected member of the House of
Representatives in the North Dakota State legislature. I am a public
health professional and educator.
I have introduced four legislative bills in the 66th state
legislative assembly that aim to address the epidemic of Missing and
Murdered Indigenous People and Human Trafficking. I have also
introduced a study resolution to further examine the issue of missing
and murdered indigenous people and human trafficking and a resolution
urging Congress to pass Savanna's Act. This legislation has passed
through the North Dakota House and now awaits action in the North
Dakota Senate.
It's important to note that the legislation introduced in North
Dakota is non-gender specific, as we wanted to include people of all
genders.
One of these bills seeks law enforcement training, and the other,
as amended, would create a state repository on missing people including
indigenous populations. The other two bills would provide human
trafficking prevention and awareness training to hotel establishments
and schools.
HB 1311 would provide training for state's attorneys and law
enforcement officers and officials regarding missing and murdered
indigenous people. The training would be provided by the North Dakota
Human Trafficking Commission which is comprised of key stakeholders
from tribal, state and Federal agencies, organizations and government.
HB 1313 would create a state repository for missing persons
including indigenous populations; this bill comes with a fiscal note of
$75,000 to update the software of the Criminal Justice Information
System within the Attorney General's office. This bill would address
the need for accuracy in data collection of missing and murdered
indigenous people. According to the Urban Indian Health Institute's
report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls, 71 percent of
American Indians/Alaska Native live in urban and non-reservation
areas.\1\ The issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
is a nationwide crisis, worsened by the fact that it is also a
nationwide data crisis. The National Crime Information Center reports
that, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and
Alaska Native women and girls, with only 116 cases logged in the U.S.
Department of Justice Federal missing persons database.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Lucchesi, A., & Echo-Hawk, A. (2018, November 14). Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls (Rep.). Retrieved http://
www.uihi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Missing-and-Murdered-
Indigenous-Women-and-Girls-Report.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the Sovereign Bodies Institute, as related Missing &
Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls in South Dakota, North Dakota, &
Montana. There are 296 documented MMIWG cases in these three states
combined, from 1972 to present. Of these cases, 30 are active missing
persons cases, 192 are murders, and 74 have unknown status (reported
missing and unable to confirm if found safe or deceased.) There are
likely many more cases that we have not yet documented. 157 of these
cases occurred on reservations, 15 in rural areas, 105 in urban
centers, and 19 cases have unknown location types.
I wish I had more data to share with you, but the fact that I don't
is part of the reason why I' m here.
As a resident of Fargo, North Dakota, I found myself on the front
lines of the search for Savanna Lafontaine-Greywind in August 2017.
Elder women from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa asked me to lead
the search the following day. In our culture, when someone asks you to
do something, you don't say no, especially if a woman is making the
request. I found myself leading the search efforts on August 27, 2018.
This day also happened to be my birthday. Later that same day, kayakers
found Savanna's body in the Red River. From that day forward, our eyes
were opened to the very real threat before us, and we formed a local
task force in the Fargo Moorhead area dedicated to preventing such
tragedies from ever happening again. There cannot be--there must not
be--any more stolen sisters. Not only was our local community affected
by the murder of Savanna; the entire Nation was shaken. From time to
time, I can still hear one of my friends calling Savanna's name during
the search as we combed the shoreline of the Red River.
My experiences as a volunteer searcher led me to wanting to seek
solutions. I thought of how Savanna was an enrolled member of a
federally recognized tribe but grew up in Fargo. From the start of the
search, I'd wanted Federal agencies to become involved. After all, she
was a member of a federally recognized tribe. The realities of the
situation dictated that we must work with local authorities when
incidents occurred outside of the exterior boundaries of an Indian
reservation.
I later attended the trials of Savanna Lafontaine-Greywind's
murderers. It wasn't until then, I learned of what exactly William
Hoehn told the police the day Savanna went missing. He told them, ``She
always leaves, her parents were just up here last week looking for
her.''
The police later stated they did not anticipate looking for a body
nor a baby, instead they checked all modes of transportation, the bus
and train stations. Could Hoehn's comment have swayed the police? Are
the stereotypes of our indigenous people perpetuated into implicit
bias?
The epidemic of our Missing and Murdered Indigenous People has left
many of our communities throughout North Dakota and country on high
alert. From the horrendous crime committed in the murder of Savanna
Lafontaine-Greywind, a young Indigenous mother who was 8 months
pregnant, to our indigenous men who go missing.
Recommendations:
North Dakota and many other states who have introduced MMIW
legislation have an opportunity to enhance response times and save
lives. Our focus is prevention and justice. Through data collection we
will show the need for additional resources for law enforcement
agencies, etc. Everyone deserves a safe community. I believe through
the passage of MMIW legislation and comprehensive laws we are sending a
strong message to predators which will further deter tragic outcomes,
and move toward keeping our people safer.
The language of MMIW/P needs to be included in the scope of work
for the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) and the Office for
Victims of Crime (OVC). DV/SA/Stalking/Dating Violence/Human
Trafficking are currently within the scope of services. Not having MMIW
included in their scope of work makes even addressing the issue
difficult, even as it is connected with existing work.
It's important to look at the pleadings in criminal cases in
prevention of further MMIW cases.
Ensuring all local city, county, state and tribal agencies are
working together is a must.
As a public health professional and researcher, I know data tells a
story. Without data, there is no clear evidence that a problem even
exists. Therefore, it is essential for accurate data reporting and
swift action be taken by authorities when people go missing. The dearth
of accurate reporting data in the countless cases of Missing and
Murdered Indigenous People, in essence, pours fuel onto an already
blazing fire. Hundreds of communities hold stories of truth from
generation to generation. Our communities know which relatives have yet
to return to their families. We must help them tell those stories, by
giving them the tools and resources to do so, and eventually, bring the
lost ones home.
______
Questions Submitted for the Record to Representative Ruth Buffalo,
North Dakota House of Representatives, District 27
Ms. Buffalo did not submit responses to the Committee by the
appropriate deadline for inclusion in the printed record.
Questions Submitted by Rep. Haaland
Question 1. I appreciate the work that you have done in your state
to address the epidemic of MMIW and human trafficking. I want to assure
you that I am working on Savannah's Act in the House to move this issue
forward in Congress. From the state perspective, what complications do
your law enforcement officials encounter when working on MMIW cases,
especially in coordinating with tribal law enforcement?
Question 2. Are these complications further exacerbating the gaps
in data collection that we see across the board? Also, how does this
complicate data collection in urban areas where 70 percent of American
Indians live?
Questions Submitted by Rep. Grijalva
Question 1. What are concrete steps the Federal Government can take
to enhance tribes' ability to respond to this crisis?
Question 2. Who should be leading efforts to address this violence,
and how can the Federal Government support them in doing so?
2a. How can Congress collaborate with on the ground efforts to
address this issue?
Question 3. What are the cultural aspects that need to be
considered when working with state and tribal governments on this
issue?
Question 4. If you have one recommendation for the Federal
Government to address this issue, what would it be?
______
Mr. Gallego. Thank you, Representative.
Next, we would like to introduce Ms. Mary Kathryn Nagle.
She is a Legal Counsel for the National Indigenous Women's
Resource Center.
STATEMENT OF MARY KATHRYN NAGLE, LEGAL COUNSEL, NATIONAL
INDIGENOUS WOMEN'S RESOURCE CENTER (NIWRC), LAME DEER, MONTANA
Ms. Nagle. Thank you.
Good morning, Chairman Gallego, Chairman Grijalva, Ranking
Member Paul Cook, and all of the members of the Committee.
Thank you so much for inviting me here today and for your time
and consideration of this very important issue.
I am honored to represent, as Legal Counsel to the National
Indigenous Women's Resource Center, a national non-profit,
dedicated to the restoration of tribal sovereignty and
jurisdiction to protect and save the lives of Native women and
children.
The NIWRC has played a critical role in raising awareness
around the missing and murdered indigenous women crisis here in
the United States today. The NIWRC has hosted numerous
educational trainings, briefings on the Hill. They have hosted
screenings of educational films, held candlelight vigils, and
collaborated with local grassroots organizations to generate
support for a national day of awareness for missing and
murdered Native women and girls.
Our main office is in Lame Deer, Montana, and so our staff
directly experienced the losses of both Henny Scott and Hanna
Harris. This is a crisis that strikes at home, and it strikes
deep.
In September 2018, the NIWRC hosted a candlelight vigil at
the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. We were honored
that Congresswoman Gwen Moore came and spoke about the
importance of the restoration of tribal jurisdiction,
supplementing with tribal resources to tribal law enforcement,
and compelling the Federal Government to take this issue
seriously and investigate and prosecute cases of murdered and
missing indigenous women.
But probably the most impactful moment of that candlelight
vigil was when Florence Choyou spoke and shared the story of
her daughter Monica, who was murdered during a domestic
violence action in the Keams Canyon on the Hopi Reservation.
As to myself, I am a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. I am
an attorney, and I am direct descendant of a tribal leader, my
great-great-great-grandfather who in the 1820s, as speaker of
our tribal council, worked to create and establish our Cherokee
Nation Supreme Court and pass a law that criminalized the rape
of any woman on Cherokee lands regardless of the identity or
race/citizenship of the perpetrator.
I am a direct descendant of a tribal leader who understood
the connection between tribal sovereignty and safety for Native
women, and that understanding informs and commands the work
that I undertake today.
I think all of our written testimony, the testimony of my
colleagues today, underscores the depth of this crisis, the
fact that our women are murdered 10 times the national rate on
reservations.
In addition to that incredibly high rate of violence, we
also know, from a statistic of the DOJ National Institute of
Justice, the majority of violent crimes committed against
Native women are committed by non-Indians.
So, even though our members of our own nations and our
communities are committing these crimes, we have a huge crisis
of non-Indian perpetrated violence against Native women.
And because in 1978 the Supreme Court eliminated tribal
jurisdiction, this has only exacerbated the crisis that, as
Professor Deer mentioned, has been accumulating over hundreds
of years since 1492.
However, when we look at the missing and murdered
indigenous women crisis, the jurisdictional loophole is a major
source of the high rates of violence against our women and the
lack of a response. Because of this Supreme Court decision in
1978 and the current legal framework, for a tribal nation to
undertake an arrest and then prosecute a perpetrator who has
murdered or kidnapped a Native woman, the tribal government
must, for jurisdictional purposes, determine that the identity
of the perpetrator is a citizen of a federally recognized
tribe, an Indian. And if they cannot determine that, that
paralyzes tribal law enforcement and the tribal government from
working to protect their own citizens.
This is the case so often. It was the case with Olivia Lone
Bear. When she went missing in October 2017, her tribal nation
could not determine whether or not it had jurisdiction simply
because they could not identify the identity of the
perpetrator. And although her brother, Matthew Lone Bear,
repeatedly demanded that all state, tribal, and Federal
officials act immediately to locate her and to search for her,
it was not until 10 months later, after he had been asking for
10 months for the Federal authorities to search all bodies of
water on the reservation, that they found her deceased in her
truck at the bottom of Lake Sakakawea.
Often when one of our women or girls goes missing, it is
our family members and our friends who undertake the search to
rescue her, not law enforcement. That has to change.
So, it is not only a jurisdictional issue. It is the lack
of response from the Federal authorities, who oftentimes under
the current legal framework do have jurisdiction and yet do
nothing.
Another major issue that I have written much about in my
written testimony and what the NIWRC recommends is more access
to the National Criminal Information System, NCIC. Currently,
today, only 47 tribal nations have access to this database.
This database is a critical tool any time a Native woman
goes missing or is murdered for justice, and right now the lack
of access that tribes have with only 47 of the 573 federally
recognized tribes having access is a huge impediment.
Finally, lack of resources. Many of our tribal nations do
not have adequate funding for their own law enforcement, as
well as victim services. As NIWRC has stated publicly for many
years and advocated, we are working so hard to fund victim
services because we have to deal with the crisis of domestic
violence and sexual assault. Oftentimes those crimes escalate
to murder and homicide.
So, we need funding for our victim services and our tribal
law enforcement.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak today.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Nagle follows:]
Prepared Statement of Mary Kathryn Nagle, National Indigenous Women's
Resource Center
Dear Chairman Gallego, thank you for the opportunity to testify on
the crisis that our women and children currently face.
I am honored to represent the National Indigenous Women's Resource
Center (NIWRC). The NIWRC is a Native non-profit organization that was
created specifically to serve as the National Indian Resource Center
(NIRC) Addressing Domestic Violence and Safety for Indian Women. The
NIWRC is dedicated to reclaiming the sovereignty of Tribal Nations and
safeguarding Native women and their children. Through public awareness
and resource development, training and technical assistance, policy
development, and research activities, the NIWRC provides leadership
across the Nation to show that offenders can and should be held
accountable and that Native women and their children are entitled to:
1) safety from violence within their homes and in their community; 2)
justice both on and off tribal lands; and 3) access to services
designed by and for Native women based on their tribal beliefs and
practices.
As a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, I understand the unique
relationship between sovereignty and safety for Native women. And as an
attorney representing the NIWRC, I have filed numerous briefs in
Federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, addressing the
connection between sovereignty and safety for Native women.
As this Subcommittee is aware, there are countless examples of
missing and murdered Native women and children where insufficient
resources and lack of clarity on jurisdictional responsibilities have
exacerbated efforts to locate those missing. On December 12, 2018,
Kimberly Loring Heavy Runner appeared before the Senate Committee on
Indian Affairs to share her sister's story.\1\ Her sister, Ashley
Loring Heavy Runner, a 22-year-old Blackfeet woman, disappeared on June
12, 2017. Despite Heavy Runner's family finding evidence tied to her
disappearance, the family later learned that the evidence had not been
processed, nor had the scene where the evidence was discovered been
investigated. The family encountered obstacles when trying to obtain
information or support from the Blackfeet Tribal Law Enforcement or the
Bureau of Indian Affairs. And, it took 9 months for the Federal Bureau
of Investigation to become involved with the case. Information
discovered in the early days after someone goes missing is critical to
ensuring their safety, but in the case of Ms. Loring Heavy Runner,
leads were dropped early on, and she has not been found.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Oversight Hearing on ``Missing and Murdered: Confronting the
Silent Crisis in Indian Country'' Before the S. Comm. on Indian
Affairs, 115th Cong. (Dec. 12, 2018) (testimony of Kimberly Loring
Heavy Runner), https://www.indian.senate.gov/sites/default/files/
Kimberly%20Loring%20Heavy%20Runner%20Final.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the case of Misty Upham, another member of the Blackfeet Nation
who went missing on October 5, 2014, the local police department in
Auburn, Washington, not only failed to assign a detective to the case
until October 7, but failed to commence a search for Ms. Upham
altogether.\2\ Indeed, Upham's body was found on October 16--over a
week after her disappearance was reported--not because of law
enforcement efforts, but because of a search party organized by Upham's
family. In this case, Misty Upham went missing on the Muckleshoot
Reservation, and her disappearance could have been investigated by the
FBI, however, it was not. Instead, the case went largely uninvestigated
by the local police department.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Kristen Millares Young, Misty Upham: the tragic death and
unscripted life of Hollywood's rising star, The Guardian (June 30,
2015, 7 AM), https://www.theguardian.com/global/2015/jun/30/misty-
upham-native-american-actress-tragic-death-inspiring-life.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
And recently, a 14-year-old girl from Northern Cheyenne, Henny
Scott, was discovered nearly 3 weeks after she last spoke to her
mother, Paula Castro, on December 7, 2018. The Bureau of Indian Affairs
did not enter her into the missing person database until December
13,\3\ and the Montana Department of Justice did not issue a Missing
and Endangered Person Advisory for Scott until December 26. The body of
Henny Scott was discovered on December 28 after a search party composed
mostly of volunteers began searching for her. Scott's mother has
expressed frustration with how her daughter's case was handled by BIA
officials in Lame Deer when she was convinced her daughter was
missing.\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Mike Kordenbrock, Family, community filled with questions after
teen's death on Northern Cheyenne Reservation, Billings Gazette (Dec.
