{"id":11219,"date":"2021-05-05T19:58:03","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T23:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=11219"},"modified":"2021-05-05T19:58:03","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T23:58:03","slug":"underscore-news-mmiw-remains-a-crisis-in-oregon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/05\/05\/underscore-news-mmiw-remains-a-crisis-in-oregon\/","title":{"rendered":"Underscore.news: MMIW remains a crisis in Oregon"},"content":{"rendered":"\"mildredquaemptsmerlekirk\"
\r\nMildred Quaempts and Merle Kirk hold a portrait of Mavis Kirk-Greeley, who died in 2009 after her boyfriend allegedly deliberately hit her with his vehicle on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Kirk-Greeley is Quaempts\u2019 daughter and Kirk\u2019s sister. Photo by Kathy Aney \/ Underscore\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
Two Years After Oregon\u2019s MMIWG Legislation, Next Steps Unclear <\/div>\r\n
The COVID-19 pandemic and mismatched databases confound efforts to address failures investigating Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Wednesday is a national day of action.<\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, May 5, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Brian Bull <\/div>\r\n
Underscore.news<\/a><\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nTwo years ago, Merle Kirk asked Oregon legislators for help.

<\/P>\r\nDuring a House committee hearing in February 2019, she told the story of the women in her family who have disappeared or were murdered over the last 60 years.

<\/P>\r\nKirk told lawmakers that her sister, Mavis Kirk-Greeley, died in 2009 when her boyfriend deliberately hit her with his vehicle on the Warm Springs Reservation. He was never convicted of a crime. For Kirk, her sister\u2019s death echoed the 1957 murder of her grandmother, Mavis Josephine McKay, on the Yakama Indian Reservation and adds more grief to the loss of yet another relative.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cMy first cousin, Lisa Pearl Briseno, she\u2019s been missing since 1997,\u201d Kirk, who\u2019s of Wasco, Warm Springs, Dine, and Yakama heritage, said in a recent interview. \u201cThat affects our whole family. I was raised with her, she stayed with my dad and mom until she graduated. And so, she\u2019s like my sister. In Native ways, all our cousins are brother and sister.\u201d

<\/P>\r\nMonths after she testified in Salem, Kirk again shared her family\u2019s story at the first-ever listening session by Oregon officials working to address the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. A beadwork portrait Kirk made of her sister became a symbol of the movement in Oregon to draw attention to the murders and disappearances. The portrait graces T-shirts and pins at events drawing awareness to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, often shortened to MMIWG.\r\n

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This beadwork portrait of Mavis Kirk-Greeley created by her sister, Merle Kirk, became a symbol of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement in Oregon. Photo by Kathy Aney \/ Underscore<\/figcaption>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nAs Kirk told her story, state legislators and federal officials across the U.S. and Canada were finally paying attention to activists like her who were demanding an end to the impunity that results in disappearances and murders of Native women and girls.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nIn 2019, Oregon lawmakers declared Missing and Murdered Women a statewide emergency. HB 2625, signed by the governor in May of that year, directed Oregon State Police to study how to combat the unsolved killings and disappearances of Native Americans.

<\/P>\r\nThe COVID-19 pandemic slowed the state\u2019s efforts. Last year, a series of statewide listening sessions with lawmakers, state agencies, law enforcement, and tribal communities in both rural and city environments was cut short, due to the state\u2019s pandemic limitations on gatherings. Officials had planned 13 sessions, but only held five. While the state police released their report<\/a> in September, the agency says it\u2019s waiting on lawmakers to take additional action. Wednesday is a national day of awareness for MMIWG, now sometimes referred to as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons to include boys and men, and activists say there\u2019s much work left to be done.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cI feel like that\u2019s a long time,\u201d Kirk said of the two years that have passed since her testimony before the legislature. \u201cBut I hope this\u2019ll give them time to get programs and all the things that are needed for the families and for the victims. In that meantime, there\u2019s a lot of families that have tried to report and not (been) taken seriously.\u201d\r\n

