Idaho votes to take first official action on missing, murdered indigenous people crisis

A proposal to designate May 5 as a day of awareness for missing and murdered indigenous people in Idaho sailed through a legislative committee on Wednesday.

“This is a pretty tough issue to talk about,” Rep. Caroline Troy, R-Genesee, told the House Health and Welfare Committee while introducing House Concurrent Resolution 33.

Troy said that when it comes to violence against women in the U.S., “indigenous women face the highest rates per capita of any other race.”

“When compared to the national average, indigenous women are two-and-a-half times more likely to be assaulted, two times more likely to be stalked, five times more likely to experience interracial violence, 10 times more likely to be murdered, one in three indigenous women will be raped in their lifetime and six in 10 will be physically assaulted,” Troy told the committee.

“Predators may target native women and girls precisely because they are perceived as marginalized and outside the protection of the American legal system,” she added.

Tribes do not have the authority to prosecute non-Natives who commit violent crimes on tribal lands.

“This piece of legislation simply draws attention to this terrible issue and designates a day of awareness,” Troy said.

In 2019, Congress and at least eight Western states enacted legislation or executive orders pertaining to the missing and murdered indigenous women crisis, which is being called an epidemic.

Idaho is not yet among those states. If Troy’s resolution is approved, it would be Idaho’s first official action in addressing this crisis.

Due to lack of reporting, no one knows how many of Idaho’s tribal members are missing or murdered. But the state, tribes and other stakeholders are taking the initial steps to find out.

Latest steps to track missing, murdered indigenous people

Tyrel Stevenson, legislative director for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, gave the committee an update on the latest efforts to address this issue in Idaho and nationally.

In November, President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a high-level federal task force to start studying and working toward addressing this issue, he said.

“In December, working through the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, we convened an informal working group including the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, Idaho State Police, the Governor’s Office, the tribes, domestic violence advocates and experts and spent a day talking about this difficult subject,” he said.

“From that we identified a number of gaps in data and understanding and we want to continue working on that.”

Eleven other states have passed legislation to create a task force and commission a study on the issue, Stevenson said.

“But here in Idaho we’ve actually just taken the initiative and the folks that are concerned about this issue and have a stake in it are coming together and working on it,” he said. “We don’t feel it is appropriate to bring legislation at this time, but we do want to raise awareness to the issue and to the efforts that are being made.”

Troy’s resolution also calls on the governor, U.S. Department of Justice and Idaho’s five federally recognized tribes to “collaboratively pursue” research on this crisis and make recommendations on how to address it.

The committee voted unanimously to print Troy’s resolution and fast-track it by sending it directly to the House for a full vote.

This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 3:44 PM.