U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

36–338 PDF WASHINGTON : 2019

S. HRG. 115–611 

MISSING AND MURDERED: CONFRONTING THE 

SILENT CRISIS IN INDIAN COUNTRY 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

DECEMBER 12, 2018 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs 

( 

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS 

JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota, Chairman 

TOM UDALL, New Mexico, Vice Chairman 

JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming 

LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska 

JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma 

STEVE DAINES, Montana 

MIKE CRAPO, Idaho 

JERRY MORAN, Kansas 

JON KYL, Arizona 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington 

JON TESTER, Montana, 

BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, Nevada 

TINA SMITH, Minnesota 

T. MICHAEL ANDREWS, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

JENNIFER ROMERO, Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hearing held on December 12, 2018 ...................................................................... 1 

Statement of Senator Barrasso ............................................................................... 3 

Statement of Senator Cantwell .............................................................................. 9 

Statement of Senator Cortez Masto ....................................................................... 26 

Statement of Senator Daines .................................................................................. 8 

Statement of Senator Heitkamp ............................................................................. 7 

Statement of Senator Hoeven ................................................................................. 1 

Statement of Senator Murkowski ........................................................................... 5 

Statement of Senator Smith ................................................................................... 31 

Statement of Senator Tester ................................................................................... 4 

Statement of Senator Udall .................................................................................... 2 

WITNESSES

Addington, Charles, Director, Office of Justice Services, Bureau of Indian 

Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior ............................................................ 9 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 11 

Alexander, Patricia, Co-Chair, Violence Against Women Task Force, Central 

Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska ...................................... 43 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 45 

Crotty, Hon. Amber, Delegate, Navajo Nation Council ........................................ 34 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 36 

Johnson, Robert, Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division, Federal 

Bureau of Investigations, U.S. Department of Justice ..................................... 13 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 13 

LaPorte, Gerald, Director, Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences, National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice .................................... 15 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 17 

Loring-Heavy Runner, Kimberly, Missoula, MT ................................................... 50 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 52 

APPENDIX

Response to written questions submitted by Hon. Catherine Cortez Masto 

to Patricia Alexander ........................................................................................... 68 

Response to written questions submitted by Hon. Tom Udall to: 

Patricia Alexander ............................................................................................ 67 

Kimberly Loring-Heavy Runner ...................................................................... 67 

(1) 

MISSING AND MURDERED: CONFRONTING 

THE SILENT CRISIS IN INDIAN COUNTRY 

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2018 

U.S. SENATE, 

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS, 

Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:49 p.m. in room 

628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John Hoeven, 

Chairman of the Committee, presiding. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN HOEVEN, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA 

The CHAIRMAN. Good afternoon. We will call the hearing to 

order. Thank you for coming today. 

Today, the Committee will hold its last oversight hearing this 

Congress on the very important topic of missing and murdered individuals in Indian Country. This matter involves Indian children, 

youth, men and women, and affects tribal communities across the 

Country. 

The Departments of Justice and the Interior are required to investigate and prosecute homicides committed against or by Indians 

on tribal lands. However, it is less clear who has the responsibility 

for investigating cases of missing indigenous individuals. This lack 

of clarity has left tribes and families unsure of who to call for help, 

and has contributed to a lack of knowledge on the scope of the 

problem. Families want justice and closure and tribal leaders want 

answers and support. 

During this Congress, the Committee has held oversight and legislative hearings related to the issue of public safety, law enforcement, victim services and human trafficking in Indian Country. 

The Committee has also worked to enhance public safety through 

initiatives such as the Ashlynne Mike Amber Alert in Indian Country Act, which is now public law; S. 1953, the Tribal Law and 

Order Act Reauthorization; S. 1870, the Securing Urgent Resources 

Vital to Indian Victim Empowerment, or SURVIVE Act; S. 1942, 

Savanna’s Act; S. Resolution 401, National Day of Awareness for 

Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls; and the Commissioning of GAO Oversight on Human Trafficking of Native Americans. 

This Committee has made it a priority to improve public safety 

in Indian Country. There are many other initiatives that we can 

discuss. However, there is much more work to be done. 

2 

From the data received from the Department of Justice, American Indian and Alaska Natives experience some of the highest victimization rates when compared to other population groups. It is 

past time that we understand the scope of the problem and work 

toward viable solutions. 

Today we will hear from multiple Federal agencies on how they 

are working to better handle cases of missing and murdered individuals. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today. I want 

to thank each of them for being here, especially those joining us 

from the Department of Justice, FBI, National Institute of Justice, 

Department of Interior and others. It is important for Indian Country to hear from you. 

Before we turn to their testimony, I want to ask Vice Chairman 

Udall for his opening statement. 

STATEMENT OF HON. TOM UDALL, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW MEXICO 

Senator UDALL. Thank you so much, Chairman Hoeven, for holding this oversight hearing on missing and murdered indigenous 

people. Today’s hearing is an important step toward fully understand the scope and working to address the crisis in Indian Country. 

To begin with, I would like to extend a special welcome to one 

of our witnesses, Navajo National Council Delegate, Amber Crotty. 

Delegate Crotty has been and continues to be a great advocate for 

the Navajo Nation and for Native women. Thanks to you and each 

of the witnesses for joining us on such an important discussion. 

I would also like to acknowledge Deb Haaland of New Mexico’s 

Laguna Pueblo, who also happens to be Representative-Elect for 

New Mexico’s First Congressional District, and who was just appointed to the House Democratic Steering Committee. I know Deb 

will bring her commitment to ending violence against Native 

women with her to D.C. next Congress, and I look forward to working with Deb and other members of the New Mexico delegation on 

ending the MMIW crisis and making Indian Country safer. They 

are both sitting there right in the front row. Deb is on the front 

row and Amber is right next to her there. 

In the 115th Congress, this Committee has held a number of 

oversight hearings on Federal law enforcement efforts and crime 

responses in Indian Country, including human trafficking and juvenile justice. We have also received testimony on legislation, including Senator Hoeven’s SURVIVE Act, and Senator Heitkamp’s Savanna’s Act, both of which would go a long way toward providing 

tribes the tools necessary to improve tribal-State-Federal law enforcement coordination. 

We learned from these hearings that three core issues, poor coordination, limited data and insufficient resources are slowing 

progress in all aspects of improving tribal public safety. For the 

MMIW crisis in particular, these issues are unfortunately no different. Poor coordination strains the resources of already over-extended law enforcement agencies. Under-resourced MMIW responses, in turn, have a negative effect on coordination efforts and 

the ability to gather accurate data. Limited-to-zero data reporting 

3 

means communities won’t know where to target resources, and lack 

of coordination will continue unabated. 

All three issues pose barriers and lead to fewer answers, fewer 

solved cases and fewer Native families seeing justice served. And 

most notably, all three hinder the Federal Government’s obligation 

to meet its trust and treaty obligations to tribes. 

It is absolutely crucial we address these gaps for missing and 

murdered indigenous women, and improve Federal policies to make 

better progress. Today’s hearing will the Committee’s last of the 

115th Congress. It is an opportunity to refocus on an area that has 

drawn much of the Committee’s attention over the last two years, 

public safety and violence against Native women. 

With three hearings, a listening session and numerous bills on 

these topics, we have seen this Committee’s dedication to making 

every member of every Native community safer. Despite this work, 

and this should not be a surprise to anyone, we will hear the witnesses today calling on the Committee to do more. No ifs, ands, 

buts about it, we must do more. 

Our work this Congress has been important. But we need to redouble our efforts and our commitment to all the tribal leaders and 

stakeholders here today and listening in. Thank you for your work 

and advocacy on these very important issues. Congress needs to 

hear directly from those undertaking the daily work at the grass 

roots level to combat violence against Native women. We must continue to have MMIW a front and center issue. Your contributions 

here today help strengthen the call to do just that. 

And Mr. Chairman, thank you once again for holding this hearing. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Vice Chairman Udall. Senator 

Barrasso. 

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BARRASSO, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM WYOMING 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for an 

opportunity to say a few words before we hear from our witnesses 

today. I appreciate very much your holding a hearing on this very 

important topic. 

Mr. Chairman, all of us on this Committee are painfully aware 

of the impact that violence has in tribal communities all across the 

Country. In 2016, the Department of Justice issued a report that 

said that four out of five American Indian and Alaska Native men 

and women have experienced violence at least once. 

Last September, this Committee held a hearing on two GAO reports on human trafficking of Native Americans. Senator Tester 

and I requested the reports when we were chairman and vice chairman of this Committee, because there was a complete lack of information related to human trafficking impacts in Indian Country. 

That GAO report showed that of 6,100 investigations, and 1,000 

prosecutions of human trafficking in the United States during the 

years 2013 to 2016, only 14 of the investigations and only two of 

the Federal prosecutions involved an American Indian or Alaska 

Native individual. 

As I said during that hearing last September, the fact that there 

were so few cases involving Indian Country didn’t tell me that 

4 

human trafficking was not a problem. Instead, it seemed obvious 

to me that the crimes are significantly under-reported, under-investigated and under-prosecuted. Seems the same as the case here. 

Ms. Loring-Heavy Runner, I appreciate your being with us here 

today to share your story, which is your sister’s story. I am so sorry 

for the pain you have had to endure as you continue to search for 

your sister. Stories like Ashley’s are all too common. The missing 

and murdered are sisters, fathers, mothers, sons; the losses are 

horrific. That they are not represented in the data is also horrific. 

This Committee has undertaken a number of efforts to ensure 

tribes have access to Federal data bases and are able to coordinate 

with Federal officials. As recent cases have shown us, often we do 

not have the data to understand the scope of the effect that violent 

crime has in Indian Country because the data does not paint a 

clear or accurate picture of tribal affiliation. 

Understanding the scope of the problem is just the first step. As 

a Committee and as a community, we must have this information 

so we can accurately identify risk factors that exacerbate violent 

crime in tribal communities. 

Not long ago, this Committee discussed opioid addiction and addiction prevention measures. In that hearing, I raised the need to 

work together as communities to address addiction. I think the 

same applies when discussing violent crime. Commitment at the 

community level is key to successful coordination of Federal, State 

and tribal tools. 

I look forward to hearing from you, Ms. Alexander, about your 

experience in Alaska, and how your work can help us here today. 

Mr. Chairman, no family should have to wonder whether their 

loved one will ever be found. And in the horrible cases where a 

loved one becomes a victim of violent crime, they should be represented in the statistics and data sets that will help shape policy 

to help prevent future losses. 

I want to thank each of our witnesses today for their commitment to public safety in Indian Country and their work to provide 

answers to so many families. I look forward to hearing the suggestions in how we can work better together. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Tester. 

STATEMENT OF HON. JON TESTER, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA 

Senator TESTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you 

and the ranking member for holding this hearing today on the 

MMIW. It is critically important. 

I want to also thank Senator Heitkamp for bringing this issue up 

early in this Congress, and our leadership here is very, very much 

appreciated. 

We are here today because we have an epidemic on our hands. 

Native Americans in Montana and across this Country are dealing 

with violence at a much higher rate than the rest of the population. 

Too much violence has gone unreported, and when that violence 

has been reported, it has gone unchallenged, with no resolution. 

This must change. It deserves this Committee’s full attention. I 

think it deserves Congress’ full attention. 

5 

I met with folks in Missoula earlier this year. One of those folks 

is Briana Lamb, a strong local advocate. She is with us here today. 

They told me that since the first of the year, almost two dozen Native Americans have gone missing in Montana alone. At that time, 

only one had been found. There is more than that has been missing 

now at this date. I think only two have been found. One has 

passed, one had been killed and the other was found alive. 

You cannot step foot in Indian Country without hearing a heartbreaking story about this growing problem. That is why we are 

here today. We need to know exactly what is happening and exactly what can happen to solve this problem. Because these are 

people, these are families, these are communities that our law enforcement agencies need to look out for. 

Ms. Loring-Heavy Runner, you have been talked about all day 

today. Thank you for being here. I appreciate your advocacy and 

hopefully the issue with your sister can be resolved in a very, very 

positive way. But the fact is right now, there are way too many unknowns in that particular case. You know that better than anybody. 

We have legislation to pass, and we can do that to help with this 

epidemic. But really, this first panel’s going to be critically important. Because number one, I want to know if you think there is a 

problem, number two, what can we do to solve the problem. Because I am telling you, 24 doesn’t sound like a lot, but in a State 

of a million people, if you put that out to the population, that 

would be a ton of folks. We have to find a solution to this. It simply 

cannot go on as it has gone on for the last number of years. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Murkowski. 

STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA 

Senator MURKOWSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Vice Chairman Udall. Thank you for scheduling this very, very important 

hearing to address the issue of missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives. To Senator Heitkamp, I know that this 

is probably your last hearing before this great Committee. I want 

to thank you for your work on the Committee, but more importantly, for the work that you have done in leading all of on this 

very important issue of how we do better by our Native women. 

The threats to their safety, the threats to their families, and then 

knowing when some awful, awful tragedy befalls them that oftentimes the effort to bring perpetrators to justice, or to even find out 

what happened in the matter is just left unattended. So it is tragedy compounded on tragedy. So thank you for raising the awareness. You know that your work is not done, you know that we will 

all be working with you as we pay attention to these critical, critical issues. 

I want to acknowledge all those who are with us on both panels. 

I want to particularly welcome our witness from Alaska, Patricia 

Alexander. She is Tlingit, she is from Sitka, Alaska. She is co-chair 

of the Violence Against Women Task Force of the Central Council 

of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. As Pat will probably 

share in her testimony, Tlingit Haida is a federally-recognized tribal government in Alaska. It has over, I think it is about 30,000 citiVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK
6 

zens within. You serve 20 villages and communities. And this is 

spread out over an area of 43,000 miles. This is roughly the size 

of the State of Louisiana. 

So it is big, it is difficult to get around. There are no roads between the communities. You are either there by boat or by airplane. The reality is, when there is an emergency, it really is the 

State troopers that may be miles and miles away, but those are air 

miles, those are boat miles. And the ability to respond in these 

emergency situations is very, very limited. 

I am reminded of the tragic death of young woman by the name 

of Mackenzie Howard. Mackenzie was found murdered in the small 

community, southeastern community of Kake. Kake has about 500 

people in it right now. Mackenzie was 13 years old when she was 

found murdered in the church doorway, the church doorway there 

of the village. Kake did not have law enforcement presence at the 

time, so the Kake tribal president, without any badge, without any 

real jurisdiction, had to post volunteers to guard the body, because 

it was a crime scene. Guard the body until the State troopers came. 

The State troopers came the following day. For 16 hours, in a 

small village, to have to stand guard over the body of a 13-year old 

girl who has been murdered, this shocks a community. It shocks a 

people. But that was what was necessary in order to collect the 

body and the evidence, so that there could be a case made going 

forward. 

In Alaska, we have what we call VPSOs, village public safety officers. They are often the first and really the only responder in the 

communities. The harsh reality is that in communities like Kake 

all over the State, we have numerous rural communities that are 

hundreds of miles away from the nearest community with a VPSO 

or a member of law enforcement. 

You compound that with the fact that many of these communities don’t have a 911 service to speak of. In the event that you 

do, if you call 911 or local law enforcement, you are likely to get 

an answering machine if you get anything at all. So these are some 

things that we take for granted back here in a city, in our larger 

communities. But that is not the reality of far too many in a state 

that I represent. 

I was in the community of Kotzebue, a large Native community 

up in northwest Alaska. I was there in the fall to be at a memorial 

service for a ten-year old girl, Ashley Johnson-Barr, who had been 

abducted and murdered. Her remains were found just outside of 

the community of Kotzebue. But it was a multi-day community 

search to find her. Being there for her funeral was just a very stark 

reminder to me that these incidents, these are not statistics. These 

are children, these are young women, these are friends, these are 

sisters, daughters, neighbors. You are right, Senator Tester, we 

have to be doing more. We all know that. 

So the effort to shine the light on this is important. But we kind 

of know that it is bad out there. So let’s figure out how we stop 

the bad and take action. Because too many children are those that 

are among the missing. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate it. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Heitkamp. 

7 

STATEMENT OF HON. HEIDI HEITKAMP, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA 

Senator HEITKAMP. Lisa is absolutely right. This is not to discover if we have a problem, but to discover the extent of the problem, which as we know from a lot of evidence and a lot of discussion with people in Indian Country, when on Standing Rock, two 

friends can sit down and come up with 25 names. When you talk 

to the victim service people at Mandan Hidatsa and Arikara Nation 

and she knows just within 18 months five women who were killed 

and murdered, within 18 months. I would just suggest to you, that 

is a population of about 2,400 women. Think about the percentage 

homicide rate. 

So we know we have a problem. The question is, are we willing 

to stand up and do something about it? Savanna’s Act, as we said 

during the markup, when we advanced it, is only that first step. 

It is only as good as you guys. It is only as good as your commitment to solving this problem, which is why we are in this hearing. 

I want to say just frankly, I just did a Skype with an amazing 

12th grade senior class, well, that high school. And a young woman 

said, ‘‘How is it going with Savanna’s Act?’’ Young women and Indian people across the Country are watching us. They want to 

know that we are listening, that we are going to do something. 

So the purpose of this hearing is not to talk about whether we 

have a problem. It is to talk about what you are going to do about 

it. Because it has been ignored too long, and please, don’t say you 

share our concern, because we need to see action. We need to see 

commitment. We need to see that this is going to be your top priority. 

I have said this over and over again, and I will make this my 

last comment. You are the cop on the beat for major crimes in my 

State and Indian Country. You are the cop on the beat. When these 

crimes go uninvestigated, when they go unsolved for long, long periods of time or ignored for long, long periods of time, that is your 

failure. It is not the community’s failure, it is your failure. 

And no cop and no law enforcement official wants to have unsolved cases. Just because people have been marginalized historically does not mean that we are going to tolerate this going forward. 

So I want to thank the chairman and the vice chairman for making this priority. I know many of you, and I know what is in your 

heart. But you need to tell us if you need more resources. You need 

to tell us. Because you are the point of accountability. 

So I look forward to working with all of you in some other capacity as we move this forward. I again thank everyone for the attention. 

But I will tell you, there is a lot of people in this room that the 

eyes of Indian men and women in Indian Country are on you. And 

they are on us to do something about this problem. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Daines. 

8 

STATEMENT OF HON. STEVE DAINES, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA 

Senator DAINES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

When we think about Indian Country in Montana, we think 

about the beauty, the vibrant culture, and tragically the challenge 

of missing and murdered Native and indigenous women that we 

will talk about here today. That is why I requested this hearing 

several weeks ago. 

I have recommended we hear directly from Montanans like Kimberly Loring-Heavy Runner about the tragedy they are facing. Kimberly is sitting right here, in fact, next to her cousin, Alyssa, as 

well. They were in my office yesterday. Thank you for the discussion that we had yesterday, talking about specifically the case and 

frankly, a lot of dropped balls in the investigation. 

Native American women face murder rates more than ten times 

the national average murder rates. If these numbers were seen in 

any other community, there would be far greater public outcry. For 

too long, the stories of these women and girls has gone unheard. 

We are going to hear about it today. 

Today, we are going to hear first-hand accounts on the widespread effect this epidemic is having on our tribal communities and 

as mentioned, a first-hand account from Kimberly Loring-Heavy 

Runner about her sister, Ashley, still missing from June of 2017. 

Her case is still unresolved despite multiple leads and evidence. 

This year, we passed a resolution—I introduce it every year—to 

make May 5th a national day of awareness of missing and murdered Native women and girls. Why May 5th? It is May 5th because that is the birthday of Hanna Harris from the Northern 

Cheyenne Reservation, northern Cheyenne Tribe. Hanna was 21 

years old with a 10-month old baby when she was murdered. May 

5th is her birthday. 

I remember when we launched this, I was in Lame Deer on the 

Northern Cheyenne Reservation, marching with Hanna Harris’ 

mom. Nobody should have to bury a daughter. Nobody should have 

to have a little grandbaby to raise because their mother was murdered. 

In this Congress, we have also passed the reauthorization of the 

Tribal Law and Order Act and the SURVIVE Act. Both bills will 

help expand access to data and programs in Indian Country to help 

take on this issue. I also introduced the Mitigating Meth Act to 

help fight the substance abuse problems we see in Indian Country. 

One of the contributing factors, I was chatting with Kimberly and 

her cousin Alyssa yesterday. There is no doubt drugs, perhaps 

meth, plays a contributing factor in this tragedy. Many of these 

crimes are drug-related. Meth is driving violent crime across this 

Country, and we see it as a very great problem in Indian Country. 

We must put a stop to these trends. We do all we can to foster 

a safe, thriving Native American community. 

I want to thank the Chairman and the Vice Chairman for holding this hearing. I look forward to today’s discussion. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Cantwell. 

9 

STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CANTWELL, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON 

Senator CANTWELL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know that there 

is a vote on, and I will try to be brief so we can get to the witnesses. I thank my colleagues for their impassioned discussion already about this. I certainly want to thank Senator Heitkamp for 

her leadership. Clearly, her leadership on this Committee, particularly with Savanna’s Act and many other issues related to Indian 

Country, will sorely be missed. I want to thank her for all of that 

leadership. 

We know that one in every five women will experience sexual assault in their lifetime in Indian Country. But that isn’t often highlighted. Native women face many barriers that can prevent the 

perpetrators from being convicted. The Seattle Indian Health 

Board recently released a report that showed just how serious this 

issue is. The report found that nationwide, there are 506 cases of 

murdered or missing Native American women. The report found 

that City of Seattle is the highest in the Nation with the total 

number of missing individuals. But Tacoma was not far down the 

list. 

So this is an issue that the State of Washington, along with my 

colleagues who have already spoken, show that this is an issue 

across the west that many, many people want to see serious action 

to address. It is one of the reasons that not only am I proud to 

sponsor the Savanna’s Act with my colleagues, that will help us in 

improving the reporting, but we need to do something, Mr. Chairman, now, to get this over the goal line in this session. 

I hope that we will make this a priority, and I look forward to 

working with my colleagues on many aspects of this problem, and 

listening to our witnesses today. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Cortez Masto, did you have anything? 

Senator CORTEZ MASTO. No, thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. We will proceed with our witnesses, then. Our 

witnesses today are Mr. Charles Addington, Deputy Associate Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs, office of Justice Services, Washington, D.C. Thank you. Mr. Robert Johnson, Assistant Director of 

the Criminal Investigative Division, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Welcome. Mr. Gerald LaPorte, Director, Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences, National Institute of Justice, Washington, D.C. 

We have a vote on right now, so members will be coming and 

going a little bit. But if you would please proceed with your opening statements, starting with Mr. Addington. 

STATEMENT OF CHARLES ADDINGTON, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF 

JUSTICE SERVICES, BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, U.S. 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Good afternoon, Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall and members of the Committee. 

My name is Charles Addington. I am the Director of the Bureau 

of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services, at the Department of 

the Interior. Thank you for the opportunity to provide a statement 

before this Committee on the crisis of missing persons and murdered victims in Indian Country. More than half of Native AmerVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK
10 

ican women have been sexually assaulted, including over a third 

have been raped during their lifetime, a rate of rape nearly two 

and a half times higher than white women, according to the 2016 

National Institute of Justice study. 

With indigenous women and girls facing alarming levels of violence across the Country, more can be done to support meaningful 

efforts to address the high rates of violence in Indian Country. Although the Violence Against Women and the Tribal Law and Order 

Act have helped bring attention to the high rate of violence and 

have begun to address gaps in law enforcement for tribes and Federal authorities, there remain gaps in data that exacerbate the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women. These challenges 

are present across multiple sectors. They are particularly problematic in the context of criminal justice in which Federal, State, tribal 

and local governments share responsibilities. 

It is important to continue efforts to build accurate data and provide Congress, the public and most importantly, the tribes, with 

the information needed to identify and analyze the criminal justice 

needs in Indian Country. These data gaps impact how law enforcement officials handle or follow up on these cases, predominantly 

due to under-reporting, racial misclassification, potential gender or 

racial bias, and a lack of law enforcement resources required to follow through and close out cases appropriately. 

In 2017, Urban Indian Health Institute surveyed 71 cities across 

the U.S. to collect data on murdered and missing indigenous 

women and girls in urban settings. The Institute’s survey and analysis of the collected data culminated in their 2018 report, Missing 

and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which highlights some 

of the challenges of data collection with respect to American Indian 

and Alaska Natives in urban populations. 

For Indian Country, BIA collects monthly crime statistics from 

tribal and BIA law enforcement programs and submits the information to the Federal Bureau of Information each quarter. The information collected is specific to the data required for the FBI Uniform Crime Report, which currently does not track missing persons 

or domestic violence statistics. 

In light of these significant data collection challenges facing 

missing and murdered indigenous persons, BIA has partnered with 

the DOJ’s Missing and Unidentified Persons system, a program of 

the National Institute of Justice to create new data fields in their 

system to specifically capture tribal affiliation data. The new fields 

are expected to be operational after January 1st, 2019. This will assist law enforcement agencies across the jurisdictions with tracking 

and investigating missing persons throughout the Country. 

Moving forward, better interagency coordination and cooperation 

is needed to improve the integrity of data collection. While it widely believe that there may be a correlation between opioid and other 

narcotic abuse and human trafficking, domestic violence and missing and murdered indigenous women, without sufficient data it is 

difficult to draw solid conclusions. Federal agencies must develop 

concrete solutions to improve agency data collection to ensure these 

crimes are being tracked and investigated appropriately, so that 

any trends can be properly identified and addressed. 

11 

1 National Institute of Justice, Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women 

and Men. 

For example, adding these types of incidents to the data collection by DOJ and BIA in making the data submissions mandatory 

from all law enforcement agencies. This would be a great start to 

addressing the data collecting problem. 

BIA has also begun efforts to raise awareness and provide training to Indian Country law enforcement personnel. In January 2018, 

the BIA–Indian Police Academy began discussions with the National Criminal Justice Training Center on collaborating to create 

joint training programs for cold case investigations, long-term missing investigations and child abduction investigations for use 

throughout Indian Country. 

