State’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women task force starts with emotional stories

Across the United States and Canada, it’s believed thousands of Indigenous women and girls are kidnapped, murdered, or sexually assaulted every year but go unreported or uninvestigated. The issues range from a lack of reporting due to mistrust, interagency barriers, cultural differences, and what many families and loved ones of those lost have felt is a lack of compassion or interest in investigating these cases.

A 2018 report from the Seattle-based Urban Indian Health Institute found American Indian and Alaska Native women go missing at a rate of 79% per 100,000, compared to 19% per 100,000 for white women. That report found 506 cases dating back to 1943. In a search of records in 71 U.S. cities, 45 of those cases were in Seattle.

Much of the report focused on the difficulty of obtaining the data. Poor record keeping has led to huge gaps in documenting the scope of violence against native women, highlighting institutional racism and poor relationships between police and native communities.

“Seventy-one percent of American Indian and Alaska Natives live in urban areas, yet, accurate data does not exist regarding the rates of violence among this population,” said Abigail Echo-Hawk, then-Director of UIHI, and citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. “This report is a step towards addressing this epidemic.”

“This report provides a necessary snapshot of the epidemic and is a call-to-action to protect Native women and girls,” Echo-Hawk said at the time.

The Washington state Legislature took action in 2018 and 2019 to start to try to right the issue and better understand the scope of the situation. That included the creation of the state task force on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman and People, facilitated by state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who opened the inaugural two-day meeting of the task force.

According to the latest report from the Washington State Patrol, there are currently 110 active cases involving missing or murdered Indigenous people in the state. Of those, 28 are from the Yakama Nation, which has the highest number of unsolved MMIWP cases, and which hosted the two-day inaugural meeting of the task force.

The task force will, among other things, assess the systemic causes that contribute to the disproportionate rates of violence, provide recommendations for addressing barriers, and review data collection and reporting protocols. Recognizing that tribal boundaries and communities would have extended far beyond contemporary borders, the task force will also address how the surrounding states and Canada are impacted by the jurisdictional and data gaps.

Emotional stories

The entire first day of the meeting was devoted to the loved ones and advocates of missing and murdered endangered Indigenous women and girls who shared their emotional stories.

“I’m here on behalf of Kaylee Mae Nelson-Jerry and her family, along with Renee Davis and Misty Upham, all missing or murdered Indigenous woman from the Muckleshoot reservation,” said Rosalie Fish of the Cowlitz Tribe.

“Misty Upham, a member of the Blackfeet Nation is a successful actress who was invited to the Golden Globes for her performance in ‘Frozen River,'” Fish said. “She was found deceased in the bottom of a ravine on my reservation, after Auburn police did not look for her and then mislabeled her death as a suicide. She was found by community members after 11 days of being missing.”

“Kaylee Mae Nelson-Jerry went missing from Auburn, Washington, in 2019. Her aunt was turned away the first time she attempted to report her niece missing to law enforcement, saying that she was technically 18 years old and could be missing if she wanted to,” Fish said. “Because as a native woman, it is assumed that you want to be missing.”

“Her family was left to hire a private investigator out of their own funds and finances, after their calls were left without responses from state and city detectives,” she added. “Kaylee was my friend. She is my friend. She is my cousin. And I believe she’s still out there.”

For some, the heartbreak dates back decades.

“My auntie is not here with us today because she was murdered in downtown Seattle 21 years ago,” another woman shared.

“My auntie’s story is very complex. There’s so many layers of injustice, of bias, of loopholes, you know, there are so many opportunities there for people in power, like yourself, people in the task force, and up to support,” she explained.

Survivors of violence also shared emotional stories to highlight the gaps in not just the criminal justice system, but the resources and help available to Native families.

“My story started at 4 years old, when I was abducted from my home and sexually assaulted by more than two men,” a woman shared. “That’s my earliest memory. That’s where my mind started. That’s how I see this world. As a child, I couldn’t trust anybody. I didn’t feel safe anywhere. But what I can tell you about that experience, is I’ve lived my entire life never seeing a courtroom. There was never anybody ever prosecuted. That kind of trauma and that kind of violence goes unspoken.”

Annie Forsman-Adams leads the task force for the attorney general’s office. Following the first day of nearly five hours of emotional and traumatic stories, she thanked all those who traveled from across the state to share those stories, and on day two detailed all they had heard.

“Overwhelmingly, what we heard from the community was the real desire to see change happen quickly and to see systemic, long-lasting, tangible change happen as quickly as we can,” Forsman-Adams said.

“People shared their stories of not having received justice, not having avenues to receive justice, not having the support they needed to seek out safety when they had been trafficked or abused, and through their stories identified a number of things that we have identified in forming this task force as priorities — jurisdictional complexities, lack of criminal justice response, the lack of law enforcement response, in some cases, difficulties they have working within multiple jurisdictions,” she recalled from the prior day’s testimony.

“I want to really acknowledge that people were incredibly brave in sharing their stories yesterday,” Forsman-Adams said. “They really trusted us with their trauma and their pain, and the focus moving forward, I want to make sure that we acknowledge that we now have a responsibility to them, and I am excited to see what this task force is going to do.”

Task force members

The task force includes lawmakers, tribal members, police, and many others, including advocates. It will continue to meet as it works on the two reports to the legislature and the governor, with recommendations to address the gaps that have led to the need for a task force in the first place.

The first report is due in August 2022, with another due in 2023.

Twenty-three members have been appointed to the task force, including:

• Senator Manka Dhingra
• Senator John Braun
• Representative Debra Lekanoff
• Representative Gina Mosbrucker
• Executive Secretary Athena Sanchey-Yallup, Yakama Nation
• Councilmember Anna Bean, Puyallup Tribe
• Councilmember Anita Mitchell, Muckleshoot Tribe
• Elected Official, Kalispel Tribe (to be announced)
• Elected Official, Lummi Nation (to be announced)
• Abigail Echo-Hawk, Seattle Indian Health Board
• Maureen Rosette, NATIVE Project
• Laura Platero, Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board
• Vicki Lowe, American Indian Health Commission
• Patricia Whitefoot, Community Member, Yakama Nation
• Carolyn DeFord, Community Member, Puyallup Tribe
• Craig Bill, Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs
• Patti Gosch, Washington State Patrol
• Annie Forsman-Adams, Washington State Attorney General’s Office
• Sam White, Chief of Police, Lower Elwha Klallam Police Department
• Councilmember Jani Hitchen, Pierce County Council
• Councilmember Chris Stearns, City of Auburn
• Aubony Burns, Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, King County Prosecutor’s Office
• Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers representative (to be announced)

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