Cronkite News: Navajo parents turn loss of daughter into 'positive' action

Thursday, March 29, 2018  

Death of 11-year-old Ashlynne Mike may bring Amber Alert to Native American reservations

By Tristan Ettleman
Cronkite News
cronkitenews.azpbs.org

PHOENIX – Congress has passed legislation that brings the Amber Alert system for abducted or missing children to Native American reservations, a move to prevent deaths like those of 11-year-old Ashlynne Mike.

Ashlynne’s parents and Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, advocated for the Ashlynne Mike Amber Alert in Indian Country Act to close a loophole in the system’s funding that left tribes ineligible for support, he said at a news conference at the state Capitol. The measure awaits President Donald Trump’s signature.

Supporters of the bill, named after a Navajo girl was abducted and killed in May 2016 in New Mexico, said her death could have been prevented. It took tribal police, working with limited resources, five to six hours to notify the public that she was missing.

Hours later, investigators found her body. Her brother, who also was abducted, was still alive. Both were badly beaten.

“My daughter would still be alive,” said Pamela Foster, Ashlynne’s mother, crying as she described spending hours in the nation’s capital to fight for the measure. “I still can’t get over the loss. The pain is intense.”

Biggs sponsored the bill along with Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and more than 40 other elected leaders. The new Amber Alert – which uses radio, television, text alerts and freeway signs to quickly alert the public when a child goes missing – means other children on America’s reservations may be saved.

“They turned this grief into action that is positive,” he said of Foster and the girl’s father, Gary Mike.

Foster said she discovered as she worked to get the Amber Alert system set up that many people didn’t know the system did not apply to reservations, including senators and representatives she spoke to in Washington. But she’s joyful that Congress passed the measure.

“Words cannot express the gratitude I have,” she said. “I want to stop the violence against women and children.”

Thanks to the Native American Tribal leaders, Pamela Foster, Gary Mike, Maricopa Co. Atty Bill Montgomery, Austin Kennedy from @SenJohnMcCain's office & other officials for marking Congressional passage of the "Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act." pic.twitter.com/ET9uhzU1ju

— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) March 28, 2018

Navajo Nation Council Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty said the omission of reservations for federal funding of emergency services like an Amber Alert is common.

“This bill is absolutely going to save lives,” said Crotty, adding it had bipartisan support.

Tom Begaye was sentenced last year to life in prison for sexual assault and murder in the case.

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This article originally appeared on Cronkite News and is published via a Creative Commons license. Cronkite News is produced by the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.