To specifically address the missing person aspect of this issue, 

earlier this year, BIA–Indian Police Academy launched human 

trafficking courses in the Indian Country Police Officer training 

program, the Basic Police Officer Bridge Training Program and the 

Indian Country Criminal Investigative Program. In February, 

2018, the National Criminal Justice Training Center and the BIA– 

Police Academy identified dates and locations for three pilot training programs on advance cold cases, long-term missing investigations in Montana and North Dakota. The three training programs 

were held at the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana and Three Affiliated 

Tribes in New Town, North Dakota. The three training programs 

were held at Blackfeet, Montana and New Town, North Dakota. A 

total of 117 personnel were trained in these programs. 

The BIA–Indian Police Academy is also scheduled to participate 

in the assessment of a National Criminal Justice Training Center 

project to create a web/mobile-capable investigative guide for tribal 

first responders on endangered missing and abducted persons. 

As I have outlined here today, BIA Office of Justice Services has 

taken numerous steps this year to create a number of solutions to 

address the crisis of missing persons and murder victims in Indian 

Country. We look forward to working with our other Federal and 

tribal partners to collaborate on sound solutions to protect and 

serve our Native men, women, and children. 

Again, thank you for the opportunity to provide a statement and 

my written testimony will be provided for the record. I am happy 

to answer any questions the Committee may have. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Addington follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHARLES ADDINGTON, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF JUSTICE

SERVICES, BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Good afternoon, Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall, and members of the 

Committee. My name is Charles Addington and I am the Director of the Bureau of 

Indian Affairs (BIA), Office of Justice Services (OJS) at the Department of the Interior (Department). Thank you for the opportunity to provide a statement before this 

Committee on the crisis of missing persons and murder victims in Indian Country. 

More than half of Native American women have been sexually assaulted, including over a third who have been raped during their lifetime—a rate of rape nearly 

2.5 times higher than for white women, according to a 2016 National Institute of 

Justice study. 1 With indigenous women and girls facing alarming levels of violence 

across the country, more can be done to support meaningful efforts to address the 

high rates of violence in Indian Country. 

Although the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the Tribal Law and Order 

Act (TLOA) have helped bring attention to this high rate of violence and have begun 

12 

to address gaps in law enforcement for tribes and federal authorities, there remain 

gaps in data that exacerbate the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women. 

These challenges are present across multiple sectors, but are particularly problematic in the context of criminal justice, in which Federal, state, tribal, and local governments share responsibilities. It is important to continue efforts to build accurate 

data and provide Congress, the public, and, most importantly, the tribes, with the 

information needed to identify and analyze the criminal justice needs in Indian 

Country. 

These data gaps impact how law enforcement officials handle or follow up on 

these cases, predominantly due to underreporting, racial misclassification, potential 

gender or racial bias and a lack of law enforcement resources required to follow 

through and close out cases appropriately. 

In 2017, the Urban Indian Health Institute surveyed 71 cities across the U.S. to 

collect data on murdered and missing indigenous women and girls in urban settings. 

The Institute’s survey and analysis of the collected data culminated in their 2018 

report, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which highlights some 

of the challenges of data collection with respect to American Indian and Alaska Native populations in urban populations. 

For Indian Country, BIA collects monthly crime statistics from Tribal and BIA 

law enforcement programs and submits the information to the Federal Bureau of 

Investigation (FBI) each quarter. The information collected is specific to the data 

required for the FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR), which currently does not track 

missing persons or domestic violence statistics. 

In light of these significant data collection challenges facing missing and murdered indigenous persons, BIA has partnered with DOJ’s Missing and Unidentified 

Persons System (NamUs), a program of the National Institute of Justice to create 

new data fields in their system to specifically capture tribal affiliation data. The 

new fields are expected to be operational after January 1, 2019. This will assist law 

enforcement agencies across jurisdictions with tracking and investigating missing 

persons throughout the country. 

Going forward, better inter-agency coordination and cooperation is needed to improve the integrity of the data collected. While it is widely believed that there may 

be a correlation between opioid and other narcotics abuse, human trafficking, and 

domestic violence and missing and murdered indigenous women, without sufficient 

data, it is difficult to draw solid conclusions. Federal agencies must develop concrete 

solutions to improve agency data collection to ensure these crimes are being tracked 

and investigated appropriately so that any trends can be properly identified and addressed. For example, adding these types of incidents to the data collected by DOJ 

and BIA and making the data submissions mandatory from all law enforcement 

agencies would be a great start to addressing the data collection problem. 

BIA has also began efforts to raise awareness and provide training to Indian 

Country law enforcement personnel. In January 2018, the BIA Indian Police Academy began discussions with the National Criminal Justice Training Center (NCJTC) 

on collaborating to create joint training programs for cold case investigations, longterm missing investigations, and child abduction investigations for use throughout 

Indian Country. 

To specifically address the missing persons aspect of this issue, earlier this year 

the BIA-Indian Police Academy launched human trafficking courses in the Indian 

Country Police Officer Training Program; the Basic Police Officer Bridge Training 

Program; and the Indian Country Criminal Investigator Training Program (a joint 

FBI, BIA, and Tribal attended program). 

In February 2018, the NCJTC and BIA-Indian Police Academy identified dates 

and locations for three pilot training programs on Advanced Cold Case Long Term 

Missing Investigations in Montana and North Dakota. The three training programs 

were held at Blackfeet, Montana and New Town, North Dakota. A total of 117 personnel were trained in these programs. 

The BIA-Indian Police Academy is also scheduled to participate in the assessment 

of an NCJTC project to create a web/mobile-capable investigative guide for tribal 

first responders on endangered missing and abducted persons. 

As identified above, BIA OJS has taken numerous steps this year to create a 

number of solutions to address the crisis of missing persons and murder victims in 

Indian Country. We look forward to working with our other federal and tribal partners to collaborate on sound solutions to protect and serve our Native men, women, 

and children. 

Again, thank you for the opportunity to provide a statement and my written testimony will be provided for the record. I am happy to answer any questions the Committee may have. 

13 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Addington. 

Mr. Johnson, I understand you have laryngitis, so we appreciate 

your being here in spite of that. 

STATEMENT OF ROBERT JOHNSON, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, 

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION, FEDERAL BUREAU OF 

INVESTIGATIONS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 

Mr. JOHNSON. Thank you, sir. Good afternoon, Chairman 

Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall and all the members of the Committee. I am Bob Johnson, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Criminal 

Investigative Division. 

With the Committee’s approval, I would like to give a shortened 

version of my opening statement, to save my voice for the question 

and answer. Thank you, sir. 

I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the FBI’s ongoing efforts to support our partners in Federal, 

State, local and tribal enforcement in resolving missing persons 

cases. The FBI and its dedicated Special Agent and Victim Specialists of the FBI’s Indian Country Program work hard to partner 

with tribal communities across the United States to deliver quality 

law enforcement service. 

Our program includes over 140 Special Agents and 40 Victim 

Specialists in 36 Field Offices. Indeed, 33 percent of the FBI’s Victim Specialists and 50 percent of the FBI’s Child and Adolescent 

Forensic Interviewers work directly with victims and families in Indian Country. We have 17 Safe Trails task forces that are staffed 

with 90 full-time task force officers. 

We will continue this important work and appreciate the support 

of this Committee. I look forward to answering your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Johnson follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROBERT JOHNSON, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, CRIMINAL

INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION, FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATIONS, U.S. 

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Good afternoon Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall, and Members of the 

Committee. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the 

FBI’s ongoing efforts to support our partners in Federal, state, local and Tribal law 

enforcement in resolving missing person cases. 

The FBI and its dedicated Special Agent and Victim Specialists of the FBI’s Indian Country Program work hard to partner with Tribal communities across the 

United States to deliver quality law enforcement service. We remain fully committed 

to our unique role in Indian Country and to our partnerships with other Federal, 

state, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies. 

There are 573 federally recognized Indian Tribes in the United States and approximately 326 Indian reservations with over one million Native American residents on or near reservation lands. The FBI shares federal law enforcement responsibility with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Justice Services (BIA–OJS) on 

more than 200 of those Indian reservations not in PL–280 areas, and has federal 

criminal jurisdiction over acts directly related to Indian gaming regardless of jurisdiction status. 

The FBI’s Indian Country Program includes over 140 Special Agents (SA) and 40 

Victim Specialists (VS) in 36 Field Offices. Indeed, 33 percent of the FBI’s Victim 

Specialists and 50 percent of the FBI’s Child and Adolescent Forensic Interviewers 

(CACIs) work directly with victims and families in Indian Country. 

Our highest priorities in Indian Country focus on the most serious crimes of violence, including murder, child sexual and physical abuse, sexual abuse of adults, 

and violent assault. FBI investigations in these priority categories comprise over 75 

percent of all FBI investigations in Indian Country. In addition, crime related to 

gangs and drugs is increasing in Indian country, and the FBI investigates allegaVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK
14 

tions of financial corruption. The FBI in Indian Country simultaneously addresses 

many different aspects of crime and remains fully committed and engaged with our 

Tribal partners 

The FBI often responds to crime scenes within Indian Country after receiving notification from our Tribal and BIA–OJS partners. They work hand in hand to process the crime scene, collect evidence, ensure victim safety, conduct interviews and 

locate suspects. The cooperation between the FBI, BIA–OJS and Tribal law enforcement is paramount to solving crime and protecting Tribal communities. 

The Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010 (TLOA) requires that the Attorney General 

submit an annual report to Congress detailing investigative efforts by the FBI and 

dispositions of matters received by United States Attorney’s Offices (USAOs) with 

Indian country responsibility. The majority of criminal offenses committed, investigated, and prosecuted in Tribal communities are adjudicated in Tribal justice systems. In much of Indian country, Tribal law enforcement and Tribal justice systems 

hold criminals accountable, protect victims, provide youth prevention and intervention programs, and confront precursors to crime such as alcohol and substance 

abuse. These efforts are often in partnership with federal agencies or accomplished 

with support from federal programs and federal funding opportunities. 

Specifically, the FBI’s statistics for Calendar Year (CY) 2017 show a total of 2,210 

closed investigations—a 12.5 percent increase in total closed investigations compared to the previous year. Of those, approximately 68 percent—or 1,511 out of 

2210—of Indian country criminal investigations opened by the FBI were referred for 

prosecution. 

Importantly, of the nearly 700 Indian country investigations the FBI closed administratively without referral for prosecution, the primary reason for closing (approximately 21 percent) was that the case did not meet statutory definitions of a 

crime or USAO prosecution guidelines. In addition, analysis of CY 2017 data indicates that 15 percent of investigations closed administratively were closed due to 

unsupported allegations, meaning no evidence of criminal activity was uncovered 

during the investigations. Another reason for non-referral (20 percent) was that the 

deaths under investigation were determined to be the result of accident, suicide, or 

natural causes (i.e., non-homicides). In short, though not a first responder, the FBI 

remains committed to resolving crime in Indian Country and works closely with our 

partners to ensure cases are adjudicated fully through the court system. 

With regard to crimes against Native American women in Indian Country, the 

status of the victim and subject as Indian or non-Indian is generally initially based 

on information reported to law enforcement. Tribal police, BIA, and FBI subsequently receive documentation from tribal government authorities to confirm the 

tribal membership status of individuals. 

At the end of 2017, individuals entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) as ‘‘Indian’’ made up 1.8 percent of active missing person records. The 

racial category of ‘‘Indian’’ is formally classified in the NCIC as ‘‘American Indian’’ 

and is defined as a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Americas and maintaining cultural identification through tribal affiliations or community 

recognition. The determination of whether a person is listed as ‘‘Indian’’ would be 

decided by the entering agency, which could be Federal, state, local or Tribal. Importantly, at the end of 2017, Native American (‘‘Indian’’) females accounted for 0.7 percent of the active missing person cases—633 in all. The FBI’s Missing Person and 

Unidentified Person statistics are updated annually and available publicly on-line. 

Due to the high volume of violent crimes within Indian Country to include death 

investigations, our partnerships with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Justice 

Services (BIA–OJS), 17 Safe Trails Task Forces (STTF), and tribal law enforcement 

are critical. Our partners provide invaluable assistance and intelligence related to 

the location of the crime scenes, identification of suspects/victims, and location of 

suspects. 

The 17 FBI STTFs are a significant force multiplier focusing on violent crime to 

include death investigations with approximately 90 full time Task Force Officers 

spread across Indian Country. STTF full time officers are made up of state, local, 

and tribal police officers. This important program has expanded in the last year and 

the FBI plans to add new STTFs in FY 2019 to combat the levels of violent crimes 

and narcotic trafficking in Indian Country. 

The FBI also partners with local and Tribal police to assist when requested in 

missing persons cases. FBI Agents and STTFs provide assistance and, when foul 

play is believed to have occurred, an FBI case is opened and an investigation undertaken. The FBI and the STTFs continue to work closely with the respective Tribal 

Police Department, BIA–OJS, and surrounding state and local departments. 

Further, the FBI remains committed to expanding access to the National Instant 

Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to our Tribal partners. Earlier this 

15 

year, the Department of Justice announced a significant expansion of the Tribal Access Program (TAP), a program providing federally recognized Tribes an additional 

method to access and exchange data with the national crime information databases 

maintained by the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division for 

both civil and criminal purposes. In this way, TAP supports tribal governments in 

their efforts to access, utilize, and report critical criminal justice information, including NICS relevant data, to the FBI in order to protect tribal communities from violent crime. 

Under TAP, Tribes have already entered information directly into the federal 

databases, resulting in nearly 600 sex offender registrations and over 550 sex offender check-ins, nearly 250 instances of data entry that would prohibit someone 

from being able to purchase a firearm, over 700 orders of protection entered and 

nearly 5,000 finger-print based record checks of individuals seeking employment in 

positions with contact with or control over children or tribal housing placements. To 

date, TAP has been deployed to 47 federally recognized tribes with over 200 tribal 

criminal justice and tribal civil agencies. 

The FBI’s CJIS Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program also coordinates with 

BIA–OJS to increase the number of Tribes that report crime statistics. This has 

been accomplished primarily through liaison efforts and presentations to increase 

awareness at Tribal law enforcement conferences. This increases the number of 

Tribes that are eligible to receive funding under the DOJ Justice Assistance Grants 

(JAG) program. Since Tribal jurisdiction UCR data is publicly accessible, it increases available information about the incident of Indian country crime and assists 

Tribal government leaders to make effective decisions about strategies to fight crime 

and efficient allocation of tribal law enforcement resources. 

The FBI remains committed to preparing our Agents in Indian Country with the 

knowledge and skills required to address the important cases they will investigate. 

All FBI Agents attend and graduate from the FBI Academy with the skills to investigate any crime over which the FBI has jurisdiction. All FBI Agents assigned to 

Indian Country are given additional training to ensure they are prepared to effectively investigate crimes that occur within Indian Country. 

Our Indian Country Crimes Unit (ICCU) provides a comprehensive training program to include intermediate and advanced classes on various topics related to the 

investigation of crimes in Indian Country. Many of these trainings are open to Tribal law enforcement officers, Safe Trails Task Force Officers and BIA–OJS officers 

and agents. The mission of ICCU is to support Indian Country Agents in the field 

and to develop and implement strategies to address the most egregious crimes committed in Indian Country. The FBI has partnered with DOJ’s National Indian Country Training Initiative (NICTI) to develop and deliver courses for Federal agents, 

Tribal law enforcement officers and Federal and Tribal prosecutors. Just in the last 

several years, the partnership has hosted over 15 courses specific to Indian Country 

crime. 

Beginning in 2016, FBI ICCU and BIA–OJS partnered to pilot a two week intensive training course for FBI and BIA Agents, which is now offered on a regular basis 

at BIA’s training facility in Artesia, New Mexico. Each class accommodates 24 students which include FBI Agents, Tribal Criminal Investors, and BIA–OJS Criminal 

Investigators. The course provides detailed investigative tools and procedures specific to Indian Country. 

In summary, the FBI remains fully committed to working with its partners at all 

levels on the issues raised in this hearing today, including missing persons and 

murder victims. It is imperative that we work together to make certain that all 

missing persons are entered into the appropriate databases, that cases are being 

fully investigated, and that persons responsible for criminal activity in Indian country are brought to justice. We look forward to continuing this important work and 

appreciate the support of this committee. Thank you for the opportunity to appear 

before you today. I am now happy to answer any questions. 

Senator UDALL. [Presiding.] Mr. LaPorte, please, proceed. 

STATEMENT OF GERALD LAPORTE, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF 

INVESTIGATIVE AND FORENSIC SCIENCES, NATIONAL 

INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE 

Mr. LAPORTE. Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall, members 

of the Committee, I am honored to appear before you today. 

My name is Gerry LaPorte, and I am the Director of the Office 

of Investigative and Forensic Sciences in the National Institute of 

16 

Justice. NIJ is the resource development and evaluation arm of the 

Department of Justice, and my office is the Federal Government’s 

lead agency to help State, local and tribal agencies improve their 

capacity to collect and analyze forensic evidence. We also support 

the development of innovative technologies, information exchange 

and research to ensure forensic test methods are reliable and responsive to the needs of the criminal justice field. 

One of our greatest challenges and high priorities is addressing 

violence in Indian Country, especially the silent crisis of the missing and murdered. Our research bears out, and many of you know 

already, that American Indian and Alaska Native people experience violence at rates well above those encountered by any other 

group in America. 

According to an NIJ study released in 2016, more than four in 

five Native adults have experienced some form of violence in their 

lifetime. Hundreds of Native Americans in communities across the 

Country have simply vanished, leaving almost no trace of themselves. Their families endure years, sometimes decades of uncertainty and agony, waiting for answers. We know we can do better. 

These families are among the tens of thousands across the Country coping with the mysterious loss of a loved one, trying to make 

sense of the senseless, and navigating through a process that offers 

few guideposts. It is a response to what we termed many years ago 

as the silent mass disaster that NIJ developed the National Missing and Unidentified Persons system, commonly known as NamUs. 

NamUs is a national, centralized web-based clearinghouse and resource center for unidentified deceased persons and missing persons. 

We launched NamUs in 2007 and envisioned a system that could 

crowd-source information provided by medical examiners and coroners, law enforcement investigators and those with loved ones that 

had gone missing. NamUs has evolved into a unique and powerful 

investigative tool and has been used to resolve more than 16,000 

missing persons cases and over 3,500 cases of unidentified persons, 

ultimately, bringing resolution victims’ families and loved ones. 

NamUs operates on a secure Department of Justice information 

technology platform with a publicly-accessible component in a restricted criminal justice sensitive environment. It allows agencies 

to collect, share and compare information across jurisdictions. 

NamUs also provides forensic services, such as DNA testing and 

fingerprint and dental examinations. We also have a boots-on-theground team to provide training, technical assistance and case support to aid investigations. 

We recently upgraded the system to NamUs 2.0, so that allows 

stakeholders to better collect, search, analyze and manage case information. We recognize that American Indian and Alaska Native 

cases were under-represented, and therefore we launched an outreach campaign to increase NamUs awareness. 

In the past 12 months alone, NamUs and NIJ staff have concentrated efforts to provide training and outreach to the American 

Indian and Alaska Native community through 22 events in 13 

States. In July of 2018, we saw over a 100 percent increase in reported missing persons cases, when compared to monthly reports 

submitted in the previous 18 months. 

17 

NamUs has helped resolve 282 American Indian and Alaska Native missing persons cases. Currently, it has 223 active cases from 

32 States. NamUs is also supporting 182 cases involving unidentified remains, 61 of which have been deemed either homicides or 

deaths of undetermined causes. 

Additionally, in fiscal year 2018, the department’s grant-making agencies awarded more than $113 million to 125 separate tribes 

under a consolidated tribal assistance solicitation, which covers a 

range of public safety activities. These grant programs support the 

department’s overall strategy to reduce crime and improve safety 

in Indian County, to which we in NIJ remain deeply committed. 

Through these programs, the department will continue giving our 

tribal partners the technology and other resources they need to 

safeguard their communities. We will work with them to help them 

solve crimes that in too many cases have left families in Indian 

Country without answers they deserve. 

Again, NamUs is ready to be part of that effort. We know we 

must continue raising awareness among tribal public safety officials and tribal members in order to ensure that NamUs fulfills its 

potential as a case-solving tool in Indian Country and brings resolution to families searching for missing loved ones. 

We are proud of the work we are doing and we are eager to build 

on our progress. On behalf of our Director, Dr. David Mullhausen, 

and the entire staff of NIJ, I am grateful for your time today and 

for the support we receive from this Committee. Thank you, and 

I look forward to answering any questions you may have. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. LaPorte follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF GERALD LAPORTE, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF INVESTIGATIVE

AND FORENSIC SCIENCES, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF

JUSTICE

Chairman Hoeven, Vice Chairman Udall, and Members of the Committee, thank 

you for this opportunity to discuss the ongoing commitment by the U.S. Department 

of Justice to work alongside our Tribal partners to help gather data and provide a 

resource for investigations into cases involving missing persons. My name is Gerry 

LaPorte, and I am the Director of the Office of Investigative and Forensic Sciences 

(OIFS) at the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) in the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP). 

Within NIJ, OIFS is the Federal Government’s lead agency for forensic science. 

OIFS’s mission is to improve the quality and practice of forensic science through research and development, testing and evaluation, technology, information exchange, 

and the development of resources for the criminal justice community. NIJ’s programs also support the Department of Justice’s three forensic science priorities: (1) 

improve capacity; (2) increase coordination and collaboration with state, local, and 

Tribal entities; and (3) advance the reliability and sensitivity of forensic science testing. We provide objective and independent knowledge and tools to inform the decisionmaking of the criminal justice community as it works to reduce crime and advance justice, particularly at the state, local, and Tribal levels. We work with other 

Department of Justice components and also alongside other Federal agencies, like 

the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

Much has been said about the levels of crime and violence in Indian country and 

the Alaska Native villages and the numbers of missing persons and murder victims 

within the American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. The NIJ-supported study, ‘‘Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and 

Men: 2010 Findings from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey,’’ released in 2016, provides staggering estimates of sexual violence, physical violence by intimate partners, stalking, and psychological aggression by intimate partners. It also provides estimates of interracial and intraracial victimization and briefly examines the impact of violence on the victims. This study was important because 

it provided the first set of estimates from a national large-scale survey of victimizaVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00021 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK
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tion among self-identified AI/AN women and men on psychological aggression, coercive control and entrapment, physical violence, stalking, and sexual violence, using 

detailed behaviorally specific questions. 

This research provides the most comprehensive, reliable, and valid estimates on 

the victimization experiences of AI/AN women and men. It found that more than 

four in five AI/AN adults (83 percent) have experienced some form of violence in 

their lifetime. That’s almost 3 million people who have experienced stalking, sexual 

violence, or psychological aggression or physical violence by intimate partners. 

As part of the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 

2005 (and as amended in 2013), NIJ is mandated, in consultation with the Justice 

Department’s Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), to conduct analysis and research on violence against Indian women (VAIW) living in Indian country and in 

Alaska Native villages. Consonant with those provisions, NIJ has developed a comprehensive research program consisting of multiple projects that are being accomplished over an extended period of time. The primary goal of the program is to document the prevalence and nature of violence against Native women living on sovereign tribal lands. The research program also is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of federal, state, Tribal, and local responses to violence against AI/AN women 

and propose recommendations to improve the effectiveness of such responses. 

Ultimately, this program of research is expected to improve our understanding of 

the programmatic, service, and policy needs of victims, and help educate and inform 

practitioners, policymakers, and the public about the threat to the safety, health, 

and well-being of Native women. This effort will hopefully be a big step toward reducing the incidence of violent crimes against Native women and ensuring perpetrators of these violent crimes are held accountable. 

The epidemic of sexual violence in Indian country is compounded by another, silent crisis: an unknown number of Native Americans have simply vanished, leaving 

no trace of their whereabouts or of the crimes to which they may have fallen victim. 

Fortunately, not every missing person is a victim of a violent crime, and while others have gone missing for deliberate reasons, we remain focused on those who have 

gone missing unintentionally. 

Every night across the nation, tens of thousands of families sit down to their dinner tables and face an empty chair that should be occupied by a loved one. Those 

affected by the disappearance of a family member face an agonizing wait for answers, sometimes for decades. The sense of loss when a loved one disappears is magnified by feelings of helplessness and isolation as these families puzzle through a 

process that offers few guideposts. 

It was in response to this ‘‘national silent mass disaster’’ that NIJ developed the 

National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) to help identify unidentified remains, locate missing persons, and bring resolution to victims’ families. 

NamUs is a national, centralized, web-based information clearinghouse and resource 

center for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed person cases. NamUs combines technology, forensic services, and investigative technical assistance from a seasoned staff 

of subject matter experts to support and assist stakeholders with cases from across 

the country. 

Since the system was launched in 2007, more than 45,000 cases have been reported to NamUs and over 16,000 missing person cases and over 3,500 unidentified 

person cases reported to NamUs have been resolved. Many of these resolutions were 

made possible by storing, sharing, and comparing case information in a centralized, 

online system that is accessible to all. 

It is important to note that cases are only published in NamUs after rigorous vetting with the appropriate local, state, federal, or Tribal law enforcement agency in 

order to secure the privacy and protection of persons reported missing and to ensure 

quality control over the missing person data. For instance, some missing person reports involve individuals who do not wish for their location to be known to family 

or associates due to circumstances involving domestic violence and other safety 

issues. 

NIJ’s NamUs provides law enforcement officials, medical examiners and coroners, 

allied forensic professionals, and families with lost loved ones the tools and support 

they need to investigate and solve some of the most complex cold cases. NamUs is 

a permission-based system, meaning it offers both a publicly viewable area and a 

restricted criminal justice-sensitive environment designed to protect privileged information while enlisting the support of the general public. With diverse users in all 

50 states and across many Tribes and U.S. territories, NamUs is a collaborative system that bridges the communication gap among stakeholders in different geographical regions, enabling better information sharing and providing technical assistance and investigative case support critical to resolving these cases. 

19 

For clarity, I must note some distinctions between the data entered into NamUs 

and the data entered into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC). 

