"Daunting and difficult" is how the Department of Public Safety in Nevada describes the task of compiling statistical data for missing and murdered indigenous people in this state.

Compiling that data was one of several requirements of Assembly Bill 125, which passed unanimously last legislative session, following testimony like this: (Teresa Melendez) As young people, as women in our communities, you grow up knowing that the chances of crimes against you are so much higher than other folks, and you also know that oftentimes crimes are committed in your community and nobody's ever prosecuted.

And so I'm really grateful to Assemblywoman Shea Backus for taking it, taking leadership and helping to close a loophole in this one issue on missing and murdered indigenous people, because data is important.

(Eztli Amaya) Indigenous women and girls are murdered at a rate 10 times higher than all other ethnicities.

Murder is also recognized as a third leading cause of death for indigenous women.

We know that the outcome of a missing indigenous person's case is often made worse by delayed response from law enforcement over questions of jurisdiction.

PLAN and Fifth Sun projects support this bill because of the goal to streamline agency process and outline proper communication practices in instances of missing native community members.

(Dejalyne Davis) In closing, this issue of missing and murdered indigenous women, it affects me directly as I am giving testimony in honor of my mother, Amanda Davis, who was murdered in December 2020.

Again, we are here in support of AB 125, and we hope that you guys will support it, too.

-AB 125 went into effect in July 2023 and also requires DPS to accept a report of an indigenous person missing from an Indian reservation or colony in Nevada and enter that information into a national database.

The bill's sponsor, Assemblywoman Shea Backus, a tribal member of Cherokee Nation, joined Nevada Week along with Deanna BlackCrow, an MMIP Activist and a tribal member of the Oglala Lakota Nation, to discuss the bill's potential impact.

Assemblywoman, I'd like to start with you for a few questions.

When you had the first hearing on this bill, you talked about a seminar that you attended in 2019 that really opened your eyes.

What happened there?

(Assemblywoman Shea Backus) Yeah, I was participating in our Council of State Government, CSG West, and the president at the time decided to hold a seminar presentation on missing and murdered indigenous persons-- well, missing and murdered indigenous women and children at the time.

And I sat through the seminar, and we were looking at a map of the United States with the number of missing and murdered Indian women and children, and Nevada just kind of had a gray space.

And I was kind of curious what that meant.

And so I asked them, and they said, simply, We have absolutely no data from the state of Nevada.

Immediately after that seminar, I knew that I wanted to start moving forward with some sort of state legislation to at least take a look at this crisis that's happening in Indian country.

-There is a data element to this bill.

It involves the National Crime Information Center.

That's a computerized index of missing persons.

Assemblywoman, what does that have to do with this?

-So what ended up happening, it's very complex when you're dealing with Indian country.

In Nevada, we have 28 tribal communities, bands, colonies, where indigenous folks reside.

And so what ends up happening is the state or local law enforcement can't really take reports.

Our tribes are sovereign nations, and so this was probably the next best thing to capture in a state element of policy to capture individuals who have gone missing from Indian country or Indian lands.

-So this bill requires what to happen?

-So basically what would happen would be, if you are living within a tribal community, whether you have tribal police or not and you're subject to maybe BIA, if you have a relative-- -BIA being?

-Excuse me, Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Sorry about that.

-One more thing.

Not all 28 tribes in Nevada have tribal police.

-That is correct, right.

They do lean heavy-- I mean, I remember visiting one of our bands where they just no longer could afford tribal police, and but they still had the tribal police car set up to make it look like there was police oversight, and they rely on the BIA.

And when you're relying on BIA officers, there's very few of those amongst the state of Nevada.

Imagine driving from Elko up to the border of Idaho to go investigate a crime.

That's just not going to happen at a minute call.

It's going to take some time.

And so what the purpose of the bill was, is, if someone did go missing, an individual relative or someone close to the individual could go to state police and make the report so that it does get into the National Crime Information database.

Some tribes actually are able to get NCIC.

That was a plus with this bill that I learned that the federal government does support financing the tribes to have this database, but you have to have tribal police to be able to do that.

-So this wasn't happening before?

Someone who is part of a tribal community, someone they know goes missing, they call law enforcement, and what was happening prior to this?

-So what's interesting is that they wouldn't just call local law enforcement because law enforcement cannot just come onto the reservation and do a investigation.

Originally, and I learned this through doing the bill, because I did it a lot broader, children, already.

If an Indian child goes missing from one of our Indian lands, that child can be reported missing to any law enforcement, whether that's local, state, federal.

That report can be taken.

-Law enforcement has to take that?

-They have to take that report.

When we're dealing with someone who may be 18 years of age, it seems intuitive that, oh, you can report a missing adult gone missing.

But when you're living within a Indian reservation boundary or Indian land, what ends up happening is, if you don't have tribal police, you have to rely on BIA or I had an unfortunate situation when I was asking one of our tribal police officers about individuals who have gone missing.

