Justice Department working with tribes
HELENA, Mont. — Jermain Charlo vanished in June 2018. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribal member hasn’t been seen since.
Valenda Morigeau, Charlo’s aunt, reported her missing to the Missoula Police Department in the days after her disappearance. But Morigeau said the detective initially assigned to the case failed to take the report seriously and was slow to act, a pattern she said is common when Native Americans report missing loved ones.
“You would think that there would be more urgency to go find the person that is missing,” Morigeau said. “Here we are, three years later, because they assumed she was avoiding responsibilities.”
Charlo’s case brought the problem of missing and murdered Indigenous women to the fore in the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes. Now, almost three years after her disappearance, the tribes on Thursday became the first in the nation to complete a community response plan — a Justice Department initiative aimed at creating collaboration between law enforcement agencies, including tribal police, county police and federal authorities, when Native Americans go missing on tribal land.
Still, there are major holes. Among the most glaring: There is no plan for when a tribal citizen goes missing off a reservation or outside tribal lands, as Charlo did.
In 2018, an Associated Press investigation found that 633 Indigenous women made up 0.7% of open missing persons cases despite being 0.4% of the U.S. population.
The situation is especially alarming in states such as Montana, which have large Native American populations. Native Americans make up less than 7% of Montana’s population but account for 25% of reported missing person cases.
It is not a federal crime for an adult to go missing, and the FBI generally would only step in if there was clear evidence that a crime has been committed that led to a disappearance. The federal government could lend its resources to local law enforcement officials to help in the search.
“The things that we will learn and implement from the work that the good people here have done can be utilized nationwide,” said Terry Wade, an FBI executive assistant director, at a news conference Thursday on the Flathead reservation.
The Justice Department sees its work with local law enforcement and tribal communities as a major initiative. President Donald Trump initiated a federal task force and his then-Attorney General William Barr, who visited the Flathead Reservation in Montana, committed to hiring 11 coordinators at U.S. attorneys offices across the country.
The new plan aims to increase communication among local law enforcement officials, especially in places where there is overlapping jurisdiction. For example, in the immediate area around the Flathead Reservation, there are eight police and sheriff’s departments in addition to the Montana Highway Patrol, the tribal police and federal investigators.