With the exception of states like New York, Michigan, and Tennessee that have 

passed mandatory reporting laws, NamUs is a voluntary program that has traditionally been used by criminal justice agencies to investigate long-term missing and 

unidentified person cases or cases where all investigative leads have been exhausted. Since the majority of missing persons reported to NCIC are mandated by 

law and many are recovered quickly, most are never entered into NamUs. However, 

NamUs poses no restrictions on the amount of time a person must be missing prior 

to entry into the database or for access to investigative or forensic services. 

We realized that AI/AN cases were underrepresented in NamUs, so over the last 

two years NIJ and NamUs staff have made significant and targeted efforts to increase awareness. We have launched an outreach campaign to Tribal law enforcement, leadership, and community members to ensure the communities are aware of 

the technology and technical assistance, which is available free to all Tribal nations. 

Also, a recent technology upgrade, NamUs 2.0, contains enhancements that allow 

all criminal justice users to better collect, search, analyze, and manage case information. 

NamUs has helped resolve 279 cases and currently has 324 active AI/AN missing 

persons cases, but it remains seriously underutilized by this community of stakeholders. The number of missing persons cases is believed to be far more. NIJ continues its outreach and technical assistance activities nationwide. 

There are also 102 active unidentified remains cases being supported, 61 of which 

have been deemed either homicides or deaths of undetermined causes. NIJ is committed to working with the Tribal nations directly to enhance technology and provide training, better support and technical assistance, and investigative and forensic 

services. By bringing information, people, and forensic science together, NamUs can 

help resolve cases. We know the loss, trauma, and need for answers span generations. NamUs even received DNA from the grandchild of a man who went missing 

in 1902. The oldest missing persons case resolved by NamUs was from 1934 and 

the oldest unidentified persons case was from 1957. 

In FY 2018 OJP, along with our partners at the Justice Department’s other grantmaking offices—the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) 

and OVW—awarded 225 grants totaling more than $113 million to 125 separate 

Tribes under our Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS). Since FY 2010, 

the Justice Department has awarded more than 2,000 grants for applications submitted through CTAS, totaling more than $940 million to hundreds of AI/AN communities. Through CTAS, applicants apply for multiple tribal grant programs under 

one solicitation, which allows Tribes to plan comprehensively and strategically allocate resources. 

With CTAS, Tribes can search grant opportunities by purpose area—whether it’s 

serving sexual assault survivors, implementing a coordinated community response 

to violence against Native women, helping Tribal youth, or any of the other general 

purpose areas, including a new one this year that focuses on addressing violence 

and a re-tooled emphasis on victim services. 

In FY 2018, for the first time, OJP received a three percent set-aside (totaling 

$133 million) of the Crime Victims Fund specifically allocated to meet the needs of 

AI/AN victims. We expect to finish awarding these grants by mid-April 2019, and 

once awarded, they will substantially expand the number of Tribes providing victim 

services. 

These awards will support child and elder victims, domestic violence and sexual 

assault survivors, victims of human trafficking, families of homicide victims, and 

people who have been victimized as a result of the opioid crisis. The FY 2019 President’s Budget request proposes a comparable percentage of set-aside funds to help 

solidify the long-term sustainability of Tribal victim assistance programs. 

OJP, along with the COPS Office, also supports the Tribal Access Program (TAP), 

which enables Tribal officials to enter protection orders in federal databases and 

register sex offenders with the National Sex Offender Registry. TAP can be a key 

element in ensuring the safety of certain victims. It also allows Tribes to access critical data from FBI databases. Nearly 50 tribes are currently part of the program, 

and an additional 25 tribes have been selected to participate in this fiscal year. 

At annual government-to-government consultations with tribes held by OVW, tribal leaders have testified about the need for robust responses to the disappearance, 

trafficking, and murder of Native women and youth. In response, OVW has funded 

training and technical assistance for interdisciplinary teams from tribal communities on identifying cases of sex trafficking and ensuring that victims receive needed services. In FY 2018, OVW renewed funding for Tribal Special Assistant United 

States Attorneys, cross-deputized tribal prosecutors who are able to bring violenceVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK
20 

against-women cases in both tribal and federal courts, including prosecuting habitual domestic violence offenders before their crimes result in murder. OVW also provides funding and other support to tribes exploring and implementing special domestic violence criminal jurisdiction under the 2013 reauthorization of VAWA to 

help ensure prosecution of certain non-Indian domestic violence offenders. Finally, 

through the Trilateral Working Group on Violence Against Indigenous Women and 

Girls, OVW and other DOJ components are fostering cross-border collaboration with 

Canada and Mexico to combat the disappearance and murder of Native women and 

youth. 

As the Committee is well aware, the majority of American Indians and Alaska 

Natives in our country do not live on Tribal lands. Many of them, in fact, live in 

urban areas, where they face a different set of challenges from those we see in Indian country. One of those challenges is a disproportionate vulnerability to sex trafficking. Victims of trafficking likely also contribute to the missing Indian person 

numbers discussed at this hearing. Indian women and girls are sometimes moved 

off reservations and forced into trafficking activities in the city. In addition to the 

horrific trauma that this kind of exploitation causes, it also means that they are 

often dragged into the criminal justice system by virtue of being arrested. 

OJP’s Office for Victims of Crime has made three awards to urban organizations 

to address this urgent problem under a program called Project Beacon. Grantees in 

Albuquerque, Seattle, and Chicago are developing community partnerships to meet 

the needs of American Indian victims. The grants support a range of services, from 

emergency shelter and housing to crisis counseling and treatment. These victims 

have, in many cases, been violently displaced, uprooted and separated from their 

families and support networks. Our goal through these grants is to return them to 

safety, return them to their families, and to help them begin the process of recovery 

and healing. 

As noted, OJP works closely with other DOJ components. The Department’s Office 

of Tribal Justice and the network of Tribal Liaisons in the United States Attorneys’ 

offices and specialists throughout the country collaborate with tribes to improve law 

enforcement functions and reduce crime. These offices each have a tribal liaison to 

link efforts between the Department and tribal leadership. The Executive Office for 

U.S. Attorneys also trains federal, state, local, and Tribal attorneys and law enforcement staff on law enforcement issues in Indian country. 

As the Department continues to enhance its public safety efforts in Indian country, we remain committed to working with our Tribal partners to improve the tools 

they need to protect citizens, safeguard communities, and solve crimes that, in too 

many cases, have left loved ones without the answers that they need and deserve. 

We will continue to work hard on their behalf. Thank you, and I look forward to 

addressing your questions. 

Senator UDALL. Thank you to all the witnesses for your testimony. 

Mr. LaPorte, you notified my staff last week that five additional 

data fields to track information on Native missing persons will be 

added to NamUs in January 2019. I welcome including these additional fields and appreciate that they were developed by tribal 

input. But I want to make sure they are purposefully utilized for 

you and the National Institute of Justice. 

Can you tell us more about what these new fields will cover? 

Mr. LAPORTE. Thank you for your question, Senator. Yes, we did 

work in collaboration with some of the tribal communities. My colleague to my right here, Mr. Addington, was instrumental in helping us develop those fields. 

So just for information, I will try to quickly go through what 

those fields will include. The first will be, was the missing person 

last seen on tribal land under the jurisdiction of the United States. 

We will also have a field about whether the missing person’s primary residence was located on tribal land. A third field we will be 

adding is, was the missing person enrolled or affiliated with a 

State or federally-recognized tribe. And then if they check yes on 

that, there will be a pick list of the tribe to identify with. 

21 

I believe this is mentioned in Savanna’s Act, so we are a little 

ahead of Savanna’s Act. 

One of the fields will be, were the remains of the unidentified decedent found on tribal land under the jurisdiction of the United 

States; does the tribal agency participate in the tribal access program. 

So those fields, and I am happy to announce that it was supposed to launch on January 2nd, and believe or not, we are actually 

ahead of schedule. We are going to launch that on December 18th. 

Senator UDALL. That is great. We are very, very encouraged to 

hear that. 

What training is your office planning to provide to NamUs users 

to ensure that they understand how to populate those fields with 

accurate data? 

Mr. LAPORTE. We have been working in conjunction with BIA. 

We have provided some training to their analysts as well. We also 

have a suite of individuals that work throughout the Nation. They 

are called NamUs regional program specialists, or RPSs. We have 

nine regions that each of those RPSs take control over, or head up. 

So we will be doing some training with RPSs, then we are going 

to try as much as possible to certainly engage the tribal community 

and let them know that we are open to providing more training if 

needed. 

Senator UDALL. Are these RPSs going to be reaching out to 

tribes? 

Mr. LAPORTE. I believe that we can, we will be working with 

RPSs to do those kinds of notifications, yes. 

Senator UDALL. Mr. Johnson, given that the FBI runs its own 

data bases, is the Bureau currently planning to improve its systems to track things like Native status of missing persons? 

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir. Under our NCIC third generation development, CJIS went out and surveyed law enforcement agencies, including tribal agencies, for additional input that they want in those 

fields. Some of those responders requested new clothing description 

fields, scars, marks, tattoos, along with new race and sex codes. 

But of significance, it was a new name search algorithm which will 

enhance the ability to search Native American names in this new 

system that we are going to deploy within the next year or so. 

Senator UDALL. Mr. Johnson, the Department’s most recent Indian Country Declinations Report shows that the number of FBI 

closed cases increased by 12.5 percent in 2017. However, the report 

doesn’t show a similar increase in the number of prosecutions undertaken by the U.S. Attorneys’ offices. In fact, it shows that nearly 

71 percent of the Department’s prosecution declinations fell under 

the category of insufficient evidence. 

I know that the FBI can’t speak to the Executive Office of the 

U.S. Attorneys’ data, but to me it is alarming that the cause for 

most declinations is insufficient evidence, an issue that would appear to fall directly into the Bureau’s wheelhouse. 

Is the Bureau aware of this apparent disconnect? How can the 

bureau explain that it is closing more cases than ever, but the declination rate remains the same due to insufficient evidence? 

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir. We can only provide the evidence that we 

find in the investigation. I will tell you the prosecutorial letters are 

22 

sent to the U.S. Attorney’s office and they make the determination 

if they are going to drop the case or not. 

Senator UDALL. Senator Tester. 

Senator TESTER. Thank you, Ranking Member Udall. I want to 

thank the panel for being here today. I know fully well that the 

people sitting at this panel right now are critically important if we 

are going to get this solved. So the first question is, do you guys 

believe that there is a problem with missing and murdered indigenous women? A simple yes or no answer will work. 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Yes, I believe there is a problem. 

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir, I do. 

Mr. LAPORTE. Absolutely yes. 

Senator TESTER. So we are going to have a panel come up and 

talk about what is going on on the ground. But when it comes to 

doing the investigation, doing it in a timely manner, getting the information, where is the problem? Is it with the BIA? Is it with the 

FBI? Is it with tribal law enforcement? Where is the problem? 

Because if it is a problem, and you agree that it is a problem, 

where is the problem? Because if this was going on any other place 

in the Country, daresay there would be incredible hearings in this 

body. So where is the problem, so we know where to focus our efforts? Is it with the BIA? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Well, the problem we have right now is there 

is not a data collection - 

Senator TESTER. Let me back up a little bit. Let’s take the issue 

of Ashley Loring-Heavy Runner. She gets reported missing. It has 

been God knows how long, and there are 25 or 30 other missing 

women. Data base or no data base, why haven’t we found more of 

them? What is the problem? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. I think there needs to be more coordination at 

the beginning. 

Senator TESTER. Coordination between who? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Coordination between the search and rescue 

group, the law enforcement, everybody that’s involved. When we 

have someone that’s reported missing, a lot of times it just comes 

in that they come up missing, and then there’s a search and rescue 

group that usually goes out and starts searching an area. 

Senator TESTER. So that is true with Indian Country, the law enforcement doesn’t happen? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Well, law enforcement is involved into that. But 

it could be like a search and rescue group with the tribe or somebody that we bring in that is working with us. 

Senator TESTER. When do you guys enter into the equation, the 

BIA? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. As soon as we are notified. 

Senator TESTER. As soon as you are notified. And how about the 

FBI? 

Mr. JOHNSON. Exactly the same, sir. As soon as we are notified, 

we actually bring assets to the table. 

Senator TESTER. So in many of these cases, and I think in Ashley 

Loring-Heavy Runner’s case, it was the BIA had it then the BIA 

turned it over to the FBI. Is that what normally happens? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Not necessarily. There is your tribal police department there on the reservation. So they operate the uniform poVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK
23 

lice program. The BIA does the criminal investigations there. So it 

could be, it depends upon the reservation. It could be uniform police get the call immediately. 

Senator TESTER. I know, but at what point in time is it turned 

over to the FBI? Because I am not sure the FBI is in on it at the 

very beginning. That is not what I am being made aware of. 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Yes, sir. It depends, if a BIA investigator is involved in it, normally we coordinate with the FBI. Normally we 

work joint investigations on most of it. 

Senator TESTER. So what you’re saying is when a missing and 

murdered indigenous woman is reported, you have tribal police, 

BIA and FBI that are working to find that person? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. It could be, depending in the area and where it 

is reported at. The BIA may be the lead investigative agency or the 

FBI may be the lead investigative agency. 

Senator TESTER. So what determines that? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. It depends on the agents that are available, it 

depends on what is reported. The uniform police department could 

be doing searches, it depends on what is reported. It could be somebody that has been reported and - 

Senator TESTER. So why are we not finding these people? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. The evidence. We have to have tips, we follow 

up on all the tips that come in. And you have to do an investigation. Sometimes you don’t get leads that come into the investigation. 

Senator TESTER. I don’t mean to beat this thing to death, but in 

Montana, if these numbers are correct, and I believe they are even 

larger than this, in July, middle of July there were 30 missing and 

murdered, missing women. One of them had been found. These are 

Native Americans. We have 70,000 Native Americas in Montana. 

That seems a bit excessive to me, to not be able to find a few of 

them. 

And I know there are overlapping jurisdictions with tribal police 

and BIA and potentially FBI. But there has to be a reason for this. 

It isn’t a data base. I am telling you that if you have people on the 

ground that are following up, and I am not a law enforcement person, I am a farmer. But the quicker you can get on it, the better 

chance you have of finding what is going on. 

Are we really putting the kind of resources we need, is the BIA 

putting the kind of resources, does the FBI have the kind of resources to be able to get into Indian Country and do the investigation, helping tribal police? But actually, you guys are the lead dogs 

here, truthfully. Do you have the resources to do it? Do you have 

the manpower to do it? Because it is not getting done. And if it is 

not that, it has to be something else. 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Some of those cases are not Indian Country 

cases. We find that some of them are in urban areas. 

Senator TESTER. That is true, but they are Native American 

women. 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Correct. Which the BIA doesn’t have jurisdiction 

off the reservation. So we do investigate the missing person claims 

that are on the reservation and we do try to work with the tribal 

police, if the tribal police are running the uniform police program. 

24 

As soon as we are notified, we send the resources in there to try 

to get started. 

But sometimes a search and rescue crew or someone gets started, 

and if they find evidence or search an area and they haven’t been, 

everybody hadn’t got together and they have a plan before they 

start doing those things - 

Senator TESTER. I got it. 

Mr. ADDINGTON. We could destroy evidence or not find something 

because of that issue. 

Senator TESTER. Something is not happening here, though. I can 

keep going down this, but we are not getting anywhere. Something 

is not happening that needs to happen, that is happening in other 

places in the Country. But it’s not happening when it is applied to 

indigenous women. 

And I don’t know what it is. We are going to have to find out. 

I don’t know if it is manpower, I don’t know if it is money, I don’t 

know what it is. Maybe it is lack of cooperation between the entities. But my time is long past, thank you very much. 

Senator UDALL. Senator Murkowski. 

Senator MURKOWSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am going to 

have to go back. We have your written testimony, but I want to be 

able to understand what you have shared with my colleagues here. 

This is one of the problems about being in the Senate and having 

votes while we are trying to gain information. 

You all know the situation in Alaska, in that we don’t deal with 

tribal citizenship through Indian Country that the majority of the 

tribes exercise jurisdiction through tribal citizenship. So you heard 

my concern about the situation in Kake, you don’t have local law 

enforcement. And it is not just down in the area that Pat is from, 

it is all over the State. 

So much of what we have learned is, we can’t follow through 

with any of these cases, because we don’t have anybody that was 

on the ground that could even look, well, there may have been evidence that we could have followed, people that we could have 

talked with, just the initial work. 

So the question that I have, and I will direct it to all of you, is 

whether or not we have any specific training for tribal government 

representatives outside of law enforcement departments. What I 

am trying to figure out is, if we have folks on the ground and they 

are capable but they are not trained, they don’t know how to deal 

with whether it is a chain of custody or not. What is being done, 

if anything at all, to provide for any level of training for more of 

these local resources? Is there anything, either through the BIA or 

through DOJ? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. There is not any formal training that I am 

aware of for non-law enforcement staff. What we are doing, though, 

with the State of Alaska, we went down and sat down with the 

Alaska State Troopers and the VPSO coordinator, in trying to figure out ways that we can help them, either by training up there 

or help them with resources, that if they have any types of cases 

that are going on and they don’t have the resources, is there something that we have available for them to do. 

And they bring in training to those villages as well. 

25 

Senator MURKOWSKI. Bringing in the training. I think we are 

seeing examples in other areas where we are doing just this. When 

it comes to gathering the evidence that we need if a woman has 

been raped, and we just don’t have the SART nurses, we just don’t 

have them out there. 

So what has happened is a woman has been raped, and she is 

told, don’t shower, don’t change your clothes, get on an airplane, 

get yourself to Anchorage and we will collect the evidence there. So 

you can be sitting for 24 hours. 

So what we are now doing is we are figuring out ways to train 

the local community health providers, the community health aides, 

to at least collect the evidence. I am thinking about other models 

that we might be able to use to just help us collect some of the evidence, so we might be to better track the offenders of those who 

are taking these women. 

Anything from DOJ that you guys have been thinking about? 

Mr. LAPORTE. Senator, thank you for your question. So NIJ has 

been working in collaboration with the Office of Violence, the Office 

of Victims of Crime, OVC. And we have created what we call a telemedicine program for exactly what you just discussed. 

So that issue that you discussed obviously I think it is on a much 

larger scale in Alaska, because of the land mass. So there are many 

urban areas around the Country where there is not a SANE or a 

SART that is present. So what we have been doing is, we have 

been doing some research and we have a couple of other locations 

set up. 

But basically, you would have a nurse that may not be an experienced SART or an experienced SANE. And he or she would be at 

a specific location. Then through a teleconference type system, we 

would have a very experienced SANE or SAR that is somewhere 

else, that works cases all the time, and then brings them through 

that. 

One of the things we are trying to work through that system is 

the effects on the victim of potentially having a, if you will, a teleconference and all of this invasive medical exam taking place. 

Senator MURKOWSKI. But putting it in perspective, you can have 

the invasiveness of having this anonymous person on the other end 

walking your local health aide through this process, or think about 

the horror of sitting in those same clothes and that, without being 

able to shower, without being able to wash your hands for 24 

hours, 48 hours, as you go through three different airports to get 

to Anchorage. 

So I know telemedicine is not perfect. But this is one of those situations where, if we don’t start thinking outside the box, the box 

is going to do people in. 

Mr. LAPORTE. Yes, I completely agree with you. What we are 

finding, though, is that in these cases, the victims are generally 

amendable. It is like anything, we have to communicate with the 

victim, we have to let them know what is going on. We have to let 

them explain the circumstances. And like you said, it is an outside 

of the box solution. 

But it appears to be, we are seeing some promising results. 

Senator MURKOWSKI. Good. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Senator UDALL. Senator Cortez Masto. 

26 

STATEMENT OF HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA 

Senator CORTEZ MASTO. Thank you. Let me just again thank the 

chair and ranking member for this important hearing today. 

Maybe, Mr. Johnson, you can help me, because I want to touch 

back on this idea of jurisdiction. What I have found is it is very 

confusing, right? It is set by Federal statute. You have different 

players that are involved when it comes to the investigation of a 

crime, whether it is the FBI or the BIA or a State or local jurisdiction. 

I know there are Federal statutes out there, there are MOUs, 

those and other things. I was a State attorney general, so I know 

working with the U.S. Attorney’s office, many of the U.S. Attorneys 

across the Country, hoping we have put together guidelines and 

protocols on how, as we pursue that investigation, who has what 

jurisdiction. 

Is that correct? Each U.S. Attorney’s office is responsible, across 

the Country, for identifying the jurisdiction within their realm to 

make sure that everybody is working together when it comes to 

these issues that are happening in Indian Country? Is that correct? 

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, Senator. 

Senator CORTEZ MASTO. Okay. So with that said, why is the confusion still there? Why do we still have, even though there is a direct delineation of who has jurisdiction over this crime, and the 

U.S. Attorneys’ office have identified that for their jurisdiction, why 

are we still having these problems? 

Mr. JOHNSON. I think what I would say is that a lot of those 

problems, we work very closely with the BIA. The 17 Safe Trails 

task forces that we have, they are staffed with task force officers 

from the BIA, FBI agents. We have State and local. 

These cases are worked jointly, jointly at the exact same time. 

And again, it is to impart any knowledge that we have off to the 

tribal investigators. At the same time, jurisdiction is taken by the 

whole task force itself. 

Senator CORTEZ MASTO. So if that is the case, I am looking at, 

we have Ms. Loring-Heavy Runner here, and her sister. And BIA 

started that investigation. The FBI was not involved, but then 

eventually the FBI was asked to get involved with that investigation. What happened there? 

Mr. JOHNSON. We were involved from the get-go. We were providing them assistance. But they had the lead, because it was a 

missing person at the time. And then once the body was found in 

August is when it became a homicide investigation. At that time, 

the FBI took the lead. 

Senator CORTEZ MASTO. So as we sit here, I don’t have enough 

time, but as we sit here, you are hearing this, and you know, from 

being on the front lines, I am going to ask both Mr. Johnson and 

Mr. Addington, what should we be doing? What do we need to do 

in Congress to address this issue to make sure that the actions 

that are taken are immediate, they are responsive, there is definite 

protocols and guidelines in every jurisdiction, so that nobody has 

to wonder who has control and what is happening? 

27 

What is it we need to know? What should we be doing at the 

Federal level? Is there anything that comes to mind that both of 

you think we should be addressing? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Thank you for the question. I think the biggest 

thing is we have start from the very beginning. When someone 

makes a claim of someone missing, the coordination has to start 

right then. 

Senator CORTEZ MASTO. But what I just heard, it is. It is already 

defined how the coordination is supposed to happen. Why is it not 

occurring? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Well, when a missing persons report may come 

in, it may be how it is reported. It may not start immediately because how it is reported. It may be reported that someone went to 

someone’s house, they haven’t come home, we haven’t found them. 

It may just be reported that they are out somewhere and we can’t 

find them. So the initial response from the first responders, may 

be, okay, we are going to go try to find the person, because someone last saw them here. 

So there may be a day or two go by before it actually gets up 

to an investigative level. 

Senator CORTEZ MASTO. So are you saying there should be better 

coordination, better training for those that are initially first responders that are responding? Better training to identify what is 

going on so immediately there is that coordination? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Yes, I think we have to have more teaching immediately. When someone reports someone missing, regardless of 

what the circumstances are, until we determine there was a crime, 

sometimes there is a little lag in there. We have to be immediate 

in a response and the coordination, so everyone is on board, everyone is in the loop. So regardless of which way the investigation 

goes, everyone is already involved. 

Now, it may not be the BIA or the FBI actually leading that investigation immediately because of the information that comes in. 

But everyone has to be at least notified and involved, and it should 

work that way. I think we have to do a lot better job of educating 

those folks no the ground, the first responders, that this is the way 

it has to work. 

We have to get everybody involved and then we have to have a 

commitment from every agency that we get in there and do something and try to get to the bottom of, if it is a person that is just 

missing and we can locate them, there are resources that we can 

check to determine whether they have used credit cards or financial assistance or those kinds of things. I think we have to do that 

more immediate, so we can determine, is there actually a problem 

here, or was it just someone that has run away from home and 

someone knows where they are at, and we can get that person located immediately. 

Senator CORTEZ MASTO. Thank you. I know my time is up, thank 

you very much. 

Senator UDALL. Senator Daines. 

Senator DAINES. Thank you, Ranking Member Udall. 

I will focus my first questions here on Ashley Loring-Heavy Runner’s case. We have her sister, who is here, she will be testifying 

on the next panel. We have her cousin here as well. Sometimes 

28 

they are just names in a report. But we have a face for this family 

here today. 

Mr. Addington, it has been brought to my attention that in cases 

involving missing indigenous women, the Bureau of Indian Affairs 

does not act quickly enough. Here is an example. Ashley LoringHeavy Runner of the Blackfeet Tribe was missing, it is my understanding, for two months before the Blackfeet police and the BIA 

started investigating the case as a missing person. 

I can tell you, my hometown, if that was going on in our neighborhood, there would not have been a two-month lag to begin an 

investigation as a missing person. My question, what is the protocol the BIA uses when a report first comes in? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Thank you for the question, Senator. The very 

first thing is, it depends on who is operating the program. It is a 

little bit different answer depending on if the tribe is running the 

tribal police department, or the BIA is running a direct service program. But the protocol should be the same. Whoever gets the report, if it’s the uniform police program, we should immediately notify the investigate unit, whoever that would be. If it is BIA or the 

FBI, there should be immediate action and protocol. 

Senator DAINES. Do you have a lot of detail in this case? I really 

hear a lot of cases. Do you have any detail in this case? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. The case is an ongoing investigation. 

Senator DAINES. Does it seem like protocol is being followed 

when there was a two-month lag time between when she went 

missing and when the case began investigation as a missing person? Two months? Because we have something in Montana called 

winter. 

Mr. ADDINGTON. Right. 

