Thread by @bopinion

The pervasive danger facing American Indian and Alaska Native women has reached crisis levels:

- More than half have been sexually assaulted
- More than a third have been raped
- Homicide is the third-leading cause of death for those aged 15-24 bloom.bg/2E7YNlI

Thousands of American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls have simply gone missing. It is a crisis that has been too long ignored bloom.bg/2E7YNlI

The big problem? Tribal law agencies are understaffed. The Navajo reservation contains roughly 350,000 residents on 17 million acres across Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

The territory has fewer than 200 police officers and 30 criminal investigators bloom.bg/2E7YNlI

The police-to-population ratio is significantly lower than the national average. Yet the Navajo reservation’s murder rate is many times higher than the average bloom.bg/2E7YNlI

Some crimes can cross the desk of:

- Tribal officers
- Local and state police
- The FBI
- The Bureau of Indian Affairs

This leads to confusion. In 2016, poor coordination led to an 8-hour delay in issuing an Amber Alert for a girl who was kidnapped bloom.bg/2E7YNlI

Outside of reservations, American Indian and Alaska Native women face extraordinary danger. Many who live in cities end up missing or killed.

One study identified 153 missing or dead women whose cases did not exist in law enforcement records bloom.bg/2E7YNlI

"Savanna’s Act” was named after a 22-year-old who was murdered in 2017. Congress should pass it without delay. It would require:

- Training for tribal police
- New rules for reporting crime data
- Consultations between U.S. attorneys and Indian tribes bloom.bg/2E7YNlI