Politicians are tip-toeing around the idea of expanding law enforcement communication to extend between municipal, county and state agencies to include law enforcement on reservations and pueblos. The impetus comes from a grass roots push to address the plight of “disappeared” and/or murdered Native American women all over the country.
That’s a worthy problem in which to place your passion, energy and political clout. Violence against Native American women is exponentially higher than most other crimes. However, a light search through websites backs up advocates’ claims that lack of data and information make a comparison to other crimes difficult at best.
A 2021 Los Angeles Times article states last year 5,600 Native American women were reported missing. An NBC nightly news report states there are 2,306 missing Native American women and girls in the U.S., about 1,800 of whom were killed or vanished within the past 40 years.
Most national reports agree on the percentage of violent categories but the raw numbers of women missing or dead varies greatly.
“Nearly 60 percent of the cases are homicides and 31 percent involve girls 18 and younger,” according to data analyzed by the Sovereign Bodies Institute, a nonprofit, Indigenous-led research organization that began counting and mapping such missing and murder cases over the past few years. The Institute story reports nearly three-quarters of the cases had victims who were living within the foster care system when they went missing. The vast majority of cases in the U.S., as well as another 2,000 in Canada, remain unsolved, according to the research.
Without getting bogged down in numbers, the fact is it’s a large issue, which surprisingly law enforcement of all stripes don’t seem to take too seriously. This could well be untrue but that’s where the crux of the problem lies: abilities and communication inside tribal governments and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. There is also the ongoing problem of tribal government, BIA and Department of Interior all agreeing on one thing: don’t work with outside law enforcement.
There is much anecdotal evidence that Indigenous women’s disappearance or murder is not treated with the same respect and effort by law enforcement as a non-Native’s.
New Mexico passed a law two years ago to make it “easier” for tribal and reservation law enforcement to communicate with non-tribal cops. We don’t understand why that would ever be a problem.
In May 2016, 11-year-old Ashlynne Mike was lured into a man’s van near her school bus stop and found dead the next day in a remote area near Shiprock, according to the Farmington Times. The following year the Navajo Nation implemented a $300,000 software program to create an Amber alert system. That’s great if a woman is abducted from a reservation and the kidnapper stays there but most of the time they leave reservations or pueblos and communication becomes sparse. Communication and working with outside law enforcement is thin.
To add to the problem, it’s common knowledge when officers wear out their welcome at the County and city of Española, there’s always a job waiting for them at one of the local pueblos. State politicians have a derogatory phrase for it. In short, tribal police departments historically don’t have the most committed officers.
Then there’s the whole operating in secrecy issue.
There are many instances of tribal police in the Española Valley not cooperating with city and County law enforcement. A murder in what was then San Juan Pueblo from 2005 remains unsolved and in some BIA file cabinet. We tried to write about it at the time, but had no information, no names, no reports.
A high speed chase through Chimayó and La Puebla in August 2019 resulted in Santa Fe County deputies stopping a car with Santa Clara Pueblo citizens. Tribal police would not respond and the perpetrators went free, no report, no charges, no accountability for damaged property. It frustrated city police at the time.
A woman in Alcalde reported her nephew in May 2018 had taken his mother hostage, prompting State Police to activate its Crisis Intervention Team. Over 20 officers responded. The lead negotiator received written permission from Ohkay Owingeh to proceed. Just as they were about to use the “Bear Cat” to break down the front door, Department of Interior agents arrived and said State Police did not have permission. They packed up and left. No report, no information.
A woman on Feb. 1 in a Honda was evading Pojoaque Pueblo Tribal Police. A pursuit that began in Pojoaque wound through La Mesilla, Upper and Lower San Pedro and ended with a State Police vehicle ramming the suspect’s car into the sidewalk in front of Lota Burger on Paseo de Oñate.
We counted 15 vehicles with accompanying law enforcement drivers from Pojoaque, Bureau of Indian Affairs, State Police, city police and Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office. A woman was taken into custody. That’s a tribal case. We’ll never know why the woman was so dangerous, a 10-mile chase involving at least four law enforcement agencies endangering Española citizens was necessary.
It goes back to communication. If it’s not flowing both ways, it’s not communication. Pueblos, nations need help with their missing and murdered women. We all need more communication from the pueblos in regard to all things, but especially law enforcement, crimes, incident reports and deaths. That’s not going to change.
Those of us outside pueblos and nations can’t help with a problem when the pueblos and nations don’t want to share information about those problems. We can all help but only if we’re all going to speak with each other candidly.