Addressing the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons

Around 7 percent of Montanans are Native Americans, yet Indigenous people account for 26 percent of the missing persons cases in our state.

Addressing the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons must be a priority for all leaders and communities throughout Big Sky Country, and as both a state senator and a member of the Northern Cheyenne, I’ve made it a top priority.

Unfortunately, it can be extremely difficult to locate missing Indigenous people due to the vast, rural expanses of Montana and the jurisdictional barriers among federal, state, local and tribal governments. To help overcome these challenges, I worked with my colleagues in the 2019 Legislature to establish the Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force. Over the past two years, the MMIP Task Force has collected data through its Montana Missing Persons Clearinghouse database and has identified over 3,000 missing Indigenous individuals, 80 percent of whom were under the age of 18. Due to the MMIP Task Force, 97.9 percent of people reported missing during the past two years were found.

With its proven track record of success, it’s crucial that we allow the MMIP Task Force to continue its important work. This legislative session, I’ve introduced Senate Bill 4 to do just that. SB 4 extends the termination date of the Task Force and has already passed the Senate with very strong, bipartisan support.

I encourage my colleagues in the House to pass this simple and effective bill. We must ensure that Montanans who go missing do not stay missing, or worse. SB 4 is an important piece of the puzzle in addressing the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons.

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Jason Small is a Republican state senator from Busby representing Montana Senate District 21