Name: Taskforce Releases Data On Missing And Murdered Indigenous People In Wyoming
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Taskforce Releases Data On Missing And Murdered Indigenous People In Wyoming

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Related Program:&nbsp;Related Program:&nbsp;Gov. Mark Gordon's Taskforce on Missing and Murdered Indigenous People has released a report on the severity of the problem in Wyoming. It found that Indigenous people make up 21% of homicides in the state even though only 3% of the population is Indigenous. But Wyoming Survey and Analysis Research Scientist Emily Grant said these numbers could be underestimates. For instance, murder rates could be off because coroners misclassify victims. "A lot of times, it's not necessarily checked with people from the community, a family member or something like that," Grant said. "So it's really likely that they could be miscategorized as Latino, White. And then you know, that if it's the wrong race on there, it doesn't show up." Grant said, this is why law enforcement needs more training, and families need assigned advocates to guide them through the complex web of legal jurisdictions. Grant said she also looked at media portrayals of such cases in Wyoming. "It's overly graphic," she said. "So you know, if [a White person] dies with firearms, you know, they may say 'a gunshot wound.' But in Indigenous cases, we're seeing like, very graphic depictions of the body of the crime scene. The circumstances that are just extra violent." "Being considered less than, that's unacceptable," said Fort Washakie Representative and Northern Arapaho citizen Andi Clifford, who sits on the state's Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Taskforce. "The media needs to do a better job. That's somebody's son, that's somebody's daughter, that's somebody's dad. They were loved." In the last ten years, 710 Indigenous people went missing in Wyoming, the majority were girls. The data showed they went missing from 22 of Wyoming's 23 counties. Clifford said, this isn't a Fremont County problem; it's a state problem. "Yes, Wyoming has two Indigenous tribes," she said. "But there's a multitude of Indigenous tribes in all counties. Because we are Americans, we go for jobs, we go for education, people fall in love, they move to towns in Wyoming. And so that may be a little surprising, too. But we're all over, we are all over." Nine Indigenous people are missing in the state right now. Tags:&nbsp;Listen Listening... 6:08 Across Indian Country, federal are opening to investigate cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people. They're part of a multi-agency effort established by the Trump administration last year, called . Two Bureau of Indian Affairs special agents will work out of a Billings, Montana based cold case task force office starting this week, serving tribal communities in our region.Last year, at a UW campus march for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Not Our Native Daughters Director Lynette Greybull pressed Gov. Mark Gordon to start a task force to study the problem. He agreed on the spot and since then the taskforce has been working to meet several goals.Several tribes have filed protest against the recently approved Converse County Oil and Gas Project. The U.S. Interior Department on the project at the end of last year; it allows for the drilling of over the next decade by five operators.Food insecurity is being without access to affordable, healthy food. Historic racism and long drives to a grocery store impede Native people on the Wind River Reservation from access to healthy food.ListenListening...Soon after she was elected as one of America's first Indigenous congresswomen in 2018, New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland paid a visit to her constituents at the Pueblo of Sandia, just outside of Albuquerque.&nbsp;"She came to the Pueblo for one of our feast days," said Stephine Poston, a tribal citizen and advocate for . "And the young girls, a couple of them were following her around and she stopped to talk to them. It was an amazing thing to see and witness."&nbsp;Poston said Haaland may as well have been a celebrity to those girls, but she didn't act like one.&nbsp;"She's just that person who will stop and see you," Poston said.&nbsp;And she said that's how Pueblo people, and Indigenous people across the country, have been feeling since Haaland was nominated to lead the Department of the Interior: Seen.

Related Program:&nbsp;Related Program:&nbsp;Gov. Mark Gordon's Taskforce on Missing and Murdered Indigenous People has released a report on the severity of the problem in Wyoming. It found that Indigenous people make up 21% of homicides in the state even though only 3% of the population is Indigenous. But Wyoming Survey and Analysis Research Scientist Emily Grant said these numbers could be underestimates. For instance, murder rates could be off because coroners misclassify victims. "A lot of times, it's not necessarily checked with people from the community, a family member or something...

Taskforce Releases Data On Missing And Murdered Indigenous People In Wyoming

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