Real news. Real stories. Real voices.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Supported by
The Mountain West News Bureau is a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, KUNR in Nevada, Nevada Public Radio, the O'Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West in Montana and Wyoming Public Media, with support from affiliate stations across the region.

Tribes hope new measures in Congress can help them solve missing and murdered people's cases

Red shawls drape chairs placed across a floor in a large room. The shawls have blue fringe at the ends. The chairs sit empty.
Susan Montoya Bryan
/
Associated Press
Red shawls drape chairs at the front of the room as families and victim advocates mark Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, N.M., Sunday, May 5, 2024. The shawls represent relatives who have gone missing or have been killed in what many have described as a crisis in Indian Country. Tribes are hoping two new bills moving through Congress will help tribal law enforcement get funds to solve these missing and murdered Indigenous peoples' cases.

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Crisis is an ongoing issue of national concern. Now, tribes are hoping new measures will get bipartisan support in Congress to help tribal law enforcement solve these cases.

One bill is called BADGES — Bridging Agency Data Gaps & Ensuring Safety. The other is called Invest to Protect. Both would fund tribal law enforcement to combat violence and in particular address the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis. Both bills have been introduced by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) and Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota).

Both measures passed the U.S. Senate last year but will have to be reintroduced in the current Congress.

Sponsor Message

Other related bills Sen. Cortez-Masto have sponsored and passed are the Not Invisible Act and Savanna’s Act. The commission created by the Not Invisible Act specifically called for the passage of Cortez Masto’s BADGES bill to help law enforcement better serve Native communities.

Benny Tso, the Tribal Chairman of the Las Vegas Paiute Tribe, said these funds would give them access to forensic resources and enhance data sharing among tribal and non-tribal law enforcement. He hopes this will impact their ability to solve these crimes.

“A lot of our brothers and sisters go missing to no avail, with no help and no resources,” Tso said. “It seems like a lot of those cases get swept under the rug And, it’s troubling to hear all these cases that go unheard or unanswered.”

Tso said he would also like to improve the collaborative effort between tribal and non-tribal law enforcement with cultural sensitivity training.

“Not everybody’s ‘cookie-cutter,’ there’s not just Western thought,” he said. “Different ethnicities, I think, need to be taken into consideration.”

Sponsor Message

According to the National Crime Information Center, murder is the third leading cause of death for Indigenous women, and that rate is 10 times higher than it is for all other ethnicities.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio (KNPR) in Las Vegas, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Tags
Yvette Fernandez is the regional reporter for the Mountain West News Bureau. She joined Nevada Public Radio in September 2021.