May 5, 2025
Mr. Daines (for himself, Ms. Cantwell, Ms. Murkowski, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Hickenlooper, Mr. Lankford, Mr. Padilla, Mr. Hoeven, Mr. Luján, Mr. Sheehy, Mr. Moran, Ms. Smith, Mr. Rounds, Ms. Cortez Masto, Mr. Gallego, Mrs. Murray, Ms. Baldwin, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Schiff, Ms. Rosen, Mr. Heinrich, Ms. Klobuchar, and Mr. Sullivan) submitted the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to
Expressing support for the designation of May 5, 2025, as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
.
Whereas, according to a 2016 study commissioned by the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice, more than 4 in 5 (84.3 percent) American Indian and Alaska Native women experienced violence in their lifetime, with 56.1 percent being a result of sexual violence and 55 percent being from intimate partner violence;
Whereas, according to 2017 data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found homicide was the sixth-leading cause of death for American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls under 44 years of age, with murder rates more than 10 times the national average;
Whereas approximately 1,500 American Indian and Alaska Native missing persons have been entered into the National Crime Information Center index throughout the United States, and approximately 2,700 cases of murder and nonnegligent homicide offenses involving American Indian and Alaska Native victims have been reported to the Federal Government’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program;
Whereas, according to a 2020 joint study completed by the State of Hawaii and the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, 64 percent of human trafficking victims in Hawaii identified as at least part Native Hawaiian;
Whereas the current local, State, and Federal funding available in Indian country is inadequate to address the basic, emergency, and long-term service needs of victims and negatively impacts Tribal governments’ ability to distribute lifesaving resources;
Whereas, in 2019, Operation Lady Justice was launched through Executive Order 13898 (84 Fed. Reg. 7521), which established the Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives aimed at mitigating the missing and murdered Indigenous women (referred to in this preamble as MMIW
) crisis by improving the investigatory and prosecutorial capabilities of Federal justice agencies and generating new guidelines for data sharing and law enforcement responses;
Whereas, in 2020, Savanna’s Act (Public Law 116–165), which directed the Attorney General to develop new law enforcement protocols when investigating MMIW, and the Not Invisible Act (Public Law 116–166), which initiated a joint commission between the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice to combat violent crime within Tribal communities, were signed into law;
Whereas, in 2021, the Department of the Interior created a Missing and Murdered Unit within the Office of Justice Services of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to expand cross-departmental and interagency collaboration for the purposes of investigating cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people at the request of Tribal leadership; and
Whereas, in previous years, May 5th has been designated as a day of remembrance for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls
in honor of the birth date of Hanna Harris, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, who was murdered after being reported missing by her family in Lame Deer, Montana: Now, therefore, be it
That the Senate—
(1)
expresses support for the designation of May 5, 2025, as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
;
(2)
calls on the people of the United States and interested groups to—
(A)
commemorate the lives of missing and murdered American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian women whose cases are documented and undocumented in public records and the media; and
(B)
demonstrate solidarity with the families of victims in light of those tragedies;
(3)
recommends that the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice commission a new study on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls to ensure up-to-date statistics are made public regarding the current state of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls crisis given 9 years have passed since their 2016 study was published; and
(4)
recognizes that, despite the positive efforts made, there is more work to be done to address this nationwide crisis.