Working toward justice for the missing and murdered in Washington

Washington state has been called a national leader when it comes to confronting the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and people (MMIWP), thanks to the development of the MMIWP Task Force back in 2021 and its continued work.

The third annual Washington State MMIWP Task Force Summit was held in September at the Lummi Nation’s Silver Reef Casino in Ferndale. Representatives from the Attorney General’s Office, law enforcement departments and tribes spoke, along with individuals who have been affected by the crisis, reflecting on positive change, current issues and what still needs to be done.

At the public portion of the three-day summit, three shawls were put on display, representing different crises in the Indigenous community: Red for missing and murdered women, purple for overdoses (“losing our people from fentanyl”) and turquoise for human trafficking.

‘The older boys got away with it’

Patricia “Patsy” Whitefoot of Yakama Nation, who is battling cancer and whose name is always prefaced with “Auntie,” is a prominent voice in the MMIWP movement and is an activist for Indigenous rights.

Whitefoot and her sisters Maria Olney, Gloria Tallman and cousin Lila Whitefoot all attended the summit as their family is one of many affected by the crisis.

In 1987, Whitefoot’s sister Daisy Mae Heath had gone missing at the age of 29. Her disappearance was ruled a suspected homicide by the FBI and she was presumed dead in 1994. In November 2008, human remains were found in a remote area of the Yakama Reservation, and 15 years later in January 2023 — mere weeks after the inaugural MMIWP Task Force summit — DNA analysis revealed the remains to be those of Daisy Mae.

In 1994, Agnes Whitefoot, younger sister to Lila, was 38 years old when she was gang-raped and beaten by a group of teenage boys and adult men. Agnes died in the hospital from the injuries inflicted upon her, and though the teenagers were convicted and sent to juvenile hall, the others were never named.

“They were sworn to secrecy,” said Lila in a 2022 interview. “The older boys got away with it.”

In 2018, Whitefoot spoke before the Washington State Legislature about a bill that would be passed a few months later: Senate House Bill 2951 ordered a study to determine how to increase reporting and investigations of MMIWP, leading to a 2019 study and the eventual creation of the task force in 2021.

“Auntie, we are going to work toward creating a statewide commission that is permanent within Washington state,” Rep. Debra Lekanoff (D-District 40) of Tlingit Tribe said to Whitefoot and the room. “We will grow from a task force into a permanent commission in Washington state that’s funded, that’s upheld at one of the highest levels […] We are going to remain committed to this.”

Anna Bean of the Puyallup Tribe, who was emcee for the summit, commended Whitefoot, Rep. Lekanoff and everyone in the room for their contributions.

“It was your work, it was your standing in front of all of these people in different governments and legislation and law enforcement, banging on doors, crying, screaming for help, and this was the beginning of the answer to that call,” said Bean. “It is not perfect, but we are working really hard to make sure that we hear the voices of the families of the missing.”

‘Disproportionate risk of being murdered’

Murder is the third-leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native women, and Seattle has the highest number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls of American cities based on available data, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI).

In a report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), homicide is the fifth-leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native men and boys, from the ages of 1 to 44.

A keynote address at the summit was given by Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) Bree Black Horse of Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. Black Horse is the first Indigenous AUSA for the Northwest region and is based out of the Yakima branch office of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“The national average of Indigenous people, and particularly Indigenous women like me and many of us in this room today, face a disproportionate risk of being murdered,” Black Horse said about the pervasiveness of the MMIWP crisis in North America.

Black Horse also talked about the complicated jurisdictions that different law enforcement agencies face when an Indigenous person goes missing or is murdered on sovereign land, federal land or otherwise.

To address this, two different bills were passed by the Legislature in 2023: House Bill 1177, which established an MMIWP cold case investigations unit, and House Bill 1512, which provides tools and resources that help in the location and recovery of missing persons.

In addition, Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill (ESSSB) 5838 formed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Task Force, which was established in early 2024 by the Attorney General’s Office with hopes that AI technology could help solve MMIWP cases. There is also Senate Bill 5427, which supports people who have been targeted or affected by hate crimes and bias incidents by establishing a reporting hotline and tracking hate crimes and bias incidents. This law will go into effect Jan, 1, 2025.

Asa Washines of Yakama Nation is a Tribal Liaison for the Attorney General’s Office. He spoke to the crowd about how other states are beginning to take cues from Washington state. Some examples include the 2022 establishments of an Missing Indigenous Person Alert system in Idaho and California, and Arizona creating its own task force in March 2023.

“Our work is getting out there,” said Washines.

Discussion of the fentanyl crisis was also part of the summit. According to the CDC, 1,543 non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native people died by an overdose in 2022, which was “the highest rate of any racial or ethnic group.”

Following a family panel, where personal stories of missing and murdered family members were shared with the room, a woman named Star N. spoke with the Reporter about how generational trauma causes many Native and Indigenous people to turn to drugs and alcohol.

“It’s called genocide,” she said. “They tried to wipe out our people and the trauma is transferred.”

‘Help bring them home’

On Nov. 20, 2023, the task force adopted three additional recommendations.

The first recommendation is for increased state funding for DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy of unidentified remains through a death investigations account administered by the Forensic Investigation Council (FIC). This would allow the FIC to identify remains in Washington that have not yet had DNA testing completed, along with other processes to find the identities of these unknown remains.

The second recommendation is to establish a work group that is co-led by the Attorney General’s Office, Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, family members, and two Tribal Epidemiology Centers to develop best practices for Indigenous demographic data collection by law enforcement, coroners and medical examiners.

Racial misclassification is a contributing factor that leads to an incomplete understanding of MMIWP, and it affects how resources are allocated.

One example of this problem in Washington state was in 2009, when Alyssa McLemore, a 21-year-old woman, went missing in Kent. McLemore had been described as Pacific Islander in one report and African American in another, and it wasn’t until her family advocated for on her behalf that the data was corrected.

The third recommendation, which is at the federal level, calls for the U.S. Department of Justice Office to establish a nationwide Missing Indigenous Persons Alert (MIPA), similar to the one created in partnership with the Washington State Patrol, which the task force says has been successful in keeping track of and finding MMIWP in Washington state since it began in 2022.

Other states have since enacted their own versions of the MIPA and the task force argues that a national MIPA would be a valuable tool that “should be available to all missing Indigenous people and their loved ones, to help bring them home.”

Learn more

For more information on the latest Washington State MMIWP Task Force, visit atg.wa.gov/washington-state-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-and-people-task-force.

For a complete breakdown of the task force’s recommendations in the 2023 Interim Report, visit agportal-s3bucket.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploadedfiles/2023%20MMIWP%20Interim%20Report.pdf.

Contact reporter Bailey Jo Josie: 253-906-3710 or baileyjo.josie@soundpublishing.com