29, 2018), https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/crime-
and-courts/family-community-filled-with-questions-after-teen-s-death-
on/article_768c2bb9-189e-51f7-bdb3-4c274bc86ea7.html.
\4\ Kayla Desroches, Northern Cheyenne Hold Funeral For Henny
Scott, Montana Public Radio (Jan. 7, 2019), https://www.mtpr.org/post/
northern-cheyenne-hold-funeral-henny-scott.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is not sufficient space to recount all of the stories of
missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) in the United States in
this written testimony. But the stories of Ashley, Misty, and Henny
constitute an important reminder that this crisis is more than data.
These are our sisters, mothers, nieces, and daughters. Their safety
commands your utmost attention and concern. We commend you for holding
this hearing, and we hope you will seriously consider legislation that
effectively addresses this crisis.
the organizing efforts of niwrc to address the crisis of missing and
murdered indigenous women
As a part of a national movement, the NIWRC has been heavily
involved with raising awareness and organizing around the issue of
MMIW. Many members of the NIWRC Board of Directors and staff have
organized and advocated to increase the safety of Native women since
the 1990s. The relationship of NIWRC to this issue is based in this
collective history.
In 2005, the movement for the safety of Native women led the
struggle to include a separate title within the Violence Against Women
Act (VAWA), or what is now codified as Title IX, ``Safety for Native
Women.'' In creating Title IX, Congress made several findings,
including that: homicide was the third-leading cause of death for
Indian females aged 15-34 (during the period of 1979-1992), with 75
percent of those constituting homicides committed by family members or
acquaintances. Further statistics by the U.S. Department of Justice
(USDOJ) National Institute of Justice (NIJ) found that American Indian
women face murder rates that are more than 10 times the national
average.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Perrelli, T. (July 14, 2011). Statement of Associate Attorney
General Perrelli before the Committee on Indian Affairs on Violence
Against Native American Women [citing a National Institute of Justice-
funded analysis of death certificates]. Washington, DC. Available from:
www.justice.gov/iso/opa/asg/speeches/2011/asg-speech-110714.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additionally, in both the 2005 reauthorization of VAWA and the
Tribal Law and Order Act (TLOA) of 2010, the National Congress of
American Indians (NCAI) Task Force on Violence Against Women worked to
include a mandate for the Attorney General to grant direct access to
Indian tribes to enter and obtain information from the National
Criminal Information Center (NCIC) national files. The struggle to win
direct access for Indian tribes to NCIC files was and continues to be a
priority because these files, such as the national protection order
file, sex offender file, missing persons, and other files, are
essential to the safety of Native women. The lack of direct NCIC access
is a reflection of the barriers created by Federal Indian law, and the
fact that Native women remain separated from all other populations of
women in the United States. As sovereign nations, Indian tribes should
have the full authority to protect their women and enter information
into and obtain information from the NCIC. The disproportionate
statistics among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women
combined with the on-going missing and murdered reports across Indian
Country, the lack of NCIC access for tribes, and other related barriers
to safety fuel our on-going work around this critical issue. While
advances have been made over the years through the launch of the USDOJ
Tribal Access Program (TAP), it is important to note that TAP is not
currently available to all tribes and lacks a permanent funding
authorization.
Our on-going efforts to address the critical issues regarding MMIW
include leading events and activities locally, regionally, nationally
and internationally. For example, the NIWRC has contributed by:
coordinating Conversations With the Field (CWTF) discussions,
organizing a hill briefing, hosting a reception on Capitol Hill,
hosting educational screenings of Wind River with accompanying panel
discussions, providing testimony at international advocacy forums,
educating tribal leaders prior to each annual tribal consultation,
participating in awareness activities/marches/vigils, creating
webinars, creating a toolkit, organizing with grassroots organizations
around the support of a National Day of Awareness for Missing and
Murdered Native Women and Girls, and, last but not least, providing
countless updates during various NIWRC and partner conferences,
including NCAI Violence Against Women Task Force meetings. The NIWRC
has also contributed numerous articles in NIWRC's Restoration Magazine
since 2008 concerning the issue of MMIW, and I have submitted one such
article along with my written testimony. (Please see attachment, ``MMIW
and the Need for Preventative Reform''). The NIWRC's Restoration
Magazine is an incredible resource on many issues related to ending
domestic violence and sexual assault against Native women, as well as
MMIW.
The CWTF concept was first developed in 2003 as a facilitation tool
for organizing a national conversation of the movement including
building a national platform of current and emerging issues of concern
and recommendations to increase the safety of Native women. The CWTF
engagements involved meetings with grassroots advocates, community
members, tribal leaders, tribal coalitions and allies. In 2017, the
NIWRC held a series of CWTF: Understanding the Issue of Missing &
Murdered Native Women and Organizing a Response at NIWRC's Specialty
Institute, the 2017 NCAI Mid-Year Convention, and at a Village
Engagement Training in Kotzebue, AK. The CWTF discussions provided an
overview about the issue of Missing and Murdered Native women,
including ways to organize a response given that disappearances are
often connected to not only domestic and sexual violence, but other
forms of violence.
In 2017, the NIWRC collectively organized with the national
movement for the safety of Native women to support a National Day of
Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls for both 2017
and 2018, and the NIWRC is currently working on the effort for 2019.
Past efforts included support from over 250 tribal, state, and national
organizations. May 5, 2017, marked the first national day of awareness
with tribal awareness and justice walks taking place across the United
States. The NIWRC's 2018 efforts included a social media campaign,
which reached millions online globally.
Additionally, in 2017, the NIWRC sponsored a MMIW hill briefing in
partnership with the Indian Law Resource Center (ILRC) and the Alaska
Native Women's Resource Center (AKNWRC), which focused on ``Moving
Ahead to Increase the Safety of American Indian and Alaska Native
Women, Efforts to Address Missing and Murdered Native Women and
Girls.'' In addition to remarks offered by our panelists, the NIWRC
shared statistics from the NIJ report, Violence Against American Indian
and Alaska Native Women and Men: 2010 Findings from the National
Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey and showed the NIJ video,
Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and Men. The
NIWRC further provided an overview of missing and murdered Native women
along with the resolution, calling for May 5th as a National Day of
Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls. The NIWRC's
Board Chair, Cherrah Giles, provided closing remarks noting the
importance of May 5th as a time to commemorate and honor Indian women
who have gone missing or have been murdered.
In February 2018, the NIWRC and several partners successfully
hosted a reception and an event: ``Understanding the Crisis of Missing
and Murdered Native Women'' at the Capitol Visitor Center in
Washington, DC. The event coincided with NCAI's Executive Council
Winter Session and was partnered with NCAI, the National Indian Gaming
Association, the ILRC, the StrongHearts Native Helpline, the AKNWRC,
the Tunica-Biloxi Economic Development Corporation, the Tunica-Biloxi
Tribe, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and the Shakopee Mdewakanton
Sioux Community. We also hosted a briefing to discuss MMIW issues and
followed the event with a screening of Wind River. The event was well
attended by Hill staffers, tribal leaders, and advocates from across
the country who are actively engaged in addressing the issue of
violence against Native women.
Through our partnership with the Alaska Native Women's Resource
Center and Healing Native Hearts Tribal Coalition, we have supported
the development of public service announcements and a video documentary
on Missing and Murdered Indian women, which have not yet been publicly
distributed, but Tami Truett Jerue (Executive Director, AKNWRC) will
share one of the PSAs with the Committee.
In September 2018, the NIWRC hosted a vigil at the National Museum
of the American Indian which Representative Gwen Moore, myself,
Caroline LaPorte (NIWRC Senior Native Affairs Advisor), Juana Majel
Dixon (NCAI Task Force on Violence Against Native Women Co-Chair),
Carmen O'Leary (NIWRC Board Vice-Chairwoman and Executive Director of
the Native Women's Society of the Great Plains) and Leanne Guy (NIWRC
Board Secretary and Executive Director of the Southwest Indigenous
Women's Coalition) spoke. Most impactful however, was when Florence
Choyou shared the story of her daughter Monica who was murdered during
a domestic violence incident in Keams Canyon on the Hopi Reservation.
The event concluded with a candlelight vigil.
As was stated at the event held in September, the crisis of missing
and murdered Native women in the context of gender-based violence is a
result of legal barriers rooted in the Federal legal framework. This
on-going crisis has been raised by tribal leaders at every VAWA
mandated government-to-government annual consultation since 2006. A
strong national response is needed to respond to the countless reports
of missing and murdered Native women and girls. Tribal nations and
family members continue to witness daily reports of another sister,
mother, daughter, granddaughter, relative, or community member lost to
violence, which sends shock waves across all of Indian Country. The
NIWRC, with continued grassroots advocacy efforts and in close
collaboration with our partners, will continue to raise awareness and
work toward systemic change to remove the legal barriers that prevent
tribal nations from prosecuting the violent perpetrators who murder and
kidnap their Native women citizens. But we wish for a day when we do
not have to.
the niwrc tribal community response toolkit for action: an overview to
assist communities prepare to address mmiw
The need for a response to the urgent crisis of MMIW in the United
States is very clear. Until recently the issue of MMIW has not been
included in most federally funded grant programs impacting violence
against women. Because NIWRC is primarily federally funded, most of our
work in this area has been undertake using non-Federal funding or with
our volunteer time. But, we understand the importance of responding at
a tribal, state, national and international level to this crisis. The
NIWRC also understands the lack of educational awareness and general
lack of response from law enforcement agencies. The NIWRC's main office
is located in Lame Deer, Montana, and our staff experienced the
disappearance and losses of Henny Scott and Hannah Harris directly as
members of that community. In addition, many NIWRC Board Members and
staff have personally suffered the loss of family and community
members.
At the time of these tragic losses, the NIWRC, using non-Federal
funds, took very basic steps to offer assistance to tribal communities
to address the crisis of MMIW. The most direct support the NIWRC could
provide at the time was a community response toolkit for action
providing an overview, not a comprehensive guide, of issues to address
if a woman went missing.
Based on the many difficult lessons from the disappearances and
murders of women, the NIWRC summarized key points for tribes and
communities to consider. The toolkit encouraged communities to prepare
protocols based on an understanding that domestic and sexual violence
occurs on a spectrum of abusive behavior and can include abduction and
murder. Tribes were further instructed to take immediate action, noting
the quicker the response, the faster the victim may be located and help
may be provided.
The Tribal Community Response Toolkit for Action included a basic
overview of lessons responding to cases of MMIW. It encouraged
communities to:
Develop a response before a disappearance occurs;
Contact law enforcement immediately as soon as a
disappearance occurs;
Document and track events--dates and times are essential;
Issue an alert immediately--a press release, radio
announcement, social media post;
Organize community actions--a vigil, search, justice walk,
or march to provide a positive anchor for family and
community to support the woman who is missing.
The disappearance of every Native woman requires an immediate
response. The hours and minutes following a disappearance are critical.
In order to respond immediately to a disappearance, the NIWRC
recommends that advocacy programs develop protocols. These protocols
should provide guidance to programs about coordinating with law
enforcement agencies. The NIWRC continues to organize on this issue and
will provide additional materials to address the crisis of MMIW.
policy recommendations to address murdered and missing indigenous women
MMIW occurs for a variety of reasons, some of which are outside of
the scope of gender-based violence. However, the NIWRC is dedicated to
addressing gender-based violence in Indian Country, and therefore it is
in this capacity and through this lens that we are before you
testifying.
To that point, the NIWRC considers its policy reform advocacy
surrounding the response to missing and murdered Indian women in
connection with the five other crimes identified in VAWA Title IX--
domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking and sex
trafficking. Native women experience a continuum of violence, with MMIW
at the extreme end of the continuum. It is not an issue that can be
addressed in isolation, but rather needs to be seen as one
manifestation of the violence that threatens Native women and girls
throughout their lifetimes. In doing so, the policy recommendations
that we put forward relate heavily to reforms that are needed in the
context of gender-based violence. In the context of gender-based
violence, the NIWRC's response to MMIW centers on five things:
jurisdiction to handle cases at the local tribal level; the resources
for victim services which would provide meaningful interventions for
survivors of gender-based violence; improving access to Federal
criminal databases; establishing a standard protocol in consultation
with tribes to respond to MMIW cases; and improving data collection.
It is necessary to state first that tribes need additional
dedicated resources to support the development of local, tribal
responses to MMIW cases. If tribes have the resources and authority to
respond to these crimes before they escalate in seriousness and
lethality, at least some, if not many, potential MMIW cases would have
a meaningful intervention prior to fatal escalation.
The NIWRC supports the following to address the injustices of
missing and murdered Indian women:
1. Focus on prevention by addressing underlying infrastructure
concerns as represented by tribal leaders, advocates and
survivors. Namely, address the current housing and shelter
deficiency that exist in tribal communities and develop an
understanding of the issue of MMIW as it pertains to
children who age out of foster care;
2. We maintain that a local tribal response is the best response.
Therefore, where MMIW cases have a gender-based violence
component, it is necessary to consider adopting legislation
that would strengthen the local tribal response. Thus, we
again propose that Congress enact legislation to strengthen
tribal sovereignty by addressing the remaining
jurisdictional gaps with respect to the Special Domestic
Violence Criminal Jurisdiction (SDVCJ) provisions in the
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) by adopting provisions in
VAWA 2019 that are similar to those in the Native Youth and
Tribal Officer Protection Act and in the Justice for Native
Survivors Act. Congress should also enact legislation to
address the issue of implementation for tribes who have
Restrictive Claims Settlement Acts (such as Maine and
Alaska);
3. Expand and create a dedicated funding stream to support permanent
authorization for the Department of Justice's Tribal Access
Program (TAP) to ensure that all tribes have access to
Federal Criminal Justice Information Service systems;
4. Recognize the need for tribal, federal, and state responses to
cases of missing and murdered Native women and girls,
including development of local and inter-jurisdictional
protocols and establish standardized protocols based on
best practices, in consultation with tribal governments as
mandated by VAWA, and improve data collection without
hampering funding for tribal governments and tribal
programs;
5. Establishing permanent funding for victim services in tribal
communities is key. Set aside resources for local, tribal
responses to MMIW, such as a permanent tribal Victims of
Crime Act (VOCA) set aside for tribal victim assistance and
compensation programs;
6. Address the unique jurisdictional challenges of Alaska Tribes and
support a pilot project for Alaska Tribes to exercise SDVCJ
over non-Native perpetrators committing acts of domestic
and sexual violence; and
7. Address the long-standing resource disparity Indian tribes face
when funding their tribal victim advocacy and tribal
justice services.
policy recommendations to address murdered and missing indigenous
women: expand the usdoj, tribal access program and access to ncic
One of the largest obstacles to addressing the crisis of Murdered
and Missing Indigenous Women have been the barriers Indian tribes face
in accessing national crime databases (Please see attachment, ``MMIW
and the Need for Preventative Reform'').
VAWA 2005 and the Tribal Law & Order Act of 2010 both included
provisions directing the Attorney General to permit Indian tribes to
enter information into and obtain information from Federal criminal
information databases. Indian tribes have raised this issue for years.
In response to these concerns, in 2015, the USDOJ announced the Tribal
Access Program for National Crime Information, which provides eligible
Indian tribes with access to the Criminal Justice Information Services
systems.
Under TAP, tribes have successfully begun entering information
directly into the Federal databases, resulting in nearly 600 sex
offender registrations and over 550 sex offender check-ins, nearly 300
instances of data entry that would prohibit someone from being able to
purchase a firearm, over 1,000 orders of protection entered or
modified, and over 4,200 fingerprint-based record checks for civil
purposes that include employment, tribal housing placement and
personnel/volunteers who have regular contact with or control over
Indian children. These are the sorts of achievements that prevent the
escalation from domestic violence to homicide, and serve to assist law
enforcement in the apprehension of a suspect before he commits yet
another crime that could result in the murder or kidnapping of a Native
woman.
As of September 2018, TAP has been deployed to 47 Tribal Nations.
With 573 federally recognized Indian tribes in the United States, 47 is
simply not enough.
