U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell speaks at a news conference before a closed-door roundtable meeting with members of the Tribal Community in Seattle
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell announced Friday she’s reaching out to President Biden for help with investigating crimes involving Missing and Murdered Indigenous people.
“Seattle has the highest number of missing and murdered Indigenous woman in the United States” Cantwell told reporters at the Seattle Indian Health Board “And Tacoma is the 7th highest city.”
But state, federal, and tribal boundaries complicate any true accounting “What is more horrifying (is) a recent analysis of data found significant under reporting and misclassification of these crimes” Senator Cantwell says “This means the problem could be much worse.”
The Washington State Patrol says there are 142 open cases involving missing Native Americans and almost half of them include children.
But the Bureau of Indian Affairs has just two investigators.
“We cannot lose generations of our people any longer, we have to come together and continue to rise” an emotional Esther Lucero spoke from the heart “Recognize that we have our people who are missing and dying everyday” she’s President & CEO of the Seattle Indian Health Board “This cannot be just a moment in time; it has to be continued movement until we’re not crying those tears any longer.”
Senator Cantwell secured this support of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland earlier this week and then revealed “Today I’m sending a letter to the President of the United States, President Biden, asking for more federal resources here in the state of Washington.”
This is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People.
