Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

EDITORIAL:

Justice for Native American victims of crime should not be the exception

To the families of two Nevada women who were killed in 2018 on the Fort McDermitt Shoshone Paiute tribal reservation, Tuesday’s sentencing of the man found guilty of the slayings brought a long-needed moment of comfort amid years of sorrow and grieving.

After U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks imposed two consecutive life sentences against the man who slayed 40-year-old Amy Hinkey and her cousin Adeline “Gug” Sam, Hinkey’s mother, Evelina Bell, expressed relief “that closure would come so our girls could rest in peace.”

Unfortunately, though, moments of solace like these are all too rare among Native American families in the United States. While justice was served for Hinkey and Sam, thousands of cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women have gone unresolved due to indifferent, underfunded and uncoordinated law enforcement. That includes in Nevada, where Stacey Montooth, executive director of the Nevada Indian Commission, summed up the problem in stark terms to Sun staff reporter Jessica Hill last week.

“You won’t find a Paiute, Shoshone or a Washoe who doesn’t have a firsthand account of a loved one or a close family member who has been murdered or is missing,” Monthooth said. 

This national disgrace shows that even 500 years after first contact, the nation still can’t find a way of treating Native Americans decently. Inadequate protection by the justice system has resulted in Indigenous women being 2.5 times more likely than members of all other ethnicities to be victimized in violent crimes overall. In some counties, the murder rate of Native American women is 10 times higher than the national average, and authorities say more than a third of Native women have been raped. They also make up some 40% of the victims of sex trafficking identified in the U.S. and Canada.

This is an ongoing tragedy that has played out largely in silence, with little national media attention being paid to it until very recently.

Imagine the contrast if these victims had been white, blond-haired, middle-class women like, say, Gabby Petito. The attention from news organizations and law enforcement would have come in an avalanche.

The good news, though, is that the issue has finally emerged on the national radar, and leaders are taking action on it.

That includes Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who introduced two successful bills in recent years — Savannah’s Act and the Not Invisible Act — to strengthen law enforcement investigations into cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women.

President Joe Biden also took a step forward by launching a multiagency strategy to improve public safety among Native populations overall and specifically address the epidemic of missing or murdered Indigenous women. The plan involves coordinated efforts by the Departments of Justice, Interior, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services, plus increased cooperation between federal authorities and state and tribal law enforcement.

Efforts like these are commendable, but more needs to be done to strengthen law enforcement and prosecution at the federal, state and tribal levels. As Hill reported, a 2020 report documented more than 2,300 cases of missing Indigenous women and girls, of which 58% were homicides, and the number is likely far higher. Advocates and authorities agree that violence among Native American women tends to be underreported due to a mix of factors, including a general distrust of authority among Indigenous people based on their history with the white establishment, spotty and uncoordinated data collection, and a lack of cooperation between law enforcement at various levels.

This must be corrected.

It shouldn’t be a rarity when justice is served in crimes against Indigenous women, as in the case of Sam and Hinkey. It shouldn’t be an anomaly when Native American families receive closure for mothers, daughters and sisters who are victimized in violent crimes.

Indigenous women, their families and their entire communities deserve equal protection from law enforcement, prosecutors and the courts. While the justice system performed its duty in the murders of Sam and Hinkey, the nation still has a long way to go to make such outcomes a matter of course.