Senator DAINES. If you have evidence that occurred during summer months, where the Blackfeet Tribe is not part of our State, we 

get a lot of snow and very harsh winters and a lot of wind. Is two 

months a reasonable time? Is that the protocol you follows? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. No. And I think there has to be a lot better coordination at the beginning. Most of these cases that I am familiar 

with, it just seems like we have to have every agency having better 

coordination in the beginning of these things. If you have a search 

and rescue crew, like I mentioned earlier, there could be people out 

doing searches that is outside of law enforcement as well. So you 

have to pull all of those resources together. 

Senator DAINES. And there has been a lot of search going on by 

family, a lot of those efforts in the community there. 

Let me just go a little further here in this case. In Ashley’s case, 

there was evidence presented to the BIA. One was a sweater a witness saw her wearing the day she went missing. The other was a 

pair of boots. Both of these leads were presented to the BIA. And 

now the family is trying to find out what is going on. It is not being 

made clear what is happening there. Leads don’t seem to be followed up on. And Ashley is still missing. 

This lack of communication to law enforcement and the family of 

the victims is tragic. I spent over a half hour chatting with the 

family yesterday on this. Every time I asked a question, more questions arose. 

29 

How do you think Ashley’s case could have been handled differently or better? 

Mr. ADDINGTON. First, we have a victim service program that 

should be meeting with the family and making sure that they are 

up to speed on the things they can release to them. The BIA has 

a program, the FBI has a victim witness program and the U.S. Attorney’s office has a victim witness program that does a phenomenal job with the family. So that should be occurring; if it is 

not, it should be, to make sure that the families are up to speed 

on what is going on and what they can release. 

Like I say, with any of these investigations that I am familiar 

with, it just seems like we have to have better coordination in the 

beginning of them. Because there are so many agencies. 

Senator DAINES. Thank you for that comment. That is the understatement of the day. I mean, two months, two months. We are 

talking about fresh evidence that is out there that actually was collected by civilians, not be law enforcement, their investigators. 

These are just folks finding these leads. And now the family can’t 

get evidence to where is the evidence. 

So I just ask for your help in this case, to personally intervene 

and find out what in the world is going on. There are a lot of questions. 

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ranking Member, I am going to yield back. 

There is a lot more to be asked, but I am about out of time here. 

Senator UDALL. Thank you, Senator Daines. Senator Heitkamp? 

Senator HEITKAMP. Thank you, Senator Udall. 

You know, you guys talk a big story. But those of us who, as Senator Daines just explained, or Olivia Lone Bear, it just doesn’t 

match with what happens on the ground. Mr. Johnson, you are 

suggesting that the FBI, once notified for assistance, will immediately jump to the task on a missing person. That is not true. You 

wait until there is evidence of some wrongdoing, and then you get 

involved. At least that is what is implemented on the ground. 

You aren’t part of that protocol of trying to find missing people. 

That is just not what we can expect from the FBI. You state here 

that you have 140 special agents and 40 victim service specialists. 

How many of them actually line in Indian Country? How many actually work in Indian Country? 

Mr. JOHNSON. All those individuals work - 

Senator HEITKAMP. I meant, actually have an office in Indian 

Country. 

Mr. JOHNSON. Because they have multiple reservations, ma’am, 

they live in a central part. They show up to the office, and then 

at that point, they go out to the reservations. 

Senator HEITKAMP. And you don’t think there is enough work on 

every reservation in North Dakota to locate some FBI agents? 

Mr. JOHNSON. They are close to the reservations as they can 

physically be, ma’am. 

Senator HEITKAMP. Well, I am telling you, there is a major of the 

FBI that there is no cop on the beat. And you guys aren’t there. 

And how many hours, and I visited your FBI agents. How many 

hours do you think they are working a week? 

Mr. JOHNSON. How many hours do they work? 

Senator HEITKAMP. Yes. 

30 

Mr. JOHNSON. I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head. I know 

they are supposed to be working at least 80 hours. Because they 

have to work double time for their overtime pay. 

Senator HEITKAMP. You know, your agents are working over 100 

hours a week, 24–7. 

Mr. JOHNSON. I wouldn’t doubt it. 

Senator HEITKAMP. Do you think that is fair to the agents? Do 

you think that is fair to the cases that go unattended because they 

are overworked? 

Mr. JOHNSON. Ma’am, almost all of our agents are overworked 

right now. 

Senator HEITKAMP. Well, I am just telling you, that if I ran your 

agency and if I ran the Bureau of Criminal Investigation, I would 

figure out a way to do it better, especially when we are dealing 

with you. There are many cases you get involved in where there 

is dual jurisdiction. This is one of the lanes that you have sole jurisdiction over major crimes in my State, along with BIA. 

Now, have you ever, as Senator Udall outlined, declinations. I get 

it, you guys send the evidence on, the U.S. Attorney makes a decision. Have you ever gone back and said, why do we have this level 

of declinations - and this goes to BIA. Who did the investigation? 

Why wasn’t there enough evidence? We know a crime was committed. Why is that happening? Why is there this heavy rate of declined cases in Indian Country? 

Mr. JOHNSON. Ma’am, we cannot make up the evidence. The evidence is exactly what it is, and we provide it in the prosecutorial 

report. And that is what’s given forward. We are not withholding 

any evidence. 

Senator HEITKAMP. I am not suggesting you are withholding evidence. I am suggesting because you are not there and there isn’t 

a response immediately, the evidence is unavailable. And that 

there is a better way to do this. And if you are serious about this, 

you need to pull up all these cases, including the cold cases, and 

try and figure out where there were missed steps that led to a high 

rate of declination and even a lower rate of opportunity to resolve 

who in fact was the victim. 

We are not even talking about the cases that never get referred, 

the cases where there is never a suspect identified, a case where 

there is never someone who you would seek indictment on. Those 

cases happen all the time, they are in files across Indian Country 

and in the FBI. And those aren’t even reflected in this data. 

And so, this is a problem. And you are not the first FBI official 

that I have had this conversation with in this room or over at 

Homeland Security. This is not new. This problem is not new. 

I would suggest that if you want to come here and offer solutions, 

maybe the best way would have been to pull a couple of case files 

and say, what went wrong? And I would suggest that you look at 

Olivia Lone Bear. And I would suggest that you spend time with 

your agents in the field and find out what they need. They need 

more agents. They need more help. These are violent crimes that 

are being committed against Indian people. It is going unattended 

to. 

So I just can’t say enough that this is your problem. When cases 

are declined because there have been missteps on evidence and you 

31 

are the primary investigator, this is your problem. You two need 

to figure out how to work together to make sure that the evidence 

is ready to actually pursue prosecution. Because when you don’t 

have prosecution, guess what? You have absolutely no deterrence, 

and it is open season on people who live in Indian Country. 

So it is a crisis. It is a problem. You guys have all admitted to 

Senator Tester this is a problem. But what I see in this testimony 

today is a lot of things that aren’t reflected in the reality on the 

ground. Because I have spent a lot of time on the ground. 

So I would say, after Savanna’s Act passes, we should be able to 

get protocols. You guys can start protocols now. I applaud the Office of Justice information for the work that you are doing to already implement it. But I am not going to be here to be part of the 

oversight. But I can tell you from the testimony that you are hearing today, there are a lot of people on this dais who are incredibly 

upset that there doesn’t seem to be clearer and better answers. We 

are going to start with the FBI. 

So thank you, Jon, for taking this over. 

Senator TESTER. [Presiding.] I do not know who is next. So whoever is next, go. Senator Smith. 

STATEMENT OF HON. TINA SMITH, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA 

Senator SMITH. Thank you very much. Senator Heitkamp, before 

you go, I just want to say it has been such a joy to serve on this 

Committee with you. Even when you are raising hell—— 

Senator HEITKAMP. As I get on my broomstick and fly around the 

room. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator SMITH. Even when you are raising Cain, as my mother 

used to say, I appreciate serving with you on this panel. So go, 

vote. Heidi shows us that it is okay to get upset once in a while. 

I would like to ask a couple of questions. I would like to start 

with Mr. LaPorte, if I could. Eighty-four percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their 

lifetimes. This is a number that comes from a National Institute 

of Justice study, and a number that we have been talking about. 

Mr. LaPorte, I am wondering, does this percentage change when 

we are looking at Native Americans living in urban areas, where 

approximately 71 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native 

people live? 

Mr. LAPORTE. I am not aware of any research that can specifically tell you for sure whether the numbers vary in those specific 

areas. 

Senator SMITH. So when cases occur in urban areas, these typically don’t fall under Federal jurisdiction, right? 

Mr. LAPORTE. Correct. It is my understanding that they would 

fall under the State or local jurisdiction. 

Senator SMITH. All right. So that means that everything that 

happens in urban areas doesn’t get counted in our efforts to address this crisis. I think that is something that bears focusing on 

for a little bit. 

32 

Mr. LaPorte, can you state what research has the Department of 

Justice done on violence against Native populations in urban 

areas? 

Mr. LAPORTE. We have a range of research. I think probably the 

best way to answer, I don’t want to avoid your question. But because we have a pretty broad portfolio in the number of agencies 

at DOJ, I could be happy to provide a little more information if 

your staff wants to contact us afterwards. Then we can give you 

more specifics on the different types of research that are going on. 

Senator SMITH. I think that is a good thing for us all to focus on. 

What I am concerned about is that there isn’t any specific look at 

this. I understand that the Urban Indian Health Institute completed your study, the study that you did in about a year. The data 

collected in that study identified a lot of gaps in data collection and 

cases that have been missed by law enforcement. 

I think that shows that there are groups out there who understand what is happening with violence in Native communities, who 

understand this trauma that is occurring, understand the culture 

and the resilience of Native communities. I think we should be 

funding these efforts. I think that the DOJ should be studying 

what is happening here. 

So is there a way that we can continue this conversation about 

violence in urban communities amongst Native people? 

Mr. LAPORTE. Yes, absolutely. I can tell you, especially at NIJ, 

we are certainly committed to getting more answers and doing a 

little more research to understand these. And as I said, there are 

other agencies within the department, OVW, OVC, that are interested in these types of things as well. 

Senator SMITH. We will follow up on that, because I think this 

is really, really important. 

Mr. Johnson, a recent report by the Urban Indian Health Institute found more than 150 cases of, I think 153, to be exact, of missing and murdered Native women and girls that the police completely missed. They are not in the record of law enforcement. And 

that was just in 71 cities that were examined. 

Can you help me understand, how is it that law enforcement just 

misses cases like these? 

Mr. JOHNSON. It is left up to the responding agency to put whatever information they have into the record when that individual is 

identified. It is voluntary. So the issue becomes, are they fully filling out those forms so that we can positively identify exactly who 

the individual is, and are they connected to a tribe or not. 

But that is all done out in the urban areas. That is not done on 

the reservations themselves. 

Senator SMITH. But why do you think this happens? 

Mr. JOHNSON. Because they fail to fully identify the individual 

and put the information into the different systems. 

Senator SMITH. But why particularly this group of people? 

Mr. JOHNSON. I wouldn’t say it was specifically this group of people, ma’am. I would say it is straight across the board for all 

groups of people. 

Then the issue becomes is trying to identify the individual, if 

they are Indian or non-Indian. Usually what happens, that has to 

go back to the tribe. And that is usually how we find out, we, the 

33 

FBI, find out that an individual out in an urban area has been 

killed, and has tribal affiliation. It is when we get those leads back 

that we have to go out and interview the family members back on 

the reservation. Then that is how we connect them back to this 

urban area. 

Senator SMITH. Okay. Well, in my State, there has been a recent 

GAO trafficking report, confirmed that in Minneapolis, when Minneapolis police make a concerted effort, as they have, and which 

they did do starting in 2012, to meet with tribal leaders and service 

providers who worked with Native American communities to really 

demonstrate their willingness to investigate trafficking crimes, 

they found that with that coordination that they were able to make 

real headway. So I think this is a model that we ought to be looking at, as we try to figure out better ways to have better coordination. 

Mr. JOHNSON. Yes, ma’am. 

Senator SMITH. I think I am out of town - town and time, Mr. 

Chair. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator TESTER. Since you are the last one, you can keep going 

if you want. But I think we will move on to the next panel, even 

though I am not the chair or ranking member. 

Senator SMITH. [Presiding] I think, yes, that is right. Vice Chair 

Udall has handed the chair responsibilities over to me, is that 

right? So I want to thank this panel very much, first panel, for testifying. We will now turn to our second panel. 

Senator TESTER. Madam Vice Chairman, I would just insert one 

thing in closing. 

Senator SMITH. Oh, yes, please. 

Senator TESTER. So we have had issues in Indian Country. We 

have issues of poverty, we have issues of drugs. I think we have 

issues in those areas, and with adequate manpower with tribal law 

enforcement. We have to find solutions. 

By the way, if I am wrong on any of those, prove me wrong. But 

we have to find a solution to this. We have to. I would encourage 

you all to stay and listen to the next panel. Because they are going 

to tell you their frustrations from their end, which is on the 

ground, of a missing person. 

So thank you, and thank you, Ms. Vice Chair. 

Senator SMITH. Thank you very much. And thank you to our first 

panel. 

I would like to welcome our second panel to the table. 

The CHAIRMAN. [Presiding] All right, we will begin our second 

panel. And as you know, we have votes going on. Those of us that 

are here now have voted twice, I think we are good for the time 

being. Others are now going back for the second vote and will rejoin us. But we will go ahead and begin with our second panel. 

Again, I want to thank you for being here today and testifying. 

For our second panel today, we have three witnesses. The Honorable Amber Crotty, Delegate, Navajo Nation Council, Window 

Rock, Arizona. Thank you for being here. Ms. Patricia Alexander, 

Co-Chair of Violence Against Women Task Force, Central Council, 

of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, Juneau, Alaska. Thank 

you for being here. 

34 

And Ms. Kimberly Loring-Heavy Runner, Missoula, Montana, 

and I am going to turn to Senator Daines for an introduction for 

you. 

Senator DAINES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome, Kimberly. 

Kimberly is a member of the Blackfeet Tribe, the highlight of Montana. Kimberly is a sister of Ashley Loring-Heavy Runner, a missing indigenous woman who disappeared in June of 2017. After nine 

months of no information, the FBI finally stepped in to help the investigation in March of this year. 

Ashley was planning to transfer to the University of Montana 

with Kimberly to study environmental science, so she could help 

take care of her homeland. Kimberly has been working diligently 

to find her sister and raise awareness in Montana and around the 

Nation about her case. Kimberly has logged more than 40, 40 

searches for her sister. She has hiked mountains, she has hiked 

fields. She has been in the snow, she has been in the rain while 

avoiding grizzly bears, literally, to chase any rumor that may help 

find her sister. 

I am thankful that Kimberly has agreed to share her story with 

this Committee today, a story unfortunately that is all too familiar. 

The CHAIRMAN. With that, we will proceed to our witnesses. We 

will begin with Ms. Crotty. 

STATEMENT OF HON. AMBER CROTTY, DELEGATE, NAVAJO 

NATION COUNCIL 

Ms. CROTTY. Thank you, Chairman Hoeven. Amber Kanazbah 

Crotty, [greeting in Native tongue.] I am the Navajo Nation Council delegate and chairwoman of our sexual assault subcommittee on 

the Navajo Nation. 

To Chairman Hoeven, Ranking Member Udall and Committee 

members, [greeting in Native tongue], I thank you for your commitment to prioritize public safety for Indian Country as it pertains 

to missing and murdered indigenous women. And to our Federal 

partners, while I appreciate some of the testimony and your asking 

them to remain in the room, it is quite clear on their departure and 

how that reflects in terms of their commitment and their relationship to Indian Country, to Navajo Nation and to our family members who are on the ground. 

Senator TESTER. For the record, Charles Addington, the BIA 

man, stayed in the room, and I want to recognize that. But you are 

right, the other two left. Thank you. 

Ms. CROTTY. I appreciate that, Senator Tester. 

We recognize and appreciate your tireless efforts on working on 

behalf of Indian Country. I would like to take this opportunity to 

thank this Committee for holding this hearing regarding this critical issue. 

I am here today on behalf of the Navajo Nation to implore this 

Committee to intervene to stop the alarming rates of our tribal 

members who turn up missing or murdered. Our nation continues 

to observe first-hand the outcomes that stem from the lack of resources that exist to maintain data bases on indigenous missing 

persons, or the failure to cross multiple jurisdictions, State, tribal, 

county, Federal, to effectively communicate with nations, with our 

35 

nation, to coordinate efforts to reduce the loss of our women, our 

children and our community members. 

I wear this yellow scarf in honor of our baby girl, Ashley Mike, 

who was taken from us in 2016, when her and her brother Ian 

were abducted and ultimately, we found her, murdered in our community. Then later on that year, in 2017, we lost Ariel Begay. She 

went missing and her remains were ultimately found, and her case 

is still under investigation. It took the medical examiner nearly ten 

months to try to identify her cause of death. But yet her family still 

mourns for her and there are still unanswered questions. 

Recently we discovered another Navajo woman, Marena Holiday, 

who was murdered in Comb Ridge, Utah, in November 2015 by her 

neighbor, was shot and then dragged to her death. Not only are 

Navajo women being victimized, but there is an alarming rate of 

missing and murdered transgendered Navajo women. 

In 2005 and 2009, there were three Navajo transgendered 

women who were missing in Albuquerque, and later found murdered, all within a block of one another. As you can see, this epidemic of violence against our women is not just limited to Indian 

Country, Navajo Nation Dine ‘Ta, but it also is prevalent in urban 

areas. I appreciate the effort of Senator Heitkamp in looking at 

how, and asking the tough questions, and making sure that our 

Federal partners are accountable and on the ground, know what is 

happening and the struggle in terms of not only the time and place 

it takes our Federal partners to address these issues, but then to 

look at what additional resources need to be called in. We consider 

this not only a public health crisis, but a crisis against our future 

generation. 

We have complications in determining criminal jurisdiction on 

tribal lands. A primary issue is determining who has the legal authority between tribal police, State law enforcement and Federal 

agents. 

Baby girl Ashlynn Mike’s case is a primary example of jurisdictional complications resulting in a delay of response time in rendering not only an Amber alert system, but then ultimately looking 

and coordinating the tribal, State, Federal search and rescue team 

for her. These same jurisdictional complications result in law enforcement officials at the State and local level not enforcing protection orders, restraining orders and valid orders outside of the Navajo Nation jurisdiction. 

As I end, I want to say we need help for victim advocates. On 

Navajo we have only about five BIA agents, in a State the size of 

West Virginia, and only six advocates to help them in the work 

that they are doing. We need to be able to move in and help these 

victims with funding to help them with relief, to help them find 

their loved one and then to help them to the journey narrative. 

Thank you very much. I appreciate this time, Chairman Hoeven. 

I know I went past, and I do have more recommendations. So I look 

forward, and [phrase in Native tongue.] 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Crotty follows:] 

36 

1https://navajobusiness.com/fastFacts/Overview.htm 

2https://transition.fcc.gov/cgb/rural/presentations/ 

ONSAT2OverviewofNNHeadStartTechnologyPlan.pdf 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF HON. AMBER CROTTY, DELEGATE, NAVAJO NATION

COUNCIL

Introduction 

Chairman Hoeven, Ranking Member Udall, Members of the Committee, thank 

you for this opportunity to testify on behalf of the Navajo Nation to address missing 

and murdered people in Indian Country. I am Navajo Nation Council Delegate 

Amber Kanazbah Crotty and I thank you for your commitment to prioritize public 

safety for Indian Country as it pertains to missing and murdered indigenous people. 

We recognize and appreciate your tireless efforts working on behalf of Tribes and 

would like to take this opportunity to thank this Committee for holding this hearing. 

The Navajo Nation urgently appeals to this Committee to intervene to stop the 

increasing alarming rates of missing or murdered tribal members throughout Indian 

Country. Our Tribe continues to observe firsthand the disastrous outcome from the 

lack of resources that exist for states to maintain databases on indigenous missing 

persons or the failure across jurisdictions to effectively communicate to coordinate 

efforts to reduce the loss of Native American lives. 

Background 

The Navajo Nation is the largest land-based Tribe in the United States that spans 

over 27,427 square-miles across three states (Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah) with 

over 350,000 enrolled members. The Nation is comprised of 110 Chapters, also 

known as communities or local governments within the Navajo Nation. In New Mexico, there are an additional 80,000 enrolled members that reside in dependent Navajo communities, allotments, and border towns. Today, the Nation suffers from unemployment rates at about 42 percent and the median annual household income is 

approximately $20,000. 1 Across the Navajo Nation, 61-percent of homes do not have 

electricity, 22-percent of households have telephones, and only 15-percent of households have computers. 2 Further complicating access to victim services, only 24-percent of residents over the age of 18 have access to a vehicle and the closest available 

victim services are generally hours away. Annual reporting to the FBI indicates violent crime rates have fallen by 48-percent over the past 25 years, and this same 

data indicates that violent crime is on the rise on the Nation. From 2010–2016, over 

44.1-percent of calls to the Navajo Department of Public Safety (NDPS) involved violence, and alcohol underlies almost all of this violent crime. 

The Navajo Nation is currently far from having sufficient public safety resources 

to adequately respond to reported crimes. Significantly, there are fewer than 200 

Navajo police officers and 30 Criminal Investigators for the entire Navajo reservation. Given the on-reservation population, there are 0.85 officers per every 1,000 individuals, which is less than 1⁄3 of the national average of 3 officers per every 1,000 

individuals. The Navajo Nation Police Department’s most recent annual crime reports illustrate the increase of violent crimes on the Nation—particularly homicides. 

Navajo Criminal Investigations responds to approximately 30–50 homicides per year 

within the Nation’s boundaries, which represents a homicide rate well above the national average (20–33 homicides per 100,000 people compared to 6–13 per 100,000 

nationally). Based on the most recent census data, the homicide rate on the Navajo 

Nation is four times the national average. The Navajo Police Department averaged 

226,450 total calls for service over the past four years: 

Navajo Police Department-Annual Reported Calls for Service 

Offense 2017 2016 2015 2014 

Homicide 32 24 20 3 

Rape 264 319 294 316 

Robbery 40 26 23 22 

Aggravated Assault 417 417 492 152 

Burglary 893 738 728 895 

Larceny 904 896 690 1,036 

Motor Vehicle Theft 1,270 1,077 730 744 

Arson 352 349 292 338 

Assaults 472 417 442 464 

Weapons 701 687 661 773 

37 

3https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2017/crime-in-the-u.s.-2017/tables/table-11/table-11- 

state-cuts/arizona.xls 4Laurel Morales, ‘‘Navajo Nation, Feds Take on Overwhelming Violent Crimes’’ Fronteras: 

The Changing America Desk (March 01, 2013). Accessed at: http://kj.org/content/6821/navajonation-feds-take-overwhelming-violent-crime 5 Note: Native victims are often unwilling to travel off-reservation for services for a variety 

of reasons, including long distances from family and jobs, lack of culturally appropriate training/ 

programs, and language barriers. 

Navajo Police Department-Annual Reported Calls for Service—Continued 

Offense 2017 2016 2015 2014 

Sex Offenses 2,023 1,705 1,499 1,754 

Child Abuse 917 1,092 1,167 1,058 

Domestic Violence 5,351 5,119 4,628 4,658 

Total 13,636 12,866 11,666 12,213 

Grand Total of Calls for Service 234,137 218,810 213,692 239,161 

These alarming statistics help illustrate why the Federal Bureau of Investigation 

(FBI) reported that Navajo Nation has one of the most violent crimes in Indian 

Country with 2,524 violent crimes; 2,311 aggravated assaults; and 160 rapes reported to law enforcement in 2017. 3 Thus, violent crimes and crimes against women 

such as rape is comparable to major metropolitan areas such as Detroit and San 

Diego, proportionate to population. 4

Violence Against Navajo Women 

Gender-biased violence on the Navajo Nation is a multi-generational and culturally pervasive phenomenon. Similarly to our national counterparts, the true rates 

of violence against women are not accurately reflected in data since many victims 

of domestic violence (DV) or dating violence fail to report their abuser due to fear 

for their safety (i.e. retaliation), shame over their situation, or involvement of alcohol or drugs at the time of the incident. Administration of targeted victim services 

for DV, dating violence, and sexual assault has likely led to increased reporting of 

DV and sex offenses in recent years. Women who have been victimized are starting 

to trust that they will be supported, heard, and believed due to program implementation like Am D¢¢ Alchφnφ Bφghan, Inc. (ADABI) on the Nation. For example, 

ADABI has had positive impacts on our community in the Chinle Agency over the 

past years. In this community, reporting of sexual assault incidents have increased 

by 75 percent from 3 total reports during 2010–2012, to 12 total reports during 

2014–2015. We believe this increase is a result of the efforts of ADABI to increase 

community awareness, build knowledge and skills among community partners about 

how to effectively respond to domestic violence and sexual assault. 

Poverty, low educational attainment, addiction, unresolved trauma, and the emergence of gang culture, all contribute to the perpetuation of the culture of violence 

against women and girls within the Navajo Nation. Notably, if more victims are now 

coming forward, then violent crime rates are even worse than currently reported. 

This information is extremely concerning because it illustrates the battle that the 

Navajo Nation is currently engaging in to combat domestic violence and violent 

crimes across the reservation, but also demonstrates a need to ensure protections 

for children and law enforcement, as well. 

Missing and Murdered Navajo Nation Members 

Generally, victim services on the Navajo Nation consist of a ‘‘patchwork’’ of extremely limited support services that cannot meet the high demand for services. The 

Navajo Nation currently does not have the ability to provide comprehensive victim 

services to all victims of crime, as its sole funding source is strictly limited to services for intimate-partner violence. Consequently, the few existing services are almost 

exclusively for victims of domestic violence (DV), dating violence, and sexual assault. 

There are no on-reservation services for victims of violent crimes, crimes against 

children, etc. In reality, many simply go without support. Overall, initial crisis intervention and safety planning is performed by an array of critically under-resourced 

service providers whom are limited in scope and availability of resources. To further 

complicate matters, victims face significant barriers to access, including: extremely 

limited phone and Internet access; Navajo-to-English language barriers; long-distance travel; and lack of transportation. 5

38 

6 Note: In child abduction cases, 76-percent of those kidnapped are killed within 3 hours of 

abduction denoting the need for expedient state-tribal collaboration on searches and issuance 

of information to save lives. 

