(gentle music) - [Voice Over] Funding for "Utah Insight" is made possible by viewers like you, thank you.

- [Narrator] Tonight on "Utah Insight," "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women."

- I keep praying and hoping and wishing for something good.

- [Narrator] Hundreds of families, still trying to find answers.

- And I want to know what happened, 'cause it still hurts, and I can still see the blood.

- [Narrator] The disparities in these cases and what Utah is doing to find solutions.

(gentle upbeat music) - Welcome to "Utah Insight," I'm RaeAnne Christensen.

Tonight we look into the devastating, widespread epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women or MMIW.

According to the US Department of Justice, native women face homicide rates more than 10 times the national average.

According to a 2018 report from the Urban Indian Health Institute or UIHI both Salt Lake City and Utah are in the top 10 US cities and states for the highest number of MMIW cases.

You're looking at video taken of a new mural in Carry the Water, an indigenous healing garden in Salt Lake City.

This mural debuted on May 5th, the date designated earlier this year as the National Day of Awareness and Mourning for missing and murdered indigenous relatives.

Joining us in the studio tonight, we have Michelle Brown, Committee Chair for MMIW+ Utah, Angela Romero, member of the Utah House of Representatives for District 26 in Salt Lake County and Danae Shanidiin, Director of MMIWhoismissing.

I just wanna thank you all for being here for this very important topic.

And first I think we need to understand how investigations are handled on tribal land.

We have tribal law enforcement, FBI, US marshals, the US attorney enforcing the law in reservations.

Michelle, that seems like it could be a lot.

Do we know who is responsible for what?

- I think there's still a lot of confusion as to who handles what, depending on the intricacies of any given case.

But I would say like even a month ago, I spoke to an individual who had a relative who was murdered years ago.

And she explained to me the confusion that ensued between a couple of agencies of like, not knowing whether they should step in or not and therefore losing a lot of precious time in moving forward in the case and how devastated the family was at the time of like, not really knowing like, who's in charge?

Who do we turn to?

Who do we get information from?

And therefore like time running out.

And so I think there's still a lot of confusion.

I think we face many outdated laws that have not be been rewritten for 2022 that would be helping indigenous people and relatives who are affected by this kind of violence.

- It's possible, we have federal, state, local, tribal law enforcement agencies potentially responding to crimes.

Michelle just explained what should possibly be happening, but in your experience, what's going on?

- Well, there is like a big disconnect with that kind of communication between law enforcement, FBI, tribal governments.

Tribal governments have very limited power when it comes to prosecuting non-Indian offenders.

There's been a history of jurisdiction taken away from and power taken away from tribes.

Our sovereignty has been violated in a lot of different ways through several acts historically, which kind of lead to the system that we have in place right now, which doesn't work and which leads to these high numbers of missing and murdered indigenous relatives.

- And since of colonial period, two of the most well known native women in history were victims of trafficking, Sacagawea, Pocahontas.

Representative Romero, do you think there's always been an epidemic of MMIW and this problem is just now coming into focus or has the uptick been happening now?

- I think it's been happening since the foundation of our country.

We tend to forget the mass genocide that happened to our indigenous communities and how women were used and other indigenous community members were used as commodity.

And so for us as elected officials, we have to acknowledge the way our country, the foundation of our country and why we're in the situation we are now.

- Okay, and you touched on this a little bit Danae.

In 1978, the US Supreme court ruled, tribal governments don't have the authority to arrest prosecute or punish non-natives committing crimes within their reservations.

In 2012, The Stand Against Violence and Empower Native Women Act passed, but tribal enforcement is still very limited.

Danae, how do you think that's impacting the MMIW epidemic?

- I think there's becoming a conversation on how we can battle this, but really when we think about this missing and murdered crisis, because tribes have very limited power, we're sovereign yet we're dependent on the US government.

I think what ends up happening is families will usually prosecute at the federal level because tribal courts will have limited power to prosecute an offender, and that is always retraumatizing for the families, knowing that your perpetrator can have only a maximum of a year in jail and then released that creates a influx of unsafety in the victim's healing, and it allows perpetrators to continue doing that because they're allowed to get away with these crimes with little consequence.

- Seems like that's quite a gap for people to take advantage of vulnerable communities.

Danae, what do you think needs to change so tribal leaders feel empowered to protect their own?

Oh, I'm sorry, Michelle.

- Michelle, oh.

- There we go.

- Sorry, could you repeat the question, - What do you think needs to change, so tribal leaders feel empowered to protect their own?

