Years of MMIP Initiatives Have Failed to Keep Native Americans From Dying and Disappearing, Myron Lizer, Abigail Echo-Hawk, Tell Congress

Former Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer was among those who testified before lawmakers in Washington, D.C., today during a committee hearing on the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) crisis.

“After years of task forces, appropriations, executive actions, federal initiatives, and promises of help and better coordination, why do Indigenous people still disappear or die without cases being promptly resolved?” Lizer said.

The hearing was convened today by the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance. Lizer’s testimony was joined by testimony from Abigail Echo-Hawk, executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board and director of the Urban Indian Health Institute; Trent Shores, former U.S. attorney and former deputy director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Tribal Justice and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation; and Austin Knudsen, Montana attorney general.

Witnesses and lawmakers focused on cases continuing to fall through gaps between tribal, federal, state and local law enforcement despite the myriad programs and offices erected across Indian Country to bridge jurisdictions and address the crisis.

“One answer is clear: we have built many programs, perhaps too many, but we have not yet built one continuously accountable system,” Lizer, who served as vice president of the Navajo Nation from 2019 to 2023, said.

Native people are murdered at a rate 10 times the national average. Homicide is one of the leading causes of death for Native women ages 10-34. Advocates and lawmakers have identified multiple drivers of the MMIP crisis: underfunded tribal law enforcement; jurisdictional confusion among tribal, local and state police and the Bureau of Indian Affairs; exclusion of Indigenous people in data; and inadequate media coverage.

The FBI receives more than 5,000 reports of missing or murdered Native people each year, but advocates say the actual number of those missing or murdered is likely higher.

Lizer referred to Ella Mae Begay, a Diné elder and grandmother of nine who went missing in 2021 from Sweetwater, Ariz. Preston Tolth, 26, confessed to carjacking Begay, beating her and leaving her on the road.

In May of this year, Tolth was sentenced to five years in prison with credit for time served. He was released from prison in June. Begay, who was 62 when she disappeared, has never been found.

The jurisdictional overlap of Indian Country, and some programs meant to create cohesiveness, means cases change hands, sometimes more than half a dozen times. The result, Lizer said, is opportunities for crucial information to fall through the gaps.

“A serious case on the Navajo Nation may pass through Navajo law enforcement, the FBI, a United States attorney’s office, tribal prosecutors, victim advocates, state and local law enforcement, and multiple information systems,” Lizer said. “Each may have authority and good people doing difficult work. But every time responsibility changes hands, there is an opportunity for evidence, information, time, or accountability to be lost. And our people.”

Witnesses called for tribes to have expanded criminal jurisdiction over crimes committed on reservation lands, regardless of the offender’s ethnicity or race. Inadequate staffing in tribal law enforcement was also at issue, with many departments unable to offer competitive pay and benefits.

Knudsen pointed to cross-deputization as a potential solution.

“Recently, one of my division of criminal investigation agents was cross-deputized federally, and will have the authority to lend more immediate support to help solve murders and find missing persons on reservations across the state, on a case-by-case basis,” Knudsen said.

Echo-Hawk, who gave powerful testimony at another committee hearing earlier this year, spoke about deep federal cuts to mental health and victim services inhibiting Indian Country’s ability to heal from the reverberating effects of the crisis.

She recounted seeking help after being brutally raped as a child.

“What they said was, ‘We don’t have the resources. You’re an Indian girl on Indian land,’” she told lawmakers. “And I suffered in silence with no resources available.”

Lizer emphasized that efforts to address the crisis cannot be measured by inputs.

“Congress should not measure success by how many task forces are created or how much money is appropriated,” he said. “The questions that matter to families are much simpler: Was my relative found? Was the case investigated? Is it being prosecuted? If prosecution is declined, why?”

The former Navajo Nation vice president urged lawmakers to take action in five areas: establish a formal federal-to-tribal handoff when federal cases are declined or delayed; establish measurable standards for evidence transfers, case tracking, database entry and interagency communication; invest in the ecosystem of tribal law enforcement, criminal justice and victims’ services; expand tribal access to special tribal criminal jurisdiction and BIA special law enforcement commissions; and create meaningful accountability for both federal and tribal agencies receiving public safety funding.

“Families should not have to understand federal Indian law before they can understand what happened to their loved one’s case,” he said. “They should not have to determine whether the FBI, tribal police, a prosecutor, or another agency is still responsible. The Navajo Nation does not need another promise that the system will coordinate. Our people need a system in which coordination, collaboration, lawful handoff, and accountability are operating requirements.”