Oregon lawmakers are moving forward on a measure that would require the Oregon State Police to study how to improve their investigations on missing and murdered Native American women.
Murder is a leading cause of death among American Indian and Alaska Native women. Supporters of House Bill 2625 say the actual numbers are hard to verify for the same reasons that make investigations of the deaths so challenging. The measure under consideration would require the state police to study strategies for breaking down bureaucratic and political boundaries that can stymy investigations.
“What we’re dealing with on federal reservations is a jurisdictional nightmare,” said Deborah Shipman during testimony on Tuesday before the Oregon Senate's Judiciary Committee. Shipman is head of a Portland-based group called . She says it’s sometimes hard to even figure out which is the right agency to file a missing person’s report with.
Shipman was one of about a dozen indigienous women who testified before the committee, which then voted unanimously the move the bill to a vote of the full Senate. After the vote, committee chair Sen.Floyd Prozanksi, D-Eugene, addressed the women who had testified. “Your stories mean a lot to us,” he said. “This is something that has been unjust. We need to move forward.”
One of the chief sponsors of House Bill 2625 is Rep. Tawna Sanchez, D-Portland, who is Native American. Sanchez said many in the Native American community think law enforcement, as well as the broader community, don’t care about missing indigenous women. “We know that our own people are paying attention, but often times we don’t think that anybody else is paying attention,” she said.
The State Police Department would have until September 15, 2020 to complete the study. “While the Oregon State Police will certainly face challenges relating to our lack of authority within sovereign Native American jurisdictions, we believe this is an honorable endeavor and this body of work should be completed,” said State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton in written testimony.
The measure passed the Oregon House unanimously in March. Approval by the Senate would send it to the desk of Democratic Gov. Kate Brown. A similar billwas signed into law in Washington state earlier this year.
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