A dedicated funding stream should be created for expanding the TAP
program and making it available to all interested tribes who meet the
requirements. All Indian tribes should have the ability to access
Federal databases not only for the purpose of obtaining criminal
history information for criminal or civil law purposes, but also for
entering protection orders and other relevant information, including
NICS disqualifying events, into the databases.
conclusion
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is a crisis that
threatens the very foundations of our tribal governments and Native
people. It is a complicated issue that is born out of problems we did
not create. We are being asked to solve issues that stem from hundreds
of years of colonization and genocide, and so the changes that we are
recommending today are incremental and do not replace the full
restoration of inherent tribal authority to govern our people. Tribal
sovereignty and safety for Native women are wholly intertwined, and we
wish to close by reminding Congress of their obligation to increase and
support that sovereignty. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on
the crisis that our tribal governments face in protecting our women and
children.
*****
The following documents were submitted as supplements to Ms. Nagle's
testimony. These documents are part of the hearing record and are being
retained in the Committee's official files:
--The National Congress of American Indians--Resolution #PHX-16-
077, Title: Addressing Crisis of Missing and Murdered
Native Women.
--Restoration Magazine, Volume 16, Issue 1, February 2019, National
Indigenous Women's Resource Center, ``MMIW and the Need for
Preventative Reform,'' by Caroline LaPorte, Senior Native
Affairs Advisor, NIWRC.
______
Questions Submitted for the Record to Mary Kathryn Nagle, National
Indigenous Women's Resource Center
Questions Submitted by Rep. Haaland
Question 1. In your testimony, you stated that there are resources
needed for victim services which would provide meaningful interventions
for survivors of gender-based violence. What types of programs would be
most effective to address this? Is the funding needed in Indian
Country, urban areas, or both?
Answer. First, it is critical to have tribal programs in place that
provide meaningful interventions to Indian victims before domestic and
sexual violence, including sex trafficking, escalates to abductions,
homicide or murder. Funding for such services is needed in Indian
Country and urban areas. Less than one-half of all Indian tribes
receive funding to serve victims of crimes enumerated under the
Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The vast majority of Indian tribes
lack any services for victims and many of these tribes are
geographically isolated in rural or remote areas. Generally more
funding is available for victim services programs in urban areas than
for Indian tribes. Many tribes continue to serve their people wherever
they are located, including urban areas, with what limited resources
they have.
In past reauthorizations of VAWA and the Family Violence Prevention
and Services Act (FVPSA), Congress created programs for Indian tribes.
These programs and resources have made a difference in the lives of
Indian victims and should continue to be reauthorized.
However, the funding for tribal services remains insufficient.
According to the National Institute of Justice, 38 percent of Indian
victims were unable to receive necessary services, including medical
care and legal services.\1\ Resources like the StrongHearts Native
Helpline, a culturally appropriate, confidential service for Native
Americans affected by domestic violence and dating violence, have found
that there is a severe tribal resources disparity that is a barrier for
tribal governments limiting how and what advocacy and justice services
they are able to develop and provide their citizens and non-Indian
residents.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Andre B. Rosay, Violence Against American Indian and Alaska
Native Women and Men: 2010 Findings from the National Intimate Partner
and Sexual Violence Survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Justice,
National Institute of Justice, 2016, NCJ 249736.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
This resource disparity is, in large part, due to the fact that
tribes did not have direct access to the Crime Victims Fund (CVF)
through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) until last year. Though the FY
18 Omnibus Spending Bill includes a 3 percent set aside for tribal
governments, a permanent fix is needed. There must be a government-to-
government funding stream legislatively established for tribal
governments accessing the CVF. Critical resources like the StrongHearts
Native Helpline, Tribal Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault
Coalitions, tribally-run or Native-based shelter and sexual assault
services, services designed to address sex trafficking, tribal housing,
legal services, comprehensive medical and forensic services, mental
health services, services for Native children and youth affected by
domestic and sexual violence, other culturally appropriate programs and
services, and technical assistance supporting tribal response
development are absolutely vital to any meaningful response to violence
in tribal communities. The current funding available in Indian Country
is inadequate to address these needs--from the provision of basic,
emergency services and responses to more comprehensive, long-term
services--and is a breach of the Federal trust responsibility to assist
Indian tribes in safeguarding the lives of Indian women.\2\ Without
adequate Federal assistance through resources for Indian tribes, Indian
women will continue to go missing and be murdered at the highest rates
in the country.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ 34 U.S.C. Sec. 10452 Note.
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The crisis of MMIW in urban areas deserves attention. The Urban
Indian Health Institute (``UIHI''), based in Seattle, Washington,
recently conducted research across 71 urban areas and cities with a
significant Native population.\3\ The Institute's findings are
remarkable and alarming and provide a partial view of the barriers
facing Indian women vulnerable to murder and abduction. The majority of
urban area law enforcement agencies fail to keep data or records to
indicate if and when a Native woman is murdered or missing within their
jurisdiction.\4\ The UIHI Report called for reforms around the
experiences of urban Indians, including funding to ensure proper data
collection.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ The full report and findings can be found here: http://
www.uihi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Missing-and-Murdered-
Indigenous-Women-and-Girls-Report.pdf.
\4\ Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls, http://
www.uihi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Missing-and-Murdered-
Indigenous-Women-and-Girls-Report.pdf (2018).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where the reforms in Indian Country are rooted in the Federal trust
responsibility to assist Indian tribes in safeguarding the lives on
Indian women, the reforms in urban areas must come from city and state
governments that have the authority to respond and responsibility for
public safety within their jurisdictions. Unlike Indian Country, city
and state governments have the infrastructure and resources to develop
their responses and services in partnership with tribal governments and
organizations, including urban Indian centers. In addition, because
it's not unusual for Indian peoples to travel between urban areas and
tribal lands, cross jurisdictional agreements would maximize efforts to
prevent abductions and homicides, including ensuring comity and full
faith and credit of tribal court orders, including orders issued from
CFR Courts.
Perhaps the Subcommittee would consider supporting pilot projects
with existing state and local government funding (e.g., VAWA, Byrne,
COPS, VOCA) that would support the development of urban justice
responses and advocacy services to the issue of MMIW, including cross
jurisdictional agreements with Indian tribes and partnerships with
urban Indian centers. Additional funding for Indian tribes could focus
on the expansion of existing domestic and sexual violence tribal
justice responses and advocacy services to address prevention of
abductions and homicides.
Question 2. You mentioned that to address this issue, there needs
to be improved access to Federal criminal databases. Can you explain
the difference between the various available Federal data systems and
which one would be the best central point for data collection for MMIW?
Answer. It is critical that just like state and local governments,
tribal governments have equal access to the National Criminal
Information Center (NCIC) database maintained by the FBI. In fact,
given the public safety challenges such as MMIW, this Congress has the
opportunity to ensure tribal governments have the access they need to
prevent any more Indian women going missing and being murdered. The
NCIC database currently consists of 21 files of data. There are seven
property files containing records of stolen articles, boats, guns,
license plates, parts, securities, and vehicles. There are 14 persons
files, including: Supervised Release; National Sex Offender Registry;
Foreign Fugitive; Immigration Violator; Missing Person; Protection
Order; Unidentified Person; Protective Interest; Gang; Known or
Appropriately Suspected Terrorist; Wanted Person; Identity Theft;
Violent Person; and National Instant Criminal Background Check System
(NICS) Denied Transaction. The system also contains images that can be
associated with NCIC records to help agencies identify people and
property items. The Interstate Identification Index, which contains
automated criminal history record information, is accessible through
the same network as NCIC.
One of the largest obstacles to addressing the crisis of murdered
and missing Indian women have been the barriers Tribal Nations face in
accessing national crime databases. For instance, without access to
NCIC, Tribal Nations are unable to enter the name of one of their
citizens if and when she goes missing. This means that other Federal
and state law enforcement agencies will not be aware that she is
missing, and ultimately it means she is less likely to be located and
her life, most likely, will not be saved.
VAWA 2005 and the Tribal Law & Order Act of 2010 both included
provisions directing the Attorney General to permit Tribal Nations to
enter information into and obtain information from Federal criminal
information databases. Tribal Nations have raised this issue for years.
In response to these concerns, in 2015, DOJ announced the Tribal Access
Program for National Crime Information (TAP), which provides eligible
Tribal Nations with access to the NCIC systems.
Under TAP, tribes have successfully begun entering information
directly into the Federal databases, resulting in nearly 600 sex
offender registrations and over 550 sex offender check-ins, nearly 300
instances of data entry that would prohibit someone from being able to
purchase a firearm, over 1,000 orders of protection entered or modified
and over 4,200 fingerprint-based record checks for civil purposes that
include employment, tribal housing placement and personnel/volunteers
who have regular contact with or control over Indian children. These
are the sorts of achievements that prevent the escalation from domestic
violence to homicide, or serve to assist law enforcement in the
apprehension of a suspect before he commits yet another crime that
could result in the murder or kidnapping of a Native woman.
As of September 2018, TAP has been deployed to 47 Tribal Nations.
While we celebrate this change, the Federal trust responsibility to
assist Indian tribes in safeguarding the lives of Indian women extends
to all 573 federally recognized Indian tribes, so we must work to grant
access to 526 more tribal governments.
A dedicated funding stream should be created for expanding the TAP
program and making it available to all interested tribes who meet the
requirements. TAP is the best central point for data collection for
MMIW. All Tribal Nations should have the ability to access Federal
databases not only for the purpose of obtaining criminal history
information for criminal or civil law purposes, but also for entering
protection orders and other relevant information, including NICS
disqualifying events, into the databases.
I want to close NIWRC's response to your question, Representative
Haaland, with the words of one mother Florence Choyou and her story
(attached) of her daughter's murder:
The man who violently took Monica's life received 3 years and
will be released soon. Before coming to our reservation, he was
banished from two other nearby reservations for violence. If we
had only known of his violence, she might still be alive. The
tribal registry might have saved her life.\5\
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\5\ Jacqueline R. Agtuca, Safety for Native Women: VAWA and
American Indian Tribes, NIWRC, 2014.
Questions Submitted by Rep. Grijalva
Question 1. What programs or initiative is your organization or
other organizations currently developing to address the MMIW issue?
1a. How is your organization collaborating with local tribal groups
or coalitions?
Answer. The NIWRC's on-going efforts to address MMIW include
leading events and activities locally, regionally, nationally and
internationally. Partnerships with the following organizations and many
others identified below have been key to the groundswell of attention
and activity: the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center, National
Congress of American Indians, Indian Law Resource Center, National
Resource Center on Domestic Violence, and tribal domestic violence and
sexual assault coalitions including the Native Women's Society of the
Great Plains and Healing Native Hearts Coalition.
The list below is not exhaustive, but provides some of what NIWRC
has done because of the need:
conducted Conversations With the Field (CWTF),
organized hill briefings,
hosted a reception on Capitol Hill,
hosted several educational screenings of Wind River with
accompanying panel discussions,
provided testimony at international advocacy forums,
educated tribal leaders at National Congress of American
Indians conferences, including assisting with the passage
of 2016 NCAI Resolution, presentations during NCAI Violence
Against Women Task Force meetings and during annual VAW
government-to-government consultations,
participated in awareness activities/marches/California
Indian film festival/vigils,
created a toolkit, postcards, issued press releases, and
interviews with media worldwide,
conducted webinars and a social media campaign in support
of the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered
Native Women and Girls, including Native Hawaiian women,
assisted with development of video PSAs and a documentary
about missing and murdered Alaska Native women, and
written Restoration Magazine articles since 2008, and I
submitted one such article along with NIWRC's written
testimony on March 14, 2019. The NIWRC's Restoration
Magazine is an incredible resource on many issues related
to ending domestic violence and sexual assault against
Native women, including MMIW. NIWRC has reported on the
crisis of MMIW since 2008.
The CWTF concept was first developed in 2003 as a tool for
organizing a national conversation of the grassroots movement,
including building a national platform of current and emerging issues
of concern and recommendations to increase the safety of Native women.
The CWTF engagements involved meetings with grassroots advocates,
community members, tribal leaders, tribal coalitions and allies. In
2017, the NIWRC held a series of CWTF: Understanding the Issue of
Missing & Murdered Native Women and Organizing a Response at NIWRC's
Specialty Institute, the 2017 NCAI Mid-Year Convention, and at an
Alaska Native Village Engagement in Kotzebue, AK. The CWTF discussions
provided an overview about the issue of Missing and Murdered Native
women, including ways to organize a response given that disappearances
are often connected to not only domestic and sexual violence, but other
forms of violence.
Additionally, in 2017, in cooperation with Senator Murkowski, the
NIWRC sponsored a MMIW hill briefing in partnership with the Indian Law
Resource Center (ILRC) and the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center
(AKNWRC), which focused on ``Moving Ahead to Increase the Safety of
American Indian and Alaska Native Women, Efforts to Address Missing and
Murdered Native Women and Girls.'' In addition to remarks offered by
our panelists, Senators Murkowski, Tester and Daines, the NIWRC shared
statistics from the NIJ report, Violence Against American Indian and
Alaska Native Women and Men: 2010 Findings from the National Intimate
Partner and Sexual Violence Survey and showed the NIJ video, Violence
Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and Men. The NIWRC
provided an overview of missing and murdered Native women along with
the Senate resolution, calling for May 5th as a National Day of
Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls.
In February 2018, in cooperation with Representative Torres, the
NIWRC and several partners successfully hosted a reception and an
event: ``Understanding the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Native
Women'' at the Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, DC. The event
coincided with NCAI's Executive Council Winter Session and was
partnered with NCAI, the National Indian Gaming Association, the ILRC,
the StrongHearts Native Helpline, the AKNWRC, the Tunica-Biloxi
Economic Development Corporation, the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe, the Cheyenne
River Sioux Tribe, and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. We
also hosted a briefing to discuss MMIW issues and followed the event
with a screening of Wind River. The event was well attended by Hill
staffers, tribal leaders, and advocates from across the country who are
actively engaged in addressing the issue of violence against Native
women.
The NIWRC organized additional screenings of Wind River with
community discussions at the Haskel Indian University in Lawrence, KS
in September 2017, University of South Dakota, Vermillion in February
2018, Pala Band of Mission Indians (CA) in April 2018 during the Sexual
Assault Awareness Walk for Honor Walk for Justice organized by the
Avellaka Program La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians, and NIWRC's Women
Are Sacred 2018 Conference.
The NIWRC provided statements with NCAI, ILRC and AKNWRC to the
United Nations, including at the UNCSW March 2016 parallel event titled
``Indigenous Women's Movements to End Violence Against American Indian,
Alaska Native, and Aboriginal Women.''
In August 2018, the NIWRC supported the Native Women's Society of
the Great Plains that organized a candlelight vigil at the annual VAW
government-to-government consultation in Sioux Falls, SD.
In September 2018, the NIWRC hosted a candlelight vigil at the
National Museum of the American Indian at which the following spoke:
Representative Gwen Moore, myself, Caroline LaPorte (NIWRC Senior
Native Affairs Advisor), Juana Majel Dixon (NCAI Task Force on Violence
Against Native Women Co-Chair), Carmen O'Leary (NIWRC Board Vice-
Chairwoman and Executive Director of the Native Women's Society of the
Great Plains) and Leanne Guy (NIWRC Board Secretary and Executive
Director of the Southwest Indigenous Women's Coalition). Most impactful
however, was when Florence Choyou shared the story of her daughter
Monica who was murdered by her boyfriend in Keams Canyon on the Hopi
Reservation.
NIWRC has supported organizing efforts nationally and specifically
the annual walks held in Lame Deer, Montana, during the National Day of
Awareness. The NIWRC national office is located in Lame Deer, and it
was also the home of Hanna Harris. NIWRC works closely with Malinda
Harris, Hanna's mother, and staff have engaged at various levels of
community support from making banners to the helping with the community
meal following the walks.
Based on the many difficult lessons from the disappearances and
murders of women, the NIWRC developed a basic toolkit that summarizes
key points for tribes and communities to consider. The toolkit
encourages communities to prepare protocols based on an understanding
that domestic and sexual violence occurs on a spectrum of abusive
behavior and can include abduction and murder. We encourage tribes to
take immediate action, noting the quicker the response, the faster the
victim may be located and help may be provided.
