Native Americans call for renewed effort to solve missing and murdered indigenous people cases

Native Americans call for renewed effort to solve missing and murdered indigenous people cases

Advocates pushing lawmakers to take up a statewide alert system

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. (KOLO) - Tribal members and allies from across northern Nevada gathered in downtown Reno on Indigenous People’s Day using drums, songs and prayers to bring attention to missing and murdered Indigenous people.

According to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People page on the Nevada state government’s website, 10 people are listed, including Anna Marie Scott, who was found in a burning car near Galena Bridge in 2022.

Advocates at a gathering at University of Nevada, Lake Tahoe said the list is not a complete count and that there is not a fully centralized database, which is a change they want to see happen.

Abigail Echo-Hawk, the director of the Urban Indian Health Institute said Indigenous people go missing and are murdered at higher rates than any racial or ethnic group in the country, and that Nevada is no different.

“Nobody knows who’s supposed to take the case,” Echo-Hawk said. “And as a result of this maze of injustice, we know that many of these cases are never investigated because nobody decides it was their job to do it. So you know who does it? Our own communities.”

Echo-Hawk said sharing stories of how people have been impacted by injustice helps bring communities together and fight for policy changes.

Lydell Wyatt, a representative for the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California has lost more than one family member.

“It makes me feel angry and mad, but at the same time determined,” Wyatt said. “I’m not the only one out here, there’s families across the nation looking for answers, and we deserve those answers.”

Wyatt and Echo-Hawk said one reason for gathering Monday was to highlight the success of an MMIP alert system implemented in Washington state.

“We have more than a 90% recovery rate of folks put into this alert system, and then we’ve actually found them,” Echo-Hawk said. “What if we did that here in the state of Nevada?”

Echo-Hawk said the effort needs broad support.

“We need everyone advocating for this,” Echo-Hawk said. “It needs to be done in relationship to the tribe, and we need allies to stand with us.”

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