Provided below are only a couple incidents of missing and murdered enrolled 

members of the Navajo Nation. Although the ages of each individual, geographical 

location, and date the persons were reported missing vastly differs in each case. The 

significant shortcomings in each case remains the same: law enforcements’ delayed 

response and jurisdictional complications. 

• 11-year-old Ashlynne Mike was kidnapped with her 9-year-old brother in 

Shiprock, New Mexico in May 2016. After a couple found Ashlynne’s 9-year-old 

brother scared and walking on the side of the road, he was taken to the Navajo 

Nation Police Department in Shiprock where they proceeded to coordinate with 

local law enforcement. Hours later, when the Farmington Police Department 

was notified of the missing child, it was clear no information had been shared. 

Eight hours after Ashlynne went missing, an AMBER Alert mass notification 

was finally issued at 2:30 A.M. 

• 26-year-old Amber Webster, a married mother-of-three, was murdered in Florence, Kentucky on December 2018. Amber was employed as a construction 

worker that had traveled out of state to provide income to her family on the 

Navajo Nation. 32-year-old Jesse James brutally stabbed her to death while 

staying at the same hotel as her. The two had no prior interactions with one 

another prior to the incident. 

• 26-year-old Katczinzki Ariel Begay went missing in July 2017 on the eastern 

edge of the Navajo Nation reservation in Arizona. Ariel was picked up from her 

residence by her boyfriend and never came back home. Efforts were been made 

by law enforcement and a search ensued on the Navajo Nation, New Mexico, 

and Arizona. However, sadly, her remains were found in October 2017 in 

Querino Canyon, Arizona. Her case remains unsolved today. 

• 23-year-old Ryan Shey Hoskie, 42-year-old Teri Benally, and 32-year old 

Fredrick Watson were three transgender Navajo Nation members who were 

found beaten to death in Albuquerque, New Mexico in January 2005, July 2009, 

and June 2009 respectively. All three victims’ bodies were found in the Southeastern-side town within a block of one another laying in the street or allies. 

The details of each of their deaths remain unknown and no suspects were detained for their slayings. 

• 63-year-old Marena Holiday, mother of three and grandmother, was murdered 

in Comb Ridge, Utah on December 2015. Marena was killed within the boundaries of the Navajo Nation after she was beaten then shot in the head by a 

neighbor. In disposing of the body, the perpetrator tied a rope around Holiday’s 

ankles to the back of his truck and dragged her body to hide under a tree. She 

was found the next day and the perpetrator was later indicted by a federal 

grand jury for first-degree murder and sentenced to just 22 years in prison. 

Jurisdictional Complexities 

Complications in determining criminal jurisdiction on tribal land is a primary 

issue in determining who has legal authority between tribal police, state law enforcement, and federal agents. Ashlynne Mike’s case is a primary example of jurisdictional complications and a delayed response time in rendering an AMBER Alert 

for a missing persons’ notification through tribal-statefederal responses. 6 Additionally, in cases where Native Americans represent only 1.6 percent of the state’s population, geographical complexities are magnetized since many reservations are located in extremely rural locations within state boundaries. 

Due to the Nation’s expansive geographical distances across three separate states 

and limited police force, it takes Navajo law enforcement hours to respond to criminal activity because it can exceed the capacity and resources of current law enforcement. This includes a vital problem of the Navajo Nation to facilitate active relationships with law enforcement between federal, state, local municipalities to effectively share information exists as a persistent issue. Currently, there is no mode of 

communication that exists between the Nation and law enforcement outside of the 

reservation boundaries, which leads to a continued loss of lives by way of jurisdictional miscommunication. 

These same jurisdictional complications result in law enforcement officials at the 

local and state level to not enforcing restraining or protection orders issued through 

the Nation’s courts as valid orders of protection outside the boundaries of the reservation. These circumstances leave victims feeling ignored and with the false imVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00042 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK
39 

pression that the police and court system do not care about them, as well as contributes to the now prevailing culture of impunity among criminal offenders. The establishment of a State-Tribal Intergovernmental Task Force and/or Intergovernmental 

Agreement (IGA) for crossjurisdictional coordination is vital to reduce wasted time 

and communication amongst law enforcement. The Navajo Nation also estimates 

that the one-time funding allocation of $5 million for upgrading and integrating all 

public safety partners to facilitate communication systems across jurisdictional 

boundaries for faster response times in locating missing persons. 

Lack of Victim Advocates and Supportive Family Services 

All available victim services on the Nation are specifically for domestic/dating violence and sexual assault. The Navajo Nation currently does not have the ability to 

provide comprehensive victim services to all victims of crime, as its sole funding 

source is strictly limited to services for intimate-partner violence. Currently, nonIndians generally have to go off reservation to receive victim services. Due to limited 

internal resources, the Navajo Nation must rely on third-party service providers to 

‘‘fill the gaps’’ to provide additional on-reservation services, including emergency 

shelter and advocates. The available on-reservation victim services are administered 

by three providers: (1) Navajo Nation Division of Social Services’ Strengthening 

Families Program (SFP); (2) Ama ́ Do ́o ́ Alchı ́nı ́ Bφghan, Inc. (ADABI) in Chinle; (3) 

and Tohdenasshai Committee Against Family Abuse in Kayenta, which are both 

non-profit organizations. More information on these programs is provided below: 

Collectively, ADABI and Tohdenasshai Committee Against Family Abuse provide 

two short-term, emergency shelters and one ‘‘safe home’’ on the Navajo Nation for 

victims of domestic/dating violence, and sexual assault. In total, there are less than 

30 available beds and the ‘‘safe home’’ has a maximum 5–7 night stay in a motel. 

These non-profit service providers receive referrals from the ER, law enforcement, 

Navajo Social Services, and other local service providers. They are critical partners 

who provide transportation, safety planning, court support, and help filing protection orders. For example, ADABI received and responded to 648 requests for service 

in 2017, which accounts for 8.5 percent of the total number of DV calls to 911 on 

the Nation. In 2017, ADABI advocates logged 241 transportation hours in 2017, 

which equates to six weeks of non-stop driving for a service provider. 


1212a1.eps
40 

7http://www.nndss.navajo-nsn.gov/Home.aspx 

8 Established in October 2016. 

9http://www.nndss.navajo-nsn.gov/DSSPrograms/StrengtheningFamiliesProgram/ 

SFPHome.aspx 

Navajo Nation Division of Social Services ensures social services are available to 

needy families living on or near the reservation to reduce and alleviate hardships 

to ensure self-sufficiency. 7 Out of the eight programs that the Division offers to 

meet this purpose, the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) 8 is the only Navajoadministered victim-service provider on the reservation. It provides culturally holistic 

advocacy, supporting services, prevention education and safe shelters. 9 However, 

this program has budgetary limitations that has resulted in the inability for the Nation to provide victim advocates to children and families that are negatively impacted by domestic violence and missing and murdered people. In May 2018, SFP 

opened a 24/7 residential emergency shelter in Shiprock, NM called the Northern 

T.R.E.E (Teaching Responsibilities, Empowerment and Equality) House. This is the 

only emergency shelter directly administered by the Navajo Nation. The shelter has 

been at capacity since its opening with only four beds and staffed by five advocates 

where two advocates work at a time and they rotate split shifts to provide 24/7 services. While on duty, the two advocates must simultaneously answer calls to the 24/ 

7 Crisis Line, intake new victims, and provide the full spectrum of support services, 

including responding to crisis calls both in the field and at the shelter, crisis intervention, safety planning, referrals, transportation, court support, and help filing 

temporary protection orders. Typically, one advocate will be transporting a victim, 

leaving only one advocate to run the shelter. If a crisis situation arises, no one is 

available to respond to the victim until the advocate providing transportation returns. 

The Nation also employs 5 Mobile Victim Witness Advocates (VWA) who are responsible for assisting victims within the Navajo Nation with SFP-program services, 

including crisis intervention, safety planning, shelter placement, transportation 

(transport to shelter, counseling, court, SANE exams etc.), court support, referrals, 

home visits, and filing temporary protection orders. If there is a federal criminal 

case, VWAs may coordinate with Navajo Criminal Investigations, FBI, and U.S. Attorney’s Offices. There is one VWA for each Region of the Navajo Reservation (see 

map below), meaning each advocate’s coverage area is approximately 5,485 square 

miles. 

Given current crime rates, population size, and land base, SFP estimates it would 

need a minimum of 4–6 VWAs per Region to provide adequate, comprehensive servVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00044 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK

1212a2.eps
41 

10 Note: Further, the scope and available access to services of these providers varies depending 

on location and the daily capacity of mobile advocates and shelter services. Typically, any requests for mobile support services usually take many hours or even days before they get to the 

victim. 11https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/navajo-nation-president-begaye-signs-closing-documents-to-purchase-gentle-ironhawkdomestic-violence-shelter/ 12See—’’Navajo Nation Reponse to Request for Additional Information Regarding Needs for 

the Office of the Prosecutor,’’ dated November 13, 2018. 

ices across the Navajo Nation. Presently, each VWA’s coverage area is more than 

20 Chapters and advocates may travel hundreds of miles daily. On average, an advocate spends at least half a day with a victim for intervention and safety planning, 

while shelter transports take all day and average 400-miles roundtrip. 

Mobile advocates’ individual capacity to respond is further limited as there is only 

one tribal vehicle for all five of the VWAs. VWAs currently share office space with 

staff in another Navajo department, which makes ensuring client confidentiality 

very difficult as the advocates gather information and conduct interviews. Because 

there are not enough VWAs or resources to respond to the overall need, VWAs must 

‘‘triage’’ and prioritize their case load. In practice, this means that VWAs are sometimes not able to provide requested support within a reasonable period of time, if 

at all. 10 Despite this overwhelmingly burdened system, out of 13,636 calls for service for violent offenses, SFP received and responded to 5,670 DV-related service 

calls, which demonstrates the Navajo government provided some form of direct victim services and support to at least 41.6 percent of victims of violent crime on the 

reservation. 

In reality, many victim services are only available off-Reservation, including services for victims of violent crime, crimes against children, and human trafficking. The 

Navajo Nation currently subcontracts with multiple off-reservation service providers 

to provide additional victim services. Providing victim services off-reservation poses 

additional challenges, especially because many Native victims will not use off-reservation services for a variety of reasons, including long distances from family and 

jobs, lack of culturally appropriate programming, and language barriers. Ultimately, 

many crime victims on Navajo do not get the help or support they deserve and need. 

Historically, victim advocate funding has only temporarily been funded through 

grants. When the grants run out the advocate leaves and the victims are unable to 

build a stable point of contact, it diminishes the effectiveness of support services 

and sustainability of the program. Previously, the Nation requested a 3- year grant 

in the amount of $14 million to implement a comprehensive victim advocate system, 

but only received $2 million. This funding assists the Nation in being proactive in 

preventing domestic violence and providing housing and program options for families through educational and departmental programs offered to our citizens like the 

Home for Women and Children in Shiprock, New Mexico and the Gentle Ironhawk 

Shelter in Blanding, Utah purchased by the Navajo Nation. 11 The current estimate 

for victim services on Navajo Nation are currently $4.6 million dollars per year. 

Lastly, another unresolved issue exists to increase critical access and supportive 

services to families with missing family members and those whom are experiencing 

the after-effects of domestic violence or intimate partner abuse. There are no resources available for Native American families to gain access to in locating their 

missing family members and navigating through the complexities of the tribal-statefederal law enforcement systems and databases is problematic even at agencies. 

Navajo Nation Courts, Prosecutors, and Public Defenders 

Navajo Nation Courts domestic violence cases amount to 12 percent of the entire 

caseload on the Navajo Nation, which is a 4 percent increase since 2010. Only 14 

prosecutors handle criminal court cases in eleven different judicial districts. From 

January 1, 2018 to December 7, 2018, the Navajo Nation prosecutors received 1,575 

cases to review for domestic violence charges alone and filed 999 cases. This is an 

increase from the 2017 calendar during which prosecutors received 1,180 DV cases 

for review and filed 848. 12

Based on this excessive criminal caseload in the Nation’s courts, our Tribe has 

not implemented the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that would allow us to 

prosecute non-Indian offenders involved in domestic violence incidents within the 

boundaries of the reservation. The implementation of VAWA highlights a fundamental issue in tribal courts across the nation: the lack of funding and resources 

available in tribal public safety and court systems to adequately protect our citizens. 

For example, the estimate of additional caseload initiated through VAWA implementation would cost the Navajo Nation up to $10 million/year. The increased costs of 

implementation would go towards hiring additional personnel, attorneys/judges, employee training, programmatic restructuring, facility upgrades, and technological upVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK
42 

dates for our outdated equipment. $1.6 million is needed to expand prosecutorial resources and provide victim advocate services that are currently unavailable. 

Database Development 

Navajo Nation organizes police data through the Navajo Police Department Information Management Section. Current data study requests from outside law enforcement agencies are exceedingly difficult to provide because the Nation’s current data 

tracking system is incompatible with the requested type of data search information. 

Additionally, due to the lack of available resources, the Nation’s paper filing system 

is cumbersome to hand count and subject to human error. These issues directly contribute to the difficulties in identifying missing persons and updating information 

for public safety departments outside Navajo Nation’s jurisdiction. The cost of updating our system into one Record Management Server would cost the Nation approximately $5 million dollars. Further, supplementary funding to include 11 employees to conduct crime analysis within the Information Management Section of 

the Navajo Police Department plus support equipment costs would cost close to $1 

million. The additional personnel would provide insight as to how law enforcement 

and investigations can be more proactive in addressing current crime trends within 

the Navajo Nation. 

The National Crime Information Center, a crime database for law enforcement 

that includes missing persons; and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons 

System are two national databases that compile information of missing and murdered indigenous people. However, due to the inaccuracy of these systems, the collection of this data falls on the efforts of activist and advocacy groups. Currently, 

the United States does not have a reliable database or methodology of obtaining statistics on the number of missing and murdered indigenous people. Although the U.S. 

Department of Justice (DOJ) operates the public National Missing and Unidentified 

Persons System (NamUs) database, the data it receives is provided on a volunteer 

basis throughout inconsistent jurisdictions. NamUs is the closest platform that the 

federal government has established to collect and centralize data of Native Americans and Alaskan Natives, but remains inefficient and inaccurate due to the reporting and jurisdictional issues discussed above. Further, state databases that voluntarily track this information on a voluntary basis are inaccurate, as well. Six out 

of 10 state databases are not updated. This issue is further complicated by jurisdictional complications determining who is responsible for data collection and adequate 

identification of Native American heritage. 

Tribal Access Program (TAP) Development 

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) launched the Tribal Access Program (TAP) 

pilot project for National Crime Information in August 2015 to provide Tribes with 

access to national crime information systems for both criminal and civil purposes. 

This allows Tribes to exchange data to protect their citizens through data exchange 

via the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) system (federal component) 

and via state databases in which they are connected. Out of 55 Tribes that applied 

for funding through the DOJ for this program, DOJ selected the Navajo Nation to 

receive 2 kiosk systems in November 2017. Currently, the Navajo Nation has these 

two Tribal Access Program (TAP) kiosks installed on the reservation at: 1) Division 

of Social Services in Window Rock, AZ; and 2) Judicial building in Chinle, AZ. The 

possibility of expanding the number of databases to track this information on the 

Navajo Nation are taking place to add 5 to 7 more kiosks. 

The upcoming expansion of the TAP program on the Navajo Nation presents an 

opportunity for congressional leaders to expand the program to develop a database 

to adequately track missing Navajo citizens and compile information to share across 

jurisdictional boundaries. The issue that arises in this instance is that Navajo Nation law enforcement has a responsibility of entering the voluminous amount of data 

of tribal court convictions. The inclusion of a database to track missing and murdered citizens would require a dedicated funding stream for our severely underfunded public safety program to operate and meet CJIS security requirements. Further, a DOJ tribal technical assistance program and annual update program is needed to educate on the already existing gaps in TAP. 

ADDITIONAL SERVICE GAPS TO CONSIDER

1Navajo Department of Medical Examiners 

The Nation does not have an Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI). Deceased 

individuals have to be transported approximately 4 hours to a state facility for autopsy and, if there is no foul play involved in the case and the FBI pays for the 

autopsy, then there are only limited funds in which Navajo Criminal Investigations 

works with the families to get answers as to the nature of how their loved ones 

43 

13See, Navajo Nation Legis. 0321–18 establishing Department of Medical Examiners enacted 

October 2018. 

passed away. In order to establish an OMI within the Navajo Nation, the projection 

is $4 million start up and thereafter have an annual operating budget of $1.5 million. Contracting with the area state OMI offices is not feasible or practical. 13

Federal Crime Data Analysis 

The Navajo Nation can request services from the FBI to analyze the evidence of 

a federal crime at a crime lab. However, if the prosecution of the crime remains 

within the jurisdiction of the Navajo Nation, no funding exists to analyze the data. 

Further, the Nation does not have any crime labs to conduct the analysis. The Navajo Nation estimates that approximately $1 million in additional funding for criminal data analysis is needed. 

Another key aspect of a fully functional Navajo OMI would allow us to also sift 

through missing persons cases on our Nation that could potentially be of use to outside agencies who are searching for missing persons, and vice versa. For instance, 

NamUS allows participating agencies to utilize their program to go through data of 

missing persons and Jane/John Doe’s, thus increasing the chances of finding missing 

loved ones who may be deceased. 

Conclusion 

The problem of missing and murdered people in Indian country continues to grow 

every year. Congress and the federal government, along with Indian tribes, need to 

address this now in order to curb the problem. In light of my testimony, we suggest 

the following: 

1. Provide intergovernmental resources or establish State-Tribal tasks forces to 

increase communication between Tribes and states/local municipality law enforcement to determine jurisdictional reporting responsibilities. 

2. Increase critical access and create effective federal systems that provide resources and information sharing for families who are in the process of locating their missing family members. 

3. Increase access and funding for support services for the families of missing 

and murdered people and safe house shelters for domestic violence survivors. 

4. Significantly increase funding for tribal courts to expand prosecutorial resources and provide victim advocate services that are currently unavailable. 

5. Significantly increase funding for a dedicated funding stream for the Tribal 

Access Program (TAP) for Indian tribes to expand data sharing across jurisdictional boundaries to comprehensively operate and meet CJIS security requirements. 

Thank you for providing me the opportunity to testify before the committee. 

Ahe ́hee ́ Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. That is fine, and you will have an opportunity 

to present more, as well, with the questions and answers. 

Now we will turn to Ms. Patricia Alexander, co-chair of the Violence Against Women Task Force. Ms. Alexander. 

STATEMENT OF PATRICIA ALEXANDER, CO–CHAIR, VIOLENCE 

AGAINST WOMEN TASK FORCE, CENTRAL COUNCIL OF 

TLINGIT AND HAIDA INDIAN TRIBES OF ALASKA 

Ms. ALEXANDER. Thank you. Greetings from Alaska. My name is 

Patricia Alexander. I am the co-chair of the Violence Against 

Women Task Force of the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. I appreciate the opportunity testify today. 

Our president, Richard Peterson, asked me to convey his thanks 

to Senator Murkowski and to Chairman Hoeven, and the other 

members of the Committee for working toward meaningful solutions that promote the well-being of Native women. I join him in 

thanking Senator Heitkamp for her leadership in Savanna’s Act. It 

44 

is a privilege to meet you in person. That bill is an important first 

step in addressing missing and murdered Native women. 

While violence against Native women occurs at higher rates than 

any other ethnic group in the United States, it is at its worst in 

Alaska. A full 50 percent of Alaska Native women have experienced 

physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. I am one. 

Tlingit & Haida is all too familiar with the corrosive effect that 

this violence has on our community, our culture, our way of life. 

It has been more than a year since the unsolved death of 19-year 

old Jade Williams of Kake; nearly a year since the unsolved death 

of 37-year old Francile Turpin of Klawock; two and a half years 

since the murder of 28-year old Judylee Guthrie in Klawock. The 

future of Indian County depends on whether all of us work together to ensure that Native women live in environments that are 

free of such rampant, unaccountable violence. 

As co-chair of the Task Force, I have begun conducting research 

to find out how missing and murdered indigenous women are identified and cases tracked. To my surprise, I have learned that law 

enforcement in Alaska does not track the ethnic backgrounds of 

victims of violence. I further learned that there is no data sharing 

between law enforcement and a victim’s tribe where P.L. 280 states 

that we don’t have tribal law enforcement. 

Moreover, despite the efforts of some domestic violence shelters 

to share ethnic and tribal data that they have compiled, the State 

has yet to effectively use that data to better focus its services for 

Native victims. It is not a priority for the State of Alaska. 

The police agencies tell us that they only collect data on violence 

against women if they make an arrest, and open a case. That 

means that there is no data, no record, in many cases of domestic 

violence and sexual assault in Native communities where there is 

little or no law enforcement presence. Victims are not being treated, and repeat violence is not being deterred. This is shocking; it 

is unacceptable. Just because a perpetrator cannot be identified 

and arrested does not mean a victim cannot be identified and 

served. The rights of victims should not be denied because law enforcement fails to apprehend perpetrators. Law enforcement must 

track this information. 

The geographical remoteness of Alaska is another factor in making data collection difficult. Tlingit & Haida serves 20 villages and 

communities spread over 43,000 square miles within southeast 

Alaska. Our service population is among the largest, most isolated, 

most geographically dispersed tribal population in Indian Country. 

Because of this, there is no 911 to call; there are no Amber alerts 

if a child goes missing. Native villages rely heavily on village public 

safety officers and community members who are the first, and in 

some cases, the only, responders to incidents of domestic violence 

and sexual assault. 

However, not every community has a VPSO. This limits data collection. The failure to collect victim data makes it difficult to tailor 

our treatment programs and services to proactively provide Alaska 

Native women with resources that can save their lives. 

So in conclusion, I ask this Committee, along with the recommendations in my written testimony, that you work with the 

Appropriations Committee to provide targeted funding to tribal 

45 

governments like Tlingit & Haida to conduct research, collect data, 

coordinate reporting between tribal governments and law enforcement agencies, establish a pilot for at least one Alaska tribe to exercise special domestic violence jurisdiction, where upon conclusion 

of the planning phase, the tribe would seek certification from the 

Department of Justice. Work closely with the Alaska delegation 

and the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center to ensure that 

any jurisdictional fix addresses the unique needs of Alaska Native 

communities. Finally, law enforcement needs to be held to the best 

practices for data collection. 

I want to say that Alaska has the dubious distinction of being 

the worst. And I think that is important to remember at budget 

time. Don’t treat us like everyone else. We are the worst. We have 

the worst problems in terms of being on islands and landlocked, 

only available by boat or plane, affected by weather. The tribes and 

the VPSOs are trying, they are doing what they can. But they don’t 

have resources to do what they must do. 

I believe that in Anchorage, the police there were very helpful in 

the data collection that was done by the Seattle Urban Center. I 

believe that local authorities will cooperate with us if we can have 

the resources to address the problem. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Alexander follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF PATRICIA ALEXANDER, CO-CHAIR, VIOLENCE AGAINST

WOMEN TASK FORCE, CENTRAL COUNCIL OF TLINGIT AND HAIDA INDIAN TRIBES OF

ALASKA

GREETINGS FROM ALASKA! My name is Patricia Alexander. I am the Co-Chair 

of the Violence Against Women Task Force (VAWTF) of the Central Council of 

Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (‘‘Tlingit & Haida’’ or ‘‘Tribe’’). Thank you 

for inviting me to testify on behalf of my Tribe. Our President, the Honorable Richard J. Peterson, sends you his greetings and gratitude for the attention this Committee has placed on this topic of such vital importance to the future wellbeing of 

our Tribe. 

Tlingit & Haida is a federally-recognized tribal government with over 30,000 citizens worldwide, and has an active, government to government relationship with the 

United States. The Tribe serves 18 villages and communities spread over 43,000 

square miles within Southeast Alaska. More than 7,000 tribal citizens reside in Juneau, with several thousand more located in Anchorage. Beyond that, the vast majority of tribal citizens reside in Washington State, and smaller numbers stretch into 

Oregon and the rest of the world. Tlingit & Haida tribal citizens are among the largest, most isolated, and most geographically dispersed tribal populations nationwide. 

In Southeast Alaska, where the Tribe provides the majority of its services, most 

communities have no roads in or out, and must rely on planes and boats for both 

day-to-day needs and emergencies. 

I have dedicated much of my professional work life to providing much-needed 

health and social services to our tribal citizens. I have worked in tribal social service 

programs for Tlingit & Haida as well as for the Sitka Tribe. I have also served in 

a tribal treatment center in Arizona, and have engaged in hospital administration 

for the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. 

Tlingit & Haida wishes to commend our own Senator Lisa Murkowski, along with 

Chairman John Hoeven, Vice Chairman Tom Udall and other members of this Committee for continuing to work in partnership with Tlingit & Haida and others in Indian Country to identify meaningful solutions that promote the well-being of Native 

women and children. I would also like to thank Senator Heidi Heitkamp for her 

leadership on S. 1942, Savanna’s Act, and to all those on this Committee for working so hard to pass this measure in the Senate last week. This bill is an important 

first step in assisting federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement to apply the 

appropriate justice protocols needed to address missing and murdered Native Americans and Alaska Natives throughout Indian Country 

46 

1 ‘‘BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the Tlingit & Haida petition the US Department of Justice to evaluation and report on progress by federal and state law enforcement agencies in investigating and reducing the incidence of missing and murdered indigenous women no later than 

December 31, 2019 from the states of Alaska and Washington, and US Department of Justice.’’ 2Tlingit Haida Resolution TA/12–58, Opposition to Any Language Excluding Alaska Native 

Tribes from the Violence Against Women Act (April 18–21, 2012), http://www.ccthita.org/info/ 

press/releases/2012releases/Resolution%20TA%2012-58%20Opposition%20to%20Any%20 

Language%20Excluding%20AK%20Native%20Tribes%20from%20the%20VAWA.pdf; Tlingit 

Haida Press Release, Tribe Strongly Opposes Exclusion from Violence Against Women Act (April 

Tlingit & Haida Efforts to Prevent Missing and Murdered Women in Alaska 

While violence against Native American women occurs at higher rates than in any 

other ethnic group in the United States, it is even worse in Alaska. According to 

the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, 50 percent of Alaska Native women 

experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime. The Violence Policy Center 

reports that the homicide rate against Alaska Native women and children is three 

times the national average, identifying that in twelve murders, eight will be American Indian or Alaska Native. Even more troubling, the Violence Policy Center reports that Alaska is ranked first among states with the highest homicide rates of 

women by men and is the most violent state, with Anchorage as the most violent 

city within the Union. The Seattle-based Urban Indian Health Institute reports that 

Alaska is among the top ten states with the highest number of missing and murdered Native Americans and Alaska Natives with 52 active cases. 

