[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 160 (Thursday, October 5, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6363-S6366]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. HEITKAMP (for herself, Mr. Tester, Mr. Franken, Mr. 
        Heinrich, Mr. Merkley, and Ms. Warren):
  S. 1942. A bill to direct the Attorney General to review, revise, and 
develop law enforcement and justice protocols appropriate to address 
missing and murdered Indians, and for other purposes; to the Committee 
on Indian Affairs.
  Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss and bring 
awareness to the obligation that we have to never forget what is 
happening to way too many Native American women in this country.
  For too long, the disproportionate incidents of violence against 
Native American women have gone unnoticed, unreported, or 
underreported, and it is time to address this issue head-on. That is 
what I intend to do today and in the remaining days of my time in the 
Senate, until we actually get a bill passed.
  There is no official database or requirement for information 
collection regarding the number of missing and murdered Native women. 
In most cases, the only records of them are records that have been 
provided to us by the families and friends of the victims. It is 
critical that Congress push the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI 
to work with Tribal communities to come up with culturally appropriate 
protocols for responding to cases of missing and murdered Native women.
  I would like to take this time to honor Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, 
whose story has been told on the news in North Dakota and nationally 
and who has been on the forefront of my mind since introducing this 
bill.
  On August 19, Savanna, a 22-year-old member of the Spirit Lake Tribe, 
who was 8 months pregnant, went upstairs to her neighbor's apartment in 
Fargo, ND, after being invited to try on a dress for alterations. While 
she was there, what awaited her in that apartment were truly horrific 
acts of violence. Although Savanna's baby daughter survived and is now 
safe with her father and grandparents, that was the last time anyone 
who loved Savanna saw her alive.
  After 8 days of searching for Savanna by the family and the 
community, her body was finally found by chance by kayakers in a nearby 
river. Her body was wrapped in plastic and duct taped. Her death was an 
incredible tragedy and, unfortunately, one that happens way too often 
to Native women.
  While the news of Savanna's death was heard around the world, 
thousands of indigenous women are murdered and disappear each year, 
with many of those cases being ignored or forgotten.
  Over my decades in public service, I have worked with Tribal 
communities on issues that involve violence against Native women. In 
response to those talks and to this latest tragedy, today I am 
introducing legislation that would help tackle the barriers to bringing 
justice for missing and murdered Native women across the country.
  My bill, which is named after Savanna, would work to improve Tribal 
access to Federal databases for missing persons. It would promote 
interjurisdictional collaboration by establishing protocols for 
responding to cases of missing and murdered Native Americans, and it 
would require the collection of data related to missing and murdered 
Native women.
  Native women are an inherently vulnerable population whose voices are 
still not heard by most people in power. Across rural North Dakota, 
women living on reservations face unique challenges when dealing with 
violence. Lack of access to emergency services, lack of access to law 
enforcement officers, lack of access to an AMBER Alert system, and 
confidential victim services that are not provided--these all act as 
barriers to women getting the help that they desperately need.
  Unfortunately, there is no official database or mandated database 
collection on the total number of missing and murdered Native women in 
our country. This has added to not knowing what the actual magnitude of 
this epidemic really is and has resulted in several Tribal members 
sending me stories and handwritten lists of the names of missing and 
murdered women that people have gathered just from their collective 
memory.
  I would like to share some of the stories that I have been so honored 
to receive from family members. Telling these stories--and giving me 
the ability to tell these stories--is not easy because every time you 
tell the story, you relive the story. These tragedies still hurt 
deeply. Even years after the murder, they still absolutely relive that 
experience. I know they have given me these stories to tell for one 
simple reason: because they pray and they hope and they dream that 
giving me these stories may change the outcome for some other family.
  I am going to start by talking about these wonderful women--these 
beautiful women. Up at the far right-hand corner with her beautiful 
baby is Stella Marie Trottier-Graves. Stella Marie was born and grew up 
in Belcourt, ND, and was a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of 
Chippewa. She spent many years traveling the world with her husband, 
who served in the U.S. Air Force, and their three children. The family 
lived in Florida, Germany, Japan, and Arizona. Everywhere they went, 
Stella quickly made friends and proudly shared her Chippewa culture. 
She was loved and adored by all who met her for living an adventurous 
and fearless life.