- I think the laws, I alluded to that earlier, I think laws need to change to empower those tribal community members, to feel like it's their place to enforce that change and make that change in their communities.

And I think that's something we've yet to see.

We already know that the current system is not working.

Tribes are not empowered to do that right now.

In many ways, I think that although there is sovereignty, I think that there's a limit to that.

And I think we need to expand what that sovereignty is in action.

And so I'd be really excited to see that type of change, start to be implemented and take place.

- I wanna get to more information from the Urban Indian Health Institute, 5,712 cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, were reported in 2016, only 116 of them were logged into the Department of Justice' or missing persons database.

This shows the difficulty in getting accurate information.

Can you talk Representative Romero about where that communication might be breaking down?

- Yeah, that again, that's a complicated question and that's one of the reasons, one of the many reasons we formed the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girl and a Two-spirit Task Force, because we wanted to address these issues.

When we were first doing the resolution before we did the task force, we got pushback from Salt Lake City Police Department stating that what the Institute had reported wasn't accurate.

So that is why this last session I asked for funding for a research study, and so we were awarded that.

So that was a bipartisan effort.

That was my colleagues supporting my efforts on what I'm trying to do here And so we're going to do a research study here and that study is going to focus on this particular issue and how we misclassify people.

And it's complicated, because again, we're talking about tribal communities and sovereignty, but then we're talking about many of our indigenous community members live in an urban setting, and so that complicates it even more.

And so that's why it's so important for us to do our due diligence, to provide that justice and that voice.

- Representative Romero mentioned that there was a breakdown in the Salt Lake City Police Department.

They said that these numbers weren't accurate.

Michelle, do you have any thoughts as to why that might have happened?

Why there's that breakdown in communication?

- I think that there's no current database, there's no protocols that really outline this for tribal members.

And I think that makes it complicated in many ways, as Angela had mentioned earlier, like the numbers are not accurate right now.

And I think that because there is no protocol, it complicates things.

So it's like, who is anyone to say that those numbers are not or are accurate?

So we're really trying to get down to the bottom of that.

- Danae, it seems like in this day and age, we would be so much more advanced with technology that we wouldn't have these kind of communication breakdowns.

Do you think there's a fix for this?

- There's absolutely a fix for this.

And there's a reason why it hasn't been fixed to begin with, this violence is sustained for a reason.

And that's because colonization gave us a system where white supremacy disallows brown, black indigenous bodies to not be worthy to one, show up in data collections, healthcare, the media, all those kinds of things.

And I think the best way to fix that is to restore sovereignty to the indigenous communities.

The media needs to be held accountable along with law enforcement.

Like Representative Romero was saying, we often see our victims being misclassified in this system because of these data discrepancies.

And though coroners, law enforcement, they don't document the tribal affiliation.

So tribes come into these urban settings and say, "How many people have we lost?"

And there's no data collection to indicate that.

But what we do have as indigenous people is our stories, our lived experiences, our family members, our relatives.

This violence is everywhere, it happens all the time and we don't need data to know that that's a reality, but in the colonial world, we do need data to actually be recognized in policy.

- This issue rips through families causing immeasurable grief, as many spend a good chunk of their lives searching for answers.

Utah Insight's Liz Adeola met one local woman who was only four years old, when her aunt's body was found near her home.

She watched helplessly as the strongest people in her family broke down after years of pushing for closure that never came.

- [Narrator] Clearing dust.

- This was my mom's photo album.

- [Narrator] To make space to remember.

- Yeah, I'm half Navajo and have Goshute.

- Mary J. Allen invited me to sit by her side, as she turned back the pages of life.

- And there she is right there with her mom.

- [Interviewer] And it's the the two of them together, right here, too.

- Yes.

- [Narrator] With every turn of the page.

- [Mary] Let's see.

- [Narrator] - A story unfolds about those who've gone before her.

- I tell my mom, you must love yourself.

(Liz chuckles) And she goes, why?

I said, you got a lot of pictures of yourself in here.

- [Interviewer] Oh, I love it, that's awesome.

- [Mary] And there she is right there.

- [Narrator] In black and white images that capture some of the most vibrant personalities from Mary's family.

- (chuckles) You'll see, she sticks her tongues out.

- [Narrator] Each page.

- I love this picture of her.

- [Narrator] Filled with precious moments.

- And then they're right here too.

I can't remember which one's her and my mom.

(indistinct) she had sisters.

And that's my mom here and there's Myrtle right there.

- [Narrator] Memories of her aunt Myrtle Bear Pete are fuzzier than the rest with bits and pieces of the characteristics that made up the woman behind this smile filled in by Mary's mother.