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Lack of Trust<\/div>\r\nOne of the findings in the OSP\u2019s September report is that Native Americans are often reluctant to turn to the federal and state agencies tasked with investigating murders and disappearances, and don\u2019t expect law enforcement to take action on their behalf. The report found that law enforcement agencies need to strengthen their relationships with Native American communities in the state. Other recommendations included partnering on open and cold case investigations with the Operation Lady Justice task force formed under the Trump Administration and educating law enforcement personnel on the history of Oregon\u2019s Indigenous people and the complexities between state and tribal law.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nAn OSP spokesman said the agency is waiting on more direction from the legislature before acting. Rep. Tawna Sanchez, the primary sponsor of the 2019 legislation, said the state police report will inform future legislation, which she expects to be introduced next year. The Oregon bill has been a model for other states, said Sanchez, who\u2019s of Shoshone-Bannock, Ute, and Carrizo descent.\r\n

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State Rep. Tawna Sanchez during an MMIWG listening session at the University of Oregon in January 2020. Photo by Brian Bull \/ KLCC<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s not perfect,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s probably more we can do and learn.\u201d\r\n

<\/P>\r\nHomicide is the third leading cause of death of American Indian and Alaska Native women. And on some reservations, where a patchwork of overlapping federal, state, and tribal jurisdictions can result in confusion about who\u2019s responsible for an investigation, the murder rate for women is 10 times that of the rest of the country. \r\n

<\/P>\r\nA 2018 report by the Urban Indian Health Institute<\/a> found that unsolved murders and disappearances of Native people is also a serious problem in major cities. But the institute found that tracking murders and disappearances is difficult. Misclassification of race by police departments and the lack of a centralized database creates barriers to understanding the scope of the problem and to investigating murders and disappearances.\r\n

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A Patchwork of Data<\/div>\r\nBriseno, Kirk\u2019s cousin, is one of 11 missing Native Americans listed in the first official Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons report issued by the Oregon U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in February. Just as it was being finalized, human remains found on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation were identified as Tina Vel Spino<\/a>, a 58-year old who\u2019d disappeared in August of 2020. Because the exact cause of death has yet to be determined, Vel Spino is still classified as \u201cmissing.\u201d\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThere are also eight Native people listed as \u201cmurdered.\u201d\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe report is the work of Cedar Wilkie Gillette, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of Oregon\u2019s first designated MMIP Coordinator and a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation. Gillette, who began her job in June 2020, is one of 11 coordinators across the country. Among her first job is compiling a mix of local and national data into a centralized way of tracking murders and disappearances.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cThere\u2019s national databases that have their own definitions of what they consider missing and murdered data, and what they would even consider data in Oregon,\u201d says Gillette. \u201cAnd they are largely inconsistent at the moment. They\u2019re not made to work together.\u201d\r\n

<\/P>\r\nFor example, the Oregon State Police say there are 13 unsolved cases of missing Native Americans and three unsolved murders in the state, while the National Crime Information Center says there are nine and three, respectively. And the University of North Texas\u2019 National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database says there are eight missing Indigenous people in Oregon, but does not track murdered data.\r\n

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\r\n Cedar Wilkie Gillette in her Eugene office. Photo by Brian Bull \/ KLCC<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nPolice agencies have also recorded murdered and missing Native Americans as members of other racial and ethnic groups, preventing them from being included in MMIP data. That happened in the case of Heather Cameron, a Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde member who has been missing in August of 2012. Not only was she misclassified as white in initial reports, but her last known location outside Redding, Calif., caused her to be excluded from Oregon data.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cSo right now, the national databases would not count her as Oregon data,\u201d says Gillette. \u201cThey would count her as California data. But our office would count her as Oregon data because she\u2019s a tribal member from Oregon.\u201d\r\nGillette is now working with spreadsheets and websites to create a unified database that her agency can use to better track MMIP cases. And she\u2019s also working on a pilot project with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to develop a community response plan to MMIP cases, so the tribal government knows what resources are available and how to resolve the cases as quickly as possible. She hopes to have the plan developed in the latter half of this year. Meanwhile, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation announced the country\u2019s first tribal community response plan in April.\r\n

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