The high rate of missing and murdered Indigenous people is a crisis in Washington, where indigenous women are more than four times more likely to go missing than white women.
My office formed the Missing and Murdered Indigienous Women and People (MMIW/P) task force to confront the urgent crisis of Indigenous people who go missing or are the victims of homicide. This task force includes representatives from state agencies, tribal nations and Indigenous communities to coordinate the state’s response to gender-based violence in urban and tribal communities.
I'm proud to be working with Representative Debra Lekanoff on legislation to create a Missing Indigenous Women and People Alert to address the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
Our bill, HB 1725, just passed the House of Representatives unanimously, 95-0.
This alert will be the first of its kind in the country. If we are successful, this will serve as a model for every other state.
This alert system will be similar to “silver alerts,” created to help locate vulnerable adults. In the event of a missing Indigenous person, the alert system will broadcast information about the missing person on highway signs and radio messages, as well as via press and local media.
This is just one step in the effort to address the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. We will not stop working.
Please add your name here in support of this important, historic bill to safely locate missing Indigenous women.
Thank you,
Bob Ferguson
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