One indicated, Oh, that was just a runaway; this individual is just a runaway.

And I kind of wondered to myself whether that individual was a runaway to her family.

And if she wasn't, this gave another avenue to make a report.

-Also, part of this bill has led to a state website.

And when you say "state police," we're talking about the Department of Public Safety.

So state police have created this website, and on it, it says that the Nevada State Police Investigation Division was tasked with compiling statistical data for missing and murdered indigenous peoples in the state of Nevada.

This has been a daunting and difficult task to collect accurate data and is still ongoing.

When I spoke with DPS, they said this is an issue of trust, lack of trust of law enforcement.

Deanna, I want to bring you in here, because you know this issue firsthand.

Do you mind sharing your story?

-Yes.

So the reason why I started my nonprofit is because I wanted to bring domestic violence awareness and MMIW awareness to the community.

I lost my mother at 38 years old, and it was to domestic violence.

And her as an indigenous woman, it was very important for me to be able to make people aware of her story.

And there is a lot of distrust, because my mother was married to a police officer.

He was a probation officer in California.

There were multiple times that they've come out there to their home and took away his gun or took the reports, but nothing was actually happening, and he was given his gun back three times.

So yes, I do feel that there is a little bit of distrust when it comes to law enforcement for me, because I deal with it firsthand, because I lost my mother to it, and she was seven months pregnant at the time when she lost her life.

So for me, yeah, that is hard when it comes to law enforcement and having trust in that they're going to do, take the proper steps, and that we're trusting you with our loved ones, because it's not just, Oh, she ran away, to the family.

It's someone that they love, they care about, and they want found.

-It's important to note that your mother's murder did not happen in Nevada.

It was in California, and it did not happen on tribal land.

It was within, I believe, the jurisdiction of-- -San Bernardino.

-San Bernardino, okay.

However, what do you think about this assembly bill?

And also, it's important to note this would not have helped your mother, because she wouldn't have been put into this database.

-Right.

-What do you think of it from an advocate perspective?

-I think this data is important for us to have, and I think the search is going to be good if it actually gets implemented.

And we're almost two years in, and nothing is going.

So I think that it's going to be a great resource, and I think that it'll be something good for us to have, because it's important.

And I just want to know what are those steps that are being taken to get that there in those communities that don't have the resources, that don't have certain things there.

But I think it would be something good once it's going.

-You mentioned, Deanna, two years, it's been two years.

You're talking about this legislation going into effect and, specifically, the other aspect of this bill in which a tribal liaison has to be hired, one tribal liaison by the Department of Public Safety.

And their role will be to communicate with all of Nevada's 28 tribes and work towards addressing this issue.

I asked DPS about this specific position recently, and let's take a listen to that set of sound bites right now.

To those who say, you know, this bill went into effect July 2023, and here we are, more than a year later and there's still no tribal liaison, what would you say?

(Desiree Mattice) It's finding the right person.

We have done interviews, we've put announcements out more than once and have conducted interviews, and just ensuring that when we see that there's a person who has shown and demonstrated and expressed not just interest, but also historical knowledge and having some type of understanding that I will learn from, that the whole Department of Public Safety will learn from, and that we see could build bonds and has already existing bonds, that's going to be very significant for the Department of Public Safety.

(Kari Gonzalez) And it's better to take the time to find the right person, because you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

And since the state now has this money for this position, it is really crucial for them to have located the right person with those bonds and with the ability to make those bonds.

(Andrea Clustka) In addition to what Kari and Desiree have just mentioned, a lot of the work that we're doing right now is repairing some of the mistakes that have been made in the past.

And that is the biggest component of our work is, we mentioned showing up, listening, being trustworthy, and maintaining the promises and the commitments that we make to this group.

There has been years of mistrust and damage, and so if the wrong person assumes this position and destroys this opportunity, it's going to take years to continue to move forward what we're trying to do now.

-So DPS is also working with two members.

They are from the MMIP task force that is under the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada.

What did you think of that response to why it's taken more than two years now-- excuse me, it's not more than two years.

-It's going on.

-Yes, there we go.

-So I just think that-- I wonder why and what are we looking for?

And it's been about almost two years.

So in the midst of that, time is going by, and I wonder, how do you build community?

How are you trying to pick the right person to be in community?

If you're building a relationship where you say you want to get the right person there, what's the right person and how are you going about it?

And then when they're there, what are they doing for, you know, the communities that they are, you know, trusting this person to go into?

-Assemblywoman, do you want to respond to that?

-I was just kind of thinking about this.

I was thinking of the effective date of my bill.

I get a little nerdy when it comes to this stuff.

But the bill effective date may have been-- normally, if there's not an effective date in the bill, it would be effective October 1, and that would have been of 2023.

I do know, and I think Department of Public Safety, we, last legislative session in 2023, tried to give them as many tools as we could, because there was a struggle across board just with hiring state police officers on top of now creating the tribal liaison.

