{"id":33167,"date":"2023-07-01T14:58:45","date_gmt":"2023-07-01T20:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/family-members-of-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-people-question-fbis-ability-to-address-crisis\/"},"modified":"2023-07-01T20:58:45","modified_gmt":"2023-07-01T20:58:45","slug":"family-members-of-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-people-question-fbis-ability-to-address-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/family-members-of-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-people-question-fbis-ability-to-address-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Family members of missing and murdered Indigenous people question FBI\u2019s ability to address crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Not
Not Invisible Act commission members listen to panelists talk. From left to right: Ruth Ann Buffalo, Patricia Whitefoot, Cord Wood, Eric Broderick, Amber Kanazbah Crotty. (Megan Gleason\/Source NM)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Before Daisy Mae Heath went missing in 1987, she told her sister Patricia Whitefoot to be aware of racism and cultural oppression against Native American people.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Whitefoot (Yakama) keeps in mind still to this day when the Federal Bureau of Investigation looks into cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s never forgotten how the FBI handled her sister\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

It took over 20 years for Daisy\u2019s remnants to be found.<\/p>\n

Whitefoot said the FBI didn\u2019t give her any consistent or significant information when looking into Daisy\u2019s case.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to say how angry you are about all of that, and the anger that family members carry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Whitefoot said multiple agencies were involved in her sister\u2019s case, and it was confusing to keep track of everything and everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200b\u200bThey told me their name and only one time. How was I supposed to keep track of them?\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I never knew which agency they came from, whether they came from Spokane, whether they came from Seattle. I didn\u2019t know I was to pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her words got choked up as she started crying.<\/p>\n

She explained this to FBI agents at a panel hearing held by the Not Invisible Act Commission on Wednesday. This commission, which Whitefoot is a member of, has traveled around the U.S. to hear from people about issues surrounding the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people.<\/p>\n

Commissioners will eventually develop a report for Congress on how to confront and address this crisis and the issues that plague it.<\/p>\n

Whitefoot said she often wonders about the connection between racism and bias and if it is part of why the FBI does not regularly share information about these missing persons cases.<\/p>\n

She asked if that\u2019s meant to \u201ckeep us in chaos, to keep us down?\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitefoot said poor internet or cellphone services, something prevalent for many Native nations, creates barriers that further highlight the need for access to communication for these cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeaningful communication with families \u2013 that simply isn\u2019t there,\u201d she said. \u201cWhy does the FBI not speak to us?\u201d<\/p>\n

Raul Bujanda is an FBI special agent in charge. He said the FBI\u2019s intentions are to be transparent, sharing as much information as they can about the case and letting families know who they\u2019re working with.<\/p>\n

Whitefoot asked if federal officers get Native-focused cultural training so they understand how to go about these cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you understand the history of genocide?\u201d she said. \u201cBecause to me, that\u2019s what continues to go on with our missing murdered Indigenous women and our relatives, our families.\u201d<\/p>\n

FBI Analyst Don Metzmeier told her agents had their first cultural competency training in New Mexico last fall, learning about traditions different Native nations follow that they need to know, like who to shake hands with or how to talk about the dead.<\/p>\n

He said officers asked for more trainings like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was eye-opening for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Metzmeier said the FBI can\u2019t hide from tough conversations with people who have a right to be angry with the agency. He said the FBI will move forward to address this crisis, making mistakes along the way, but not waiting for perfection to finally take action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to have hard conversations,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re here for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mixed responses on resource requests<\/div>\n

Commission member Eric Broderick asked what resources the FBI needs in order to properly deal with cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people, so they can be treated the same way similar cases would be dealt with in other states that involve people who aren\u2019t Native American.<\/p>\n

Bujanda said though the federal agency could do more with additional resources, the FBI will just have to work harder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to the federal government and resources, we don\u2019t ask for anything,\u201d Bujanda said. \u201cWe work with what we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commission member Leanne Guy is the executive director for the Southwest Indigenous Women\u2019s Coalition. Her sister-in-law disappeared more than 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

Guy (Navajo) said she\u2019s curious as to why the FBI wouldn\u2019t ask for more resources, \u201cgiven their responsibility to Indian Country\u201d and the many cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people along with their families that are seeking justice.<\/p>\n

Guy said she hears from families that don\u2019t know the status of their cases, and the FBI could voice the need for more resources at this forum to better respond to those families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity that I think we could highlight the needs of FBI,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bujanda said the New Mexico FBI does ask for resources. He said the request isn\u2019t falling on deaf ears, but \u201cit just falls on the order of priorities that the FBI has.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there aren\u2019t Native nations all over the country so not everyone understands the need for the FBI to handle these missing and murdered Indigenous people\u2019s cases.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask for resources all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things a lot of people just don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Navajo Nation Council delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty, another commission member, said Native people going missing isn\u2019t a rare situation, and federal officials haven\u2019t historically helped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s just a unique situation that our relatives were exploited and they were taken from New Mexico communities like Gallup, and we did not see that response,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Invisible Act Commission members ask what resources federal investigation agency needs but don\u2019t get many clear answers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-33167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33167"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=33167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}