Two senators want a federal law enforcement agency to help address the crisis of missing and murdered Native Americans in Indian Country.
New legislation, introduced on Thursday by Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, would allow the U.S. Marshals Service to help tribal law enforcement find missing children. In tribal law enforcement’s stead, the service would also be able to search for and arrest suspects with warrants. Under current law, the U.S. Marshals Service can assist local law enforcement but not tribal. The Tribal Warrant Fairness Act would amend that.
“Tribal communities need more tools to combat violent crime,” Cortez Masto, who represents a state with 28 federally recognized tribes, said in a news release. “It is both ridiculous and cruel that Tribal law enforcement can’t use the U.S. Marshals Service like any other comparable law enforcement agency would to keep their communities safe.”
American Indian and Alaska Native people experience disproportionately high rates of violence, murder and disappearance. Homicide rates of Native people were nearly five times higher than that of non-Hispanic white people, according to 2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. More than 84% of Native women and girls have experienced violence in their lifetimes, according to a 2016 National Institute of Justice report.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs estimated that more than 4,000 cases of missing and murdered Native Americans have gone unsolved. That is often due to a lack of investigative resources, the BIA said.
Mullin, a member of the Cherokee Nation who represents a state with 39 federally recognized tribes, said in the release that he is steadfast in his commitment to the safety and security of tribal communities.
“The Tribal Warrant Fairness Act is a commonsense solution to fill in the jurisdictional gaps and grant the United States Marshals Service authority to assist where needed with their unique capabilities,” Mullin said.
The act is another step in Cortez Masto’s response to a 2023 commission report that gave recommendations to lawmakers about how to alleviate the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people. President Donald Trump signed a bill into law in 2020, introduced by Cortez Masto and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, which mandated that report.
This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS and Oklahoma Watch.
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