New panel seeks to curb number of missing, slain

ALBUQUERQUE — Nearly 40 law enforcement officials, tribal leaders, social workers and survivors of violence have been named to a federal commission tasked with helping improve how the government addresses a decades-long crisis of missing and murdered Native Americans and Alaska Natives, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced.

The committee’s creation last week means that for the first time, the voices guiding the Interior and Justice departments in the effort will include people most affected by the epidemic, said Haaland, the first Native American to lead a cabinet department.

She said the panel includes members with diverse experiences and backgrounds, representing communities from Alaska and Washington to Arizona, Oklahoma and Michigan. It will craft recommendations on how the government can better tackle a disproportionately high number of unsolved cases in which Native Americans and Alaska Natives have disappeared or been killed.

“It will take a focused effort — and time — to unravel the many threads that contribute to the alarming rates of these cases,” Haaland said during a virtual event.

Some members of Congress have expressed concern that work to address the crisis as required under the law isn’t on track. In the case of appointing members to the commission, federal officials are more than a year behind schedule. The Not Invisible Act, signed into law in October 2020, required that the commission be named by February 2021 and that findings be made public last month.

Another law signed around the same time directed the U.S. Attorney General’s Office to find ways to increase cooperation among law enforcement agencies, provide tribes resources and address data collection. Savanna’s Act was named for 22-year-old Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, who went missing while pregnant in 2017 before her body was found in a North Dakota River.

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa Monaco said the naming of the commission marks a major milestone that follows ongoing work by a separate steering committee to marshal more federal resources to address the problem.

The mission of the new panel includes tracking and reporting data on missing-person, homicide and human trafficking cases and increasing information sharing with tribal governments on violent crimes investigations and other prosecutions on Indian lands.

Daniel Shular / Grand Rapids Press Protesters march Thursday through Grand Rapids, Mich., after a rally organized by local tribes to mark the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People.