North Dakota MMIP Task Force holds first meeting

Governor Kelly Armstrong signed House Bill 1199 into law on May 1, 2025, creating the task force.

The discussion addressed many problems, including confusion surrounding the Feather Alert system and a lack of information within the National Crime Information Center Database.

State Rep. Jayme Davis, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians,works to implement policy regarding MMIP. She called on the task force to update the state’s missing persons site to include more photos of the missing people listed on North Dakota’s attorney general website. Davis mentioned Isaac Hunt, a Spirit Lake citizen who went missing on March 8, 2024.

“We see his photo everywhere but on this website,” Davis said. “He went missing in 2024, and his picture is still not up.”

State authorities said only the agencies investigating the missing persons cases can update the photos, since the information is pulled from the National Crime Information Center, the FBI’s missing persons database. Davis said the site should also include tribal affiliation and where the missing individual was last seen.

She wasn’t the only representative to call for action. Dawn White, drug enforcement agent for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation, said tribes need to implement an emergency response plan for missing and murdered cases.

She said there is currently confusion as to which roles belong to which agencies because many jurisdictions jump in. She said MHA has six counties, so when there is an emergency, “It’s like herding cats.”

“We struggle the most with who is in charge,” White said. “Communication has been the killer for all of us.”

White asked the task force to create a coordinated plan with resources to decrease the amount of scrambling in cases where time is of the essence.

The team also addressed a need for community education. Sashay Schettler, assistant director for the state’s Office of Indian and Multicultural Education, said Native K-12 students are particularly vulnerable targets for human trafficking. But there is preventive work that can be done.

“Children are taken from schools not just on reservations but in Bismarck,” Schettler said, adding she recommends that both the state and tribes begin teaching children about the dangers of trafficking.

Frustration was also directed at the Feather Alert system. Davis said many community members expressed frustration after not receiving a Feather Alert for the disappearance of Danica “Tynee” White, a Spirit Lake Citizen who was reported missing on Nov. 1. Her remains were recovered during a water search five days later. Davis and Lonna Jackson-Street, chairwoman for the Spirit Lake Tribe, called both for the Feather Alert to be used statewide and for clearer communication to the public on how to use the alert system.

Davis said she hopes to address these issues and make improvements to the alert system in the next legislative session. Lonnie Grabowska, director of North Dakota’s Bureau of Criminal Investigations, said the task force plans to have its next meeting in February in Belcourt, North Dakota.

In 2026, the task force will meet in each territory of the five federally recognized tribes in North Dakota, Grabowska said, and conclude the year with a meeting in Bismarck. He said the task force is required to meet at least quarterly.