Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Floor Speech

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Mr. ARMSTRONG. Mr. Speaker, Savanna's Act, which we have talked about, is named in honor of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a 22-year-old pregnant member of the Spirit Lake Tribe who was murdered in my home State of North Dakota in 2017. Her disappearance and suspected murder not only devastated the Spirit Lake Nation, but it also devastated the community of Fargo and was truly a horrible issue felt by every member of my State from one end to another.

For 8 days, her family, friends, and the community searched for her, hoping that she would be found alive. As we all know, she was not. Thankfully, her baby was found alive after surviving the attack and literally being cut from the womb.

Savanna's murder brought to light that data on missing and murdered indigenous people--women and girls in particular--is scattered around government agencies or it is completely nonexistent. Savanna's Act attempts to address this issue. It requires the Justice Department to develop protocols to address missing and murdered Native Americans, including information-sharing and training for law enforcement.

We must do more to bring justice for victims and prevent these crimes from happening, and the reason is that the statistics are staggering. On some reservations, Indian women are murdered at a rate of more than 10 times the national average. Native Americans are two-and-a-half times as likely to experience violent crimes and two times more likely to experience sexual assault crimes. The number of unsolved crimes on Native Americans on reservations is significantly higher than even the most crime-ridden cities we have in the country.

More than four in five Native American women, around 84 percent, will experience some form of violence in their lifetimes. The reasons and factors for this are varied. We deal with poverty, and we deal with rural communities, in general. We deal with jurisdictional fights between different organizations, addiction, and a history of racial abuse.

None of these things matter to the people who are missing and to the family members and the Tribal members who are missing.

In Savanna Greywind's case, the perpetrators were found, and justice was served, but that will never bring her back.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention this. At the same time this was captivating the entire State of North Dakota, Olivia Lone Bear went missing from the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in October 2017. Her body was found almost an entire year later in Lake Sakakawea on July 31, 2018. As of today, that case has not been resolved.

Communication breakdowns from one end to the other have caused frustration. Her family members, the Tribal governments, and the State of North Dakota have no resolution to this case.

I wish these were two isolated stories, but we all know they are not. When we are here and working toward things, I get it that we are in a polarized environment, and we deal with lots of different things, but this is absolutely the purview of Congress. This bill has had broad bipartisan and bicameral support, and there is really no excuse not to get Savanna's Act passed.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Washington for doing this today. I thank Congresswoman Torres and Senator Murkowski for authoring the bill. I thank Senator Cramer and Senator Hoeven. I say thank you to former Senator Heitkamp, who really did champion this issue during her time in the Senate.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to pass Savanna's Act. It is simple. Sometimes we can do the right thing.

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