The Tribal Community Response Toolkit for Action includes a basic
overview of lessons responding to cases of MMIW. It encourages
communities to:
Develop a response before a disappearance occurs;
Contact law enforcement immediately as soon as a
disappearance occurs;
Document and track events--dates and times are essential;
Issue an alert immediately--a press release, radio
announcement, social media post;
Organize community actions--a vigil, search, justice walk,
or march to provide a positive anchor for family and
community to support the woman who is missing.
In 2017 and 2018, the NIWRC collectively organized with the
national grassroots movement for the safety of Native women to support
the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and
Girls, and the NIWRC is currently working on the effort for 2019. Past
efforts included support from over 250 tribal, state, and national
organizations. May 5, 2017, marked the first national day of awareness
with tribal awareness and justice walks taking place across the United
States. In 2018, the efforts of NIWRC included a social media campaign,
which reached millions online globally.
The NIWRC has presented four webinars:
--Sept. 2014--``Missing and Murdered Native Women''
--Nov. 2016--``Missing and Murdered Native Women--Public Awareness
Efforts''
--May 2017--``Honoring Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women''
--Dec. 2017--``Effective Use of the National Missing and
Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) for Case Resolution''
Through our partnership with the Alaska Native Women's Resource
Center and Healing Native Hearts Tribal Coalition, we have supported
the development of public service announcements and a video documentary
on Missing and Murdered Indian women, which have not yet been publicly
distributed. During the March 14 hearing Tami Truett Jerue (Executive
Director, AKNWRC) shared one of the PSAs with the Subcommittee.
The NIWRC, with continued grassroots advocacy efforts and in close
collaboration with our partners, will continue to raise awareness and
advocate for social and systemic change to remove the barriers in laws
and policies that prevent Tribal Nations from developing local, tribal
responses to domestic and sexual violence, including MMIW. As in the
past, since 2008, NIWRC will continue to document efforts in our
Restoration Magazine.
Question 2. Your testimony also refers to Alaska having ``unique''
jurisdictional challenges when compared to other tribes. Can you
explain why Alaska has different jurisdictional issues and how the
NIWRC is working with Alaska Native tribes to deal with this?
2a. Please provide the historical context and different
relationship Alaska Natives have with the Federal Government.
Answer. In 2013, the NIWRC worked closely with Alaska Native
village-based advocates to create the Alaska Native Women's Resource
Center dedicated to working with Alaska Native tribes and allies to
address domestic and gender-based violence. The AKNWRC formed as its
own non-profit in 2015. NIWRC continues to work closely with the
AKNWRC.
Chapter 2 titled Reforming Justice for Alaska Native: The Time is
Now of the Indian Law and Order Commission's (ILOC) report, A Roadmap
for Making Native America Safer (November 2013) explains Alaska's
jurisdictional issues, including some of the historical context, and
provides recommendations for removing barriers in Federal laws and
policies that NIWRC supports. Alaska Native tribes have the same
government-to-government relationship with the Federal Government as
tribes in the rest of the country.
The extraordinarily high rates of murder, rape, sexual assault, and
domestic violence committed against Alaska Native women have been
recounted by Senators, documented by the United States Department of
Justice, and Federal commissions, including the ILOC. As Senator Lisa
Murkowski recently noted, ``violence against Native American and Alaska
Native women is a dire issue, with murder being the third-leading cause
of death of indigenous women.'' \6\
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\6\ Statement by Senator Lisa Murkowski (Nov. 14, 2018), https://
www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-highlights-findings-
of-new-report-on-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-and-girls.
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A Roadmap for Making Native America Safer made the following
recommendations:
2.1: Congress should overturn the U.S. Supreme Court's decision
in Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, by
amending ANCSA to provide that former reservation lands
acquired in fee by Alaska Native villages and other lands
transferred in fee to Native villages pursuant to ANCSA are
Indian country.
2.2: Congress and the President should amend the definitions of
Indian country to clarify (or affirm) that Native allotments
and Native-owned town sites in Alaska are Indian country.
2.3: Congress should amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement
Act to allow a transfer of lands from Regional Corporations to
Tribal governments; to allow transferred lands to be put into
trust and included within the definition of Indian country in
the Federal criminal code; to allow Alaska Native Tribes to put
tribally owned fee simple land similarly into trust; and to
channel more resources directly to Alaska Native Tribal
governments for the provision of governmental services in those
communities.
2.4: Congress should repeal Section 910 of Title IX of the
Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA
Amendments), and thereby permit Alaska Native communities and
their courts to address domestic violence and sexual assault,
committed by Tribal members and non-Natives, the same as now
will be done in the lower 48.
2.5: Congress should affirm the inherent crirninal jurisdiction
of Alaska Native Tribal governments over their members within
the external boundaries of their villages.
The current VAWA, however, does not ensure safety for Alaska Native
women. As re-authorized in 2013, VAWA contained a specific provision
(Section 910) exempting 228 federally recognized tribes in Alaska from
Section 904's jurisdictional provision. In December 2014, Section 910's
exemption for tribes in Alaska was repealed. This, however, has not
ensured that Alaska tribes can protect their women from non-Indians who
commit violent crimes and seek to harm them. The amendment repealing
Section 910 did nothing to address the fact that Section 904 limits
tribes' jurisdiction to crimes committed in ``Indian country,'' a legal
term that the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted to exclude the land
bases of almost all of Alaska Native tribes (Alaska v. Village of
Venetie Tribal Government, 522 U.S. 520 (1998)). As a result, Section
904 continues to preclude 228 of the 229 federally recognized tribes in
Alaska from exercising the jurisdiction that has now been restored to
other Indian tribes. This jurisdictional loophole leaves Alaska Native
women unprotected, and in many instances, makes calling the police a
pointless--if not dangerous--exercise.
The Tribal Law and Order Act Commission recommended a legislative
fix for Venetie. The fix would amend the definitions of ``Indian
country'' to include Alaska Native allotments and native-owned town
sites; supporting land into trust applications by Alaska Native tribes;
channeling more resources directly to Alaska Native tribal governments
for governmental services; and supporting Alaska Native tribes and
villages with the exercise of criminal jurisdiction within their
communities. The reform needed also requires an amendment to the Alaska
Native Claims Settlement Act's definition of ``Indian country'' to
include Alaska Native allotments and Native-owned town sites. The
Indian Law and Order Commission's Report stated that Congress should
legislate a fix for Venetie by amending ANCSA to provide that former
reservation lands acquired in fee by Alaska Native villages and other
lands transferred in fee to Native villages pursuant to ANCSA are
Indian Country.
In partnership with the AKNWRC, the NIWRC recommends the adoption
of a pilot project--similar to the one created in VAWA 2013--wherein
three to five tribes in Alaska will be permitted to exercise SDVCJ (as
well as any additional tribal criminal jurisdiction restored in the
2019 reauthorization of VAWA). As this Committee moves forward with
VAWA reauthorization, we encourage you to work closely with the Alaska
delegation and the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center to include
provisions that will address the needs of Alaska Native victims.
Question 3. Ms. Nagle, NIWRC has done a lot of events both on the
local and Federal level to educate the public on this issue, and I want
to thank you and your organization for that.
3a. With that in mind, why do you think it has been, and continues
to be, so difficult in getting attention focused on the MMIW issue,
especially in the law enforcement and justice arenas?
3b. In your opinion, what is the greatest roadblock in this area?
Answer. In addition to a lack of clear data from urban, state, and
local law enforcement agencies across the United States, one of the
largest barriers to addressing the crisis of murdered and missing
indigenous women is that when a Native woman goes missing--on tribal
lands--there is more often than not a jurisdictional barrier to
launching the investigation and search and rescue effort that will
ensure her safety.
When a Native woman disappears and goes missing, so much of the
``response'' is based on more questions--which law enforcement agency
has jurisdiction to take an initial report, who can respond, who can
search, who can investigate . . . and ultimately, who can/will
prosecute? The first 24 hours of any missing person case is a crucial
time for law enforcement to organize and conduct an immediate search,
but too often, questions of jurisdiction impede a timely law
enforcement response.
Although the Supreme Court made in clear in Oliphant that Congress
has the constitutional authority to restore the tribal criminal
jurisdiction that the Supreme Court has removed,\7\ until tribal
criminal jurisdiction over non-Indian perpetrated crimes of murder is
restored, whether a Tribal Government has authority to investigate,
arrest, and/or prosecute when a Native woman is missing on tribal lands
depends upon the Indian/non-Indian status of the offender, the precise
location of the crime (is it on land held in trust?), the nature of the
crime, and within what state the tribe is located.\8\
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\7\ Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191 (1978) at 206-
212 (``Congress has the constitutional authority to decide whether
Indian tribes should be authorized to try and to punish non-
Indians.'').
\8\ See The General Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1152 (providing that
Federal courts have jurisdiction over inter-racial crimes committed in
Indian country); the Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1; the
Major Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1153 (providing Federal criminal
jurisdiction over 10 enumerated major crimes committed in Indian
country that is exclusive of the states); Public Law 83-280, 18 U.S.C.
Sec. 1162 (delegating Federal jurisdiction to six states over most
crimes throughout most of Indian country within their state borders);
Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191 (1978) (holding that
tribes lack criminal jurisdiction over non-Indian defendants); Violence
Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, S. 47, 113th Congress, Title
IX (2013) (expanding tribal criminal jurisdiction to non-Indians for
the crimes of domestic violence, dating violence and the violation of
protection orders so long as the defendant has certain ties to the
community and the tribe provides certain due process protections).
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The consequence of this current jurisdictional quagmire is that,
most times, when a Native woman goes missing on tribal lands and the
local Tribal Government cannot demonstrate that the perpetrator was
Indian--or that the crime took place on lands that qualify as ``Indian
country'' under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1151(a)--then the Tribal Government is
without jurisdiction, although the Federal Government could have
jurisdiction, the Federal Government most often declines to intervene
or take on the case.\9\
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\9\ From 2005-2009, the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
found that U.S. Attorneys declined to prosecute nearly 52 percent of
violent crimes in Indian country. U.S. GAO, U.S. Department of Justice
Declinations of Indian Country Criminal Matters, Report No. GAO-11-
167R, 3 (2010).
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The non-existent response of law enforcement leaves the
responsibility of a search effort to the family members or tribal
community. There is no question that the pillars beneath the crisis of
missing and murdered are the restrictions on tribal authority to
prosecute non-Natives for crimes committed on tribal lands and the
severe resource disparity in Indian Country at large. The current legal
framework fails to respond to the disappearance and murder of Native
women and girls because that same framework was born during an era of
termination of Indian tribes and a prejudiced belief that Tribal
Nations should be without jurisdiction to protect their citizens on
tribal lands. We often speak of a ``broken system'' or of legal reform,
but the truth is that the legal framework that applies in Indian
Country was not designed to protect Native women and girls.
We know that the restoration of tribal criminal jurisdiction over
non-Indians works. Five years ago, when Congress passed the Violence
Against Women in 2013, the re-authorization of VAWA included a
provision, known as Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction
(``SDVCJ''), that reaffirmed the inherent sovereign authority of Tribal
Governments to exercise criminal jurisdiction over certain non-Indians
who criminally violate qualifying protection orders or commit domestic
or dating violence crimes against Indian victims on tribal lands.\10\
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\10\ 25 U.S.C. Sec. 1304.
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In the 6 years since VAWA was reauthorized in 2013, over two dozen
Tribal Governments have begun exercising criminal jurisdiction over
non-Indians and several dozen more are in varying stages of planning to
implement the law.
From 2013 to 2018, the implementing tribes reported making 143
arrests of 128 non-Indian abusers. These arrests ultimately led to 74
convictions, 5 acquittals, and as of 2018, there were 24 cases then
pending. There has not been a single petition for habeas corpus review
brought in Federal court in an SDVCJ case. Although some argued, prior
to VAWA 2013's passage, that Tribal Courts would be incapable of fairly
implementing SDVCJ, the absence of even a single habeas petition in the
first 5 years reveals that those arguments were unfounded and likely
based on prejudice alone. Moreover, for the tribes that have
implemented SDVCJ, their juries acquitted more often than they
convicted non-Indian defendants. The bias that many previous asserted
should prevent Tribal Nations from arresting and prosecuting non-
Indians simply does not exist.
The National Congress of American Indians has issued a report
summarizing their experiences that shows the true difference that the
2013 Reauthorization has been making on the ground for Native victims.
I encourage you to review this report in its entirety as the
information, data, and analysis contained in the report demonstrates
that the restored tribal criminal jurisdiction in VAWA 2013 (SDVCJ)
increased public safety for all of those--both Indian and non-Indian--
--living on tribal lands and in tribal communities. By all accounts, it
has been an incredible success.
Until or unless the inherent authority of Tribal Nations of Tribal
Nations to protect their citizens on tribal lands, our Native women and
children will not be safe living in their own homes. The restoration of
tribal criminal jurisdiction is a critical and requisite component to
effectively addressing the murdered and missing indigenous women's
crisis in the United States.
Question 4. What avenues of funding are needed to address violence
associated with the murder of Native women? What type of funding is
needed for tribes and local governments to address problems that arise
when a Native woman goes missing?
Answer. It is necessary to state first that tribes need additional
dedicated resources to support the development of local, tribal
responses to MMIW cases. If tribes have the resources and authority to
respond to these crimes before they escalate in seriousness and
lethality, at least some, if not many, potential MMIW cases would have
a meaningful intervention prior to fatal escalation.
Specifically, the NIWRC recommends establishing permanent funding
for victim services in tribal communities. Set aside resources for
local, tribal responses to MMIW, such as a permanent tribal Victims of
Crime Act (VOCA) set aside for tribal victim assistance and
compensation programs.
Funding of Indian tribes to address MMIW is generally zero to
inadequate, and this lack of funding generally contributes to the
vulnerability of Indian women to abusers and predators. Dedicated
funding to Indian tribes under VAWA, FVPSA, and VOCA is based on the
government-to-government political relationship of Indian tribes to the
United States. These three dedicated funding streams each have specific
purposes areas under the respective statute, and all currently include
domestic violence; FVPSA is dedicated to shelter for victims of
domestic and family violence; and, VOCA broader tribal victim services.
All three of these statutes provide services to victims of crimes
frequently co-occurring with the disappearance and/or murder of Native
women--domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, sex
trafficking, and stalking. Victim services are essential to prevent the
future disappearance or murder of a Native woman. Where the response of
the criminal justice system is critical to assist a woman who has
disappeared and/or prosecuting the murderer. The following amendments
are focused on increasing victim services and justice response, and a
better understanding of the crisis of MMIW.
The following recommendations require congressional action to
enhance the response of Indian tribes to MMIW and crimes inter-
connected to the crisis of MMIW:
Increase funding to Indian tribes to provide necessary
services to victims regardless of where they live and work
to prevent disappearances and homicides;
Increase funding to Indian tribes to develop MMIW
protocols;
Authorize and appropriate under VOCA a pilot program for
Indian tribes to develop MMIW protocols and increased
response;
Amend VAWA, FVPSA, and VOCA tribal grant programs to
specifically support the development of MMIW protocols in
the context of the respective program;
Amend the VAWA 2013 National Institute of Justice national
program of tribal research to add the area of missing
Native women (VAWA 2013 included an amendment adding the
area of murder);
Amend the VAWA National Baseline Study to prepare a report
to Congress on the crisis of MMIW and appropriate $1
million per year for 5 years to conduct research and
prepare the report;
Inclusion under the Savanna's Act of a new pilot program
to support Indian tribes and tribal non-profits
organizations to develop and implement MMIW protocols (as
non-profit organizations urban tribal domestic violence or
sexual assault programs or urban Indian health centers
would be eligible).
______
Mr. Gallego. Thank you, Ms. Nagle.
Next, we have Ms. Tami Jerue. She is the Executive Director
of the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center.
