Bills focus on violence against Native American women

The House on Monday sent President Donald Trump two bills to address violence against Native American women.

“The silent crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women is wreaking havoc on our families and our communities ,” said Rep. Mark wayne Mu ll in, R- Westville. “Our priority must be to protect native women and children and all parties have to work together to end this epidemic of violence.”

Both bills passed by voice vote and were already approved by the Senate.

One, called Savanna's Act, includes a number of requirements for the U.S. Justice Department to establish protocols for investigating and reporting cases of missing and murdered Native American women.

The bill orders the department to “develop guidel i n e s f o r response to cases of missing or murdered Mullin Native

Americans; provide training and technical assistance to tribes a n d l a w e n f o r c e me n t agencies for implementation of the developed g ui del i nes ; a nd r e por t s t a t i s t i c s o n m i s s - i ng or murdered Native Americans.”

Tribes could also submit their own guidelines to respond to cases of missi ng or murdered Native Americans.

Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D - P e n n s y l v a n i a , s a i d the bill was named after S a v a n n a L a F o n t a i n e - Greywind, who was eight months pregnant when she was kidnapped and ki l l ed i n 2017 i n North D a k o t a . S c a n l o n s a i d t he bil l would i mprove coordination among law enforcement agencies and provide tribal law enforcement with more resources to respond to cases. The murder rate of women in some Native American communities is 10 times higher than the national average, she said.

The second bill, called the Not Invisible Act, would require the Department of the Interior to designate an official within the Bureau of Indian Affairs “to coordinate prevention efforts, grants, and programs related to missing Indians and the murder and human trafficking of Indians.”

The Interior and Justice departments would have to establish an advisory committee on violent crime within Indian lands and against Indians.

Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation, said, “Savanna's Act and the Not Invisible Act give our law enforcement officers the tools they need to address the crisis and will help prevent our sisters from becoming a statistic. I was proud to cosponsor both of these bills and I look forward to seeing President Trump sign them into law soon.”