WASHINGTON – Native American tribal leaders on Wednesday urged lawmakers to increase federal funding and implement national reporting systems to help solve the missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) crisis.
During a House Appropriations Subcommittee meeting, lawmakers heard testimony from tribal representatives and federal agency officials expressing support for allocating money to solutions.
“We have to write a check, and I want to make sure they get the resources they need,” said House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla.
The crisis of MMIW has received attention through grassroots movements over the past decade. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Native American women face disproportionately higher rates of disappearances and homicides compared to the national average. A 2016 report from the National Institute of Justice found that more than four in five Indigenous women experience violence during their lifetime.
Before the panelists gave their testimony, subcommittee chairman Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, pointed to an empty witness chair at the end of the table.
“That is to represent the missing and murdered indigenous women in this country,” Simpson said. “They listen.”
Five female indigenous witnesses told the committee their personal stories of violence, rape and murder. They described the difficulties of obtaining justice in a legal system that creates a loophole for perpetrators of violent crimes against indigenous peoples.
Ranking Member Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, said the BIA estimates that about 4,200 MMIW cases remain unsolved, and fewer than half of victimization cases are even recorded.
The MMIW crisis is exacerbated by legal jurisdiction issues, said Margo Hill-Ferguson, professor of urban and regional planning and director of American Indian Studies at Eastern Washington University.
Under federal law, tribal courts cannot prosecute bad actors who commit major crimes such as murder, rape and arson on tribal lands, Hill-Ferguson said. Instead, they rely on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate these crimes and the United States Attorney’s Office to prosecute the crimes.
Hill-Ferguson grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and served as the Spokane Tribe’s attorney for more than a decade. She experienced firsthand the legal barriers to holding perpetrators accountable.
“As tribal attorney, I received denial letters in which the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute very violent crimes on the reservation,” Hill-Ferguson said.
These jurisdictional issues are the main reason why so many MMIW cases go uninvestigated.
Eugenia Charles-Newton, a delegate on the Navajo Nation Council, said she remembers waking up in a hut unable to see, tied up by a man who had given her a Coke. He kept her there for almost nine days, repeatedly raping her and beating her. She was 17 years old.
But this man was never prosecuted for his crimes because Charles-Newton did not know the exact location of the barn, and therefore the police could not determine jurisdiction. That man is walking free today, she said, and Charles-Newton represents him on the Council.
“Many cases never get justice because no one wants to hear the cases,” Charles-Newton said. “Everyone wants to say it belongs to someone else.”
Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute and a member of the Pawnee Nation, echoed Charles-Newton’s points on jurisdictional issues and emphasized the need for measures that apply to Indigenous peoples in urban areas and on reservations.
The gray areas of jurisdiction and lack of law enforcement invite bad actors to commit crimes against Natives on tribal lands, where they are less likely to be caught or punished, Echo-Hawk said.
Some federal action has been taken against the MMIW crisis. Speakers mentioned the 1996 Violence Against Women Act, as well as the more recent Savannas and Not Afraid Acts, which passed in 2020.
Speakers proposed several measures to increase awareness and accountability, including a national alert system specifically for missing indigenous peoples and a bill that would allow tribal, state and local police to work across borders.
Charles-Newton emphasized the need for increased law enforcement in tribal nations. The Navajo Nation is estimated to have only 218 police officers for a population of about 200,000, she said. The country would need more than double that number to meet the national average.
Federal agency officials called for more funding for BIA and the new Missing and Murdered Unit, created in 2021 by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
As for bridging the gap between Indigenous people and federal law enforcement, Hill-Ferguson said there is some hope. For example, U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref has worked in several jurisdictions in eastern Washington prosecuting drug dealers, she said. Waldref added Assistant U.S. Attorney Bree Black Horse to her team in February, focusing on prosecuting MMIW cases.
Hill-Ferguson said most of the progress already made in the MMIW crisis is due to the efforts of Indigenous women calling for “No More Stolen Sisters.”
Despite the federal government’s recent efforts, Echo-Hawk said implementation of the Savannas and Not Afraid Acts has been sparse. She called on the commission to take action to enforce these laws.
“This can’t depend on one person,” Echo-Hawk said. “This cannot be dependent on one organization. It must be a systematic approach that upholds accountability.”
About the author: “Elyse Wild is Senior Health Editor for Native News Online, where she leads reporting on health equity issues including mental health, environmental health, maternal mortality and the overdose crisis in Indian Country. Her award-winning journalism has appeared in The Guardian, McClatchy Newspapers and NPR Affiliates In 2024, she received the first Excellence in Recovery Journalism Award for her solutions-focused reporting on addiction and recovery in Indigenous communities series exploring cultural approaches to addiction treatment.”
Contact: ewild@indiancountrymedia.com