  In July 2009, Stella and her family moved back to Belcourt, ND, and 
she started to attend Turtle Mountain Community College. On September 
16, 2010, Stella and her cousin were at the local bar when she decided 
to stay behind with other people they knew. According to witnesses, 
Stella left with another couple to continue the evening out.
  Stella's body was later found in a male Tribal member's pickup in an 
open field on the reservation. It wasn't until 13 days later that the 
family was officially notified by law enforcement of Stella's death.
  Throughout the investigation, there were a lot of rumors and 
misinformation, which made it difficult to find the murderer or the 
murderers. People who were with Stella the night of her death said that 
they were never questioned, and information provided was never followed 
up on. No one has ever been charged or convicted for this murder, and 
the last hours of Stella's life remain unknown.
  Stella was an incredible woman who was loved by all who knew her. Her 
family, her children, and her Tribe deserve justice.
  Monica Wickre is pictured here with those beautiful earrings and the 
red

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shirt. Monica was a 42-year-old mother of three who was born and raised 
in Belcourt on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa reservation and 
lived near Aberdeen, SD.
  After a night out with friends on April 7, 1993, Monica never 
returned home. Her relatives grew concerned when they had not heard 
from or seen Monica for several days. Eventually, the family filed a 
missing persons report and started to talk to friends and neighbors. 
The detective assigned to the case worked closely with the community 
and the family and assured them he was working diligently on this case.
  In June of that year, a canoeist found Monica's badly decomposed body 
in the James River outside Aberdeen. Throughout the next several years, 
new detectives were assigned to the case, each having to basically 
start over and work with limited notes, interviews, and evidence from 
the previous investigators. A couple of times, the police told the 
family that they had a suspect or were close to arresting someone for 
Monica's murder, but there was never enough information to charge the 
suspect. This has resulted in nearly 25 years of heartache for Monica's 
family and her friends.
  Monica's family wants justice for their daughter, sister, and mother, 
and they all want closure. Although the case is no longer active, the 
family continues to bring awareness about Monica's case in the hope 
that someone will come forward with information that will, in fact, 
help solve it.

  Monica Lisa Two Eagle is the woman with the dark hair in the floral 
print shirt. She was a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe and one of 14 
children. She was kind, caring, and athletic. In the winter of 1979, 
Phil Two Eagle saw his sister Mona Lisa, who was in her early twenties, 
leave the siblings' house and get into a red-and-white pickup with a 
couple of men. Mona Lisa never returned.
  In the following days, the family and local law enforcement searched 
for her on horseback. Taking it upon themselves, they searched for her 
on horseback. About 2 weeks after she went missing, Mona Lisa's father 
and brother found her frozen in a pasture near their home. She had been 
beaten, possibly raped, and left alone in a blizzard. Rumors ran wild 
that family and law enforcement tried to solve the crime, but, even to 
this day, no one was ever convicted or even charged. The two men who 
were last seen with Mona Lisa all those years ago are still running 
free, while the family lives every day with the lack of justice.
  Lakota Rae Renville, the woman in the black-and-white photo, is the 
last victim I want to talk about. I want to thank her family, who are 
here today and who have honored me and trusted me with her memory. I 
want to help them understand how grateful I am, but I also want them to 
know that sharing her story will help raise awareness about the crimes 
of missing and murdered indigenous people.
  Lakota was a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Bands of North 
and South Dakota, who, despite being shy and reserved, had a solid 
group of friends who supported her and even helped her excel in school. 
After graduation, Lakota spent time taking care of her family, 
especially her nieces and nephews.
  In 2005 Lakota met a man online and unexpectedly relocated to 
Missouri, unbeknownst to her family. With most details still unknown 12 
years later, the family is left with more questions than answers. What 
they do know is that she was forced into sex trafficking and 
manipulated against her will.
  In October of 2005, Lakota's family was called and told that her body 
was found badly beaten, wrapped in carpet padding and a blanket in an 
open gravel pit in Missouri. Local investigators brought in and 
subsequently let go dozens of suspects and, to this day, have not 
brought her murderer to justice.
  Lakota was never given a chance to become a mother or pursue that 
bright future that surely lay ahead of her. She was robbed of a life 
she had yet to experience, a life that was certain to be filled with 
love from her family and deep appreciation from her family.
  These are not isolated cases. This goes on every day in America.