Tlingit & Haida is all too familiar with the corrosive effect that this violence 

against our women and children has had on our communities. It has been more 

than a year since the unsolved death of 19-year-old Jade Williams of Kake and 

nearly a year since the unsolved death of 37-year-old Francile Turpin of Klawock. 

The alleged murder of Judylee Guthrie, 28 of Klawock, Alaska, has yet to be prosecuted nearly two and a half years later. Earlier this year, Tlingit & Haida held 

a memorial in solidarity with our northern relatives after ten year old Ashley Johnson Barr of Kotzebue was found dead, sexually assaulted and strangled, after being 

missing for days. Fortunately, the perpetrator is being held accountable for this heinous crime. 

Because we believe the future of Indian Country rests in the secure status of 

women living in environments that are free of violence, Tlingit & Haida has committed its resources and staff to working towards bringing an end to these threats 

to our women and children. At our 2018 annual Tribal Assembly, Tlingit & Haida 

passed resolution TA18–27 calling for the increased investigation of Missing and 

Murdered Indigenous Women and asking the Department of Justice to report on 

their steps to reduce the disproportionate numbers of victims who are Native 

women. 1

In addition, Tlingit & Haida adopted Resolution TA 18–37 establishing a Violence 

Against Women Task Force (‘‘Task Force’’) to fight against violence destroying the 

lives of our women. The work of the Task Force, in fact, is what brought me in front 

of you all today. 

The Task Force is a community-driven response to end domestic violence and to 

address cases of missing Alaska Native women. It is charged with studying, analyzing, reporting, and providing recommendations on how to: 

• Improve criminal justice system to better serve and protect Alaska Native 

women; 

• Increase criminal justice protective and investigative resources for reporting 

and identifying murdered and missing Alaska Native women; 

• Identify rates of violence against women and reduce incidences through continuing efforts to connect state, tribal and federal resources; 

• Address issues relating to public safety and law enforcement that create barriers for responding timely to violent crimes against Indigenous women in rural 

Alaska communities; 

• Identify effective tribal justice methods used to reduce violence against Alaska 

Native women; and 

• Create partnerships with local, state and national organizations for resource development (i.e. Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center, National Indigenous 

Women’s Resource Center and NCAI’s VAW Task Force). 

The Task Force is a continuation of Tribe’s increasing attention to violence 

against women. In 2012, Tlingit & Haida advocated for fully including Alaska Native Tribes within the purview of the Violence Against Women Act. 2 Since then, we 

47 

23, 2012), http://www.ccthita.org/info/press/releases/2012releasesNR%2004232012%20 

/TribeStronglyOpposesExclusionFromVAWA.pdf 3Tlingit Haida, Tribal Update (December 18, 2018), http://www.ccthita.org/government/ 

president/updates/TribalUpdatelDec2014.pdf 4Tlingit & Haida Chief Justice to Attend Trilateral Work Group Meeting on Violence Against 

Indigenous Women and Girls (September 7, 2018), https://myemail.constantcontact.com/FORIMMEDIATE-RELEASE—Chief-Justice-toAttend-Trilateral-Meeting-on-Violence-Against-Indigenous-Women-and-Girls 

.html?soid=1124597381696&aid=nmPvEYNC6-A 5See TA18–34. 

have repeatedly met with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to advocate for resources that meets the needs of Alaska Native women and children. We have also 

supported National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) resolutions which advocate for the safety of Alaska Native women residing in tribal and village communities. 

In 2014, when the unduly-limiting Section 910 of the Violence Against Women Act 

was repealed, Tlingit & Haida took active steps as a tribal government to increase 

protections for Alaska Native women. The Tlingit & Haida Tribal Court, began 

issuing civil protection orders for domestic violence committed by intimate partners 

and family members. 3 Our orders addressed a range of domestic violence offenses, 

including threats, assault, and sexual assault. We issue emergency protection orders, ex parte, for up to 20-day periods upon a showing of probable cause. Permanent protection orders are issued from one to five years after a hearing is held. 

The protection orders are served on the Respondent by the Juneau Police Department or Alaska State Troopers or Village Public Safety Officers based on the location of the Respondent. Service of process is more challenging in our remote villages 

without law enforcement. For violations of the Tribal Court Protection Order that 

occur in Juneau, the City Prosecutor files criminal charges for violation of the tribally-issued protection order. The Tribe is exploring how to encourage the state of 

Alaska to better prosecute violations that occur outside of Juneau. In an effort to 

maximize protection and increase safety for Native Women, the Tribal Court makes 

every effort to collaborate with state and local law enforcement and prosecutors in 

serving and enforcing protection orders. However, many of our communities lack 

any first responders to enforce a protection order, which leaves those in such villages more vulnerable. 

Since the Task Force’s establishment, we have participated with the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center’s annual Unity meeting held prior to the Alaska Federation of Native’s Annual meeting, the Office of Violence Against Women’s 2018 

Annual Consultation, and most recently the Office of Victims of Crime (‘‘OVC’’) Listening Session in Palm Springs. We further plan to evaluate whether to establish 

a DOJ Office of Violence Against Women-funded Southeast Alaska Native Women’s 

Coalition. We successfully applied for Phase I of the Victims of Crime Act (‘‘VOCA’’) 

2018 Tribal Set-aside program, although our application’s budget was cut ′ by OVC, 

who may not understand the logistical challenges we face in Alaska including the 

lack of available housing and actual costs of resources and services in our remote 

village communities. 

To continue improving services and protection for our women, Tlingit & Haida’s 

Chief Justice Michelle Demmert also participated in the Third Meeting of the North 

American Trilateral Working Group on Violence Against Indigenous Women and 

Girls in Mexico City held this year to explore how to better improve collaboration, 

information sharing, and leverage resources to respond to violent crimes against 

Alaska Native women. 4 Indigenous representatives from the United States, Canada and Mexico discussed common themes including, high rates of suicide among 

their youth and the housing crisis that their communities face and the impact this 

crisis has on women attempting to leave the violence. Canadian participants discussed the high rate of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, and how 

their government is attempting to address these issues including a national inquiry 

and apology, as well improved protocols among law enforcement. We can learn much 

from our northern neighbors as we look for ways to improve the protocols for American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls. 

This past year, more than 200 tribal, state, regional, and national organizations, 

including Tlingit & Haida, joined the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center 

in support of the Senate resolution recognizing a 2nd National Day of Awareness 

for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls. 5 The first national day of 

awareness in 2017 reached millions of people across the United States and the 

world through social media platforms. The social media networking and mobilization 

this year surpassed the 2017 efforts. Tlingit & Haida held a Rally, March and 

Awareness event in Juneau that had over 200 citizens in attendance. The response 

48 

to the public call for increased awareness is indicative of the extent of the reality 

that Native women go missing daily often without any response by law enforcement. 

Challenges Facing Alaska Native Communities 

There are many barriers that make it difficult for Tlingit & Haida to adequately 

protect our Alaska Native women residing in what are often remote communities. 

These include extreme weather, limited police and public safety protection, lack of 

access to necessary resources and limited counseling and support services. This situation is compounded by insufficient federal funding opportunities that do not even 

begin to meet the needs of Alaska Natives. We suffer from inadequate data reporting that makes it difficult to tailor programs to the needs of our women. We face 

a challenging lack of coordination between state and tribal officials, and a lack of 

training and resources in villages where neighbors are often the first, and only, responders who lack training beyond their compassionate hearts. In the rest of my 

testimony, I will provide greater detail on each of these barriers. 

A. Remote Location, Extreme Weather, Lack of Transportation 

The geographical remoteness, extreme weather, and the lack of adequate transportation present serious challenges in responding to crime in Alaska Native villages and in accessing state judicial systems in a timely matter. Tlingit & Haida 

serves 20 villages and communities spread over 43,000 square miles within Southeast Alaska. Our service population is among the largest, most isolated, and most 

geographically dispersed tribal population in Indian Country. While we are proud 

to maintain our lives in our original homeland, our struggle to protect our women 

and children is made more challenging by our geophysical realities. Most of our 

Southeast Alaska communities are connected only by ferry boats or small planes. 

There are very few road connections. With only three secure women’s shelters in Juneau, Ketchikan, and Sitka in our region, if female victims in other communities 

seek to leave for safety purposes, doing so requires very public and often delayed 

travel by plane or ferry. Additionally, if a domestic violence incident occurs in any 

of the other outlying communities or villages, the victim’s safety is at great risk because our limited police and Village Public Safety Officers (VPSO) cover huge territories and often are not present for days and weeks in some communities. Consequently, victims often have trouble getting help in time to collect evidence and in 

some instances, to save their lives. 

B. Village Public Safety Officers are the First Responders 

Village Public Safety Officers (VPSOs) are crucial resources for Alaskan villages. 

Women and children also go missing and are murdered in these communities too. 

VPSOs are often the first, and in some cases, the only official responders to incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault in remote areas of Alaska. While 

VPSOs do their best, they are hampered by more limited training than other law 

enforcement officers receive, more limited resources and authority and lower compensation. 

These challenges contribute to turnover in the VPSO program. Turnover, which 

can be the result of burnout, from being on call, for all practical purposes, 24 hours 

a day, leaves communities with gaps in their law enforcement coverage, as a new 

officer is sent to training for months and there is no current officer. It is also not 

infrequent that the VPSO program trains officers, who too quickly depart for higher 

paying law enforcement positions, serving for a municipal force or moving down 

south. 

The VPSO program needs additional resources and authority for training and responses because the officers, in spite of all the challenges, do amazing work to keep 

our families and communities safe. Our communities have learned that the presence 

of a VPSO increases reporting of crime and violence. So while statistics rise when 

a VPSO is present, it is only because there is finally someone to report to, a local 

person, with whom the community has a relationship and where there is trust. For 

those communities with no law enforcement, VPSO or otherwise, crime is underreported. It is yet another area where statistical evidence for our Alaskan communities is lacking or misleading. 

C. Funding Barriers 

While U.S. DOJ has attempted to direct funding towards domestic violence and 

sexual assault, many federal grant programs do not allow us to spend money on prevention, enforcement, or policing and few programs are available to help us provide 

counseling services to victims of domestic violence and child witnesses. While Tlingit 

& Haida is encouraged by the 2018 VOCA Tribal Set -Aside, it is clear from our 

reduced application award in the Phase I process, that OVC does not understand 

the true costs of crimes in Alaska and the Resources needed. We need a permanent 

49 

6See TLOC Report, supra 39. 

set aside for VOCA, and grant awards that truly build capacity and program sustainability. 

In 2015 DOJ announced the Tribal Access Program (TAP) for the National Crime 

Information Center (NCIC), which provides eligible tribes with access to the Criminal Justice Information Services systems. There are now 30 tribes participating in 

TAP, which will greatly facilitate their ability to enter protection orders and criminal history into the federal databases. Because DOJ is using existing funding for 

the TAP program, eligibility is currently limited to tribes with a sex offender registry or with a full-time tribal law enforcement agency. Tlingit & Haida is one of 

many tribes, particularly in Public Law 83–280 jurisdictions like California and 

Alaska, who cannot meet this DOJ criteria but who do have tribal courts that issue 

protection orders. For our protection orders to be effective and protect victims, an 

issuing tribe like Tlingit & Haida needs to be able to enter them into the protection 

order file of NCIC. A dedicated funding stream should be created for expanding the 

TAP program and making it available to all interested tribes who meet the requirement. All tribes should have the ability to access federal databases not only for obtaining criminal history information for criminal or civil law purposes, but also for 

entering protection orders, missing person’s reports, and other relevant information, 

including National Instant Criminal Background Check System disqualifying 

events, into the databases. 

D. Inadequate Data Collection 

Perhaps even more challenging is the lack of enough data on domestic violence, 

sexual assault, sex trafficking, and violence against children, which is needed to 

build sound legal infrastructure and provide appropriate services to ensure our 

women and children are not living in danger. Tlingit & Haida commends this Committee for persuading the Senate to pass Savanna’s Act to address this exact problem. 

Following my appointment, I initiated research, at the local level, to find out how 

missing and murdered indigenous women are identified and their cases tracked. To 

my surprise, I learned that tracking the racial background of victims is not done 

by the Sitka Police, nor by the State of Alaska. I further learned that there is no 

communication between a tribe and law enforcement when a victim is a tribal citizen. Moreover, despite domestic violence shelters compiling data and sharing it 

with the state of Alaska, the state finds it difficult to interpret and successfully use 

this data to focus on the unique needs of Native women and children. 

Additionally police have informed us that they are only collecting data if there is 

an arrest. But, how can there be an arrest without law enforcement within 75 of 

Alaska communities? 6 This means that many, if not most, instances of domestic violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking, and missing women are not being documented 

or accounted for. This is shocking. Just because a perpetrator cannot be identified 

and arrested does not mean a victim cannot be identified and served. The rights of 

victims can no longer be denied just because law enforcement fails to apprehend 

perpetrators. 

When data is not kept, there is no ability to track our women. Our voices, our 

stories, the realities that we live, continue to be marginalized because they remain 

anecdotal evidence. The failure of data collection is not only making it difficult to 

tailor our programs and services and partner with local and state law enforcement 

to protect Alaska Native women, but more importantly, it is preventing our Tribe 

from being able to proactively provide Alaska Native women with resources that 

could save their lives and the lives of their children. Law enforcement must track 

this information. Not only do I believe adequate data will lead to valuable information, but that information can then be a basis for advocating for increased resources. 

I also believe there is inherent value in validating the reality that Alaska Native 

women face. 

Recommendations for Protecting Alaska Native Women and Children 

In response to our experience with these barriers, Tlingit & Haida provides the 

following recommendations to the Committee to consider as it continues to advance 

measures to protect our women and children. 

1. DOJ funding should be dramatically increased and should be focused on violence prevention, enforcement, and policing. 

2. DOJ VOCA grant funding should be dramatically increased and made permanent or it will remain ineffective. The SURVIVE Act S. 1870 would address this 

50 

issue and should include victim compensation and services as defined by the 

tribal government. 

3. Data reporting models in Alaska should be required to include data collected 

from VPSOs and tribal governments without tribal law enforcement or VPSO’s 

. Funding should be provided to meet this requirement. 

4. VPSO programs should be provided with dramatically increased funding— 

a. Especially for training VPSOs in data collection in cases involving violence 

against women and children; 

b. For training VPSOs in responding to domestic violence, sexual assault, sex 

trafficking, and trauma; 

c. To ensure that there is a VPSO officer in every Alaska Native community, 

including the most remote of villages. 

5. Provide dramatically increased funding resources for broader community training on domestic violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking, and trauma and best 

practices for prevention. 

6. Provide increased support for dramatically increased funding resources for tribal courts and tribal law enforcement in Alaska. 

7. Provide increased victim services to the families and community members of 

the disappeared or murdered Native women, such as counseling for the children of the disappeared, burial assistance, and community walks, healing and 

other tribal-specific ceremonies. Passage of the SURVIVE Act S. 1870 would 

address this issue 

8. Fully implement the VAWA 2005 program of research and specifically provide 

Indian tribes information regarding the disappearance and murder of Native 

women. We need a baseline study for Alaska as our situation may be different 

than what the National Institute of Justice reported in their Violence Against 

American Indians and Alaska Native Women and Men. 

9. Upon enactment of Savanna’s Act, provide targeted funding for tribal governments like Tlingit & Haida, perhaps on a pilot program basis, to ensure full 

participation in and coordination of efforts across federal departments to conduct research and collect data to better improve tribal government responses 

to the disappearance or murder of Native women and girls. 

I, along with all of us at Tlingit & Haida, look forward to working further with 

Senator Murkowski and the rest of this Committee on ways we can heal this life 

and death filled trauma for many women and children in our Native communities. 

Together, we must ensure the safety of our tribal citizens. Thank you for this opportunity to join the Committee in sounding a call to arms. 

Gunalche ́esh! Ha ́w’aa! Thank You! 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Ms. Alexander. Ms. Loring-Heavy 

Runner. 

STATEMENT OF KIMBERLY LORING HEAVY RUNNER, 

MISSOULA, MT 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Thank you for allowing me to speak 

for my sister, Ashley. 

So Ashley went missing on June 12th, 2017. That is exactly 18 

months ago. That is exactly 18 months ago since the last time that 

I got to see my sister, spoke with her, to be around her. 

During that time, when she went missing, the first tip that we 

got for Ashley was stating that Ashley was running on Highway 89 

on the Blackfeet Reservation, alongside the Rocky Mountain front, 

from this, she was running from this vehicle. And since that tip 

that we got, we met with BIA and the tribal police. And they 

searched for three days, they searched for three days to look for 

Ashley. And after those three days, they stopped. 

They had this task force that they formed when Ashley first went 

missing, and they had one time where they spoke with each other. 

Then after that first meeting, they had never come back to speak 

of what they found about Ashley. 

51 

And during that time when Ashley was missing, it was two 

months after she went missing, the BIA was still stating that Ashley is of age, and is able to leave whenever she wants to. That is 

not a proper response when dealing with a woman that has been 

missing for two months, and despite the fact that we found a 

sweater, with an eyewitness saying that that was the sweater that 

Ashley was wearing during the time that she went missing. 

And one of the leads that we received during that time was that 

my sister was hurt in the mountains on the Flathead Reservation, 

in this place in the mountains, at a place in the mountains. That 

is just ridiculous. This place in the mountains. 

And though there are leads saying that she was wearing the 

sweater, and she was placed in a barrel, in an oil barrel. And 

where we found this sweater, there was nothing but oil barrels everywhere, and the sweater was stained with oil and stained with 

red marks that did look like blood. 

When we switched over the sweater, over to, at the time we were 

working with the BIA, it was after two weeks that we called to 

speak with them about this sweater, they lost it. They called us 

and told us that, we do not know where this sweater is at. We also 

found boots that was the same size as Ashley’s, and the same style. 

When we turned over the boots, somehow these boots turned from, 

or these boots went from Ashley’s size to a little child’s size, which 

I do not understand how that happened. 

Working with the law enforcement at the Blackfeet Reservation 

and BIA, we went weeks without even speaking with them. They 

did not call and they did not give us any information. One time I 

spoke with this officer, he was a family friend, but he was an officer. He stopped me and talked to me, and said, these guys are not 

taking Ashley’s case seriously. They are putting her as she is of age 

and she can leave when she wants to. That is not a proper response when you deal with missing and murdered indigenous girls, 

that are missing. 

One more thing, in working with these law enforcement officers, 

there was this officer that was the head of Ashley’s case. He was 

leaking information to one of the prime suspects. And he was having a relation with the suspect. This was not based on rumors or 

stories; this was fact. Because I was there when this person was 

speaking with the officer on the telephone. It was the officer. And 

I later spoke with this officer, and he did say yes, that was me, and 

I was speaking with her. 

I believe that if the law enforcement would have searched for my 

sister when she first went missing, if they would have taken her 

case seriously, we would have my sister. And we wouldn’t have to 

search for 18 months through the rain and three feet of snow, 

being chased by grizzly bears, wondering, is my sister in the mountains? Knowing that there are grizzly bears all over the Rocky 

Mountains, is my sister up there? 

If they would have taken her seriously as a person, because we 

are important, I believe that my sister would have been here, or 

we would have closure. That is why I am here today, is to stress 

to you that I believe that the law enforcement did not take Ashley’s 

case seriously, as well as other girls that have gone missing and 

murdered in Indian Country. 

52 

I think that is all I have to say for now, thank you. I went way 

over. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Loring-Heavy Runner follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF KIMBERLY LORING-HEAVY RUNNER, MISSOULA, MT 

My name is Kimberly Loring-Heavy Runner, and I am here today to share my 

sister Ashley Loring-Heavy Runner’s story, and to shed light on the mistreatment 

of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women cases handled by multiple levels of 

Law Enforcement in Montana, and across the United States. 

Ashley’s Story 

Ashley Loring-Heavy Runner is a 22 year old Blackfeet woman that went missing 

June 12, 2017 on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, at the age of 20, over one 

and half years ago. Ashley’s life is valued and cannot be explained in the five minutes that I am being allowed. Please forgive me if I go slightly over the requested 

timeframe. 

Failure of Law Enforcement 

The first information in regards to Ashley’s disappearance was received on June 

25, 2017 stating that Ashley was running from a males’ vehicle on US Highway 89, 

alongside the Rocky Mountain Front on the Blackfeet reservation. 

In the beginning stages of the investigation, a sweater was found on the Blackfeet 

Reservation on June 28, 2017 and placed into evidence with Blackfeet Tribal Law 

Enforcement (BLES). The sweater was identified by an eye-witness stating that 

Ashley was wearing the exact same sweater when she went missing. When the 

sweater, which was stained with ‘red spots’ and holes was turned over by Blackfeet 

Law Enforcement (BLES) to the BIA, the agent stated multiple times that he sent 

the sweater to the crime lab, when we questioned the results of the testing of the 

sweater he then changed the story and said he couldn’t send out due to testing reasons after eight (8) months of being in evidence with the BIA. We later found out 

the sweater has never been sent, and is still currently sitting in BIA evidence. The 

Blackfeet Law Enforcement (BLES) informed us they did a search on the location 

where the sweater was found on July 28, 2017. We searched that location for two 

weeks after the sweater was found and never seen either agency BLES or BIA during our searches. We later spoke with a BLES officer that was working on Ashley’s 

case and she had no recollection of a search ever being conducted in that location. 

We were then told Blackfeet Law Enforcement (BLES) was no longer taking any 

tips concerning Ashley’s case and we instructed to contact the BIA agent assigned 

to our area in Montana. Several attempts have been made by the family with no 

response from the BIA agent to date. During the course of the investigation with 

the Blackfeet Law Enforcement (BLES) we became aware that a Blackfeet law enforcement officer working on Ashley’s case was having relations with, and giving information to a prime suspect. 

For over the course of nine (9) months that the BIA has taken over the case most 

leads and information given to BIA have not been followed up on, nor documented. 

Blackfeet Tribal Law Enforcement (BLES) as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs 

have not take Ashley’s case seriously. 

After two months of being reported missing the BIA Agent responded to our calls 

by stating ‘‘Ashley is of age and can leave whenever she wants to.’’ Despite the fact 

all the leads coming in were stating that Ashley was in danger, or was hurt and 

placed in the mountains. From the very beginning, both Blackfeet Tribal Law Enforcement (BLES) and the BIA have ignored the dire situation that Ashley is in and 

have allowed this investigation to be handled in a dysfunctional manner. This isn’t 

just a reality for our family but a reality for many MMIW families. We all share 

the same experience when working with law enforcement. 

In closing, think of how each of you would feel if the response you are given about 

your wife, sister, daughters missing persons case was. . . . 

‘‘she is of age and can leave when she wants to.’’ 

Ashley is loved and cherished, I will continue to search for my sister. 

I am asking you to recognize that Indigenous women matter, and the way our 

missing and murdered women cases are handled needs to be corrected. 

We are going missing, we are being murdered. We are not being taken seriously. 

I am here to stress to you we are important and we are loved and we are missed. 

We will no longer be the invisible people in the United States of America, we have 

worth. 

53 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Ms. Loring-Heavy Runner. 

We will begin five-minute rounds of questions. I would like to 

begin with Ms. Crotty. 

According to your written testimony, the Navajo Nation does not 

have an office of the medical investigator. The closest State facility 

that delivers medical examinations is four hours away from the 

tribe’s land. 

First, how would having your own office of the medical investigator help the tribe resolve missing person cases? And second, can 

you talk about the Navajo Nation’s process for keeping track of and 

locating missing and unidentified tribal members, both on and off 

the reservation? 

Ms. CROTTY. Thank you, Chairman. I appreciate the question. I 

think you hit a critical area for Navajo in terms of medical examiners. As I talked about Ariel, when we found her remains, they 

were sent to the medical examiner who was located in Albuquerque, which was nearly three and a half, four hours away. 

Currently on Navajo Nation, because we do not have a medical 

examiner’s office located on our nation, our criminal investigators, 

our Navajo Nation criminal investigators, not only have to play the 

role of medical examiner for naturally-occurring cases, but they 

also then have to spend their time away from investigating some 

of these major crimes. We are talking about missing persons, homicides and other violent crimes that are committed against our 

women, our children and community members. This plays a huge 

part in terms of burnout for the investigators on the ground, and 

also in terms of how we prioritize what investigations will take priority and what are the next steps when having to travel back and 

forth between cities like Albuquerque from some of our more rural 

areas on Navajo Nation. 

It also then plays a role in how, and the ability of our Navajo 

criminal investigators to work with victims themselves and family 

members who are searching for those family members. As a family 

member of an individual who has been missing and ultimately 

murdered, it is, and I want to say that I felt your testimony, Kimberly, when they talked in terms of who they prioritized and making it seem that your sister left on her own accord, and dismissing 

the violence that potentially happened to her. 

That is my concern, Chairman, is when we have a system that 

is on the brink of implosion, then what happens to the cases and 

how we prioritize them? 

To our Federal partners, that is why these stories are so critical. 

On the ground, as chairwoman, we talk to all of our three States, 

Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico, different FBI offices. And they are 

segregated, and they have their own way of doing things, and 

sometimes their own ways of collecting data. 