- Where's that goofy stuff?

So I set out some time, she'll tell me stories about her.

I just laugh, say, "You guys are crazy, mom."

I wonder too, how she would be, like would she be laughing with us, joking with us, helping us out, just like my mom.

Yeah, that's why I (indistinct).

They were happy, they celebrated a lot of things.

It's like, she always lived with us, so I didn't know if she did or not.

So for me it was just, then all of a sudden she was gone.

- [Narrator] Myrtle's body was found on the side of Skull Valley Road in 1967.

- But for me, it was so hard, especially when you're little and you see all that blood, and I'll never forget it for the rest of my life.

It'll always be with me.

And I just can hear my mom crying and yelling and saying, God and my grandpa.

The frustration for them is like, why didn't the cops do anything about it?

Why didn't they do something?

Why didn't they find the killer?

Why didn't they do this for her?

- [Narrator] Unanswered questions that have lingered for more than five decades.

- You just keep praying for the truth.

And maybe their family knows, maybe they'll come up and say something.

- [Narrator] Until that happens.

Mary vows to continue visiting Skull Valley Cemetery, using water to perform a blessing over her loved ones buried here.

While also leaving a smudge for her Aunt Myrtle.

- Maybe she isn't in peace yet, so I try to smudge her, so she can at least rest in peace.

- Many probably haven't heard about the murder of Myrtle Bear Pete and this is a case that's five decades old.

And I'm sure many of us have heard of Gabby Petito, Susan Powell.

There seems to be a lack of media coverage.

Representative Romero, why do you think there is such a lack of media interest?

- Cause I think we value people differently and it's really hard to say that, but we look at, when we talk about BIPOC people, when we talk about indigenous people, even in the media, there's all these stereotypes.

And so I'm hoping we're becoming more aware of who everyone is, and how we're all connected.

But listening to that story right there, it just showed that that family wasn't valued.

And so that's why we formed the task force, 'cause we want people to know they're valued and their stories are important.

And I don't know, we'll be able to solve everything, but we're going to listen to the families and let them know that we care.

- Okay, Michelle, you had mentioned that that Gabby Petito case, while it did get a lot of coverage and national coverage, it did help with the MMIW epidemic, why is that?

- I think it dawned on a lot of people knowing what's going on with Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women in this country, that it dawned on them, that they saw so much coverage.

The media was relentless in covering this case until there were breakthroughs, until they had found the perpetrator.

The community assembled in ways that I think people had not seen for indigenous women and were able to make the comparison.

And so I think that it's really valid to say that the media needs to value people more and how do we get change there?

We have to acknowledge that.

In a lot of ways, media operates like a corporation, like a business for views and for money, all of those types of things.

But we have to come down and realize that everyone has an intrinsic value and especially our indigenous communities.

We just watched a clip about a cold case that has not had justice served.

And a lot of families can say the same that they have not seen justice served And so I think that, change starts from within, I think people in media who have power need to look at their executive suites and see what kind of diversity lies therein and what types of stories can be covered.

I think we know that there's huge disparities for coverage on indigenous women.

And I think it's about time that we see the data for what it is, the numbers, the stories, the families who speak out and actually start to implement change on covering those stories with just as much relentless power as they did with these stories of white women who go missing or who are found murdered.

- Denae, she had mentioned earlier in the story that the law enforcement didn't help, the federal government didn't help.

Nobody helped in this situation with her murdered aunt.

Do you think that we are changing that, or is there still more change to come?

- Oh my gosh, there's so much to be done.

This crisis is ongoing.

It inflated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the work that we do working with indigenous communities, we know that relatives go missing daily.

I hear about this violence so often, which is why it's hard talk, sitting up here talking about these things because they're lived experiences.

They are people that I love.

They're my direct relatives.

You know, the Gabby Petito case, the world saw Gabby Petito, a white woman as a worthy victim, right, and which explained all the media attention that was focused on her.

And as indigenous people, we know what it's like to lose somebody and have them go missing.

It's one of the worst pains that you can ever experience, but not knowing what happened to that person not have received justice.

We need to start thinking about these families as victims themselves, and survivors themselves, and start honoring them by really addressing this violence, and it's gonna take a multi-layered solution approach to all of this.

- And then are oppressive ideologies and policies leading to violence against native women?

The National Institute of Justice says about 84% of native women have experienced violence in their lifetime.

56% have been victims of sexual violence.

55% have experienced physical violence by an intimate partner.

49% have experienced stalking, and 66% have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner.