STATEMENT OF TAMRA TRUETT JERUE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALASKA
NATIVE WOMEN'S RESOURCE CENTER (ANWRC), FAIRBANKS, ALASKA
Ms. Jerue. Thank you for inviting me to testify on this
important issue today.
I am an enrolled citizen of a small Deg it' tan Athabascan
village in the interior or Alaska. I am a mother, a
grandmother, an auntie, as well as the Executive Director of
the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center.
Missing and murdered indigenous women, or MMIW, is a far
too common occurrence and recently has received much attention
due to the many raised voices having put the issue in the
public eye.
Unfortunately, MMIW did not just start happening a few
years ago, but has been happening since the first contact.
There are many stories and experiences of Alaska Native women
and girls that have faced victimization just because they are
indigenous.
Too many of our relatives have suffered abuse and death
because of a government system that fails in their legal trust
and moral responsibility to assist indigenous nations in
safeguarding the lives of our women and children.
There are many stories, such as the 20-year-old Sophie
Sergie who traveled to Fairbanks from her small Yup'ik village
in Western Alaska in 1993. She went to visit her friend at the
University of Alaska. She left the room to go outside and never
returned.
She was eventually found, sexually assaulted, stabbed
multiple times, shot in the back of the head in a dormitory
bathroom.
Unfortunately, for 25 years there had been no justice, and
until recently a DNA was linked from a genetic genealogy site
which uses family genetic history to find suspects. The DNA was
linked to a student who attended the university in the 1990s
and is now a nurse working in Maine. Finally, an arrest was
made for this heinous crime 25 years ago.
However, often we have no choice and no closure with many
of our women who die unexpectedly and unnaturally. The manner
of death, while it is far too often considered suspicious and
often with visible injuries, is classified as accidental,
suicidal, or undetermined.
In the village of Klawock, police suspected foul play in
the unnatural death of Francile Ella Turpin, 37, on January 14,
2018. A year later, there is no resolution.
Why is it that our women and families do not get the
closure regarding cause of death that the general population
takes for granted? Maybe because 40 percent of our communities
have no law enforcement or even have 911 services to speak of.
So, who do they call? The first responders are often
volunteer medics who their first inclination is to address the
injury. The possibility that there could be a crime committed
is not even contemplated, and a scene can easily be
contaminated before a semi-qualified individual can preserve
the scene.
Often first responders are the tribal chief or volunteer
advocates who are tasked to preserve crime scene.
Why do our women and girls go missing or are murdered at
such high rates? I believe that is a simple but complicated
question. The tragic truth is that the impact of colonization,
past and current laws and policies, and natural resources
development have endangered Alaska Native women and children.
Oftentimes the attitude of people coming into our lands is
that the lack of infrastructure, such as local police and
services, normally in place that offer protection and justice
systems to hold perpetrators of crimes accountable, do not
exist in our tribal communities. A mixed message is sent that
it is OK to commit crimes against Native people and there will
be no consequences.
Sadly, the long history and belief is that Native people
are less valuable and a barrier to land and resource
development, and American Indian and Alaska Native women are
objectified and considered of little importance.
As for the missing and murdered persons and homicides of
Alaska Natives, Alaska has the highest number of any state, and
these are not per capita numbers. Areas that would help
decrease these statistics is to continue funding organizations
such as ourselves, Alaska Native Women's Resource Center, which
we are developing a community engagement toolkit to address
when a person goes missing or dies by unnatural death.
This plan will help tribal communities respond. We cannot
wait for the State or Federal Government to act. We recommend
we need a jurisdictional fix in Alaska's Indian Country issue
in which 228 out of 229 tribes are without territorial
jurisdiction and regular and consistent tribal justice and
tribal law enforcement funding in Alaska through the Indian
Tribal Support Act.
A bipartisan group of co-sponsors in the Senate has
introduced Savanna's Act, S. 227, which includes several
provisions aimed at improving the response to the cases of
missing and murdered women in tribal communities.
However, how it is written now would exclude half of the
tribes and needs to address Alaska tribes particularly.
It provides sufficient Federal support for effective and
culturally appropriate services to indigenous women, survivors
of domestic violence and sexual violence, including to the
provision of victim services, rape crisis, and transitional
housing.
When indigenous women do not have adequate services and
safe housing, they are placed at risk.
Provide permanent access to the Crime Victims Fund for
victims' assistance and compensation. The House needs a bill
similar to the Senate Survive Act.
Fully implement VAWA 2005 program of research and
specifically regarding the disappearance and murders of Native
women. We need a baseline study for Alaska. As statistics
prove, our situation is worse and may be different than the
Lower 48.
And finally, support tribal amendments to H.R. 1585, VAWA
reauthorization, including a pilot project similar to the one
created in VAWA 2013, wherein Alaska tribes can exercise
special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction.
There is a unique opportunity to recognize these issues and
make corrections to the laws to support the Nation's first
peoples.
Dogidihn'.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Jerue follows:]
Prepared Statement of Tamra Truett Jerue, Executive Director, Alaska
Native Women's Resource Center
Thank you Chairman Grijalva (Natural Resources), Chairman Gallego
(Subcommittee), Ranking Member Bishop, Vice-Chair Haaland, Good
Morning, Adet'.
My name is Tami Truett Jerue, Se'ezra I am an enrolled citizen of
the Anvik Tribe, Deg it' tan Athabascan from interior Alaska. I am the
Executive Director of the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center. I am
the mother to four children, the grandmother of five grandchildren and
the Auntie to many. Thank you for inviting me to speak today about our
organization's work on this topic, our experience with Alaska Native
women's rights, including on the ground efforts to address Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). I believe that it is critical that we
work together to change laws, policies, and social norms and that the
Federal Government create additional funding opportunities to address
this issue, specifically to eradicate the disproportionate number of
missing and murdered indigenous women and men.
As you well know, Federal Indian law has created jurisdictional
issues that leave Alaska Native villages and tribal nations across the
country vulnerable to violent individuals who abduct and/or murder
individuals. In Alaska in particular, the jurisdictional maze leaves us
far too much without any protections in the way of law enforcement or
properly trained police to address the most violent crimes. Alaska
Native victims' access to justice and victim services requires many
layers to get the help they need, often leaving crimes unsolved, which
emboldens criminals, and abusers are left unaccountable. The Supreme
Court case in the Native Village of Venetie, along with the Alaska
Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) have created a challenging
situation for Alaska Native tribes to address village safety issues,
especially as it relates to the accountability of abusers and criminal
defendants and the ability to receive timely law enforcement response
and related sorely needed victim services.
We know of too many stories and experiences of Alaska Native women
and girls that have faced victimization just because they are
indigenous women. Too many of our relatives have suffered abuse and
death because of a government system that fails in their legal trust
and moral responsibility to assist Indigenous nations in safeguarding
the lives of our women and children. We have few options when seeking
help such as safe shelter, sexual assault services, law enforcement,
medical and mental health services, or any type of help dealing with
the aftermath of victimization. The following are some of the
explanations of the challenges we face, and I offer some ideas for
solutions.
While violence against Native women occurs at higher rates than any
other population in the United States, it is at its worst in Alaska. A
full 50 percent of Alaska Native women will have experienced physical
or sexual violence in their lifetime.\1\
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\1\ A Roadmap for Making Native America Safer: Report to the
President and Congress of the United States (November 2013), available
at http://www.aisc.ucla.edu/iloc/report/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have no closure with many of our women who die unexpectedly and
unnaturally. The manner of death, while it is too often considered
``suspicious'' and often with visible injuries, the death is classified
as accidental, suicidal, or undetermined. In the village of Klawock,
police suspected ``foul play'' in the unnatural death of Francile Ella
Turpin (37) on January 14, 2018, a year later, we have no
resolution.\2\ Why is it that our women and families do not get the
closure regarding cause of death that the general population take for
granted? One reason could be that 40 percent of our communities have no
law enforcement, or even any 911 services to speak of, so who do they
call? The first responders are often volunteer medics whose first
inclination is to address the injury. The possibility that there could
be a crime committed is not even contemplated and the scene can easily
be contaminated before a semi-qualified individual can preserve the
scene. Other potential first responders are tribal leaders, and our
volunteer women advocates go to attempt to preserve any potential
crime. Joel Jackson, President of the Organized Village of Kake has had
to respond to the crime scenes, including murders, because he is the
closest that the village of 800+ has to a police officer--he was a
former policeman as a young man.
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\2\ https://www.ktva.com/story/37289178/klawock-police-say-foul-
play-suspected-in-womans-death.
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Occasionally, our communities do see a resolution, but it could
take years. The case of Sophie Sergie is an example of one such case
that took 25 years to solve. Ms. Sergie traveled to Fairbanks from her
Yup'ik village in Western Alaska, to visit a friend at the University
of Alaska. She was found in the dormitory bathtub, dead, having been
sexually assaulted, stabbed multiple times and shot in the back of her
head. The cold case team used Genetic genealogy testing, which uses
family genetic history to find suspects. The DNA was linked to a
student who was attending the University at the time in the 1990s and
is now a nurse working in Maine.\3\ Unfortunately, this case is an
exception, and not the rule as we have too many unsolved cases. We are
working on video PSAs and a short documentary specifically on the issue
of missing and murdered Alaska Native women.
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\3\ https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/crime-courts/2019/02/16/25-
years-after-a-woman-was-found-dead-in-a-uaf-bathtub-alaska-state-
troopers-make-an-arrest/.
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As for the murder epidemic, the Violence Policy Center reports that
Alaska is ranked first among states with the highest homicide rates of
women by men and is the most violent state, with Anchorage as the most
violent city within the Union. The Seattle-based Urban Indian Health
Institute reports that Alaska is among the top 10 states with the
highest number of missing and murdered Native Americans and Alaska
Natives with 52 active cases.\4\
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\4\ Report available at http://www.uihi.org/wp-content/uploads/
2018/11/Missing-and-Murdered-Indigenous-Women-and-Girls-Report.pdf.
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Sadly, Alaska is a violent state. According to the Violent Death
Reporting System between 2003 and 2008, Alaska Natives and American
Indians make up 29.1 percent of the Homicide victims in Alaska, with
the 20-29 age group seeing the largest number of murders--22.1 percent.
In addition, during that time period Alaska Native and American Indian
Women represented 38 percent of the overall deaths, with a firearm
being the #1 cause killing our women--29 percent. In addition, the
perpetrator in the murders of Alaska Natives and American Indian women,
were generally not domestic violence or intimate partner related. The
majority of the deaths were non-DV related, or 86.1 percent.\5\
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\5\ Alaska Violent Death Reporting System 2003-2008 (August 2011),
State of Alaska, Department of Health and Social Services, available at
http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/Epi/injury/Documents/akvdrs/assets/
AKVDRS.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
How do we track the missing and murdered? We don't. NamUs is about
the only database that tracks MMIW and does contain valuable
information, but it is a volunteer system and it does not currently
talk to the FBI CJIS's Missing persons file, which is the system that
law enforcement is most familiar with. Anyone can have access to
NamUs--literally. All they have to do is set up an account and enter
the information they want to enter about a missing person. The NamUs
staff take that information and confirm with law enforcement before it
can go out publicly. There are less missing Native persons in NamUs
than there are in FBI CJIS's missing persons file, likely because law
enforcement doesn't use it in the same way. NamUs is completely
voluntary and was originally set up to try to match remains found with
people who were missing. FBI CJIS's database is also voluntary except
for entry of missing persons under age 18 which is mandatory, and then
some states have mandatory missing person reports to CJIS by their
state law, but it is way less than half. A tribe and everyone have
access to initiate cases in NamUs, however, the net effect of going
that route is unknown. In addition, there is a component in which
genetic material is requested in NamUs. While this request is
voluntary, it makes most Native Americans shy away from the process.
As for the DNA collection, anyone can provide a family reference
sample to NamUs, a law enforcement officer, or agent of a criminal
justice agency for testing at the University of North Texas Health
Science Center, Center for Human Identification, where NamUs is housed.
Upon completion of the testing, the DNA profile is sent directly from
the lab and uploaded to CODIS; no DNA samples are housed in the NamUs
system. While NamUs says that the family reference sample can only be
run against the unidentified decedent database and cannot ever be run
against the convicted offenders or the forensic profiles. Apparently,
at any time a family would like their DNA removed from CODIS they can
send a written request to NamUs/UNT and the lab will request that the
profile be removed from CODIS. Again, while this is the current policy,
we do not have the assurances that our DNA won't be used in ways not
approved.
According to the National Institute of Justice, the NamUs team was
in Alaska October 2018, to do outreach with several law enforcement
agencies, the Alaska medical examiner, Department of Public Safety, and
others. During those discussions it was raised that there is a backlog
in digitizing 1,200 missing persons cases. Apparently, there is only
one person currently working the backlog (Search and Rescue Program
Coordinator, Missing Persons Clearinghouse Manager, Alaska State
Troopers). That is not to say those cases are not being worked, just
that they are not digitized thus unknown how many of those 1,200 cases
are American Indian and Alaska Natives.
As for missing persons, Alaska has the highest number of any state
in the Union and these are not per capita numbers. As of January 2019,
out of the 347 missing Alaska Native and American people's in the NamUs
system 74 of those were from Alaska--the most of any state. Overall, 92
percent have been missing for less than a year, and the majority of
cases are male--about 1/3 to 2/3 respectfully. See attached. Why does
it take so long to work our cases compared to other populations? That
is a question that deserves an answer.
The United States has made progress in addressing Violence Against
Women. In 2013, during the congressional debates to reauthorize the
Violence Against Women Act, United Nations human rights officials came
together and released a public statement calling on the United States
to act promptly to pass key reforms to the Violence Against Women Act
that bolster indigenous tribes; that the continued jurisdictional gaps,
especially those in Alaska, are an ongoing human rights crisis.\6\
Sadly, Alaska was mostly left out of these improvements because of its
tribal land status that make tribal jurisdiction challenging. Unlike
other areas of the United States that share jurisdiction between the
U.S. Government and Indian tribes, in the state of Alaska, Indian
tribes share jurisdiction with the state government. Because of Federal
and state laws, policies and allocation of resources, including the
Department of the Interior's prior policy not to fund tribes in Public
Law 280 states, tribal responses have been throttled leaving the
investigation and prosecution of crimes, including violence against
women and children to the state. Alaska, like the Federal Government,
has failed in providing for public safety in Alaska Native villages as
according the Tribal Law and Order Commission Report, about 40 percent
of our communities lack law enforcement.\7\
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\6\ http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/6/it-is-time-for-
action-to-end-violence-against-women-a-speech-by-lakshmi-puri.
\7\ Supra fn 1.
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The United States has a Federal trust responsibility to the first
people of the United States. In several cases discussing the trust
responsibility, the Supreme Court has used language suggesting that it
entails legal duties, moral obligations, and the fulfillment of
understandings and expectations that have arisen over the entire course
of the relationship between the United States and the federally
recognized tribes. However, since Alaska entered the Union, the state
has been ceded the Federal jurisdiction among tribes and as a result
left us without access to resources. The United States has failed this
responsibility in their protection of American Indian and Alaska Native
communities. Many of our communities are lawless as a result of the
Federal and state governments not living up to their responsibilities.
While there is tremendous diversity among all tribes, it is worth
noting that many of the 229 tribes in Alaska experience extreme
conditions that differ significantly from tribes outside Alaska. Most
of the Alaska Native villages are located in remote areas that are
often inaccessible by road and have no local law enforcement presence.
The Tribal Law and Order Commission found that ``Alaska Department of
Public Safety (ADPS) officers have primary responsibility for law
enforcement in rural Alaska, but ADPS provides for only 1.0-1.4 field
officers per million acres.'' \8\ Without a strong law enforcement
presence, crime regularly occurs with impunity. Victims live in small,
close-knit communities where access to basic criminal and civil justice
services is non-existent and health care is often provided remotely
through telemedicine technology. Providing comprehensive services and
justice to victims in these circumstances presents unique challenges.