  I want to make a point of how discouraging it, so many times, when 
you see events unfolding where it may be that a young girl goes missing 
in a Caribbean island and the world is turned upside down looking for 
her or when we hear a story of someone who comes from maybe a more 
affluent and wealthy family who goes missing and we turn over every 
stone to find them. Yet that is not the story for very many indigenous 
women.
  When you look at the importance of what we do today, probably the 
most important thing we can do is to tell these stories, and from 
telling these stories we have an opportunity to really change. We can't 
ignore that frequently for Native people, they are not wrong to believe 
that they are the forgotten people of this country. Way too often, the 
first Americans become the last Americans.
  Under the Savanna's Act, the Attorney General, in cooperation with 
the Secretary of the Interior, must consult with the Tribes on how to 
improve Tribal access to Federal criminal information databases, such 
as the National Crime Information Center and the National Missing and 
Unidentified Persons System. We need to ensure that Tribal law 
enforcement has up-to-date information on missing Native women and 
better communication--in fact, essential--with Federal, State, and 
local law enforcement agencies and Tribal law enforcement agencies so 
cases like the ones you have heard of today don't go unnoticed or 
uninvestigated.
  Jurisdictional issues are a huge barrier in Indian Country to 
responding to and prosecuting crimes committed on Tribal lands. 
Standardized protocols must be established in order to give a quicker 
response to Native women going missing. The complexity of jurisdiction 
on Tribal lands can slow down an investigation, but it is not an 
excuse. It can waste crucial time at the beginning of an investigation 
or a case, but it is not an excuse. If we do not act rapidly, we know 
we lose precious time to prevent homicides and to bring a woman safely 
home and help apprehend the perpetrators.
  In one case study alone done by the National Institute of Justice, 97 
percent of Native women experience violence by a non-Native 
perpetrator. This number emphasizes what I have long said, that 
historical trauma is a major factor of violence against Native women, 
and perpetrators feel that Tribal lands give them a free pass from the 
law. This can no longer be tolerated, and jurisdictional issues must be 
addressed. It cannot be the excuse for inaction.
  Although we don't know the total number of missing and murdered 
Native women, it is clear, from all of the stories and from the 
statistics that we do have, that the rates at which Native American 
women experience violence is intrinsically related to the likelihood of 
their going missing, being murdered, and forced into sex trafficking.
  Here are just some of the statistics collected by the National 
Institute of Justice, the Government Accountability Office, and the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding violence against 
Native women. In 2016, 5,712 cases of missing Native women were 
reported to the National Crime Information Center, and 125 of those 
cases were in my State of Dakota alone. On some reservations, Native 
women are murdered at more than 10 times the national average. I want 
to repeat that. On some reservations, Native women are murdered at more 
than 10 times the national average.
  American Indians and Alaskan Natives are two times more likely to 
experience rape or sexual assault compared to all other races.
  In 2010, we found that the U.S. attorneys declined to prosecute 
nearly 52 percent of violent crime that occurred in Indian Country. 
Homicide is the third leading cause of death among American Indians and 
Alaskan Native women between 10 and 24 years old.
  These high rates of violence, including domestic violence, sex 
assault, and human trafficking, must stop. We must work together to 
combat domestic violence and human trafficking in Indian Country.
  Just last week, the Indian Affairs Committee held a hearing to 
discuss the lack of services provided for Indian Country regarding the 
horrific acts of violence and human trafficking of Native women. Just 
yesterday, while questioning one of the officials at the Department of 
the Interior about the need to do training in human trafficking at our 
casinos, he simply said:

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I thought you were going to ask me about Indian gaming. I quickly said: 
I am asking you about Indian gaming because all of this works together.
  If we do not work together in every institution of the Federal 
Government, in every institution of the State government, and in every 
institution of Tribal government, we will never make progress in 
providing the security that we have in this building, and the security 
that we enjoy as White women will never be realized for women living on 
the reservation in Indian Country. We cannot let this continue.
  There are countless more stories like Savanna's, Stella's, Mona 
Lisa's, Monica's, and Lakota's that we will never know. It is time for 
Congress to recognize this epidemic and take action to prevent these 
stories and find out just how many stories there really are. It is time 
to give voice to these voiceless women. It is time to bring their 
perpetrators to justice and give a voice to the families who are 
struggling even today--sometimes decades later--to understand how this 
can happen in America. They seem to be second-class citizens.
