The Associated Press and other media report that the first recommendation of Minnesota's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force--the creation of an Office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. From Minnesota lawmakers reach deal on policing measures:
The 223-page bill draft includes provisions regulating the use of no-knock warrants, a police misconduct database to create an early warning system to keep bad officers off the streets, and the creation of an office of missing and murdered indigenous relatives as well as a task force for missing and murdered Black women.
Earlier this year, we reported in three posts about the bill by freshman state representative and Yankton Dakota citizen, Heather Keeler, DFL-Moorhead, to create the first recommendation of the Minnesota Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force: establishing an Office of MMIR/Missing & Murdered Indigenous Relatives:
- House Judiciary Finance & Civil Law Committee sends bill for MMIR office to Public Safety
- [VIDEO] Shakopee Town Hall discussion about state rep. Keeler's effort to establish MMIR office
- National MMIW+R awareness day: scenes from Sisseton, South Dakota; St. Paul, Minnesota
As the special session continues, the proposal was in the news again. First, the MMIW Task Force held a press conference about its last meeting. Mary Kunesh, a Standing Rock descendant and Minnesota state senator began as chief author for the Task Force itself when she still served in the House, tweeted:
Voices of MN’s #MMIW Task Force and allies rang once again at #mnleg. Report completed, task force ending, next is the Office of MMIR/Missing & Murdered Indigenous Relatives. Chi Miigwech, Pilamaya, Wopila Tanka to survivors, family and all who participated. pic.twitter.com/WP2Hsua6mB
— Mary K Kunesh (@MaryKunesh9) June 25, 2021
Oddly, what would seem to be an obvious measure to enact stalled in the Minnesota Senate. Details emerged in the press conference.
At the Duluth News Tribune, Sarah Mearhoff reports in Lawmakers, advocates push for permanent office to investigate missing, murdered Indigenous women cases in Minnesota:
Minnesota’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW)’s task force is holding its final official meeting Monday, June 28, but members say the state’s work is far from over to address disproportionate rates of violence committed against Native people.
At a Friday, June 25, news conference, lawmakers and advocates pleaded with top legislative negotiators in St. Paul to fund a permanent MMIW investigatory office through the state’s Department of Public Safety. With $500,000, members of the task force say the office could continue investigating cold cases, collecting data and working to prevent future violence.
Rep. Jamie Becker-Finn, D-Roseville, who chairs the House’s Judiciary Committee and is a descendant of Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, said at Friday’s news conference that she is “very hopeful” that the office will be part of a final DPS budget.
“We have an opportunity this year to continue this work forward,” she said. “It would really be untenable to have gotten this far and then not take that next step.”
The MMIW task force was established by the Minnesota Legislature in 2019, and has for over a year collected data and stories from across the state to study the impact of violence against Indigenous people. The task force’s work culminated in a report released early this year, which confirmed that national trends of violence against Indigenous people plague Minnesota, as well, for both Native people living on Minnesota’s 11 tribal reservations and in urban areas. . . .
Sen. Mary Kunesh, D-New Brighton, who has Lakota heritage, championed the 2019 bill to establish the task force (as a state representative at the time). Both the Democratic-controlled House and Gov. Tim Walz's office in their proposed budgets included funding for the MMIW office, but she said they need “buy-in” from the Republican-controlled Senate.
Though she can’t speak for her Republican colleagues, Kunesh said she expects the office has become a bargaining chip in budget negotiations between Republican and Democratic leaders.
Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, who chairs the Senate’s Public Safety Committee, through a spokesperson declined to comment on the state of the MMIW office in budget negotiations. But a spokesperson for the Senate GOP said Friday that the office is “still in play,” and that “kind of everything is a bargaining chip at this point” as the deadline to pass state budgets quickly approaches.
Asked about the message it sends for the MMIW office to be used as a negotiating piece for lawmakers, Kunesh said Friday that that’s “really an emotional question, because that’s the way it’s been all along historically.”
“The government will give and take and they'll use that carrot in front of the tribes in order to manipulate their land ownership or water rights or tribal agreements that they never intend to keep,” she said.
“It’s not only hurtful, but it’s also disrespectful to the communities,” she said. “But that’s politics.”
Duluth state representative Liz Olson tweeted her reaction:
Indigenous women leading. Chair @jbeckerfinn, @LtGovFlanagan Senator @MaryKunesh9 and @RepKeeler
— Liz Olson (@LizOlson218) June 26, 2021
$500,000 for the office of MMIW. It shouldn’t be a bargaining chip for Senate GOP. #mnleg https://t.co/HFEJlzAwiM
We agree. Nor is this a partisan issue. We're glad Gazelka and his caucus quit using indigenous family members as a bargaining chip.
Screengrab: On National MMIW/R Day, Minnesota Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, a White Earth Nation citizen, tweeted this image and statement.
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