Tribal leaders press lawmakers for solutions to MMIW crisis

WASHINGTON — Native American tribal leaders on Wednesday called on lawmakers to increase federal funding and implement national reporting systems to help solve the missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) crisis.

At a House Appropriations Subcommittee meeting, lawmakers heard testimony from tribal representatives and federal agency officials who expressed bipartisan support for funds to address the problem.

“We have to write a check, and I want to make sure they get the resources they need,” said House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla.

The MMIW crisis has attracted the attention of mass 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 National Institute of Justice report found that more four out of five Indigenous women face violence throughout their lives.

Before the panelists gave their testimony, subcommittee chairman Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, pointed to an empty witness chair at the end of the table.

“This is to represent missing and murdered Indigenous women across the country,” Simpson said. “They are listening.”

Five Indigenous women witnesses told the committee their personal stories of violence, rape and murder. They described the difficulties of achieving justice in a legal system that creates a loophole for perpetrators of violent crimes against Indigenous people.

Ranking Member Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, said the BIA estimates that about 4,200 MMIW cases remain unsolved, and less than half of the victimizations are even reported.

The MMIW crisis is compounded by legal jurisdiction issues, said Margot Hill-Ferguson, a professor of city and regional planning and director of American Indian studies at Eastern Washington University.

Under federal law, tribal courts cannot prosecute trespassers who commit serious 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 U.S. Attorney’s Office to prosecute them.

Hill-Ferguson grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation and served as the Spokane Tribe’s staff attorney for more than a decade. She has experienced first-hand the legal barriers to bringing criminals to justice.

“As a tribal attorney, I have received denial letters in which the U.S. Attorney’s Office has refused to prosecute very violent crimes on the reservation,” Hill-Ferguson said.

These jurisdictional issues are the main reason why so many MMIW cases remain uninvestigated.

Eugenia Charles-Newton, a delegate to the Navajo Nation Council, said she remembers waking up in a hut, unable to see, tied up by a man who gave her a Coca-Cola. He kept her there for almost nine days, repeatedly raping and beating her. She was 17 years old.

But the man was never brought to justice for his crimes because Charles-Newton did not know the exact location of the barn and therefore law enforcement was unable to determine jurisdiction. “Today this man is free,” she said, and Charles-Newton represents him on the Council.

“A lot of cases never come to justice because no one wants to try them,” 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 about jurisdictional issues and emphasized the need for measures that apply to Indigenous people in urban areas as well as on reserves.

Jurisdictional gray areas and a lack of law enforcement encourage perpetrators to commit crimes against Native people on tribal lands, where they are less likely to be caught or punished, Echo-Hawk says.

Several federal actions have been taken in response to the MMIW crisis. Speakers mentioned the Violence Against Women Act of 1996, as well as the more recent Savannah and No Fear laws passed in 2020.

Speakers proposed several measures to increase awareness and accountability, including a national alert system specifically for missing Native people and a cross-delegation bill that would allow tribal, state and local police to operate across borders.

Charles-Newton emphasized the need for increased law enforcement in tribal countries. The Navajo Nation has only 218 police officers in a population of about 200,000, she said. The country would need more than double that number to match the national average.

Federal agency officials have called for increased funding for the BIA and the new missing persons and homicide 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. U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref, for example, has worked in various jurisdictions in Eastern Washington to prosecute drug traffickers, she said. In February, Waldref added Assistant U.S. Attorney Bree Black Horse to her team, who is prosecuting MMIW cases.

Hill-Ferguson said much of the progress already made in the MMIW crisis is due to the grassroots efforts of Native women calling for “No More Stolen Sisters.”

Despite recent efforts by the federal government, Echo-Hawk said the Savannah and Fear Not laws are rarely implemented. She called on the committee to take action to ensure compliance with these laws.

“It can’t depend on one person,” Echo-Hawk said. “This cannot depend on one organization. It has to be a systemic approach that ensures accountability.”

About the Author: “Elise Wild is the senior health editor at Native News Online, where she covers 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 inaugural Excellence in Recovery Journalism Award for her reporting focused on solutions to addiction and recovery in Indigenous communities. She is working on this now. series, funded by the Pulitzer Center, on culturally based approaches to addiction treatment.”

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