  I think that is what we know. I am working with very many of my 
colleagues on the other side. This isn't a partisan issue.
  I have been joined by my wonderful colleague from the great State of 
Alaska. I think the first time we ever met, this was the topic of 
conversation: What is the security for Indian children, security for 
Indian women, and Alaskan Native women? We knew because both of us have 
traveled extensively in our States and spent a lot of time in the 
indigenous populations.
  When family members ask us why this is happening, we frequently don't 
have an answer.
  I know that in my State jurisdictional issues provide some barriers 
to actually getting this done, but that is an excuse. We need to do 
better.
  With that, I want to yield the floor to my wonderful colleague from 
the great State of Alaska, who once again is joining me and leading her 
side of the aisle to bring attention to these issues.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I want to acknowledge and thank the 
Senator from North Dakota. She has been a champion for the Native 
people, the indigenous people around the country, including in my State 
of Alaska. Whether it is working to address the issues related to 
childhood trauma, which so many of our young Native children face, or 
the issues relating to domestic violence, sexual assault, and human 
trafficking--these are scourges that we see directed, unfortunately, at 
so many of our Native women in the State of Alaska, in the State of 
North Dakota, and around the country.
  She has cited the statistics. I think sometimes we just get numb by 
the statistics. When you are told that you are four times the national 
average, that sounds bad. But what does that mean? When you put a face 
to it, when you hear the tragedy repeated through the stories, these 
are not just statistics that we are speaking of. These are real women. 
These are our sisters. These are our neighbors. These are our friends, 
and these are human beings who deserve to be respected in their lives 
but also respected in other tragic deaths. How we work to address these 
difficult issues needs to be a focus and a priority for us.
  So I appreciate what the Senator from North Dakota is doing in 
bringing attention to our Nation's lackluster--and that is kind of a 
polite term here--response to the tragedy of missing and murdered 
Native women and girls.
  I am proud to lend my voice to the proposition that Congress, in the 
exercise of our trust responsibility to our Native peoples, has a 
responsibility to do more. You would think that that trust 
responsibility demands us to be paying even closer attention, and yet 
it seems that we just withdraw from that, that that responsibility is 
not acknowledged.
  Now, it is not often here in the United States that we benchmark our 
treatment of indigenous peoples against Canada, but in this case, there 
is actually a compelling difference between Canada's national response 
to the tragedy of missing and murdered Native women and our seeming 
indifference here in the United States.
  Down in southeastern Alaska, right across on the Canadian side, lies 
a town called Prince Rupert. It is in British Columbia. The Alaskan 
ferry comes in from Washington State and stops in Prince Rupert and 
then moves into Alaska. Prince Rupert is also the terminus of Highway 
16, and the locals refer to Highway 16 as the ``Highway of Tears.'' 
They refer to it as the ``Highway of Tears'' because it is a road on 
which Native women and girls have vanished for decades now. The 
question is, How many? Who is disappearing? Some would say as few as 12 
and perhaps as many as 43. CBS News devoted a segment of its news 
magazine show ``48 Hours'' to the Highway of Tears.
  Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed 54 million Canadian 
dollars to a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous 
women and girls. I will admit that there is some controversy over 
whether the national inquiry is actually fulfilling its mission, but my 
point here is that Canada stepped up. They have acknowledged that this 
is an issue, that this is a problem, and they have responded to the 
disproportionate victimization of Native women and girls, and they have 
done so in a tangible way. Here in the United States, as my friend and 
colleague has noted, we are more than a bit late in acknowledging that 
the problem even exists.
  Earlier this year, the Senators from Montana--both Senator Daines and 
Senator Tester--were successful in designating May 5, 2017, through a 
resolution, as the National Day of Awareness on Missing and Murdered 
Native Women and Girls. The resolution recites that some Tribal 
communities face murder rates that are 10 times the national average, 
as Senator Heitkamp has noted. According to the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention, homicide was the third leading cause of death 
among Native women between the ages of 10 and 24 years and the fifth 
leading cause of death for Alaska Native women between 25 and 34 years 
of age. So we are trying to raise attention and awareness. We are 
trying to shine a spotlight on this issue.