In many of these communities, tribal members receive services in
informal ways, if at all. Domestic violence victims, for example, may
be offered shelter in a home that is a known ``safe house'' in the
village. Many victims of sexual assault never receive forensic medical
services. Furthermore, Alaska tribal governments are unique among
indigenous American tribes in their lack of access to the same type of
government revenues available to nearly every other sovereign entity in
the country.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ A Roadmap for Making Native America Safer: Report to the
President and Congress of the United States (November 2013), available
at http://www.aisc.ucla.edu/iloc/report/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As previously mentioned, Alaska's track record demonstrates a lack
of engagement and follow through with tribal governments that creates
one of the most dangerous situations for Native women in the Nation.
Local control to local solutions with resources is critical to
improving the situation for our Alaska Native brothers and sisters.
According to the 2013 Tribal Law and Order Act Commission Report,
Alaska Native women are over-represented in the domestic violence
victim population by 250 percent; they comprise 19 percent of the state
population but are 47 percent of reported rape victims. And among other
Indian tribes, Alaska Native women suffer the highest rates of domestic
and sexual violence in the country. Tribal governments are also unable
to prosecute crimes of sexual assault, trafficking, and stalking. A
2016 study from the National Institute for Justice (NIJ), found that
approximately 56 percent of Native women experience sexual violence
within their lifetime, with one in seven experiencing it in the past
year.\9\ Nearly one in two report being stalked.\10\ Contrary to the
general population where rape, sexual assault, and intimate partner
violence are usually intra-racial, Native women are more likely to be
raped or assaulted by someone of a different race. Ninety-six percent
of Native women and 89 percent of male victims in the NIJ study
reported being victimized by a non-Indian.\11\ Native victims of sexual
violence are three times as likely to have experienced sexual violence
by an inter-racial perpetrator as non-Hispanic White victims.\12\
Similarly, Native stalking victims are nearly four times as likely to
be stalked by someone of a different race, with 89 percent of female
stalking victims and 90 percent of male stalking victims reporting
inter-racial victimization.\13\ The higher rate of inter-racial
violence would not necessarily be significant if it were not for the
jurisdictional complexities unique to Indian Country and the
limitations imposed by Federal law on tribal authority to hold non-
Indians accountable for crimes they commit on tribal lands.
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\9\ Andre B. Rosay, Nat'l. Inst. of Justice, Violence Against
American Indian and Alaska Native Women and Men: 2010 Findings from the
National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, U.S. Dep't. of
Justice 11 (2016), available at https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/
249736.pdf.
\10\ Id., at
\11\ Id., at 18.
\12\ Id., at 29.
\13\ Id., at 32.
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Historically, Alaska tribes have been treated differently than
Lower 48 tribes, often making fundamentals of tribal court jurisdiction
challenging to understand or ascertain resulting in recognized
disparities which resulted in the FY 17 appropriations for an Alaska
Native Tribal Resource Center on Domestic Violence (see attached
article, ``A Tribal Perspective on VAWA 2018'' from Restoration
Magazine, V15.3-October 2018 NIWRC). With the passage of the Alaska
Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) in 1971, the only remaining
reservation in the state is the Annette Island Reserve in Southeast
Alaska.\14\ Rather than recognize sovereign tribal lands, ANCSA tasked
the for-profit corporations to manage more than 40 million acres of fee
land. ANCSA divided the state into 12 regional corporations and over
200 village corporations that would identify with their regional
corporation. Many of these villages had corresponding tribal village
governments, but with the passage of ANCSA, no meaningful land base. As
a result, unlike most court systems that have defined territorial
jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction, Alaska tribal courts generally
exercise jurisdiction through tribal citizenship, and not through a
geographic space defined as ``Indian Country'' because of ANCSA and in
part due to a U.S. Supreme Court case.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\14\ 25 U.S.C. 495 (1891).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court's unfavorable decision in
Alaska v. Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, 522 U.S. 520
(1998), most of the tribes' traditional territory is not considered
``Indian Country.'' Without the ability to tax, without Indian gaming,
and without consistent and predictable tribal court and law enforcement
appropriations, Alaska tribes lack the revenue typically available to
other tribal governments to fund and sustain essential governmental
programs. All Alaska tribes are in a similar position and must find
innovative ways to raise government revenue and to leverage other
resources to sustain their tribal courts and public safety programs. As
a result of this resource dilemma, available grants for developing and
maintaining programs are incredibly important for Alaska tribes.
Making matters worse, in 2003, Alaska's own Senator Ted Stevens
singled out Alaska tribes for exceptionally harsh financial
restrictions through legislative riders. The riders eliminated funds to
tribal courts and tribal law enforcement programs in Alaska Native
villages and specifically excluded certain Southeast Alaska communities
from receiving any Department of Justice funding. Although Congress
recently eliminated these restrictions, the limitations set back Alaska
tribes even further while they were in place. Without adequate
resources, tribal court and law enforcement services have been
difficult to maintain.
As required by a provision included in VAWA 2005, DOJ holds an
annual consultation with tribal governments on violence against women.
For several years tribal leaders have raised concerns at the annual
consultation about the inadequate response to cases of missing or
murdered Native women. DOJ summarized tribal leader testimony on this
issue in 2016: ``At the 2016 consultation, many tribal leaders
testified that the disappearance and deaths of American Indian and
Alaska Native (AI/AN) women are not taken seriously enough, and that
increased awareness and a stronger law enforcement response are
critical to saving Native women's lives. They noted that missing AI/AN
women may have been trafficked, and they also provided examples of
abusers who murdered their partners after engaging in a pattern of
escalating violence for which they were not held accountable. Tribal
leaders also raised concerns that cases involving Native victims are
often mislabeled as runaways or suicides, and that cold cases are not
given sufficient priority. Recommendations included the creation of a
national working group to address these issues and an alert system to
help locate victims soon after they disappear, as well as the
development of an Indian Country-wide protocol for missing Native
women, children, and men.'' \15\
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\15\ U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women,
``2017 Update on the Status of Tribal Consultation Recommendations,''
(2017).
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Policy or funding recommendations for the Federal Government to address
this issue:
Continue to fund organizations like the Alaska Native Women's
Resource Center. We are putting together a Community Engagement plan to
address when a person goes missing or dies by an unnatural death. This
plan will address the services, public statements, legal issues and
resources, the governmental role, and other resources. We will have
grass roots monthly public calls to ensure that we are understanding
the issues and how the plans will work within various community models.
We cannot wait for the state or Federal Governments to act.
We recommend the following:
1. We call on the United States for a jurisdictional fix to the
Alaska Native Indian Country issue, and regular and
consistent tribal justice funding.
2. A bi-partisan group of co-sponsors in the Senate, has introduced
``Savanna's Act,'' S. 227, which includes several
provisions aimed at improving the response to cases of
missing and murdered women in tribal communities. While
this bill is encouraging in that it has several provisions
that will improve the tracking and recognition of the
problem, the current version may potentially leave out more
than \1/2\ of the tribes sharing concurrent state
jurisdiction in P.L. 280 states who have no involvement
with the U.S. Attorney Office. We need the House to have a
similar bill introduced.
3. However, Savannah's Act places the responsibility for collecting
data on law enforcement. As previously mentioned nearly 40
percent of our communities lack any law enforcement, thus
we would be left out. We need to make sure that there is
more inclusion for all American Indians and Alaska Native
communities to be included and considered. A plan needs to
include all 573 tribes in the Nation.
4. Providing sufficient Federal support to non-profit, non-
governmental indigenous women's organizations to provide
effective and culturally appropriate services to indigenous
women survivors of domestic and sexual violence, including
but not limited to the provision of shelter, rape crisis
and transitional housing. When Indigenous women do not have
adequate and safe housing they are placed at risk.
5. Provide dramatically increased funding resources for broader
community training on domestic/dating violence, sexual
assault, stalking, sex trafficking, and trauma and best
practices for prevention.
6. Provide increased support for dramatically increased funding
resources for tribal courts and tribal law enforcement in
Alaska.
7. Provide increased victim services to the families and community
members of the disappeared or murdered Native women, such
as counseling for the children of the disappeared, burial
assistance, and community walks, healing and other tribal-
specific ceremonies. The House needs a bill similar to the
SURVIVE Act as that would address this issue.
8. Fully implement the VAWA 2005 program of research and
specifically provide Indian tribes information regarding
the disappearance and murder of Native women. We need a
baseline study for Alaska as our situation may be different
than what the National Institute of Justice reported in
their Violence Against American Indians and Alaska Native
Women and Men.
9. Upon enactment of Savanna's Act, provide targeted funding for
tribal governments like Tlingit & Haida, perhaps on a pilot
program basis, to ensure full participation in and
coordination of efforts across Federal departments to
conduct research and collect data to better improve tribal
government responses to the disappearance or murder of
Native women and girls.
10. Support tribal amendments in H.R. 1585, VAWA Reauthorization
including a pilot project in section 903--similar to the
one created in VAWA 2013--wherein Alaska Tribes can work
with each other and with the Department of Justice through
an Inter-Tribal Working Group for Alaska Tribes to develop
their responses and exercise SDVCJ (as well as any
additional tribal criminal jurisdiction provisions proposed
in the VAWA 2019 reauthorization). As VAWA reauthorization
moves forward, we encourage you to work closely with the
Alaska delegation and the Alaska Native Women's Resource
Center to address the needs of Alaska Native victims.
There is a unique opportunity to recognize these issues and make
corrections to the laws.
In Deg it' tan Athabascan, as with other language groups in Alaska,
we had no words or description for violence within a family home. We
had traditional forms of justice that kept our community in check and
women valued as the life giver of the family. We had community justice,
which we are now returning to.
The Alaska Native Women's Resource Center receives Federal funds
through the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of
Justice and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Office, U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. With such funding, we are
providing meaningful village engagement sessions with Alaska Native
tribes, to help with identifying the resources within each tribe to
address violence against women in their own voices, language and
teachings. We have seven distinct language groups in Alaska. We create
a unique theme to each engagement session and work with the tribe
toward restoring balance in their community.
Restoring and enhancing local, tribal governmental capacity to
respond to violence against women provides for greater local control,
safety, accountability, and transparency. We will have safer
communities and a pathway for long lasting justice.
Dogidihn'.
*****
The following documents were submitted as supplements to Ms. Jerue's
testimony. These documents are part of the hearing record and are being
retained in the Committee's official files:
--Indian Law & Order Commission: Report to the President and
Congress of the United States, ``A Roadmap for Making
Native America Safer,'' November 2013. Chapter Two--
Reforming Justice for Alaska Natives: The Time is Now.
--National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, NamUs Tribal
Update, as of January 30, 2019.
--Restoration Magazine, Volume 15, Issue 3, October 2018, National
Indigenous Women's Resource Center, ``A Tribal Perspective
on VAWA 2018, Extending the Same Protections for Alaska
Native Women, by Michelle Demmert, Chief Justice of the
Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of
Alaska Supreme Court.
______
Questions Submitted for the Record to Tamra Truett Jerue, Executive
Director, Alaska Native Women's Resource Center
Questions Submitted by Rep. Haaland
Question 1. In your ``Recommendations'' in your written testimony,
you suggested that victim services are needed for family and community
members of MMIW. How do you see the after effects of these crimes
impacting the community and especially children? What could we do to
help the community heal?
Answer. We need resources and a jurisdictional fix to the Indian
Country issue in Alaska. We need sustainable, predictable funding to
create and maintain the necessary programs within our communities. As
mentioned, we need a jurisdictional fix in Alaska, so once and for all,
we aren't fighting to be included in programs and policies with our
limited resources. The Tribal Law and Order Commission identified in
Chapter 2 of their report, that our communities continue to be
vulnerable to heightened levels of violence, including disturbed
individuals who prey on Native women, unless more resources and
jurisdictional issues are addressed.
Many of our tribal communities are small and many of our relations,
both within the community and those that live outside of the community,
are impacted by the trauma of not knowing what may have happened to a
love one when they go missing, as well as if a person is taken suddenly
and violently through murder or an unexplained death. At this point in
Alaska, trauma-informed care is difficult to access particularly in
small isolated tribal communities. Lack of access to adequate resources
impacts the families directly in their ability to heal particularly
from a person who has been taken suddenly through murder. Sadly, law
enforcement frequently do not help the situation, as they don't
maintain contact with the family to keep them informed of the
investigation and as a result, our families suffer. The questions,
feelings and lack of justice for that person and family have a negative
lingering effect with the family and directly impacts the surviving
children. The fear and trauma experienced will continue to have long-
term impacts as verified in many studies such as the Adverse Childhood
Effects as well as the fear of it happening to them; especially if no
one has been held accountable for the murder or the death is
unexplained.
When a family member goes missing, many issues come up--blame,
guilt, confusion, sadness along with the inability and unwillingness to
give up the search. All of these factors can lead to many health,
mental health and addictive types of concerns that need attention and
culturally based resources. We all process trauma differently.
Unfortunately, many of the services that are possibly available are in
larger cities and are difficult to access for rural Alaskans.
The resources to our rural areas are often scarce but needed. The
services mentioned above, law enforcement, justice systems, victim
services, all require resources, money, services and training to
provide the necessary support. The state of Alaska, as a P.L. 280
state, has been tasked with providing these services but over the years
these services have not been forthcoming. The state's actions
demonstrate it does not understand the needs of rural communities, or
worse yet, that these communities and citizens are not a priority. The
current budget crisis in Alaska continues to decrease the resources
allocated to our villages. One example is that if a village judicial
officer retires, the state may not fill that position to save costs.
When the magistrate retired in Kake, the state closed the court there.
This story is not unique. The state also withdrew funding for law
enforcement there. Right now, in Kake, while Village Public Safety
officers (VPSOs) can respond to some emergencies, 911 services are off
site, and sometimes citizens are only able to leave a message. Law
enforcement, except for the limited services a VPSO can provide, is
also off site, and as a result, their response is often delayed,
jeopardizing even the possibility of access to justice because a crime
scene goes stale or the chain of custody is lost. Many other villages
lack even a VPSO. Our villages need resources to address the same
criminal justice needs that urban citizens face. Fortunately, the
tribes stand by, ready to partner with the state and fill the need, not
only for its tribal citizens, but all rural citizens. However, without
adequate resources this solution is not viable at the present time.
Our urban populations, meanwhile, have access to other resources,
as individuals who reside where the Federal Government and states
provides services, but their access to justice can be similarly
impaired. At a recent meeting in Washington State, Central Council of
Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska held a joint meeting with the
Washington State Patrol to help with identifying resources for MMIW
cases. Tlingit & Haida has more than 6,000 tribal citizens in the
Seattle area. They heard story after story from Alaska Native
indigenous women and their families who have been mistreated by law
enforcement in urban areas and how this mistreatment is its own trauma
that imprints within them. In some places, law enforcement asked
victims if the abuse they suffered was not typical ``for their
people.'' In other places, the families of missing women have been told
the women have a right to disappear, even when there is evidence of a
crime or violence thus evidencing a lack of understanding of what our
people face and very little sympathy and compassion to finding a
solution. What?! That view is shocking and lacks any understanding of
the epidemic that we are facing. The families are brushed aside, with
the same sentiment, `this reality is typical for your people.' The
unspoken message sent when time and energy are not allocated to these
incidents is that the treatment is typical, and acceptable. Our
communities thus shun the law enforcement as meaningless and possibly
causing more damage and pain than helping with any situation.
Questions Submitted by Rep. Grijalva
Question 1. Ms. Jerue, we've heard mention of the NamUs database,
which is an entirely volunteer system for tracking missing people and
the fact that it doesn't even coordinate with the FBI Criminal Justice
Information Service's missing person file.
1a. What are the other shortcomings of this current tracking
system, and how do those effect getting accurate data on MMIW?
Answer. NamUs has been very helpful in getting information to a
broader amount of people when searching for information on a loved one
who has gone missing as well as identifying whether that person may be
an indigenous person. That being said because of its volunteer status,
it may not, and probably is not, accessed regularly by law enforcement
over many jurisdictions. However, in Alaska, where there is law
enforcement, there may be limited access to FBI Criminal Databases due
to remote locations and lack of consistent access to quality internet
or cellular service, which creates another layer of information not
readily available to help in searching for MMIW issues.
