Native community calls for return of MMIP report

“We identified real problems and real ways to fix the issues that exist,” said Michelle Demmert, a former tribal judge who worked on the report and is a citizen of the Klawock Cooperative Association, a Tlingit Tribe in Southeast Alaska. “Our reports have to mean something, and they’re not done to sit on a shelf. They’re done to better the population that they’re designed to serve.”

The report, now available to the public through the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, details the findings of the Not Invisible Act commission, a team of state, federal and tribal leaders. Former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Attorney General Merrick Garland formed the commission after the Not Invisible Act was signed into law on Oct. 10, 2020.

The commission’s goal was to track and report data on MMIP, identify gaps in resources within the MMIP crisis and raise solutions. The team traveled across the U.S. to meet with families and MMIP survivors. It held seven in-person hearings and a virtual one, which were attended by almost 600 people, before releasing Not One More, the 210-page report on its findings.

Not One More report findings

One key issue outlined in Not One More is the “chronic underfunding” of tribal programs. The report recommends that the federal government “provide consistent and predictable public safety and Tribal justice funding for all Tribes, whether located in states where PL-280 or similar laws are in effect or not.” Public Law 280 grants certain states criminal jurisdiction over Natives on reservations. According to the report, PL-280 states have been “left out or not prioritized” when it comes to public safety funds.

The report puts forward solutions for the funding gap, including requiring a fraction of the money made by extractive industries, such as oil and mining, to be allocated for public safety. Demmert said those industries contribute heavily to the MMIP crisis.

“The government does this with casinos,” Demmert said. “They have a provision in place where a percentage of the income goes to public safety. That would be a simple fix to provide resources that the federal government wouldn’t even miss, because it would come from extractive industries that are doing quite well.”

Demmert said many organizations offering MMIP services look to the report for these solutions. One of those organizations is the Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition.

Its executive director, Leanne Guy, also served on the Not Invisible Act commission. Her sister-in-law has been missing since 2002.

“There has been no closure. My husband’s family has seen no justice,” said Guy, an enrolled citizen of the Diné Navajo Nation.

The Southwest Indigenous Women’s Coalition offers services to domestic violence and sex trafficking survivors in Arizona. Guy uses the Not One More report in staff trainings to discuss how their work relates to MMIP and how they can implement solutions.

By understanding the challenges families impacted by MMIP face, a response plan can be made, Guy said.

“Many families expressed frustration with no response or a lack of response in their communities and a lack of coordination between law enforcement, the FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs,” Guy said. “At the end of the day it’s about the families who are left. It’s about being able to tell them, ‘We are working on your case.’”

The report led to more than identifying challenges, Guy said. It created opportunities for healing. Guy said people who attended the commission’s hearings took their experiences to heart. When some returned home, they created their own healing groups for community members impacted by MMIP.

“It sparked something that was needed by families,” Guy said. “It ignited something in communities and families that they can still hope.”

Removal of the Not One More report

Since the report was removed from the DOJ website, policy directors, advocates and legislators have been calling for its return.

“Indigenous people face disproportionately high rates of violence, especially Native women, who are murdered at ten times the national average,” a spokesperson for Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin said in an email statement to Buffalo’s Fire. “This crisis deserves more attention, and data can inform measures at the local, state, and federal level to help save lives and solve crimes. That’s why I worked with my colleague, Rep. Sharice Davids, to call on the U.S. Attorney General to simply restore this report back to the Department of Justice’s website.”

Neither the Trump administration nor the Department of Justice responded to requests for comment.

The DOJ released a 231-page response to Not One More in March 2024, addressing key concepts the report raised. It also included a letter by Haaland and Garland praising commission members for their work and dedication toward MMIP. In the letter, the DOJ agreed more work needs to be done at the federal level to address the crisis.

“It’s really ludicrous that [Not One More] was taken off the website when it’s really just an instructive manual on how to move forward for the federal government, state governments and tribal governments to address these issues,” Demmert said. “Not being able to have access to it really defies any explanation. It means the federal government is saying, ‘What you produced had no value to this administration.’”

Buffalo’s Fire also reached out to the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Deb Haaland for comment but did not hear back by press time.

Community members are perplexed over the mention of “gender extremism” in the executive order.

The order says gender ideology supports a false narrative that men can become women and vice versa. There is no statement explaining its relevance to MMIP.

“It’s not about gender, it’s not about diversity, equity and inclusion,” Guy said. “It’s about responding to those who are being taken and those who have disappeared forever. That is the issue.”