Thursday, May 5, 2022

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Advocates across the country are holding events this week to raise awareness about the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people. The Mountain West News Bureau’s Robyn Vincent reports.

Last year, Congress designated May 5th a day of awareness. Native women and girls face murder rates more than ten times the national average. Northern Cheyenne member Hanna Harris is one example. Her death inspired the resolution in Congress. The 21 year-old went missing and was found murdered in 2013 on the Northern Cheyenne reservation in Montana. May 5th was her birthday.

In Colorado, Gina Lopez, a Ute Mountain tribal member, is working with state lawmakers on a bill to create an office for missing and murdered Indigenous people.

“I’m an adult childhood sexual abuse survivor, and survived intimate partner violence as an adult. And these are unfortunately experiences that are all too familiar to our communities, to our sisters, to our moms.”

Advocates are using the day of awareness to elevate the Colorado bill. The state could join several others in our region that are trying to address this crisis. 

The possible overturn of Roe vs. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court has weighed heavily on women’s rights groups and supporters.  This included participants Wednesday at an annual observance of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in Springfield, OR.

Samantha Fernandez is a first-year student at the University of Oregon and is of Klamath descent. She says losing abortion rights and access at the federal level would be harsh on an already suffering group, that’s seen inconsistent health care and disproportionate rates of sexual assault and domestic violence.

“For tribal people everywhere, it’s difficult. And they’re going to have to seek refuge in other states and it’s just going to make them more vulnerable. It’s just going to put them in an even tougher position and being able to protect themselves and speak out for themselves without facing any backlash, or anything like that.”

The event drew roughly 40 people, who heard poetry and remembrances of Native women either killed or who vanished without a trace.

The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma would remove any cloud on title to land, about 2.6 acres of farmland in eastern Illinois. In exchange, the Miami Tribe seeks a one-year window to bring its case to federal court to seek compensation for the land’s transfer and sale without Tribal consultation or payment. KNBA’s Tripp J Crouse reports.

Douglas Lankford is chief of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma. He spoke before the U.S. House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indigenous People during a hearing on a number of related Tribal issues.

“All this bill grants to us is our day in court and we still have to prove our case, but the landowners in Illinois once it’s signed they receive immediate relief.”

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) introduced House Resolution 6063 for equitable settlement of certain Indian land disputes regarding land in Illinois. The land was part of an 1805 treaty to the ancestral homelands of the Tribe, an area south of the Great Lakes and what are now the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

Over time, the United States transferred or sold that land to non-Indians without negotiation or payment to the Miami Tribe. Because the Tribes say the conveyance happened through treaty-recognized title, it says it’s entitled to compensation for the loss. In exchange for the Tribe extinguishing the cloud on title, it seeks a one year window for the Tribe to bring its case before the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, but extinguishing the cloud of title would happen regardless of the Tribe’s court case.

“That’s really the biggest hurdle is once the law becomes law, is to take this and go win our case which we very much intend to do.”

In 2019, The Miami Tribe of Oklahoma worked with the Illinois Farm Bureau to draft legislation that would be fair to Illinois farmers.

 

Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our newsletter today.