We were very fortunate.

We did have an officer who stepped up, who started creating the state database and trying to be a resource in reaching out to our tribal communities.

But I do agree with the ladies, it's very important when you're dealing with Indian country is having someone who is a trusted individual.

I saw this firsthand with-- we had an allocation from the state to our tribal, to our Department of Indian Affairs that then got redistributed to our tribal communities.

And there was a lot of distrust there.

And last legislative session, we also were able to provide funding to put a grant assistant writer into that position, and she happened to be a former chair of one of our tribal-- one of our tribes.

And so there was more trust there in that working relationship.

And I think for this person, whoever is going to fill that seat, needs to be there, who's going to be consistent, who's not just going to ruin that relationship.

They're going to have to build a relationship with 28 different tribal councils, different governances, in addition to folks that work in the community as well.

-I think it remains to be seen, right?

And DPS did tell me they are very close to hiring someone.

Your work with Her 38 Roses, what does it include?

-So we actually have self-defense classes that we offer to the community.

They're free classes.

And we work with other organizations.

So there's actually free classes that go on every week.

And we work with doing support groups.

We do monthly support groups where we're able to create a safe space for women dealing with domestic violence or dealing with anything such as you're dealing with loved ones you've lost, and just giving them the safe space to talk about it.

We have teach-ins that we offer, and then we, of course, do, you know, different events around the community to find ways and outlets and resources like we're dealing with.

There's not a lot of resources, not a lot of education.

There's not a-- you're not always fully aware of what you have in your community.

And so it's important for me, with my org, to make sure that my community knows that I exist, that I'm an advocate, that there are resources.

I'm a resource.

There are other resources that I work with that I would like to make available to them.

-And when we talk about your mother and the data, do you believe her death has been recorded accurately as the death of a missing, murdered indigenous woman?

-No, I don't.

I think because of the process and all the news and all the press and everything that we had to go through, there were a lot of times that we had to make corrections and make sure they understood she was an indigenous woman, because it wasn't always said.

So, no, I don't think it was accurate.

-There is still an unresolved case in Nevada.

You had brought that up in your testimony, and you think that had this case been entered into that database, NCIC, maybe it would have been solved earlier?

Would you talk about that case.

-I'm not sure it would have been solved earlier, but it is, and it was really hard.

So two years, I guess a year before the hearing, in 2022, a Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation member had-- her body had been found in her vehicle between Reno and Carson City.

So that creates a different situation, because she is now subject to the jurisdiction of Washoe County, Washoe sheriffs.

They're doing the investigation.

But in this, where this would have been a tool, is, let's say she went missing and her family wanted to report it and get it into the NCIC database.

The sad thing is, is that database, unfortunately, a lot of folks, when they do get matched up, it is because a body is found.

So in this, it would be an easier way to make sure, a faster way to identify who the victim may be.

The other thing is, as a tool, we have a huge amount of human trafficking that goes on in our state, and a lot of our tribal communities are in areas that have truck stops or ways for folks to move around easily or for a person to pick up someone.

And I thought if they end up in Las Vegas or another bigger city and someone just crossed paths and ran their name and they were in this database as someone who had gone missing, that there could be attention brought to it, What's going on here, and hopefully reconnect someone to their loved one.

-The case we were initially talking about, that was Anna Scott.

Her body was discovered in February 2022 in the trunk of a car set on fire between Reno and Carson.

We are going to show her picture, and perhaps there's someone out there who has some information.

Okay, last thing, what more can be done?

Deanna, you and I had talked off camera about a safety plan that can be implemented.

I guess this would be at the family level or at the community level?

Will you explain that?

-Yeah.

I think it's important for us, especially because we are dealing with this and this is happening, especially if you're dealing with children or, you know, people that are, as she said, truck stops, opportunities for people to be taken, missing.

Their family should know exactly what their day-to-day life looks like.

We actually have a way of saying, Okay, this is-- take this, and this is what she does every day.

This is what I know.

She is missing, because this is her day-to-day, and this is where she would normally be, and she's not.

-Legislationwise, what do you plan on pursuing related to this?

-So the wonderful thing, and this started from May, we were all at an MMIW seminar in Elko, where the task force essentially got created.

A lot of the discussions we were having surround temporary protection orders.

So if someone is in a domestic violence situation, unfortunately like Deanna's mom, a tribal court, if there is a tribal court within one of our communities, they would issue a protection order for the victim, and that would usually be like the perpetrator would have to stay away from them so far.

What's interesting is a lot of our tribal communities-- people leave, have to leave the community to go shopping, to go to work, things like that, and they're in a different jurisdiction.

And so we need to make sure there's a smooth transition and that protection orders are being enforced by the state when they're issued by the tribes.

-Assemblywoman Shea Backus and Deanna BlackCrow, founder of Her 38 Roses, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you for having us.