"Today @IndianCommittee met to discuss the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and hear directly from those impacted by the crisis. We were joined by Native women who have been strong voices on this issue. I’m proud to work alongside them to end the violence. #MMIW," Sen. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) wrote in a post on Twitter on December 12, 2018.

Law | National | Politics

'It's open season': Few answers at hearing on missing and murdered

Thursday, December 13, 2018

By Acee Agoyo

Federal law enforcement officials have admitted a "problem" exists in Indian Country -- too many people go missing and are murdered every year.

But representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice offered few answers at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Two of those officials in fact left the room despite being urged to stay for the testimony of women who have had direct experience with what has been called a "silent crisis" of the missing and murdered.

"It's quite clear on their departure and how that reflects in terms of their commitment and their relationship to Indian Country, to Navajo Nation and to our family members who are on the ground," observed Amber Kanazbah Crotty, a delegate from the Navajo Nation Council, the tribe's legislative body.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-Montana) had asked the federal witnesses to stay for the remainder of the highly-anticipated Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing. After Crotty brought up the missing officials, he quickly pointed out that Charles Addington, from the BIA's Office of Justice Services, was still in the room.

"But you're right," he told Crotty, "the other two left."

Indianz.Com on SoundCloud: Missing and Murdered: Confronting the Silent Crisis in Indian Country #MMIW #MMIWG

Had the other two men stayed, they would have heard about Ashlynne Mike, an 11-year-old Navajo girl who was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered on the New Mexico portion of the reservation in May 2016. And about Amber Webster, the 26-year-old Navajo mother of three who was murdered in Kentucky just this month.

And they would have heard from the sister of Ashley Loring Heavy Runner, a 22-year-old Blackfeet Nation woman who was last seen on her tribe's reservation in Montana in June 2017. Despite offering leads and providing critical evidence to tribal law enforcement and to the BIA and the FBI, her family believes the investigation was botched.

"I believe that the law enforcement did not take Ashley's case seriously, as well as other girls that have gone and missing and murdered in Indian Country," Kimberly Loring Heavy Runner told the committee.

Ashley's case is among the countless seen with regularity across Indian Country. Families go without closure when the missing fail to turn up despite repeated searches, often undertaken by volunteers due to inadequate funding and support for law enforcement on reservations.

And even when those who go missing are murdered or died under mysterious circumstances, a large number of the cases remain unsolved or go without prosecution, said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota). The lack of accountability fosters an atmosphere in which the pattern repeats itself all over Indian Country, she asserted.

Ashleys birthday has came and past. Ashley is 22 years old now, she went missing in 2017 when she was 20 years old. If...
Posted by Find Ashley Loring/HeavyRunner on Sunday, November 25, 2018

Ashley Loring Heavy Runner went missing from the Blackfeet Nation in Montana in June 2017, at the age of 20. Her 22nd birthday was last month.

"This is not new, this problem is not new," said Heitkamp, who has repeatedly drawn attention to the missing and murdered during her time in the U.S. Senate.

"It's open season on people who live in Indian Country," she added.

Although Heitkamp will be leaving Congress after losing her bid for re-election last month, a legacy of her efforts might help provide some answers to the crisis. A bill that would require the federal government to account for missing American Indian and Alaska Native women passed the Senate last week and awaits further action in the House.

But even if S.1942, also Savanna's Act, does not cross the finish line before the end of the year, it is already leading to change. Before he left the hearing, Gerald LaPorte of the National Institute of Justice said that the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, or NamUs, is being updated next week to allow tribes and law enforcement to enter information that will help keep track of missing people in Indian Country, as well as tribal citizens who go missing in urban cities and other areas.

"We're a little ahead of Savanna's Act," LaPorte testified. The bill is named in honor of Savanna Marie Greywind, a 22-year-old woman from the Spirit Lake Nation who was brutally murdered after she went missing in North Dakota last year.

"We are going to launch that on December 18," said LaPorte, who serves as director of the National Institute at the Department of Justice.

Today @IndianCommittee met to discuss the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and hear directly from those impacted by the crisis. We were joined by Native women who have been strong voices on this issue. I’m proud to work alongside them to end the violence. #MMIW pic.twitter.com/4QXbDZXgKC
— Tom Udall (@SenatorTomUdall) December 13, 2018

Robert Johnson of the FBI said his agency is also taking steps to address the crisis, although at a slower pace. An update to a database that will allow searches on Native people who have gone missing will be completed "in the next year or so," the assistant director of the agency's Criminal Investigative Division told the committee.

With Ashley Loring Heavy Runner's sister on the witness list and a cousin in the audience, Johnson was repeatedly pressed by committee members on the FBI's involvement in the case. He pushed back on the suggestion that the investigation was mishandled.

"We were involved from the get-go," said Johnson, who spoke with a hoarse voice because he was suffering from laryngitis. "We were providing them assistance but they had to lead because it was a missing person at the time," he said, referring to the BIA's role in the case.

But it appears Johnson was confusing the cases of two different Native women who went missing. When questioned further by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada), he asserted that Ashley's body had been found in "August."

"That's when it became a homicide investigation and at that point the FBI took the lead," Johnson said.

The body of Olivia Lone Bear, a 32-year-old mother of five from the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation was indeed found in North Dakota in August after she had been missing for nine months. There have been no arrests announced in connection with her case.

"Sometimes it can just be names in a report," said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana), who also brought up Ashley's case. "But we've got to face this family here today."

Existing data indicates that 5,712 indigenous women and girls were reported missing as of 2016. But in a landmark report released last month, the Urban Indian Health Institute found that only 116 such cases were logged into the national NamUs system.

When it comes to murders of indigenous people, some data exists. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Native women suffer from the second-highest homicide rate. Nearly half of the victims were murdered by an intimate partner.

But even that information is limited in scope. Only 18 states provided data for the report, which covered the years between 2003 and 2014. For example, Montana and South Dakota, where high-profile cases of missing and murdered Native women are frequently reported in the media, do not currently submit their data.

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Hearing