Indianz.Com > News > Cronkite News: Congress takes action for missing and murdered in Indian Country
Action on missing, murdered women legislation caps years of advocacy
Monday, September 28, 2020
Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – Native American advocates and victim’s families have worked for years to draw attention to Indian Country’s epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
The federal government finally passed legislation that could help do something about it.
The House gave final approval last week to two bills, Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act, that would essentially force a review of the problem and create a federal plan of action. The bills are awaiting the president’s signature.
“We’re not celebrating necessarily, but we also recognize that for Congress to take action is a pretty big deal in terms of acknowledging that there’s an issue, first and foremost,” said Elizabeth Carr, an adviser at the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. “And then, secondly, taking some actions to address some of the issues that contribute to the crisis.”
Advocates like Carr would rather see funding in Savanna’s Act go to victim services, violence prevention and increased visibility for the problem, but concede that some funding is better than none. And neither bill addresses shortfalls that Crotty outlined in her testimony, which spelled out how much funding would be needed to update tribal data collection systems, correct the overall shortage of tribal officers and provide services to affected families. Despite that, advocates overwhelmingly welcomed the bills. “It’s bringing more resources, more authority … making some of the major players do work to address the issues,” Massey said. “It’s bringing in that accountability.” Carr called the bills a “pat on the back,” but said advocates will continue to push for more. “It’s just a baby step, but for us a baby step is better than no step at all,” she said. For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.Native women are murdered at more than 10x the national average. Take action by exploring NIWRC’s Resource Library, where you can find webinar recordings, toolkits & other advocacy tools to help your program or community learn more about the #MMIWG crisis: https://t.co/aSNYkIMWzF pic.twitter.com/bBBLCtPhcc
— National Indigenous Women's Resource Center (@niwrc) September 25, 2020
Note: This story originally appeared on Cronkite News. It 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.
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