But what happens is, I am not sure if the story them comes to 

our Federal partners here who are making the decisions. That is 

my concern, and that is the reason for my comment. Because FBI 

on the ground are trying to do the best that they can, but only having six victim advocates? Imagine how that feels in terms of family 

and those who need additional support services. 

I then want to say in terms of how Navajo Nation tracks and locates, I can’t tell this Committee right now how many missing NavVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00057 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK
54 

ajo relatives are out there. Why can’t I tell you that? Because of 

the different jurisdictions and how they are reported. 

So on Navajo Nation, what we looked at and how we track is 

very different from what we will see from our Federal partners. So 

we are trying to come together to gauge what exactly is the number 

out there, why is the data different, why are we not having active 

communication. That is why I am looking to this oversight, is to 

assist us, help us to keep people accountable, keep the different 

Federal players accountable. 

What would help us also in terms of tracking or locating is if we 

could look at, that was suggested from Representative-Elect Debra 

Haaland, some type of hot line, where tips can be sent in. Because 

I do want to tell you, there is a trust issue in Navajo Nation when 

it comes to law enforcement. So we are trying to regain the trust 

of not only the community members and the relatives to come forward and be part of the solution, but when they become part of the 

solution, how we can support them. So I appreciate the Committee 

looking into this. 

Other areas that we are looking at is how can we look at the 

tribal access program, which is a Federal data base. And looing at 

if they can start the data base on missing and murdered victims 

on Navajo Nation and in Indian Country. Thank you, Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. Vice Chairman Udall? 

Senator UDALL. Thank you, Chairman. 

It is clear that States have a role in ensuring Native Americans 

are not overlooked in the criminal justice system. For example, 

New Mexico was the first State to enact a robust tribal identification law for juvenile justice cases. More recently, the State of 

Washington enacted legislation to connect State, tribal and Federal 

resources to address the ongoing MMIW crisis. 

Delegate Crotty, what difference, if any, has the Navajo Nation 

seen in the willingness of State agencies in New Mexico, Arizona 

and Utah to work with the tribe on MMIW cases? 

Ms. CROTTY. Thank you, Senator Udall. I appreciate the question. I think in terms of what we have seen on the ground in working with collaboration, we have now seen State agencies come to 

the table and be willing to work with us and understand what type 

of data that we can work together on. 

In terms of the juvenile cases, I will have to defer back to our 

chief of police and get that exact information to your office. I appreciate that question, because it is critical that we know all of the 

different nuances and how we can continue to work with our State 

agency. So I appreciate the question, Chairman. 

Senator UDALL. Thank you very much. We look forward to getting that information, working with you on it. 

Ms. Loring-Heavy Runner and Ms. Alexander, can either of you 

speak to how the States of Montana and Alaska are with coordinating with your tribes on MMIW? 

Ms. ALEXANDER. Thank you, Senator Udall. There is no coordination that I am aware of. I would like to get back to you about the 

VPSO program and what their experience has been as far as coordination. 

55 

But we are here because there is none, almost as if the State is 

absolved of all responsibility because they don’t have the resources. 

Thank you. 

Senator UDALL. Thank you. 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Thank you, Mr. Udall. 

So just like she just said, we are here for a new protocol, because, what do we do, what is law enforcement supposed to do 

when missing and murdered girls go missing, and women. Because 

it seems like they don’t know, either. Because they don’t, they are 

not communicating with us. 

I believe that we need a new protocol, when it comes to missing 

and murdered indigenous women. I think that is about it. 

Senator UDALL. Thank you very much, to all of you, for those answers. 

One of the privacy protection features of NamUs is the cases are 

only published in the data base after rigorous vetting with appropriate local, State and Federal or tribal law enforcement agencies. 

I understand the importance of this safeguard, but I also know that 

many Native communities face a troubling shortage of law enforcement presence and law enforcement officers. 

So Ms. Loring-Heavy Runner, do you know if your sister’s case 

is listed in NamUs or any other Federal data bases that track 

missing people? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. When Ashley first went missing, we 

were told that it took two to three months for her name to even 

appear on any of those. So it took a really long time for Ashley’s 

name. 

Senator UDALL. But you believe it is in the data bases? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. I believe it is in a few of them, it 

is not in all of them. Yes. 

Senator UDALL. Thank you. 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Excuse me, it is in the ones that 

don’t matter. So I believe that we need to get her into the data 

bases that do matter in that respect. 

Senator UDALL. Okay. If we can help with that, I hope you will 

let us know. 

Delegate Crotty and Ms. Alexander, do you know if your tribes 

have access to the NamUs system, and are you aware of any difficulties they are having with it? 

Ms. ALEXANDER. I am sorry, I do not have the answer to that 

question. 

Senator UDALL. Okay, thank you. 

Ms. CROTTY. Thank you, Senator Udall, for the question. Currently, Navajo Nation does have access to the NamUs data base. 

What we have found was there is just not enough training, so that 

individuals, certain individuals have access. Because of the magnitude of the Navajo Nation in terms of geographic locations, we 

want training and education so individuals understand how to put 

that information into the data base. 

What we have found on Navajo was we had volunteers and community members then becoming experts. That is how myself, as a 

policy maker on Navajo Nation, found out about NamUs. So there 

was a gap in terms of information about what is available out there 

and some of the Federal programs. 

56 

So again, it is connecting back to Indian Country, connecting 

back to the tribal communities, so they understand what is available and what they could have access to. 

Senator UDALL. Yes. The NIJ here, the previous witness and 

they have also announced, the agency itself says they have nine regional program specialists available to work with NamUs users 

and assist with reporting missing person cases. Do any of you know 

if your tribes have received assistance from these specialists? 

Ms. CROTTY. Thank you, Senator, for the question. Right now, 

Navajo, I don’t have any type of evidence that we have participated 

or been part of some of the discussions with the regional specialist 

to assist. But we are more than willing to engage in that opportunity. 

I know that they have provided some, they had talked about earlier some of the data sets that they were going to include. I think 

what is important, if those are data sets that they want to include, 

to also engage with communities how best we can use that information for policy solutions. I think that is something that I would continue to ask that we have opportunities to enter into some of those 

tribal consultations with them. Thank you, Senator. 

Senator UDALL. The important thing about this hearing, now, I 

think is now that every tribal entity should know that these resources exist, that you can use them. And if you have problems, I 

think this Committee would like to know because they are saying 

they are there, they are willing to train, they are willing to work 

out. I don’t know if there are additional responses from Ms. Alexander or Ms. Loring-Heavy Runner on the question I asked her. 

Ms. ALEXANDER. I attended a conference in Palm Springs last 

week. And the Department of Justice, OVC, presented a fresh report that they had on these topics. And there was a complete absence of data for the 229 tribes in Alaska. No map of Alaska, not 

a single data set on Alaska. I said, why is that? It is too hard. 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Thank you, Mr. Udall. If you could 

please repeat that, that would be very nice of you. 

Senator UDALL. The question was, on these regional people that 

are supposed to reach out and train on the data bases and train 

on the services, do you know of your tribe having any contact with 

them? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. No, sir. I’m not too sure about that. 

Senator UDALL. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Murkowski. 

Senator MURKOWSKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank 

all of you for being here today, for your testimony, for your very 

personal testimony, Kimberly, and all that you are doing on behalf 

of so many. Pat, I thank you for the work that you are doing on 

the Tlingit-Haida Central Council and your leadership on the 

VAWA Task Force. 

One of the things that we learned when that Seattle Urban Institute report came out was that this was not a study that had been 

conducted by the BIA or by the Department of Justice. It was two 

women who felt compelled to dig into some of these stories, and to 

try to understand the scope and the extent of murdered and missing indigenous women. 

57 

I found it very interesting, in talking with both of them afterwards, that the ability to collect this information and this data depended on where you went. You mentioned, Pat, that in the municipality of Anchorage, the Anchorage police department was a 

willing participant in getting this information. They felt it was important to collect that information, and when to share that, so that 

we can better understand. 

You have said here today that when you started to collect the 

data, the Sitka police, the State of Alaska don’t track the racial 

background of the victims, and there is no communication between 

the tribe and law enforcement when it involves a tribal citizen. So 

one of the things that I think is going to be important for us in 

determining what it is that we do next is, again, understanding exactly the extent of the problem that we are talking about. 

So as you have looked into this, are you aware, Pat, whether or 

not there are barriers to either the City of Sitka, or State of Alaska, to provide for, to collect, first, and then provide for this information? Have you asked at the local level how they can be more 

helpful? Because this is something that I think, whether it is the 

State of Alaska or whether it is Montana or North Dakota, I think 

our States need to help prioritize this. Tell me what you have 

learned. 

Ms. ALEXANDER. Thank you, Senator, for the question. 

In speaking with the local law enforcement, I learned that there 

are a number of police officers that they have, and the number that 

they need, there is a mismatch. They are not quite down 50 percent. But it is, they are not able to recruit the officers that they 

could before. Municipalities are competing for officers once they are 

trained. So you could send someone and train them, and then they 

are going to be somewhere and earn some good money, but they 

might not come back to you. 

When the force is down that far, in terms of people that can respond to emergency situations, then they are having to prioritize 

even what they do right now on a daily basis. I believe it is that 

way in Anchorage as well. I believe Juneau probably has similar 

problems. 

Senator MURKOWSKI. Yes, it is a resourcing issue, but it is also, 

as I understand, within the Anchorage police department, there 

was one individual that really took this matter very, very seriously 

and kind of spearheaded that. So in many ways, it is leadership, 

it is prioritization. So how we can work together to communicate 

that understanding the scope and extent of this, and identifying it 

and naming it needs to be a priority. 

Ms. ALEXANDER. May I be very frank? 

Senator MURKOWSKI. Please. 

Ms. ALEXANDER. The mentality that comes out of the trooper’s 

academy is, the bent is toward protection of fish and wildlife. It is 

not about protection of human beings. Their training manuals are 

40 years old. They update every two years. But don’t you think in 

a decade there has been enough change to rewrite the whole thing, 

and maybe change the attitude at the top so they care more about 

people? 

Senator MURKOWSKI. I hear your message. I hear your message. 

In fact, I was sharing with someone this morning, I saw a newsVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00061 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK
58 

paper article that an individual who had been convicted of poaching a moose received a $100,000 fine and a jail sentence. We don’t 

want to be violating our fish and game laws, but you are absolutely 

right. When you can get a higher fine, a higher penalty for poaching a moose than you can for violating a woman, that is a problem. 

We have a lot of work to do. 

Thank you, Patricia. 

Ms. ALEXANDER. May I say one more thing? I think tone at the 

top is important. People lead by example. If the tone is wrong, it 

needs to be fixed however it can be fixed. It might not, everyone 

may not survive the transition, but that is how life is sometimes. 

Sometimes you must break a few eggs to make an omelet. Thank 

you. 

Senator MURKOWSKI. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. [Presiding.] Senator Heitkamp. 

Senator HEITKAMP. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to personally thank each one of you, Ms. Crotty, Ms. Alexander, it is an 

honor to meet you. And Ms. Loring-Heavy Runner, thank you so 

much for coming here and speaking truth, and speaking for so 

many victims whose families can’t be in this room. 

I know that Senator Tester, before the last panel left, invited the 

FBI to stay and listen. Unfortunate. And it makes us all question 

the real commitment to this issue, and that is tragic. 

I want to point out one particular thing about Savanna’s Act, if 

we can get it finished here, at the end of this Congress. It will require that the Department of Justice consult on all the data bases 

with tribal entities and do consultation. So hopefully some of the 

gaps and some of the concerns that you have about the Federal 

data bases will be addressed as a result of that legislation. 

But again, the intent of that legislation is to begin the dialogue. 

We know that you can write a lot of laws, but if people aren’t taking them seriously or resourcing these laws directly, in adequate 

measure, that law doesn’t really matter. We have had the Tribal 

Law and Order Act, which was a subject of conversation when I 

first got on this Committee six years ago. I don’t think we have 

ever realized the promise of the Tribal Law and Order Act. That 

is why we are here again today. 

So I think there is a real opportunity to amplify and to extend 

the message. But I couldn’t agree with you more, Ms. Alexander, 

that this really is about leadership and leading by example. Not 

that I am picking on your State, but as you were talking, at least 

as you were talking about the situation with the game and fish violation, I remember a recent Alaska story where a young woman 

was abducted. It was a stranger abduction. And the judge didn’t 

give the abductor, who committed heinous crime, any jail time. 

So these are the things that frustrate people. These are the 

things that make us all wonder where we are. 

I think one of the questions that I have for you, Ms. LoringHeavy Runner, is you heard the discussion that the Department of 

Justice had here and the discussion that the FBI had about, what 

is the protocol, and what is the structure. In your sister’s case, do 

you think any of that was actually done? Do you think that dialogue reflected at all what happened in your sister’s case? 

59 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Yes, exactly. I don’t think any of the 

stuff that they spoke in here today, they did not do that with Ashley’s case. They did not take her seriously. They just waited way 

too long. I believe that is what ruined Ashley’s case. 

Senator HEITKAMP. So when they say that the FBI was engaged, 

when the one requested to come and work on the investigation, at 

what point did the FBI get involved in your sister’s case? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. They got involved eight to nine 

months after she went missing. So that would be in March of this 

year. 

Senator HEITKAMP. Can you tell me whether at any point there 

was a request, either from BIA or from tribal police, to the FBI to 

ask them to get involved that went unresponded to? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. We were told by the BIA agent that 

was the head of Ashley’s case, he said that if Ashley’s case was 

switched over to the FBI, Ashley would never be found. And that 

is the only response that we received from the BIA when we were 

asking if the FBI was going to get involved. 

Senator HEITKAMP. That doesn’t sound like a great deal of collaboration and communication and cooperation, does it? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. No. They failed Ashley. 

Senator HEITKAMP. And I have a similar case in my State. Fortunately, the family has had closure, and Olivia’s been found, unfortunately not alive. But I can only imagine the terror and the heartbreak of your family. I want to extend my personal condolences for 

what you have been through. 

Ms. Crotty, I don’t know the Navajo as well as I know many of 

the other Plains Tribes here. But I understand the remoteness 

problem. It is probably not as great as what we see in Alaska. But 

can you describe to me the challenges that you have in getting a 

response from the FBI or from BIA, given the remoteness of the 

Navajo Nation? 

Ms. CROTTY. Thank you, Senator, for the question. I think in 

terms of the response time, our law enforcement, what we are looking and thinking about is, we have first three different State jurisdictions. It is interesting, because we are talking about a Federal 

program to provide protection services. And each of the States have 

different nuances in how they approach some of their investigations. 

For example, like the State of Utah, the FBI that are out of the 

State of Utah. They have a different system in how they investigate crimes. And they then before, in some cases make an immediate arrest, have to go back to a judge. So the individual investigating the crime will investigate a crime in the Utah area, then 

have to travel one to two hours to go to St. George to talk to a 

judge to get an arrest warrant. 

So we find this with not only sexual assault cases, but how does 

that play a part? Because what we’re talking about is the commitment or the amount of hours that each agent is on the ground 

working some of these cases. So when they have the remoteness 

and geographic factors, it just compounds the issue. 

When I want to really stress is also the need for advocates to be 

part of the system. We have five FBI agents on all of Navajo Nation, six advocates to a system. But that is not nearly enough indiVerDate Mar 15 2010 13:42 Jun 12, 2019 Jkt 036338 PO 00000 Frm 00063 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\DOCS\36338.TXT JACK
60 

viduals there to help the families and to help the victims and the 

survivors to process this very complicated system that is not designed as a victim-centered solution. It is a criminal justice system 

that at sometimes just does not provide justice for the missing and 

the murdered in Indian County. 

That is what we keep seeing time and time again. And the community members are so frustrated, and they say, we tell the story, 

we tell them, this person told us this information. Find out about 

it. There is really no accountability for the family to know, was 

that investigated, was every rock unturned. 

So it is a complicated balancing act, because I mentioned, criminal investigators also act as medical examiners. So they are playing these dual roles. I see that in Indian Country in particular with 

our FBI agents. They have to play many roles. What we need them 

to focus in on is get that evidence as soon as possible, take this seriously. 

What I wanted to hear from your first panel is, what is the commitment they are going to make to Indian Country to get people 

on the ground, to make sure that we are not just looking at it from 

a logistic point of view, one agent will serve different communities. 

What is the ultimate goal, if our major partners in the Major 

Crimes Act, if they are the only ones who can fully investigate and 

prosecute, then the buck stops here. 

That is why we are asking our lawmakers, hear our story and 

our challenges, and then help us with this issue. Because we do not 

have jurisdiction to deal with this matter. We do not have the 

funding to do it. We are bound by Federal law that has taken this 

authority away from us. 

So if we are not ready to give that back to us and to hand on, 

then we are here at your mercy asking for your help. And why, as 

Senator Tester said, what is the issue? Why is this not happening? 

That is exactly what we are saying. Our life, we are human here, 

we breathe, we care, our tears are real, our families are suffering. 

And now, if I do say that we lost another Navajo woman in the 

State of Kentucky, because she was a traveling worker. We have 

now three Navajo children that do not have a mother. 

So we know mental health plays a part into it. We know that all 

of these jurisdictions play a part into it. But it should not be open 

season on Native women and children and community members. 

We should have a system in place that will fully investigate, fully 

prosecute and then put them away so that our communities are 

safe, and that we change the statistics of what is happening. We 

can only do that with your help. So I appreciate the Committee for 

helping us. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Daines. 

Senator DAINES. Ms. Crotty, it is tough to build on that. Thank 

you for sharing those thoughts. 

I think it raises a fundamental question as a Nation about what 

value we place on human life and what value we place on Native 

American indigenous women across this Country. It is pretty clear 

to me that they are being devalued. When you see murder rates, 

the murder rates of Native American women, it is ten times the national average. Anywhere else, that would be getting a whole lot 

61 

of attention, a lot of focus and a lot of law enforcement looking at 

it. There would be public outcry. 

I am struck, Ms. Loring-Heavy Runner, the fact that it was two 

months from the time that Ashley went missing until some kind 

of investigation began, correct? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Yes, Senator Daines, that is correct. 

Senator DAINES. And then there was nine months of virtually no 

information, updates to the victim in this case, to the family. Is 

that correct? From law enforcement. 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. From law enforcement, well, we 

went, I think the longest that we went without speaking with law 

enforcement was about three months, yes. 

Senator DAINES. And how many searches have you conducted? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Over 120 searches. 

Senator DAINES. A hundred and twenty searches. I would imagine, for a moment, you said you have encountered grizzly bears? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Yes, we have run into two in one 

day at the same time. 

Senator DAINES. So, Senator Murkowski alluded to this, in Alaska, Ms. Alexander, about the fact that a moose is getting better 

protections in Alaska than a Native American woman or an indigenous woman. Similarly, I just wonder, if you would have had to kill 

a grizzly bear in self-defense, would there have been a more rigorous investigation of that incident than investigating Ashley’s appearance? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Well, for example, back in Montana, 

in Browning, there was a poached deer. They found fingerprints all 

over some stuff around the deer, and that exact same day they sent 

it all to the crime lab. Which we are still waiting for the sweater 

and the boots to be sent to the crime lab. I believe that the deer 

is sad, it was treated more seriously than us humans were, yes. 

Senator DAINES. A poached deer got a more thorough investigation than your sister? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Yes, either a deer or an elk, yes. 

Senator DAINES. I think this just comes back to the importance 

of why these issues need to be elevated to this Committee, to this 

Nation’s capitol. This is a fundamental question of how we value 

some of human life and those who are the most vulnerable. You 

can be a voice for those who don’t have a voice here today. I hope 

that message is received strongly by law enforcement, by members 

of Congress, so that we can conduct investigations and find out 

what happened to Ashley. And if the victims’ families could be updated around what’s happening. 

If there is one or two things you want us to take away, Kimberly, 

what would be the one or two things you would ask of us that we 

can do? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. I would ask for you to please look 

into the law enforcement, look into the BIA and all the other law 

enforcements that do deal with missing and murdered indigenous 

women. Because they are doing something wrong. This isn’t just 

from Ashley’s case. We spoke with a lot of other families, and they 

had the exact same stories as what we went through. 

And this is not just from this year or the year when Ashley went 

missing. In 1980, this little girl went missing in Browning, she was 

62 

about eight years old. They told the parents, it was the middle of 

winter, they told her that Monica just went out to hang with 

friends, in the middle of the night of a big storm. They told her 

that. 

So even back then, they were not doing their job. There is something seriously wrong here, because our girls, our people and our 

men, are important. That is why I am here today to stress to you 

that we shouldn’t have to be here and plead to make us important, 

because we are important. We are people. We are important. That 

is all I have to say. 

Just look into it and let them change. Hopefully in the future, 

that we wouldn’t have to worry about any more missing and murdered indigenous women. That is what I think. I could go on and 

on. I could be here all night. Thank you, Senator Daines. 

Senator DAINES. Thank you. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Tester. 

Senator TESTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank you 

and Vice Chair Udall for holding this hearing. It has been going 

on for about two hours and 40 minutes, maybe the longest hearing 

we have had this year in Indian Affairs. I think it was a hearing 

that we were past due to have, and I am very, very happy that 

under your leadership, Chairman Hoeven, and Vice Chair Udall, 

that we had this. 

I want to thank the folks on this panel for testifying. I know it 

is not easy, it cannot be easy. 

And to Senator Heitkamp, and the people you represent, the 

communities you represent, I very much appreciate it. 

I also want to recognize Charles Addington from the Bureau of 

Indian Affairs, because he did stick around. Oftentimes we have 

hearings, and I get the impression, over the last 12 years that I 

have been here, that sometimes folks from the Administration 

come to check the box and walk out the door. 

Mr. Addington, your sitting here and listening to this, I know 

you had other things you could be doing. But I think it represents 

the fact that you are going to take this issue seriously, and I appreciate that. I think the proof will be in the pudding when we get 

done with all of this. If we can figure out a way for tribal law enforcement and BIA and FBI, and whoever else is in the equation, 

to be able to work better together, there are a lot of things that 

have been said today, as I have listened to the testimony of the second panel in particular, our votes have stopped, so I could listen 

to them all. They were very disturbing. 

One of the ladies said there is a trust issue. It might have been 

you, Amber. And if there is a lack of trust, we have major problems 

right off the top and we need to figure out how to solve that problem in and of itself. The truth is that are our first responders, 

whether they are in Indian Country or anywhere else. They are an 

incredible asset to us, and we ought to be trusting of them to do 

the job that they were hired to do. 

I would also say that there are some issues around evidence that 

are very, very disturbing. But I do want to start with you, Kimberly, and just kind of go down the line. You said that you sister 

was missing on June 12th of 2017. Were the tribal police the first 

63 

ones who started the investigation, or was it somebody else? Was 

it a search and rescue team, or who was it? Who started? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. The first people who we spoke with 

were the tribal police, and the BIA at the same time. 

Senator TESTER. At the same time. And that was on June 12th, 

when your sister turned up missing? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. No, the problem with that is that 

the first lead that they got was on June 25th, and that is when 

they started the three-day search. 

Senator TESTER. Okay, so did you know she was missing before 

the 25th of June and did you report it? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. So we were told that Ashley was 

hanging out with a family friend. And this family friend, he was 

in a very rural place. So it was fine for that. And then when we 

actually got to see this family friend, he stated that he hasn’t seen 

Ashley for two weeks. 

Senator TESTER. Okay, I got you. So then you knew there was 

big-time trouble at that moment in time. 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Yes. 

Senator TESTER. And the FBI came in like, if my math is right, 

nearly ten months later. And that FBI was brought in at the request of who? At the request of you or the BIA, or the tribal police, 

or do you know? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. We were told that they were 

brought in by the request of the BIA. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. And you were told that if the FBI was 

brought in, that Ashley would never be found, is that correct? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. Exactly. That was from the head of 

the BIA agent that was on her case, he is the main guy. He quoted 

that if the FBI was to get on Ashley’s case, Ashley will never be 

found. Because he worked his hardest, and the FBI will not look 

for Ashley. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. And as far as the evidence with the 

sweater and the boots, is that still in tribal police hands, or BIA 

hands, or whose hands? 

Ms. LORING-HEAVY RUNNER. I did call them last week and I am 

still waiting for a call back to see where the sweater is at. 

Senator TESTER. We have work to do. There is no doubt about 

that. We have to figure this out. I am not sure we got any answers 

today, I mean, you guys gave us answers. You gave us answers, 

your experience. But I’m not sure we have answers on what needs 

to happen, other than better communication up and down the line. 

That is pretty obvious. 

Mr. Chairman, I don’t think this should be our last hearing on 

this. I will just tell you that. I think we should, once again, bring 

in the respective law agencies and maybe even bring in some of the 

tribal folks on the ground that are in law enforcement this next 

Congress, and try to figure out what is going on here. 

Because I will go back to where I started, and that is, would we 

have a different reaction if this was non-Native? I am just telling 

you, it would be a different reaction. These folks, it was pointed 

out, they love and they live and they cry. We are not living up to 

any of our responsibilities here, trust or otherwise. Every missing 

person is important. 

64 

The communities they impact and the families they impact, it 

can literally rip the heart out of you. Hopefully we can work together. I believe you two are going to be chairman and ranking 

member again, is that correct? Congratulations. Hopefully you guys 

can work together this next Congress to follow up on this, so that 

we can get some answers as to what the problem is. 

I would just finish by this. Mr. Addington, you are here, you are 

going to be writing up a budget pretty soon. If it is a budgetary 

problem, we really do need to know the facts. And if we need, and 

many of us here are appropriators, in fact, I think all three of us 

are appropriators, and there are some others on this Committee 

that are appropriators, if it is a situation that we need more tribal 

law enforcement, or we need more BIA law enforcement, I can tell 

you, I believe we need more FBI law enforcement, and the FBI isn’t 

here. We have problems all over the Country with not enough manpower in the FBI. 

Thank you very much for being here. I want to thank the witnesses on both panels. I want to thank the chairman and ranking 

member one more time, and tell you that I don’t think we give up 

on this today. I think we continue to work. You guys keep your 

voices heard. And I will keep my ears open. 

