Latest news with #D-To'hajiilee
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
New Mexico set to create ‘Turquoise Alert' system for missing Indigenous people
From left, Sen. Angel Charley, D-Acoma, and Rep. Michelle Paulene Abeyta, D-To'hajiilee, prepare to introduce Senate Bill 41, creating a Turquoise Alert system, on Feb. 7, 2025. (Bella Davis/New Mexico In Depth) New Mexico is set to become the fourth state to create an alert system meant to help find Native Americans who have gone missing. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham plans to sign Senate Bill 41 into law, establishing a Turquoise Alert system, according to her office, after the bill passed both chambers of the Legislature unanimously. Operating much like the state's Amber Alert system for abducted children, Turquoise Alerts would be issued for people who are enrolled in or eligible for enrollment in a federally or state-recognized tribe and are missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances or are at heightened risk due to health concerns or disabilities. Colorado, California and Washington have established similar alerts. Since Washington's system was created in 2022, 114 alerts had gone out as of August last year, and 111 of those people were located, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. This story was originally published by New Mexico In Depth Lawmakers in New Mexico have passed a couple other bills in recent years responding to a national crisis of Indigenous people disproportionately going missing and being killed. There are 186 Indigenous people missing from the state, according to the state Department of Justice, and the average number of days missing is 1,662, or about four and a half years. The alert is especially needed on reservations, where jurisdictional confusion and understaffed law enforcement agencies are major obstacles to public safety, said Rep. Michelle Paulene Abeyta (Diné), a Democrat from To'hajiilee and one of the bill's sponsors. 'When someone goes missing, we're combining our own resources outside of law enforcement and any actual government-run entity to try to locate our missing loved ones,' Abeyta said Monday in an interview. 'We know how important this is and how the lack of resources just isn't fair for us and the jurisdictional issues that get in the way. It's not right.' In the '90s, when she was a child, Abeyta's mother went missing. She was taken to a remote area and 'beaten and left to die,' Abeyta said, before being found a few days later by a person who happened to be in the area. She was brought to a hospital and survived, but her recovery was difficult. Abeyta and her co-sponsor Sen. Angel Charley (Laguna/Zuni/Diné), D-Acoma, are 'excited to see how this is going to help improve the lives of so many families that for a long time needed some type of solution, some type of resource to go to,' Abeyta said. While helping solve logistical barriers, the alert system would also raise awareness about the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people, Charley said in an interview Friday. Charley, who used to be the executive director of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, referenced Ashlynne Mike, an 11-year-old Diné girl who was kidnapped and murdered in northwestern New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation, in 2016. Law enforcement didn't issue an Amber Alert until the day after she went missing due to 'misunderstandings and jurisdictional hurdles,' according to the Justice Department. 'You never know if coordination would have happened in a way that was quick and efficient' if there had been greater awareness at the time, Charley said. After lawmakers passed the bill last week, Ashlynne's father contacted Charley, telling her he was going to write to Lujan Grisham and urge her to sign it. 'We do not want other families to go through the trauma we felt,' he wrote in a message Charley shared with New Mexico In Depth with his permission. Indigenous advocates, tribal leaders and police, and lobbyists representing several pueblos also spoke in support of the bill during the session. The bill requires the Department of Public Safety to develop a plan for getting alerts out as quickly as possible and keeping records on each alert, with information including the municipality where the missing person report was made, the date the alert was issued and the date the missing person is recovered. 'Too many Native American families have faced crisis and the heartbreak of a loved one disappearing without the swift response they deserve,' Indian Affairs Secretary Josett Monette, whose agency developed the bill, said in a statement. 'The Turquoise Alert system is a critical step forward in ensuring that missing Native American people are prioritized in the same way as other emergency alerts.' The alert aligns with a state response plan issued by a task force in 2022, Monette told lawmakers last month. That now-defunct task force discussed an alert system for missing Indigenous people, said Darlene Gomez, a task force member and attorney who represents affected families. Gomez suggested that New Mexico should create such an alert during public comment at a December meeting of a new state task force focused on the crisis.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill would create alert system for missing Indigenous people
From right, Rep. Michelle Paulene Abeyta, D-To'hajiilee, and Sen. Angel Charley, D-Acoma, prepare Senate Bill 41, which would create an alert system for missing Indigenous people, on Feb. 7, 2025. (Photo by Bella Davis/New Mexico In Depth) Two state lawmakers are trying to create a 'Turquoise Alert' system in New Mexico for sending out statewide alerts when Indigenous people go missing. Sen. Angel Charley (Laguna Pueblo/Zuni Pueblo/Diné), D-Acoma, and Rep. Michelle Paulene Abeyta (Diné), D-To'hajiilee, are sponsoring Senate Bill 41. 'I've done this advocacy for years,' said Charley, who is a former executive director of the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women. 'So to be on this side and get to implement what we know families have been asking for and what will work, it's just the most powerful thing that I could imagine in my journey of this work.' There are 198 Native Americans missing from New Mexico and the Navajo Nation, according to an FBI list. This story was originally published by New Mexico In Depth and is republished with permission. 'In New Mexico on any given day, we know that there are hundreds of missing Native Americans. We also know that the first 48 hours are crucial to finding someone,' New Mexico Indian Affairs Secretary Josett Monette (Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians) told a crowd gathered at the Roundhouse on Friday for American Indian Day. The alert system would 'ensure that those critical hours are not missed,' Monette said, adding it should function similarly to other missing persons advisories, like Amber Alerts. If passed by the Legislature, the bill, which does not include an appropriation, would amend the state Missing Persons Information and Reporting Act to include a Turquoise Alert. The Department of Public Safety would be tasked with developing a plan for getting the alerts out to law enforcement agencies and the public as quickly as possible. At least three other states — Colorado, Washington and California — have passed similar legislation in recent years. Since lawmakers in Washington mandated a system in 2022, the State Patrol had issued 114 alerts as of August last year, and the subjects of 111 of those alerts were located, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
