Country’s first alert system for missing and murdered Indigenous people proposed in WA
A new bill to create the country’s first-ever alert system to help identify and locate missing Indigenous women and people will be proposed in Washington state’s next legislative session, Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced Monday, Jan. 3.
Similar to “silver alerts” for missing vulnerable adults, the system created by House Bill 1725 would broadcast information about missing Indigenous people on message signs and highway advisory radio messages as well as through press releases to local and regional media.
“The unheard screams of missing and murdered people will be heard across Washington state with the implementation of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) Alert System,” said Washington state Rep. Debra Lekanoff, who worked with Ferguson on the bill, in a news release. Lekanoff, who represents the 40th Legislative District that includes southern Whatcom County and part of Bellingham, is an Alaska native with Tlingit and Aleut heritage and the Legislature’s only Indigenous woman.
Indigenous women and people go missing and are murdered at rates higher than any other ethnic group in the United States.
In Washington, more than four times as many Indigenous women go missing than white women, according to research conducted by the Urban Indian Health Institute in Seattle.
The institute’s research found Washington state has the second-highest number of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the U.S.
Of the 71 urban areas studied, Seattle had the highest number of murdered Indigenous women and Tacoma had the highest number of missing cases.
“The rate of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Washington is a crisis,” Ferguson said in a news release Monday. “We must do everything we can to address this problem. This effective tool will help quickly and safely locate missing Indigenous women and people.”
Early last month, the Washington State Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Task Force held its first meeting in-person and virtually, co-hosted by Yakama Nation.
Created by Washington State Legislature, the task force aims to coordinate a statewide response to the urgent crisis of Indigenous people who go missing, are the victims of homicide or experience other types of gender-based violence in urban and Tribal communities.
“Too many Indigenous mothers, sisters, wives and daughters have been torn from their families and their children raised without mothers. This crisis impacts every one of our families and communities and it takes collaboration among all governing bodies, law enforcement and media to bring awareness and stop these horrific crimes,” Lekanoff, a member of the task force, said in a news release.
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Natasha Brennan covers Washington state tribes’ impact on our local communities, environment and politics, as well as traditions, culture and equity issues, for McClatchy media companies in Bellingham, Olympia, Tacoma and Tri-Cities.
She joins us in partnership with Report for America, which pays a portion of reporters’ salaries. You can help support this reporting at bellinghamherald.com/donate. Donations are tax-deductible through Journalism Funding Partners.
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The 23-member task force will build on the efforts of Tribes, community members and grassroots activists and provide recommendations to the Legislature to address the crisis and the systemic causes that contribute to disproportionate rates of violence, provide recommendations for addressing barriers and review data collection and reporting protocols.
In recognizing that Tribal boundaries and communities extend beyond contemporary political borders, the task force also aims to address how the surrounding states and Canada are impacted by the jurisdictional and data gaps.
This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 12:01 PM.
CORRECTION: Lois Jean Stratton served in the Washington state House of Representatives 1979-1985. A member of the Spokane Tribe, Stratton was the first female enrolled tribal member in the Washington State Legislature. Washington state Rep. Debra Lekanoff, is currently the only Indigenous woman serving in the Legislature.
