A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Fond du Lac Band council member Roger Smith, Fond du Lac Band chairman Kevin DuPuis and Mille Lacs Band Chief Executive Melanie Benjamin watch President Donald Trump sign an executive order Nov. 26 creating a national task force to address the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.
Fond du Lac Band chairman Kevin DuPuis and tribal council member Roger Smith were in Washington last week to witness President Donald Trump sign an executive order creating a national task force to address the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women.
DuPuis spoke after the Nov. 26 signing, emphasizing that his own family has been part of the statistics. "Our women are the ones who raise our children," he said. "Our women are the ones who take care of our village. Our women are the ones who take care of communities - our teachers. Our children are our future. And these are both being affected in that way. ... It's very, very important that we, as a people, have a true identity. And when we lose our women and we lose our children, that goes with them. And if we look at the principles of seven generations forward - for every child that has gone, every woman that's gone, that's seven generations."
Trump said more than 5,000 Native American women and girls are reported missing annually. "One study showed that Native American women in certain tribal communities are 10 times more likely to be murdered than the average American," he said. "The victims and their families deserve action. Operation Lady Justice will be an interagency task force led by Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt to develop an "aggressive, government-wide strategy to end this terrible situation." The Department of Justice will issue grants to improve safety in Native American communities.
On Nov. 22, Barr announced the Justice Department's national strategy to address missing and murdered Native Americans. The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative places coordinators in 11 U.S. Attorney offices who will develop protocols for a more coordinated law enforcement response to missing cases. The plan also calls for the deployment of the FBI's most advanced response capabilities when needed, improved data collection and analysis, and training to support local response efforts.
