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Anchor: Antonia Gonzales
Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez has issued an executive order to investigate cases of missing people in a way that’s more empathetic to victims and families.
As Arizona Public Radio’s Ryan Heinsius reports, it’s part of a federal multi-state initiative to address a crisis gripping Indian Country.
Nez and other tribal leaders met with FBI officials and prosecutors from Arizona, New Mexico and Utah for the plan’s signing ceremony.
According to officials, the guidelines are part of a response plan both to find missing people and to help victims and families heal.
They hope it’ll serve as a template for the Navajo Nation to share data across local, state, and federal jurisdictions and collaborate on cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Nez says his order is designed to set a tone of hope and pioneer a new era of cooperation between the tribe, U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the FBI.
For years, records of missing Native Americans have been incomplete or outdated.
In July, the FBI’s Albuquerque office launched a project to create a more dynamic and comprehensive list of missing people on the Navajo Nation. As of October 11, it included 192 names.
The Navajo Nation plan is among the first of 11 pilot programs begun in Indian County through the U.S. Attorney General’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative.
The more than 27,000-square-mile Navajo Nation spans parts of northern Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
The Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries and Museums ended its conference Thursday with the largest attendance of more than 1,200 participants in Temecula, CA.
Rhonda LeValdo has more.
The theme of ATALM was intertwined cultures-stronger together, and many attendees agreed.
Gena Peone, Spokane Tribe and archivist with the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission, says this conference helps tribal nations with the storytelling aspect unique to them.
“I just think it’s important for each tribe to be able to tell their own stories and that there just hasn’t been a good forum for people to come together and tell that in a collective way. So, as more money becomes available, funding, you get more expertise because you have more tribal members that are pursuing education or experiences that deal with cultural preservation, exhibits all of those things and storytelling. I think everyone wants to assert their own stories.”
Rick West, ATALM Board of Governors says they always want to highlight the work of Native people and the conference was successful in getting attendees to share their ideas.
“I want ATALM always to be a generator…in making our voice heard, telling our own stories, keeping those stories, having them speak both to the past and probably even as important to the future, that’s what I want. I want ATALM to be always be identified with accomplishing those kinds of objectives.”
ATALM 2023 will be held in Oklahoma City, OK next year.
Tribal leaders in California will discuss challenges in their repatriation efforts at an informational hearing at the state legislature next week before the Assembly Select Committee on Native American Affairs.
Leaders are also expected to provide input about a proposed council under the oversight of the California Natural Resources Agency.
The council will evaluate projects and the distribution of $70 million to increase tribal access and co-management of public lands, and recommendations for returning tribal ancestral land.
The hearing will take place Thursday in Sacramento.
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