11.02.21

Cantwell Statement on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Report

Cantwell: “The Federal government needs to step up its efforts to protect and support Native communities.”

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) released the following statement in response to a report released by the U.S. Government of Accountability Office (GAO) to address the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. In 2019, Senator Cantwell joined a group of 16 bipartisan, bicameral legislators calling on the GAO to conduct this study in May 2019.

A 2018 report by the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB) found 506 unsolved cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls nationwide. The report also found that Washington state had the second-highest number of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in the U.S. Of 71 urban areas studied, Seattle had the highest number of murdered Indigenous women, and Tacoma had the highest number of missing cases.

“As we begin Native American Heritage Month, this Government Accountability Office report is another reminder that the Federal government needs to step up its efforts to protect and support Native communities. We must improve data collection to better understand and address this grave problem. The Department of Justice needs to work with law enforcement, states and Tribes to ensure every missing and murdered indigenous person is accounted for. This is critical to preventing future cases and finally making progress on this epidemic,” said Senator Cantwell.

The GAO report reiterates that the rate of violence experienced by Indigenous Women in the U.S. constitutes a crisis, but without more comprehensive data in federal databases, the full scope of incidents of violence is unknown. The report also calls attention to missed implementation deadlines for Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act of 2019.

In response to this crisis, the GAO proposes the following four recommendations:

  • The Attorney General should develop a plan—including key steps, who will achieve them, and by when—for accomplishing ongoing analyses of data in existing federal databases and future data that may be gathered to identify relevant trends in cases of missing or murdered American Indian and Alaska Native women and areas of concern.
  • The Attorney General should develop a plan, including milestone dates, to develop and implement a dissemination strategy to educate the public about the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).
  • The Attorney General should develop a plan, including milestone dates, to conduct specific outreach to Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and urban Indian organizations regarding the ability to publicly enter information regarding missing persons through NamUs or other non-law enforcement sensitive portal.
  • The Secretary of the Interior, in coordination with the Attorney General, should finalize its draft plan establishing and appointing all members to the Joint Commission on Reducing Violent Crime Against Indians, as required by the Not Invisible Act of 2019, and include milestone dates for all steps in the process.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, nearly half of all Indigenous women in the United States have been raped, beaten, or stalked by an intimate partner; one in three will be raped in their lifetime; and on some reservations, women are murdered at a rate 10 times higher than the national average.

Addressing the epidemic of violence against Indigenous people has long been a priority for Senator Cantwell. In 2018, Cantwell joined the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB) to release its first report on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in 71 urban areas throughout the United States. Shortly after the release of that report, Cantwell and her colleagues on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee voted to advance Savanna’s Act, which Cantwell co-sponsored. Cantwell fought for the law’s passage from its introduction until it finally became law in October 2020.

In April 2021, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the creation of a new missing and murdered unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (BIA-OJS) to increase the resources and coordination among agencies at the federal level to address the crisis.

A GAO report highlights page is available HERE.

The full GAO report is available HERE.

The letter calling for the GOA report is HERE.

Video of Senator Cantwell speaking at the release of the Seattle Indian Health Board’s report in 2018 is HERE.

Video of Senator Cantwell speaking in September 2020 after the House of Representatives passed Savanna’s Act is HERE and audio is HERE.

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