State lawmakers created the Office of Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives last year. Backers hoped it would bridge the gap between law enforcement and the indigenous community, as well as advocate for the families and the missing people.
Jennifer Black Elk remembers her nephew, Wanbli Oyote Vigil, as the kind of person to drop everything to help a loved one move back across state lines. Twice.
Vigil would be the first official case for the newly instituted Office of Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. The Native American community faces violence at a disproportionate rate — women particularly — and too often they feel law enforcement does not take the cases seriously. Volunteers in the community came together to help with fliers and to rally neighbors to look for Vigil, Black Elk said. The volunteer missing and murdered indigenous relatives task force, which fought to establish the new state office last year, “was really a vital piece of us keeping our sanity” during the search for Vigil, Black Elk said.
At the 2023 bill’s first hearing, families of missing and murdered indigenous people and advocates testified to the shortcomings and pitfalls they’ve seen with the office’s implementation so far. The volunteer task force has had to “spoonfeed” information to the office, Monycka Snowbird, director of the Haseya Advocate Program, testified.
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