The House Judiciary Committee on Monday held a hearing on proposed legislation to create a fund for the Montana Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force, which bill proponents say will allow the force to better fulfill its mission of addressing the crisis.
“The Montana Missing Indigenous Person epidemic has devastating effects for Native people across Montana who live in fear and frustration at the persistence (of missing people) in our communities,” said Sharen Kicking Woman, a member of the Gros Ventre and Blackfeet nations, who also spoke on behalf of the ACLU of Montana. “It’s impossible to overstate the depths of impact of how this epidemic affects each of our families. We have mourned the deaths and disappearances of far too many community members with no justice in sight.”
Rep. Tyson Running Wolf, D-Browning, who first brought forward the need to address the missing Indigenous person task force six years ago, introduced House Bill 83 to create a special revenue account initially funded with $1 to allow the group to accept and generate its own funding, such as apply for grants rather than rely only on state funds, the Daily Montanan reports.
The bill was requested by the State-Tribal Relations Interim Committee on the recommendation of the MMIP.
“The task force does not currently have a mechanism to raise funds, purchase equipment, or maintain operational costs,” Running Wolf told the committee. He called the bill a “call to action” heard by the task force, agency departments, “and our lost and missing persons.”
“This is another tool alongside the database, outreach and enforcement efforts to permanently fix the problem. The need for a Montana missing Indigenous persons account is in your hands,” he said.
The Legislature created the MMIP task force in 2019 and extended its mission for an additional 10 years during the 2023 session. The 2023 legislature also appropriated some funds to hire a task force coordinator and provide for administrative costs.
The task force includes representatives from each of the state’s eight federally recognized tribes, the Attorney General’s Office, the Montana Department of Justice, the Montana Highway Patrol and the Montana Office of Public Instruction. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Indian Health Services, Ohkomi Forensics and the U.S. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Coordinator for Montana are also represented.
The Montana Department of Justice Missing Persons Database currently lists 179 missing persons cases, of which 48 involve Native people. According to a 2024 report from the MMIP task force, 31% of the 2,263 reported missing persons in 2023 were Indigenous people, although Native people account for just 6.5% of the state population.
Funding for the MMIP special revenue account may derive from gifts, grants, donations, securities and other public and private assets.
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