From USA Today:
“Donald
Trump signs Savanna's Act, 'a critical first step' to address missing and
murdered Native Americans”
President
Donald Trump signed a bill Saturday aimed at addressing missing and murdered
Native Americans. Savanna's Act will establish national law enforcement
guidelines between the federal government and American Indian tribes to help
track, solve and prevent crimes against Native Americans. The law is named
after Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a pregnant 22-year-old Spirit Lake tribal
member from North Dakota who was killed in 2017. The bipartisan bill passed the
House last month after unanimously passing the U.S. Senate in March. Alaska
Sen. Lisa Murkowski reintroduced the bill after former North Dakota Sen. Heidi
Heitkamp proposed it in 2017. "For far too long, the crisis of missing and
murdered Native American women went unknown outside Indian Country,"
Heitkamp told USA TODAY in a statement on Sunday. "When I first introduced
Savanna's Act in 2017, I wrote this bill to take a critical first step to help
address this crisis and help raise awareness about it by bringing these women
out of the shadows and making them not invisible." She added,
"Finally, this bill was signed into law. And it happened just before
Indigenous Peoples' Day — a reminder that the U.S. government has so much more
to do to repair the broken promises to Native communities. Trump tweeted Saturday: "I was proud to
sign Savanna’s Act & the Not Invisible Act. We have also provided $295
Million to support public safety & crime victims. Forgotten NO MORE!"
The bill
requires federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement agencies to update
and create protocols to address missing or murdered Native Americans. The U.S.
Department of Justice must provide training to law enforcement agencies on data
entry, educate the public on the database, help tribes and Indigenous
communities enter information in the database, develop guidelines for response
to missing or murdered Indigenous people, provide technical assistance to
tribes and law enforcement agencies and report data on missing or murdered
Native Americans. Murder is the third-leading cause of death for American
Indian/Alaska Native women, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute. In
2016, there were 5,712 cases reported of missing and murdered Indigenous women
and girls, the UIHI's reports. But only 116 cases were logged in the DOJ
database. In 2018, Brooke Crews of North Dakota was sentenced to life in prison
for killing Greywind and cutting her baby from her womb. The baby survived.
^ This is
desperately needed to bring together all the different levels of Government (Federal,
State, Tribal and Local) to help American Indians. ^
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