Thank you. God bless you all. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Senator Tester. To pick up on a couple of those themes, clearly, we have to find ways to strengthen 

and improve the coordination and all the work that is being done 

by BIA, DOJ and FBI. That came out in the first panel, certainly 

came out in this panel, is we have to get them together working 

with you, better data, and make sure that it is more effective. 

To that, also in terms of following up on a comment Senator 

Tester made, for example, an act that I have put forward and the 

vice chairman has co-sponsored, I think we have good bipartisan 

support from the entire Committee. I am hopeful if we can’t get it 

this year, we will get it next, and that is the SURVIVE Act. The 

SURVIVE Act stands for Securing Urgent Resources Vital to Indian Victim Empowerment, the SURVIVE Act. 

What it would do is there is a national crime victims fund. It is 

$3 billion a year. This was set aside 5 percent, or $150 million a 

year, to help with this very issue that we are talking about, to help 

with law enforcement and to help with missing and murdered indigenous women and children. And that would make a real difference. That is a multi-year bill, so we know that that $150 million would be there year after year. 

As Senator Tester pointed out, all three of us are on Appropriations. This year we were able to secure $132 million, and that is 

for fiscal year 2018. For fiscal year 2019, we are working on $220 

million to help with this issue. 

But the nice thing, if we could get our SURVIVE Act passed, that 

is a five-year bill. So we know we would have it for five years. 

Whereas right now, we are working on it year to year. 

So that is an effort to be directly responsive to what you are talking about. Your testimony was very powerful today, we knew it 

would be, and it was. We thank you for being here. And we all acknowledge we have to do more with law enforcement, whether it 

65 

is FBI, DOJ, BIA, on-reservation, off, to get then working and to 

be responsive. It is a very, very important issue. 

Again, I thank you for being here, and we will turn to Vice 

Chairman Udall for his closing remarks. 

Senator UDALL. Chairman Hoeven, thank you very much for your 

comments and your commitment to this issue. I think there is a 

reason this is one of our longest hearings, because I think we needed that time and attention to this issue, no doubt about it. 

One of the issues, and I will put questions to the record to all 

the law enforcement people that appeared here, and first just 

thank all of you for the passionate, moving testimony. I think you 

really highlight in a very significant way why we are here. 

To me, one of the biggest issues here is the resource issue. Do 

we have adequate law enforcement officers to do the job? At one 

level, you are only as good as the people you have working on the 

problem. So numbers are really important here. 

I have numbers that are not totally, you don’t see the total 

spread, total broad brush. But it gives you a little bit of an idea. 

The best practices in law enforcement are to have about three officers for a thousand people. That is what most of our cities and 

counties and State police, that kind of situation, three officers per 

1,000 people. 

Indian Country is over 87,000 square miles, or nearly one people 

live on or near reservations. Yet the FBI only has 140 FBI agents 

assigned to investigate Indian Country crimes. So let’s take that 

out to the three and compare. There is only 0.14 agents per 1,000 

reservation residents. So we are talking there about a small fraction of what is needed; 0.14 is a fraction, a very small fraction of 

one officer, not the three officers, which are the best standard. 

BIA, tribal, State law enforcement also provide public safety 

services on tribal lands. But they experience similar officer understaffing issues. For example, the Navajo Nation estimates there are 

0.85 officers per every 1,000 individuals. So that is closer to one, 

Council Delegate Crotty, but it still is not even the one. So you are 

well below the three. 

So the testimony here, and especially, Kimberly, yours, said law 

enforcement failed your sister. And you noted other failures that 

you have heard about. If we don’t even have the minimum number 

of law enforcement officers needed, we are going to have more of 

those failures. There is no doubt about it. We see that, and we have 

heard that. 

So in my opinion, this is totally unacceptable. I would just say, 

FBI and BIA, please take note here. I hope that you are putting 

in the requests. A lot of times, we have a very hard time with witnesses coming from the Executive Branch telling us what they are 

actually requesting, because they have to defend the overall budget 

document. 

But I would just urge the FBI and the BIA, put in the request 

and ask for the adequate numbers of law enforcement officers that 

are needed for this situation. Now, there is a lot more than just 

numbers, and you all have elucidated that. But I just wanted to, 

in my closing, talk a little bit about where we are in terms of numbers. If this was occurring in a county some place, and you had 

66 

those numbers that low, the elected officials would immediately 

raise the numbers and say, we have to get after this. 

Same thing is true of a State, or, we had a big crime problem 

in our big city of Albuquerque recently. The mayor immediately 

came out and said, I want 300 more officers on the streets. And he 

is in the process of hiring those. 

So I think we need to focus on that adequacy. But once again, 

let me thank the witnesses in terms of you have highlighted the 

kinds of things that we need to be doing. I think this is really, as 

Senator Tester and the chairman have said, I think we are going 

to continue to look into this. He has the SURVIVE Act. We have 

Savanna’s Act. And based on this hearing, we may have more 

things that we have to put in in terms of legislation. We obviously 

have our work to do on Appropriations. 

So thank you again, very much. We really appreciate it. 

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Vice Chairman Udall. 

If there are no more questions from the members, you do have 

the opportunity to submit follow-up questions. So there may be follow-up questions that you would get for the record. We would ask 

that you try to respond, and the record stays open for two weeks. 

We would ask that you respond to those questions. 

I want to thank the witnesses again for your time and for your 

testimony. We truly appreciate it. 

With that, we are adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 5:26 p.m., the hearing was concluded.] 

(67) 

A P P E N D I X 

RESPONSE TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. TOM UDALL TO

KIMBERLY LORING-HEAVY RUNNER

Question 1. 1. What can Congress do to improve coordination efforts among federal, state, local and tribal Lea’s? 

Answer. I believe law enforcement’s poor coordination efforts and lack of communication with family was the result of poorly trained Law enforcement officers. The 

proper training and education on mmiw will help benefit the outcome of these women’s cases. Law enforcement agencies have been dealing with mmiw cases for decades with little to no success. These numbers of unsolved cases should have been 

enough evidence to prove that the protocol they are using is not working, and desperately needs to be changed. All Officers need to go through enhanced training 

when working with missing and murdered indigenous people cases and obtain all 

the proper tools to end this silent crisis. 

Question 2. What more can congress do to increase NamUs usefulness in finding 

missing and murdered indigenous women? 

Answer. To be honest I never heard about NamUs till the day of the MMIW hearing. On December 12th 2019, 17 months after Ashley went missing. I was never 

educated on the usefulness of NamUs. I believe congress should push for NamUs 

to be required by law that all law enforcement agencies be required to use NamUs 

as well as update NamUs. 

Question 3. What do you think would be the most helpful when it comes to investigating missing and murdered indigenous women? 

Answer. The law enforcement need to take every MMIW case seriously as they 

do every other case. Ashley case was mistreated and mishandled by law enforcement which resulted with Ashley case going on unsolved for almost 2 years. I believe coming up with a well organized protocol that allows law enforcement to be 

well trained with dealing with MMIW cases. Forming a special task force just is designed to work only with MMIW. I believe this would work for law enforcement as 

well with families of MMIW. The biggest down fall with law enforcement is communication. By forming a special task force for MMIW, it will improve communication 

as well as hopefully solve more cases. 

RESPONSE TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. TOM UDALL TO

PATRICIA ALEXANDER

Question 1. While many of your tribal members are spread out across vast rural 

areas, you also have many members living in urban centers. This means that some 

of your members face very different circumstances and issues than others, and both 

situations present their own challenges when it comes to addressing the crisis of 

missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. How do you think about the divide—when it comes to resources, law enforcement jurisdiction, and the threats 

women and girls face to their safety? 

Answer. We agree that we have diverse citizens that travel and live all around 

the world. However, the majority are still located together in their home villages, 

neighboring relative’s villages or other similar area. The resources to our rural areas 

are often scarce, but needed. Our Urban populations may have access to other resources as general ‘‘citizens’’ of the US, but our village citizens truly have vast limitations. We need resources, money, services and training to provide the necessary 

support. The State of Alaska, as a PL 280 state, has been tasked with providing 

these services, but over the years we continue to see that they don’t understand our 

needs and their priorities are often not what we consider primary. In addition, with 

the budget crisis in Alaska, we see a dwindling of resources to our villages. An example is if a judicial officer retires and has served a village, the state may not fill 

that position. That happened in Kake, Alaska where long time magistrate Mike 

Jackson retired. The state closed the court there. This story is not unique. In the 

68 

same village, the city had police. The state no longer funds law enforcement there. 

The city of Kake is required to call into an offsite 911/1–800 service for any emergencies, sometimes only able to leave a message. Law enforcement response is often 

delayed, which jeopardizes the chain of custody of any potential crime to be investigated. Our villages need resources. 

Question 2. As Patricia likely knows, the Department of Justice operates a ‘‘central clearinghouse’’ database to help share information about missing persons cases 

called NamUs. There is no requirement/law that all missing persons cases be entered in NamUs. And, even though the system is supposed to be accessible to families to input information, at least one law enforcement agency has to approve all 

inputted information. So, Senator Udall is interested to know more about how often 

missing person cases on tribal lands are entered into the system. He will likely 

ask—Does Patricia know if her Tribe—which is dependent on the State and 

VPSOs—has access to NamUs/clearance to initiate cases in the NamUs system? 

Answer. NamUs is different than FBI CJIS’s Missing persons file, they are two 

separate systems that cannot currently talk to each other for several reasons. Anyone can have access to NamUs, literally. All they have to do is set up an account, 

and enter the information they want to enter about a missing person. Then the 

NamUs staff take that information and confirm with LE before it can go out publically. There are less missing Native persons in NamUs than there are in FBI 

CJIS’s missing persons file, likely because LE doesn’t use it in the same way. 

NamUs is completely voluntary, and was originally set up to try to match remains 

found with people who were missing. FBI CJIS’s database is also voluntary except 

for entry of missing persons under age 18 which is mandatory, and then some states 

have mandatory missing person reports to CJIS by their state law but it is way less 

than half. So the question that has been asked apparently is if the Tribe has access 

to initiate cases in NamUs, and the answer is absolutely, anyone can enter this information. However, we do not currently have the infrastructure that would track 

this type of information and assign someone to enter such information. 

RESPONSE TO WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO

TO PATRICIA ALEXANDER

Question 1. While many of your tribal members are spread out across vast rural 

areas, you also have many members living in urban centers. This means that some 

of your members face very different circumstances and issues than others, and both 

situations present their own challenges when it comes to addressing the crisis of 

missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. How do you think about the divide—when it comes to resources, law enforcement jurisdiction, and the threats 

women and girls face to their safety? 

Answer. We agree that we have diverse citizens that travel and live all around 

the world. However, the majority are still located together in their home villages, 

neighboring relative’s villages or other similar area. The resources to our rural areas 

are often scarce, but needed. Our Urban populations may have access to other resources as general ‘‘citizens’’ of the US, but our village citizens truly have vast limitations. We need resources, money, services and training to provide the necessary 

support. The State of Alaska, as a PL 280 state, has been tasked with providing 

these services, but over the years we continue to see that they don’t understand our 

needs and their priorities are often not what we consider primary. In addition, with 

the budget crisis in Alaska, we see a dwindling of resources to our villages. An example is if a judicial officer retires and has served a village, the state may not fill 

that position. That happened in Kake, Alaska where long time magistrate Mike 

Jackson retired. The state closed the court there. This story is not unique. In the 

same village, the city had police. The state no longer funds law enforcement there. 

The city of Kake is required to call into an offsite 911/1–800 service for any emergencies, sometimes only able to leave a message. Law enforcement response is often 

delayed, which jeopardizes the chain of custody of any potential crime to be investigated. Our villages need resources. 

69 

*RESPONSES TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS FAILED TO BE 

SUBMITTED AT THE TIME THIS HEARING WENT TO PRINT* 

WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. TOM UDALL TO CHARLES ADDINGTON

Staffing 

Question 1. Indian Country is over 87,000 square miles and nearly 1 million people live on or near reservations. During the hearing, Senator Udall stated, ‘‘the best 

practices in law enforcement are to have about 3 officers for 1,000 people, [yet] 

there’s only 0.14 agents for 1,000 reservation residents.’’ The Committee has heard 

from Tribes that there is a law enforcement shortage in Indian Country. This law 

enforcement shortage affects coordination efforts to resolve missing and murdered 

Indigenous women cases. 

a. What is the proportion of BIA officers to total residents on tribal lands in 

the United States? 

b. Does the BIA have plans to increase the number of BIA officers on tribal 

lands? 

Question 2. Where is the central location for BIA officers with respect to reservation populations within Indian country? 

Question 3. Many tribal communities are located in rural areas. Does the BIA 

have data on the average response time of its officers to crimes committed within 

Indian country? 

Question 4. As mentioned by Navajo Nation Council Delegate Amber Crotty, one 

barrier to solving crimes in Indian country is a lack of medical examiners. She mentioned that there were zero medical examiners located within the Navajo Nation, 

which encompasses more than 27,000 square miles of land and inhabited by 350,000 

people. The lack of medical examiners means deceased victims within Navajo Nation 

must be transported hundreds of miles away to urban medical centers to conduct 

an autopsy. 

a. Does the BIA have data on how many tribes do and do not have medical examiners within their tribal communities? 

b. Does the BIA have plans to provide tribes with better access to medical examiners? 

Data and Coordination 

Question 5. The Tribal Law and Order Act (TLOA) requires the Offices of the 

United States Attorneys to designate an Assistant United States Attorney as a Tribal Liaison to facilitate communication, coordination efforts, and conduct outreach to 

the tribal law enforcement. Recent Department of Justice reports indicate that communication and outreach vary from robust to non-existent between Tribal Liaisons 

and tribal authorities. Do the BIA law enforcement officers engage with Tribal Liaisons in missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) cases? 

Question 6. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), administered by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), is a nationwide clearinghouse 

on missing and unidentified or unclaimed deceased persons for all stakeholders, 

from the general public to law enforcement agencies. In January 2019, NamUs 

plans to update their database to include five additional fields for Native people. 

Those fields are: 

a.Individual’s primary residence located on or near tribal lands; 

b.Tribal enrollment or affiliation status; 

c.Last known location located on or near tribal lands; 

d.Location of remains on or near tribal lands, and 

e.Tribal participation in the Tribal Access Program. 

There is no requirement for law enforcement agencies to create a record in 

NamUs when undertaking a missing persons investigation. 

a. Does the BIA currently utilize NamUs when tracking MMIW cases? If not, 

does the BIA plan to utilize NamUs in the future? 

b. Does the BIA have plans to utilize the five additional fields on Native peoples 

come in January 2019? 

70 

WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. TOM UDALL TO HON. AMBER CROTTY

Data and Coordination 

Question 1. During the hearing, you indicated that the lack of coordination between federal, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies (LEAs) is a critical obstacle to the effective investigation of crimes within the Navajo Nation. You also mentioned that state LEAs have actively approached the Navajo Nation to improve coordination and data collection efforts. What can Congress do to improve coordination 

with tribal law enforcement agencies such as Navajo Nation Police Department? 

Question 2. You mentioned in your testimony that the planned expansion of the 

Tribal Access Program (TAP) provides ‘‘tribes with access to national crime information systems for both criminal and civil purposes. [This] presents an opportunity for 

congressional leaders to expand the program to develop a database to adequately 

track missing Navajo citizens and compile information to share across jurisdictional 

boundaries.’’ What can Congress do to increase tribal access to TAP and ensure that 

TAP effectively serves the Navajo Nation and other tribes? 

Question 3. During the hearing, you mentioned the data collected by the Nation 

and their federal partners was different. The difference in data collections leads to 

an inaccurate count of missing and murdered individuals. 

One potential solution is the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System 

(NamUs). NamUs a national missing person clearinghouse and resource center for 

all stakeholders, from Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to the public. DOJ is updating NamUs in January 2019 to include more five informational fields on Native 

people. Those fields include: 

• Individual’s primary residence located on or near tribal lands; 

• Tribal enrollment or affiliation status; 

• Last known location located on or near tribal lands; 

• Location of remains on or near tribal lands, and 

• Tribal participation in the Tribal Access Program. 

a. What more can Congress do to help the Navajo Nation and other Tribes successfully utilize NamUs to track missing and murdered Indigenous people? 

b. What can the National Institute of Justice do to help the Navajo Nation and 

other Tribes successfully utilize NamUs? 

Staffing and Training 

Question 4. In your testimony, you noted that because the Navajo Nation does not 

have its own Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI), a decedent must be transported to Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is over three hours away, to a state facility for an autopsy. The distance from a crime scene to the OMI has a negative effect, 

such as report delays, on the investigation and could make the crime more difficult 

to prosecute resulting in case declinations. 

a. What can Congress do to help Tribes, like the Navajo Nation obtain their 

own OMIs to help increase the efficiency of investigations? 

WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. TOM UDALL TO ROBERT JOHNSON

Declinations 

Question 1. According to a 2017 Department of Justice (DOJ) report on Indian 

Country investigations and prosecutions, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) 

declined to refer 20.5 percent of the Indian Country criminal investigations it 

opened to U.S. Attorney’s Offices (USAOs) for prosecution. The primary reasons for 

closing cases without a prosecutorial referral were: 1) the cases did not meet statutory definitions of a crime or USAO prosecution guidelines, and 2) the cases contained unsupported allegations. 

a. What is the FBI’s standard for declining to refer a case to a USAO? 

b. How does the FBI evaluate whether or not allegations in a criminal investigation are supported? 

c. Does the FBI track how many of these cases involve missing or murdered Indigenous women? 

Question 2. The same DOJ report states that USAOs declined to prosecute 37 percent of all Indian country cases referred to them, with the most commonly cited reason for doing so being ‘‘insufficient evidence.’’ Insufficient evidence is broadly defined and there is very little data on what is considered insufficient evidence. 

71 

a. What is the DOJ’s standard for declination on the grounds of insufficient evidence? 

b. Does the DOJ have feedback from USAOs who work in Indian Country about 

why evidence gathered at a crime scene is deemed insufficient and the case 

must be declined? 

c. Does the DOJ or other federal agencies provide training regarding evidence 

gathering to local law enforcement officials? Are there guidelines or protocols 

that must be followed? 

Staffing 

Question 3. Indian Country is over 87,000 square miles and nearly 1 million people live on or near reservations. During the hearing, Senator Udall stated, ‘‘the best 

practices in law enforcement are to have about 3 officers for 1,000 people, [yet] 

there’s only 0.14 agents for 1,000 reservation residents.’’ There are not enough officers and agents in the field to ensure the safety of Native communities. This law 

enforcement shortage directly affects coordination efforts to resolve missing and 

murdered Indigenous women cases. 

a. FBI coverage in Indian country is just a fraction of what best practices in 

law enforcement recommend. What are the FBI’s plans to remedy this situation? 

Question 4. Indian Country covers a large area and many tribal communities are 

located in rural areas. There are 36 FBI field offices located throughout the country 

and many are located in larger metropolitan areas like Albuquerque, New Mexico 

and Phoenix, Arizona. Albuquerque is over 160 miles from the capital of the Navajo 

Nation and Phoenix is over 280 miles away. 

a. Where are the 140 FBI agents assigned to Indian Country located with respect to the reservations in Indian country? 

b. Does the FBI collect data on the average response time of its agents to crimes 

committed in Indian country? 

i. If yes, what is the average response time and is this data publicly available? 

Data and Coordination 

Question 5. You mentioned during the hearing that the FBI is improving its primary database on missing persons, the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), 

with input from law enforcement agencies (LEAs), including tribal LEAs. One of 

these improvements involves developing a new ‘‘name search algorithm that will enhance the ability to search Native American names.’’ 

a. Has the FBI tested the efficacy of the name search algorithm regarding identification of missing or murdered indigenous people? 

b. Has the FBI considered adding additional fields, such as tribal enrollment 

information, regarding Native peoples to NCIC? 

Question 6. The lack of data sharing among LEAs is one of the obstacles to an 

efficient and effective police response to crime in Indian country. LEAs are not required to enter information into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). Access to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) requires 

certification for current or pending law enforcement employees with a background 

and fingerprint check. Furthermore, information cannot be shared between NamUs 

and NCIC. These restrictions on access and sharing of vital information must be addressed. 

a. What legal or structural obstacles exist that prevent the FBI from sharing 

information on crimes in Indian country with other LEAs? 

b. Does the FBI utilize Tribal Liaisons in communicating relevant information 

on Indian Country crimes to tribes, and vice versa? 

c. Does the FBI utilize the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System 

(NamUs) to track or solve crimes within Indian Country? 

WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. TOM UDALL TO GERALD LAPORTE

Data and Coordination 

Question 1. You elaborated on the five fields to be added in January 2019 to the 

National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) on Native people. 

Those fields are: 

72 

a. Individual’s primary residence located on or near tribal lands; 

b. Tribal enrollment or affiliation status; 

c. Last known location located on or near tribal lands; 

d. Location of remains on or near tribal lands, and 

e. Tribal participation in the Tribal Access Program. 

I am encouraged by your efforts to involve Native stakeholders, tribal, state, and 

federal, in the process of developing and implementing these fields. 

a. What are is the National Institute of Justice’s (NIJ) plan for reviewing the 

purposeful utilization of these fields? 

b. Will the NIJ include their findings in a report? 

Training 

Question 2. During the hearing, you stated that NIJ has a ‘‘boots-on-the-ground 

team’’ that provides training, technical assistance, and case support to aid investigations. You also stated in the past year, NIJ had concentrated their efforts to provide 

training and outreach to Indian Country. In fact, NIJ states they held 22 events 

in 13 states. However, testimony from our tribal witnesses indicate that neither 

training nor outreach was conducted within their tribal communities. 

a. Please provide a list of the past training and outreach events conducted within Indian Country. 

b. Does NIJ plan to provide more training events for Tribes? 

Staffing 

Question 3. You mentioned during the hearing that NIJ has been working with 

the Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) to create a tele-medicine program to ensure 

that rape victims in remote areas, such as Alaska, do not have to travel to distant 

urban areas for examinations. 

a. What is NIJ’s timeline for implementing this program in Alaska Native villages? 

WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO TO CHARLES

ADDINGTON

Question 1. In the Urban Indian Health Institute’s eye-opening report on missing 

and murdered indigenous women and girls, the authors of the report come to the 

conclusion that ‘‘no agency can adequately respond to violence it does not track.’’ Do 

you agree with this statement, yes or no? 

a. What are you doing in order to improve the data collection on missing and 

murdered indigenous women and girls? 

Question 2. What role do you believe human trafficking plays in the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls? 

Question 3. In your testimony, you described how the BIA has partnered with 

DOJ’s Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) to create new data fields 

to capture tribal affiliation data. What kind of outreach to law enforcement agencies 

and tribes are you conducting to make sure all relevant parties are aware of this 

change and are using it effectively? 

Question 4. Ensuring tribal enrollment information is accurately recorded in federal databases is one of the provisions of Savanna’s Act, which recently passed the 

Senate. Are you working with databases other than NamUs to ensure they all capture tribal affiliation data? 

Question 5. Tribal access to federal crime databases is an ongoing issue. To your 

knowledge, do tribes have full access to NamUs and the National Crime Information 

Center (NCIC)? 

Question 6. Other witnesses before the committee described the need to help families of missing women navigate the complex web of law enforcement systems and 

databases. What role should BIA play in helping family members when a loved one 

goes missing? 

Question 7. Witnesses before the committee all agreed that more data should be 

collected on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, but collecting or reporting data that includes personally identifiable information can be dangerous, and 

increased data collection can add responsibility to public safety officers and victim 

service providers. How do we learn more about the problem confronting us without 

73 

putting victims at risk or making it harder for law enforcement and victim service 

providers to do their jobs? 

WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO TO ROBERT

JOHNSON

Question 1. In the Urban Indian Health Institute’s eye-opening report on missing 

and murdered indigenous women and girls, the authors of the report come to the 

conclusion that ‘‘no agency can adequately respond to violence it does not track.’’ Do 

you agree with this statement, yes or no? 

a. What are you doing in order to improve the data collection on missing and 

murdered indigenous women and girls? 

Question 2. What role do you believe human trafficking plays in the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls? 

Question 3. Other witnesses before the committee described the need to help families of missing women navigate the complex web of law enforcement systems and 

databases. What role should the FBI play in helping family members when a loved 

one goes missing? 

Question 4. Witnesses before the committee all agreed that more data should be 

collected on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, but collecting or reporting data that includes personally identifiable information can be dangerous, and 

increased data collection can add responsibility to public safety officers and victim 

service providers. How do we learn more about the problem confronting us without 

putting victims at risk or making it harder for law enforcement and victim service 

providers to do their jobs? 

WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO TO GERALD

LAPORTE

Question 1. In the Urban Indian Health Institute’s eye-opening report on missing 

and murdered indigenous women and girls, the authors of the report come to the 

conclusion that ‘‘no agency can adequately respond to violence it does not track.’’ Do 

you agree with this statement, yes or no? 

a. What are you doing in order to improve the data collection on missing and 

murdered indigenous women and girls? 

Question 2. What role do you believe human trafficking plays in the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls? 

Question 3. Witnesses before the committee all agreed that more data should be 

collected on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, but collecting or reporting data that includes personally identifiable information can be dangerous, and 

increased data collection can add responsibility to public safety officers and victim 

service providers. How do we learn more about the problem confronting us without 

putting victims at risk or making it harder for law enforcement and victim service 

providers to do their jobs? 

WRITTEN QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY HON. CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO TO HON. 

AMBER CROTTY

Question 1. In your testimony, you described the need to help families of missing 

women navigate the complex web of law enforcement systems and databases. Can 

you share any ideas you might have to address this issue? 

Question 2. While many of your tribal members are spread out across vast rural 

areas, you also have many members living in urban centers. This means that some 

of your members face very different circumstances and issues than others, and both 

situations present their own challenges when it comes to addressing the crisis of 

missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. How do you think about this 

divide—when it comes to resources, law enforcement jurisdiction, and the threats 

women and girls face to their safety? 

Æ