Washington Rep. pushes for statewide emergency alert system for missing and murdered Indigenous people

Washington state representatives are hoping for an alert system to raise awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous women and people.

Currently, amber and silver alerts take over highway screens, public broadcast, and cellphones for children and seniors, and State Rep. Debra Lekanoff says that system should extend to missing and murdered Indigenous women and people.

“We are aware that missing and murdered Indigenous women and people have a crisis. A family has lost someone and this raises the awareness and begins the process of removing those barriers.”

Lekanoff is the only Indigenous person in the state legislature and says there are barriers for information sharing among the US federal government, Washington state, county, city and tribal governments, who are all intertwined.

“It’s no longer just an Indian issue. This is an Indian country. It’s your problem. You deal with it. This is a national crisis.”

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According to Lekanoff, Indigenous women go missing in Washington state at a higher rate than any other ethnic group.

“This stops you in your tracks, you take a breath, and you’re like how could this be happening again?”

“We are the women standing in Starbucks behind you, the women, the aunties, the grandmothers standing up safely. We are women who are being kidnapped, murdered, stolen from families,” she says.

Lekanoff say she’s hopeful the bill will pass and that it might be adopted elsewhere — such as Canada. She says it’s time the cries for missing and murdered Indigenous women and people be heard, and we all must hear them.