As you may know, NamUs was originally set up to try to match
remains found with people who were missing. It is voluntary, and
literally, anyone can access it. All they have to do is set up an
account and enter the information they want to enter about a missing
person. The NamUs staff then take that information and confirm with law
enforcement before the information can go out publicly. There are fewer
missing Native persons in NamUs than there are in FBI Criminal Justice
Information Services (CJIS) missing persons file. The FBI CJIS database
is also voluntary, except for entry of missing persons under age 18
which is mandatory, though a few states have mandatory missing person
reports to CJIS by their law enforcement. NamUs and CJIS are separate
systems, which cannot currently talk to each other. When this point is
raised with Federal officials, they look at us like we have a third
eye--they don't acknowledge the value of having one streamlined
database and process.
Tribes and the general public could have access to NamUs, the
challenge, however, is that the most tribes lack the resources and
infrastructure to track the type of information that needs be entered
and assign someone to enter such information.
1b. How does this greatly affect on the ground issues you see in
Alaska?
Answer. One main issue is that 40 percent of our tribal communities
have no law enforcement and have to depend on off-site law enforcement
such as the Alaska State Troopers based in other areas, so often a
search will be started by a local people. The other impact is that
there are circumstances that missing indigenous women living out of
their communities in Alaska cities may not be as high a priority as
other situations because of how they may be living. Our victims are not
perfect, and their lifestyle may be a barrier to getting help. The
databases, beside NamUs, require law enforcement to access them to even
enter the information if a missing person designation has even been
given. The Tribal Access Program, as it currently exists will not be
available to the 228 out of the 229 tribes of Alaska because the
criteria for involvement requires a tribal law enforcement agency. Very
few of our communities have this, and none probably have the 24-hour
law enforcement that can be required for participation.
Question 2. How can agencies like the FBI and BIA shift their
protocols to better work with tribes to protect Native women and girls,
and solve MMIW cases?
Answer. Resources need to be available for all tribes regardless of
where they are located, whether a P.L. 280 state, non-P.L. 280 state,
checkerboard jurisdiction, etc. The FBI-CJIS has policies and
procedures that are not tribal friendly and they, the FBI and CJIS in
particular, need to be challenged to add users to their systems who may
not have the necessary infrastructure to work with their existing
models. CJIS should be further challenged to develop programs that
address the needs of tribal communities in this area. There is a trust
responsibility that they are not being reminded of and how their role
could help track the real numbers of MMIW, the circumstances, the
success and failure rate of solving these cases and the number of
unsolved cases and what if any, common factors exist that inhibit
solving the case.
The BIA is better about working with tribes and understanding
tribal needs, but unless you are within their limited service
definition for direct services, you will not have access to a BIA
Victim Service specialist. I believe there may be only 10 or so in the
country. How can that be possible with over 560 tribes nationwide? The
Tribal Justice Support, Office of Justice Services has made a big
impact in helping with funding for victim services, however, the
funding is year to year based on appropriations and cannot be rolled
into our compacts or self-governance agreements. In Alaska, we need to
open up compact negotiations to include court and law enforcement as
those were previously unavailable to us.
Question 3. Where should the priorities be in providing funding to
address this violence?
3a. Which Federal agency should be tasked with leading MMIW cases?
Answer. This is a very difficult question to answer because
currently many agencies--DOI, HHS, DOJ-OVW, OVC, OJJP, etc.--have
programs that relate to many of these issues, but do not collaborate
with each other to provide comprehensive services, thus tribes have to
pick and choose who they have the capacity to work with because of
their limited resources. DOI has the ability to work with tribes
directly, but most of the other agencies fund programs through
competitive grants. We need consistent funding that provides the
resources to all tribes that want to collaborate and coordinate. The
competitive grant program should not be considered for funding these
important issues. NIJ should be tasked with establishing a protocol for
researching the cost of crimes and law enforcement to address these
issues, and formulas should be created to determine how best to fund
programs to combat these very serious issues. We need funding programs
for fatality review commissions to study the issues, and fully
understand what lead to these fatalities, and develop solutions to
address the cultural needs to stop these issues and provide culturally
relevant healing and resources for services.
Alaska tribal governments are unique among indigenous American
tribes in their lack of access to the same type of government revenues
available to nearly every other sovereign entity in the country, thus
their resources are highly dependent on the Federal Government. If you
would like further information, feel free to contact me.
______
Mr. Gallego. Thank you so much to all of our witnesses.
Again, I want to thank the expert witnesses for their
powerful testimony.
Reminding members that Committee Rule 3(d) imposes a 5-
minute limit on questions, the Chairman will now recognize
Members for any questions they may wish to ask of the
witnesses.
I will start by recognizing myself for the first 5 minutes,
and we will alternate to our Ranking Member and go on from
there.
Thank you again for the witnesses. This has been, I think,
very difficult for many of us to listen to, but very much
necessary.
Professor Deer, in your testimony you mentioned the
Sovereign Bodies Institute, a non-profit Native-owned and
operated organization. What is the importance of having
organizations such as SBI work on data gathering projects
related to MMIW?
And, how accessible is this information to Federal
agencies?
Ms. Deer. Thank you for that question.
I believe that it is critical that Native people are at the
forefront of this effort. Even if we were to receive Federal
funding, it still should be that tribal members and families
and survivors should drive the data collection, and one of the
reasons is for cultural reasons.
If someone is going to add a name of a missing loved one to
a data set, there is sometimes the need for ceremony. Feasts
are associated with that. So, if it is the Federal Government
collecting the data, they are not necessarily in the position
of providing that.
And while Federal data would be helpful, I really do
believe that the forefront should be led by indigenous women
survivors and their families.
I think that non-profits can partner with Federal agencies,
but it needs to be on the terms of the indigenous people at the
forefront, and that will help our families feel comfortable in
coming forward and sharing their story, and sometimes it has
been decades, and they do not believe anyone cares anymore.
So, we need to do that outreach. That requires grassroots
efforts.
Mr. Gallego. Thank you, Professor.
Representative Buffalo, you spoke about the progress of
your bills on the issue in the North Dakota legislature. In my
home state of Arizona, a bill to improve data on missing and
murdered indigenous women just unanimously passed the House
this week and is headed to the State Senate.
Can you speak to why it is important to address this crisis
at a Federal level, as well as the local like you are trying
right now?
Ms. Buffalo. Mr. Chairman and members of the Committee, it
is very important that all levels of government pay attention
to this issue because we have a larger population that also
lives off of the reservation or outside of the exterior
boundaries of an Indian reservation.
That is why we are focusing on a state level, to make sure
that we implement mechanisms that will tell a story and will
show evidence that there is an issue here and that we need to
pay special attention to this epidemic.
Thank you.
Mr. Gallego. Thank you, Representative.
Ms. Jerue, how does the MMIW issue differ for Alaska tribes
versus tribes in the Lower 48?
And how do these differences impact your attempts to
address the issue?
Ms. Jerue. There are many jurisdictional differences in
Alaska compared to the Lower 48 tribal communities, and those
jurisdictional issues have impact in a couple of different
ways.
A lot of our tribes are very isolated. We have 229 tribes.
Only one is federally recognized as a reservation, and that is
Metlakatla. And because of that, the 228 tribes are under the
jurisdiction under Public Law 280 with concurrent jurisdiction
with the state of Alaska.
So, they are tasked for their law enforcement and
jurisdictional and justice systems through the state of Alaska.
At this point because of the isolation of the tribes and the
differences in terms of distances, the cost of those distances,
it has created a mess in terms of the fact that there are very
difficult times.
I know that Joel Jackson, whom you referred to from the
Native village of Kake, often tells the story that they will
get faster response for a killing of a moose out of season than
they will of a Native woman. And, unfortunately, that is not
just a story.
The problem is that law enforcement, the lack of law
enforcement and justice systems in our communities, really does
create a crisis in terms of living in our isolated communities.
Unfortunately, we also have a large number of Native people
that live in the cities of Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau,
and other what they call hub communities. And, oftentimes, the
response there tends to be Native women, if they have other
issues, are often not take seriously, especially if there has
been some kind of crime against them, and there are often many
crimes against them. I think we have a very vulnerable
population in the cities.
Unfortunately, then law enforcement's response also lacks
any real care.
Mr. Gallego. Thank you, Ms. Jerue.
Now I would like to recognize my Ranking Member, Mr. Cook,
for his first question.
Mr. Cook. Thank you very much.
Once again, I want to thank the witnesses.
I notice I see Wilson Pipestone in the audience. A number
of years ago, I went down to Cherokee, North Carolina, where
there was a Native American play, that I think he was the star
of. I don't know, but it was a great, great play to emphasize
VAWA, Violence Against Women.
And some of these things to outsiders, they don't see that.
Some of the things that you underscored we are all concerned
about.
In the back of my pea brain, I am trying to figure out,
boy, this is horrible, this is terrible. Now, how are we going
to correct this, how do we do this?
And we talked about the differences, and people are
concerned about confidentiality and everything else, I think,
identifying the problem, getting law enforcement, all of those
things, a database.
There was a woman. I cannot remember her name. I think her
last name was McNamara. She was not a police officer, but she
wrote a book about what she did in these killings in California
all over the place, and this one person, when you look at this,
she just passed away, unfortunately, and then her book became a
best seller.
And I am trying to think what I want from you. I understand
the anecdotes and the emotion and everything else. What I am
hoping is that the collective wisdom here, that you give us a
battle plan, a battle plan where we can turn it into action in
terms of constructive laws and policies that unite everybody.
Oh, I just found out you wrote the play.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Cook. Hey, I am just a dumb Marine up here.
Wilson, you were not that good. You never liked the bear
meat that they served that night.
It is not fair being in the Minority right-of-way.
But I think you have a lot of supporters. As I said, I
voted for VAWA. What I need, and I am not an attorney or
anything else. I just want to do something in terms of how we
can do it.
It is going to be very, very difficult just because of the
circumstances and everything else, but you have right on your
side here. You have history on your side.
I am a historian, and I was not alive, Wilson, in 1492,
although some of my colleagues think so.
So, I am hoping that maybe we might have another round on
this where we have Justice and the other one, partly because I
not only want their input. I want them to hear this testimony,
and the more advocates that we have, this is a huge problem. It
is not going away, and how we can correct this and get
something done.
Thank you, Ms. Nagle. I want to apologize, and I want to
thank the Chairman for embarrassing me in front of everybody.
Mr. Gallego. To reclaim my time, that was my attempt to
help you from embarrassing yourself.
But this is certainly not going to be the last time that we
address this because this is a serious, serious problem. When
thousands of our U.S. citizens, our sisters, go missing, it is
irresponsible for us to not do something.
With that, I would like to move down the dais here to
Representative Cartwright for his questions.
Mr. Cartwright. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to take a moment to thank Chairman Gallego for
calling this important hearing and also to my new colleague,
Congresswoman Haaland, who raised this issue in her campaign.
In fact, she called MMIW an epidemic in her campaign, and I
think she is right.
So, thank you, Chairman, for calling this hearing.
My understanding--and if I am mistaken, please correct me--
my understanding is that victims of violence in tribal
communities are often reluctant to report and share information
about crimes, and that part of this is tied to the historical
relationship between settlers and indigenous communities, and
that this is a particularly strong barrier in rural
communities.
Professor, and I want to say Chief Justice Deer, can you
give us some examples of what these historical concerns are,
how it plays out in present times and I am particularly
interested in the difference between rural and urban
communities.
Ms. Deer. Thank you for the questions.
I think the historical mistrust that many Native people
have in law enforcement is well founded. I think that the
history of law enforcement in Indian Country has not been one
of necessarily protection, but one of persecution.
And when you are a Native woman and your sisters and your
aunts and your mother and your grandmother and your great
grandmother have all been victims of violence and nobody has
done anything, why would you come forward?
And I think that trust has to be built, and it is not going
to happen in one bill, and it is not going to happen in 1 year.
That trust is going to take years and years and years to
rebuild.
I think the challenge in the urban environment is that
Native women, particularly if she is not the perfect victim
like Elizabeth Smart or Dru Sjodin that get on CNN Prime Time.
If she has had an addiction problem or she has been homeless or
maybe her children have been taken from her, and you go to
urban or off-reservation police departments, oftentimes
families tell us there is just a shrug and a ``well, what did
you expect?''
Then, at that point, the family is left feeling as though
nobody cares. So, both on-reservation and off-reservation, we
need to develop and cultivate a culture of compassion and a
culture of understanding, and that is not something you can
easily do through legislation.
But I believe with the leadership of Congress we will begin
to see a sea change in that problem.
Mr. Cartwright. Thank you.
Representative Buffalo, you spoke about a couple of issues
that I am interested in, data and training. On data, we are
interested in ways that these concerns can be overcome. What
you said in your testimony, and I wrote it down, ``without data
there is no clear evidence that a problem exists.''
What can we do to improve our data collection systems?
For example, you suggest in your testimony that the
language of MMIW be included in the scope of work for the
Office on Violence Against Women and the Office for Victims of
Crime. What I am after here is: can you give us specific
examples of language that you think should be used?
Ms. Buffalo. Thank you, Mr. Cartwright and members of the
Committee.
It is unfortunate that we have to ask to include the
language of missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and
people. I will say that first and foremost.
But also, our efforts on the ground level or at the
grassroots level are grassroots and for prevention. How can we
prevent these tragedies from further occurring?
We do have to address the existing structures and what
systems are currently in place. We do need to include, we
believe, this language of missing and murdered indigenous
people.
At the state level, what we found in digging deeper into
the data collection state-wide is that North Dakota does not
currently collect any data on missing people.
Mr. Cartwright. Right. Well, we will talk further about the
language.
Ms. Buffalo. OK.
Mr. Cartwright. And I thank you for the suggestions.
I also understand you have proposed legislation to conduct
training for law enforcement in your legislature. What are some
of the topics that you think this training should focus on?
Ms. Buffalo. Mr. Cartwright and members of the Committee,
at the state level with the training we are tapping into
existing structures, such as the North Dakota Human Trafficking
Commission. That commission is comprised of different experts
in the field.
So, this legislation is giving that entity the freedom to
provide that training to law enforcement. Within that
commission, the Human Trafficking Commission, there are members
of the First Nation's Women's Alliance, who have established
and built relationships throughout North Dakota and the region.
Some of this training would look at perhaps cultural
competency training, understanding the differences within
tribes, some that are matriarchal, and just understanding, also
trying to find ways to build trust and to work toward healing
and justice in our communities.
Mr. Cartwright. Thank you so much.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Gallego. Thank you, Representative Cartwright.
I would like to now recognize the Chairman of the Natural
Resources Committee, Congressman Grijalva.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member.
Both of you, this hearing has been very powerful and very
necessary, and I want to thank the witnesses for their insight,
their expertise and, more importantly, for humanizing what we
are talking about today.
It is not merely, as one of the witnesses said, a question
on numbers or where they fit in. It is a question of lives, and
I appreciate it.
I think one of the things that the Full Committee and that
all of us who have participated in it, one of the missions is
to bring voices and attention to issues that have not had their
voices or garnered the attention that those issues demand.
Your Subcommittee, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member, have
done that, and this is a good example with this hearing. I
appreciate it very much. All of us do.
Let me pose just a couple of questions if I may.
Counsel, Ms. Nagle, at yesterday's Violence Against Women's
Act markup, at that Committee, an amendment was offered that
would strip tribes of their inherent authority to prosecute
non-Indian domestic violence offenders.
I bring that up. It failed, unfortunately on a party-line
vote, which on an issue of this significance, as the Ranking
Member indicated, it requires that everybody be involved in it,
and if there is a bipartisan issue this Congress can find, it
is certainly here and it is certainly at this Subcommittee.
I want to know how is that going to impact the issue of
missing and murdered indigenous women, if you don't mind?
Ms. Nagle. Thank you, Chairman.
Yesterday's proposed amendment was very disappointing to
see. The reauthorization of VAWA in 2013 with the restoration
of tribal criminal jurisdiction over crimes, non-Indian
perpetrated crimes and domestic violence, gang violence, and
criminal violation of protection orders was a huge step to
saving more lives.