Now, adding on to all of that, the risk of rape and sexual assault is about two and a half times higher for native women than the rest of the country.

Representative Romero, do you feel like people are not being held accountable and that's why these numbers are just so high?

- Yes, and I mean, indigenous women experience this more and our Two-spirited community, but this is an epidemic for all women just because of the way our systems are in place.

And so I am always talking about sexual assault and domestic violence and pushing for funding.

And we're finally making a little bit of progress, but we're still not there.

And so again, it's about who do we value, who's important?

And we as policy makers need to reevaluate that, because we need to be focusing on the preventative end and how we value people versus trying to solve it after something horrific has happened.

- And part of the healing process from a traumatic circumstance like this, is justice.

So it seems that native women, they can't get justice, and especially when it comes to a non-native person who commits the crime.

Michelle, how do we go about changing this?

- I think it starts on an individual basis, for sure, and then moves up the chain to like different agencies.

I, myself having faced violence in my lifetime as an indigenous woman, I can tell you a story of where I was attempted to be kidnapped by a non-native man in my university class, back home.

And when I had reported to my professor that this had occurred, his attempted kidnapping of me, she did not report it, nothing happened.

And I was too young and too embarrassed to say anything about it.

But I think it starts on that individual basis where others are not holding people accountable for the types of crimes that they commit, and so that's really hard.

I think that's the first step, is people recognizing, how they can make change in victims' lives and therefore hold others accountable and then get people the help that they need.

- Okay, and I wanna get into final thoughts, Washington State Governor, Jay Inslee, this year, signed into law a bill that creates a first in the nation statewide alert system for missing indigenous people, similar to the amber alerts.

And it's the way of this State of Washington to address the crisis of MMIW now that's a possible solution.

We're trying to find solutions for this problem.

As we go into these final thoughts, I wanna give you guys enough time to address what you feel may be the solutions and what people, residents, can do to help.

Danae, do you wanna go first?

- Sure, first, I think we all need to be educated on where this violence stems from.

This violence goes way back to 1492.

Here in Utah, it came with Brigham Young.

I always talk about Chief Mary Murdoch Meyer the Tempanogas Nation.

She talks about how her tribe had a population of 70,000 people, 200 years ago and now today it's 900.

So the blood of her ancestors covers the Wasatch.

And if we don't understand that as a precursor to what we're experiencing today, we're just not gonna get it.

And we need to hold FBI accountable.

The FBI has never served indigenous communities in the way that they should.

We need to hold law enforcement accountable, tribal police for their inaction.

There's so many different ways that we can support indigenous communities in addressing this violence, and it has to start from a victim-centered approach.

We have to support the families.

There needs to be some kind of crime reparations for the families because they often end up being their own investigators, their own security and they're left doing all this by themselves.

- [RaeAnn] Okay, Representative Romero.

- I think she covered a lot of that, but just really addressing the historical trauma and how that plays a role in who we are today and having these honest conversations.

In our schools right now, we're seeing pushback here in the state of Utah and across the country about how we can talk about communities of color, how we can talk about indigenous populations.

And so I don't see us going forward, I see us going backwards there.

So until we really look at historical trauma and look at how we've treated and how we've othered people who are not of the majority, we're never gonna have these honest conversations.

- Michelle, what would you like to add?

- I would add that once you become educated about these subjects in regards to indigenous individuals, I think that we have to start sharing respect for people of indigenous heritage.

I think that there's a been a lot of dehumanization.

We've seen mascots all over the nation, dehumanizing indigenous peoples for too long and it's time for that to change, for sure.

I think the Names Act that's happening across the nation brought up by Deb Holland is important too.

There are so many like racist or condescending names out there for indigenous people that unfortunately continue to perpetuate violence against individuals.

And so I think it's time for once you're educated start to recognize that you need to respect and hold perpetrators accountable for acts of violence that are held against indigenous women and individuals.

- Okay, thank you so much for being here.

This was a tough topic, and I think we could have spent all day talking about it.

We have more resources online for anyone who may need guidance on this subject.

You can go to "Utah Insight" page on pbsutah.org.

There's a lot of resources along with this episode.

Coming up next week on "Utah Insights."

Advocates say Utah's eviction laws are the toughest in the US and often favor landlords.

Renters can be evicted in a matter of days, leaving many vulnerable to homelessness.

We look into available assistance and potential law changes.

And we wanna hear from you, you can share your thoughts, (indistinct) screen, social media, email or call in.

Thank you so much for watching "Utah Insight" and we'll see you back here next week.

(gentle music)