Bluestem has been following the movement to end violence against indigenous women and girls. The creation of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) Task Force by the Minnesota Legislature was a starting place--and the release of its report to the legislature in December 2020 was another step.
Friday morning, Moorhead DFL state representative Heather Keeler's bipartisan bill--HF2124--to establish the first mandate in the report's Call to Action (p. 13)--was heard in the House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Committee. The bill would create an office to coordinate efforts surrounding the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous relatives.
A first term lawmaker, Keeler is a citizen of the Yankton Sioux tribe.
After a short but robust discussion, which centered on data privacy, the bill passed 15-1 on a roll call vote, with first-term legislator Erik Mortensen, R-Shakopee, being the only no vote.
Mortensen's district shares a border with the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Scott County, and a community leader participated in the task force. According to a source in the district, "55A has parts of the reservation but the majority of the members live in 55B." He added, "But there is a lot of SMSC land within 55A. And some members live in it as well."
Through a spokesperson, the SMSC declined to comment.
The tribal community wasn't that only neighbor in Mortensen's district that participated. Scott County Sheriff Luke Hennen represented the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association on the task force.
Last month on Facebook, Hennen encouraged readers to learn more:
I represented the MN Sheriff's Association on the MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) task force last year, consider logging in to learn about this report.
Posted by Sheriff Luke Hennen on Friday, February 19, 2021
We don't know Sheriff Hennen's orthe Minnesota Sheriffs' Association position on the bill itself.
As Mortensen hadn't said anything about the bill in the discussion, we asked him for his reasoning in a direct message. We will post his response here should he reply.
Here's the Minnesota House Information Service YouTube of the hearing; the video will scroll to the beginning of the discussion of HF2124:
Representative Keeler agreed to work on the data privacy issues her colleagues raised, and we'll look forward to amendments that may be considered in the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Reform Finance and Policy committee.
To paraphrase Keeler, the pain of MMIW isn't confined to native communities, but is a problem across the state. We can add that the hurt doesn't stop at the Minnesota border.
Screengrab: Mandate 1 from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Task Force report to the legislature.
If you appreciate Bluestem Prairie, you can mail contributions (payable to Sally Jo Sorensen, 600 Maple Street, Summit SD 57266) or use the paypal button in the upper right hand corner of this post. Those wishing to make a small ongoing monthly contribution should click on the paypal subscription button.
Or you can contribute via this link to paypal; use email [email protected] as recipient.
NEW: I'm now on Venmo for those who prefer to use this service: @Sally-Sorensen-6
Comments