There are Native women today who have stated publicly, and
will continue to do so, that since the restoration of tribal
criminal jurisdiction over those three crimes in 2013, their
lives have been saved. And had that jurisdiction not been
restored, their tribal government would not have been able to
intervene and prosecute the domestic violence crimes or the
violations of their protection order and save their lives.
We know that. We know that tribal jurisdiction, giving the
government closest to the ground to Native women, to prosecute
these crimes and to protect them and their children is the best
form of security a Native woman can have.
So, it is very disappointing to see, in addition to it just
being disappointing that anyone would even suggest rolling back
this progress that has happened in the last 5 or 6 years. And
the only statement that was made in support of the amendment
was that simply tribal jurisdiction and prosecuting of non-
Indians in tribal courts is unconstitutional.
That was the same rhetoric that was given in 2013 against
VAWA. That is based on a prejudicial view that tribal courts
must be incompetent and cannot fairly adjudicate the rights of
non-Indian defendants.
The 5-year NCI report which came out documenting the first
5 years of the implementation of 2013 restored criminal
jurisdiction shows that in that first 5 years not a single non-
Indian defendant, despite numerous cases from numerous tribes,
filed a habeas corpus petition or lodged any formal complaints
about any rights violations in tribal court.
These are prejudicial beliefs that are not founded on any
actual facts in reality, and at the end of the day, the concern
is just if the tribal jurisdiction is stripped away, that will
put more----
Mr. Grijalva. I wondered what the motivation is, but that
is another question.
Ms. Deer, all of the witnesses in their own way referenced
the fact that the urban residents, indigenous folk, tribal
affiliation and their role in this process.
Urban Indian centers, like the Tucson Indian Center where I
am from, and a tribal center, as pieces of legislation related
to the issue we are talking about, are they important conduits,
important affiliations?
Anybody can answer, anybody who wants to.
Ms. Deer. I believe, yes, that urban centers, urban Indian
centers should be included in all of our discussions around
this.
I grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and my father was on the
board of the first American Indian center there in Wichita, and
I know that was sort of a place of refuge for many people and a
place where people could find one another.
And I think if we are talking about who is going to be
eligible for funding should funding be appropriated for this
crisis, I think we should consider the possibility that urban
Indian centers be provided with funding so that they can
support the families in the urban areas.
Mr. Grijalva. Thank you.
And thank you for the indulgence, Mr. Chairman. I yield
back.
Mr. Gallego. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Now it is my pleasure to pass to Representative Haaland for
her questions.
Ms. Haaland. Thank you very much, Chairman. Thank you so
much for having this hearing. It is extremely important.
Before I get started, I just wanted to ask you to explain
the significance of the cloth that you have on the table.
Ms. Buffalo. Representative Haaland and members of the
Committee, this skirt was handmade by an individual by the name
of Agnes Woodward. She is originally from Canada and is married
to a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. She
has made, I believe, a handful of these skirts globally, and
they represent our missing and murdered indigenous women and
girls, our sisters.
She was directly impacted by her aunt, who is among the
missing and murdered indigenous women, and so we wear these
ribbon skirts in honor of our missing and murdered indigenous
women.
The ribbon skirts also are a sign. They represent prayer
because we are a prayerful people.
Thank you.
Ms. Haaland. Thank you. Thank you so much.
The silent crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women
has been my top priority since long before being sworn into
Congress, and I am appreciative that I am here today to hear
your testimony, to help find solutions to this long overdue
issue in Indian Country.
I am wearing red today in honor of missing and murdered
indigenous women. I wanted to mention that.
Indigenous women deserve to be protected just like anyone
else in this country. This is why I have been working
diligently with my colleagues on bills to provide basic
protections for women and programmatic support for tribal
public safety, including the Survive Act, which increases
resources for tribal victims' assistance through the Crime
Victims Fund; the Native Youth and Tribal Officer Protection
Act, to extend the protections to children and law enforcement
personnel involved in domestic violence incidents on tribal
lands; and Savanna's Act, to protect Native American women by
increasing communication and accountability among state,
tribal, and Federal lines and address the issue of missing and
murdered indigenous women.
I would like to personally thank each and every one of our
witnesses here today who have provided testimony to move this
conversation forward to protect our women.
Yesterday, we had a prime example of how Native women have
historically lacked representation and protections in the U.S.
Congress and how we must continue to fight for basic
protections that are afforded to other groups of people.
Our Chairman mentioned this. As many of you know, during
the Violence Against Women reauthorization markup hearing in
the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, Representative
Sensenbrenner attempted to amend the bill to wipe out tribal
jurisdiction, to exclude tribes from prosecuting non-Indians
who commit violence against women-related crimes against women
on tribal lands.
Although this corrosive amendment was rejected, the vote
was split across party lines and speaks exactly to the issue we
are working to highlight today.
For any congressional leader to attempt to take away
protections for not only women, but indigenous women, at a time
when we are just beginning to understand how deep rooted and
serious of an issue the severe lack of protections is for
Native women is an abomination.
As a Member of the U.S. Congress, we all take an oath that
we are bound by to support and defend the Constitution, a
Constitution that acknowledges that tribal governments are
sovereign nations, and I take this oath seriously because every
congressional leader has a responsibility to uphold the Federal
Government's trust responsibility.
I just want to say thank you, Professor Deer, for raising
the issue of colonization because it has wreaked havoc on our
people. My Pueblo people are also matrilineal, and at times it
seems that we are still living in colonization because women
are excluded from so many things.
Thank you, Representative Ruth Buffalo, for running and
winning your seat. You were meant to serve, and I am inspired
by the vast amount of work that you have already done since you
have been in your seat. So, thank you so much for that.
All of your work is so important, and I am grateful for
every single thing all of you have done to raise this issue,
and I want you to know that I stand behind you 100 percent.
Mr. Gallego. I yield Representative Haaland as much time as
she deserves.
Ms. Haaland. Thank you, Chairman.
I will start out with a question for Ms. Jerue.
Ms. Jerue, you also spoke of the jurisdiction issues
concisely referring to it as the ``jurisdictional maze.'' Do
you feel this jurisdictional uncertainty often emboldens
criminals to commit and re-commit crimes on tribal lands
without the fear of being held accountable?
Does this criminal activity bleed over into urban areas as
well?
Ms. Jerue. I believe so, and this is my opinion. I believe
that our jurisdiction, because of the land issue which is
extremely complicated and we do not even have weeks and months
to talk about, is extremely complicated in Alaska.
But in urban areas, there is an underlying, I think,
culture that Native people, because of what was referred to
earlier in terms of some of them not being perfect victims, end
up finding themselves in situations that they are vulnerable,
homeless, have addiction, lack of jobs and housing.
And, oftentimes, Native people in our communities are being
brought into the urban areas because there is a lack of jobs
and housing, law enforcement, and addiction types of services
or medical services in our communities. So, they end up finding
themselves in situations that they do not plan to be in.
And because law enforcement and justice systems are
overburdened with just the vast number of Native people that
are in those systems, our child welfare systems, our court
systems, our jail systems, and law enforcement systems are
overburdened with Native citizens in Alaska in urban areas.
And because of their vulnerability and because of what I
spoke to, oftentimes those vulnerabilities also speak to the
fact that they are not being investigated, I think,
appropriately.
And when we talk about data, the data is not being
collected on these issues because we know that data drives a
lot of the funding that would help to mitigate some of the
problems. And unfortunately, it is not my favorite subject, but
it is a reality that we have to deal with.
I don't know if that answered your question.
Ms. Haaland. Thank you so much.
And this question is for Professor Deer.
In December, I attended the Senate oversight hearing on
missing and murdered indigenous women and heard from a young
woman that law enforcement agencies and the FBI have
continuously failed at investigating these crimes.
I also heard this issue again from a young woman who
visited my office.
What should Congress do to ensure the FBI and local law
enforcement are properly investigating these crimes and acting
timely on the cases?
And before you answer, I would just like to raise the issue
that the FBI got its start solving murders in Indian Country,
the Osage murders, so it seems to me that it is perfectly
logical for them to dig in on this issue and find a solution to
it.
So, please answer.
Ms. Deer. Thank you. It is an honor to be asked a question
by you right now.
I think the transparency is needed, and we need to require
Federal law enforcement agencies to track the number of MMIW
reported in their jurisdiction and include that in the required
annual Tribal Law and Order Act reports that are already
required.
I think we should require our Federal law enforcement
agencies to share information about missing and murdered
indigenous women with tribal nations so if a Native person goes
missing in a city or outside tribal jurisdiction, then we would
ask the respective tribal Nations, as sovereigns, are entitled
to know that their citizens are missing, and so that
communication happening into the tribal leadership.
We need Federal law enforcement agencies, including the
FBI, to start accurately logging race and tribal affiliation in
their database of missing persons.
And I think any new funding for Federal agencies must
require that they develop protocol for responding to missing
persons cases with meaningful consultation with the tribal
nations that they serve.
Thank you.
Ms. Haaland. Thank you so much.
And, Chairman, I yield.
Mr. Gallego. Thank you, Representative, and thank you to
our witnesses.
We are near the end of our hearing. Votes have also been
called, and this is why some Members have left, just out of
abundance of caution and not to be insincere. I wanted to make
sure to say that.
I hope we all gained very valuable insights into the
epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women, its tragic
effects on indigenous people and their communities, and what is
being done or not done to combat this issue. We need to find
real world legislative solutions.
It is clear indigenous women and girls and Native American
communities are not receiving the support, attention, and
resources long overdue to them to actualize both awareness and
tangible solutions that they have been calling for.
The Federal Government, us, must live up to its trust
responsibility and work toward real legislative solutions in
true partnership with indigenous women on local, regional, and
national levels to fully address what we have heard here today.
In closing, let me again thank the expert witnesses for
their valuable testimony and Members for their questions. The
members of this Committee may have some additional questions
for the witnesses and we will ask you to respond to those in
writing.
And just for my personal note, I am deeply sorry that we in
Congress have not addressed this for so long. It is a tragedy.
It is a sin that we have done, and we need to do everything we
can to fix this.
Under Committee Rule 3(o), members of the Committee must
submit witness questions within 3 business days following the
hearing, and the hearing record will be held open for 10
business days for these responses.
If there is no further business, without objection, the
Committee stands adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:12 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
[ADDITIONAL MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD]
Submission for the Record by Rep. Gallego
Amnesty International USA,
Washington, DC
March 15, 2019
Hon. Ruben Gallego, Chairman,
House Subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples of the United States,
1324 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington, DC 20515.
Re: Subcommittee Hearing ``Unmasking the Hidden Crisis of Murdered and
Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW): Exploring Solutions to End the
Cycle of Violence''
Dear Chairman Gallego, Ranking Member Cook, and members of the
House Subcommittee:
On behalf of Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) and our more than
one million members and supporters and members nationwide, we submit
this statement for the record.
Since 2007, Amnesty International has documented alarming rates of
violence against Native American and Alaska Native women and girls,
particularly in regards to sexual violence. Our report, Maze of
Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence
in the USA, documented the alarming rates of sexual violence against
Native American and Alaska Native women. We detailed how sexual
violence against Indigenous women is the result of a number of factors
and continues a history of widespread human rights abuses against
Indigenous peoples in the United States.\1\ We also documented the
failures of the U.S. government to adequately prevent or respond to
such violence, and the many barriers that faced Native American and
Alaska Native women and girls in ensuring their right to safety and
freedom from violence, including sexual violence; right to the highest
standard of care, including after a sexual assault; and their right to
justice. These barriers include chronic underfunding of tribal law
enforcement and the Indian Health Service, complex jurisdictional
issues, lack of appropriate training in all police forces, and limited
and outdated data regarding the scale and scope of violence against
Native American and Alaska Native women and their ability to access
services (like basic post-rape care) or law enforcement or judicial
engagement. We are concerned about the same failures of protection and
barriers facing Indigenous communities in regards to missing and
murdered Indigenous women and girls.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Amnesty International USA, Maze of Injustice: The Failure to
Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA. 2007. https:/
/www.amnestyusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/mazeofinjustice.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is a
human rights crisis. Indigenous women and girls are disappeared or
murdered each year at alarming rates in the United States. Because
there is no consistent and standardized reporting on the issue, tribal
epidemiology center, the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) compiled
506 cases of missing and murdered American Indian and Alaska Native
women across 71 cities in their 2018 report, Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Women and Girls.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Urban Indian Health Institute, Missing and Murdered Indigenous
Women and Girls. 2018. http://www.uihi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/
Missing-and-Murdered-Indigenous-Women-and-Girls-Report.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that
murder is the third-leading cause of death among American Indian and
Alaska Native women and that rates of violence on reservations can be
up to ten times higher than the national average.\3\ However, no
research has been done on rates of such violence against American
Indian and Alaska Native women living in urban areas despite the fact
that approximately 71% of American Indian and Alaska Natives live in
urban areas.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Petrosky E, et al. Racial and Ethnic Differences in Homicides
of Adult Women and the Role of Intimate Partner Violence--United
States, 2003-2014. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2017;66:741-746. http://
dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6628a1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Though there are critical issues regarding jurisdiction of Missing
and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) cases on reservations
and tribal lands, lack of prosecution, lack of proper data collection,
prejudice, and institutional racism are factors that also occur in
urban areas. UIHI filed FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests with
municipal police departments in all 71 cities included in the survey.
The FOIA process requires intensive follow up and resources from the
requesting agency. In response to its FOIA requests, UIHI received
invoices requesting payments for this information.
Nine cities (13% of total) reported the inability to search for
American Indian, Native American, or Alaska Native in their data
reporting systems despite the commonly expected practice of classifying
victims by race. Of the agencies that did provide data, nine (23%)
located data prior to 1990, 18 (45%) located data prior to 2000, and 29
(73%) located data prior to 2010. The oldest case UIHI identified
happened in 1943, but approximately two-thirds of the cases in UIHI's
data are from 2010 to 2018.\4\ This suggests the actual number of urban
MMIWG cases are much higher.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ Urban Indian Health Institute, Missing and Murdered Indigenous
Women and Girls. http://www.uihi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/
Missing-and-Murdered-Indigenous-Women-and-Girls-Report.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The barriers in accessing data on this issue from law enforcement
impede the ability of communities, tribal nations, and policy makers to
make informed decisions on how best to address this violence.
In October 2017, former U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)
introduced Savanna's Act (named after Savanna LaFontaine-Greybird, a
Native American woman from North Dakota who was murdered), as the first
piece of major legislation specifically addressing Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Women and Girls. It passed the U.S. Senate unanimously in
December 2018. In early 2019, U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and
Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) reintroduced Savanna's Act.
Savanna's Act requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to update
the online data entry format for federal databases relevant to cases of
missing and murdered Indians to include a new data field for users to
input the victim's tribal enrollment information or affiliation.
Savanna's Act will also require that the DOJ:
make standardized law enforcement and justice protocols
that serve as guidelines with respect to missing and
murdered Indigenous women,
meet certain requirements to consult with tribes, and
provide Tribal governments and law enforcement agencies
with training and technical assistance relating to the
development and implementation of the law enforcement and
justice protocols.
AIUSA recommends:
Requiring the DOJ, Interior, and HHS (Health and Human
Services) to solicit recommendations from Tribal nations on
enhancing the safety of missing Native American and Alaska
Native women and girls and improving access to crime
information databases and criminal justice information
systems during the annual consultations mandated under the
Violence Against Women Act.
Requiring the creation of standardized guidelines for
responding to cases of missing and murdered Native
Americans and Alaska Natives, in consultations with Tribal
governments, which will include guidance on inter-
jurisdictional cooperation among tribes and federal, state,
and local law enforcement.
Requiring statistics on missing and murdered Native
American and Alaska Native women and girls, and
recommendations on how to improve data collection, to be
included in an annual report to Congress and passage of the
Savanna's Act.
For more information, please contact Tarah Demant by phone at: 202-
509-8180 or email at: tdemant@aiusa.org.
Sincerely,
Tarah Demant, Director,
Gender Sexuality and Identity Program.
[all]
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