  I certainly think it is high time that Federal law enforcement answer 
the question, Why? Why is the murder rate for Native women so high, and 
why are we not addressing it in a comprehensive fashion? The Senator 
from North Dakota has pointed out that in many areas, jurisdictional 
issues are at play, and I agree. That is not an excuse. We acknowledge 
that we have challenges with jurisdictions. Let's figure this out. 
Women are disappearing and dying.
  In Alaska, it is not so much jurisdictional issues; it is the fact 
that in far too many of our communities, we lack any law enforcement 
presence. We might have a VPSO--a village safety police officer--but 
they are not armed. They are very limited in terms of their ability to 
provide for levels of enforcement. More frustrating than so much of 
that is that women who have been victimized feel as though reporting 
doesn't get them anywhere because there is no follow-through. There is 
no prosecution. There has been no effort that will allow them to have 
any level of recourse, much less justice, visited upon them.
  As we talk about these issues of jurisdiction and law enforcement and 
the rates that we see, I think we need to be clear that the discussion 
today--the call for justice--is not driven by statistics and rates. It 
is driven by their faces. It is driven by the loss of people's 
daughters, people's siblings, people's friends, including Savannah and 
Stella and Nicole and Mona Lisa. These are all real people, real women 
with names, with faces, with families.
  In Alaska, the face we so often associate with the lack of progress 
when it comes to addressing the issue of missing and murdered Native 
women is the face of Sophie Sergie. This year marks the 24th 
anniversary of the death of Sophie Sergie from Pitkas Point. This is a 
Yup'ik village in southwest Alaska.
  On August 26 of 1993, Sophie was found dead in the women's bathroom 
dorm on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. She was raped. She 
was shot dead. It is believed that her body remained in that bathroom 
for some 13 hours before it was found. The murder weapon was never 
recovered. That case is still a cold case 24 years later. But we don't 
forget Sophie Sergie, just as

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we don't forget the women the Senator from North Dakota has shared 
stories about. We cannot forget these women.
  Unlike the tragedies along the Highway of Tears, we really don't know 
how many Native women and girls have gone missing and murdered. That is 
a big part of the problem. But I will tell my colleagues that if you 
ask advocates for Native women, the answer comes back: It is no secret. 
We all know somebody. We all know somebody who has gone missing, 
somebody who has been murdered.
  That was the testimony of Tammy Jerue. She is the executive director 
for the Alaska Native Women's Resource Center, and she testified before 
a congressional briefing last February. Tammy told the briefing that 
her organization has documented as many as 50 names of women. When we 
think about it, numbers on that order were significant enough for Prime 
Minister Trudeau to commission a national inquiry. So it causes us to 
ask the question, What about us? What number do we have to get to 
before there is a call to action, before we wake up and say: This is 
not acceptable. This is not acceptable that our Native women are 
disappearing, are being murdered.
  Native women are asking why Federal law enforcement has no protocol 
for addressing the crisis in our Indian Country, why there is a lack of 
coordination among criminal justice agencies in this country to set 
aside the jurisdictional challenges and investigate these tragedies in 
an effective manner, and why there is a lack of victim services.
  In the Indian Affairs Committee, we had a hearing on human 
trafficking, sex trafficking. It was pretty revealing about the lack of 
victim services--specific--that could be there to help our Native 
victims. Right now, the families of missing and murdered Native women 
in Alaska have to cover the cost of a traditional burial. They have to 
cover the cost of immediate long-term counseling, and so many other 
expenses they can't afford. We maintain a victims of crime fund here in 
this country to address these sorts of costs, but there is no dedicated 
Tribal funding stream. We have had some pretty bipartisan efforts here 
in the Senate to establish one, but we haven't even been able to do 
that bare minimum to provide for the victims.
  The issue we are discussing today is tragic and frustrating. It is 
depressing. But to remain silent is to truly further marginalize Native 
women and girls, and that is unacceptable. Perhaps we are not going to 
devote tens of millions of dollars to a national inquiry; However, it 
is high time that we acknowledge a problem that has failed to make 
headlines in this country, because you first have to acknowledge that a 
problem exists to make headway in addressing that problem.
  So, again, I thank the Senator from North Dakota for her strong and 
steadfast advocacy on behalf of not only our Native women but our 
Native children, our indigenous peoples across this country. I 
appreciate all that is being done, and I look forward to working with 
her again as we try to shine a brighter light on a very tragic 
situation.
                                 ______