Latest news with #IdasLaw
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Remembrance walk held after veto of crucial bill for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People
SHAWNEE, Okla. (KFOR) – The Citizen Potawatomie Nation held a Remembrance Walk Friday in Shawnee to honor the many Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. This comes the same week Gov. Stitt vetoed a crucial bill that would've helped fund an investigative unit to help solve cases surrounding Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. 'The veto, I can honestly say I didn't understand,' said Lorenda Morgan. Morgan led the way for Ida's Law after her cousin, Ida Beard, disappeared from El Reno in 2015. She stood by Gov. Stitt as he signed it into law. That law essentially created an investigative unit within the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation that would help try to solve cases surrounding Missing and Murdered Indigenous People. The money for the unit has to come from the federal government, but officials said the process is hard, so getting money for the unit is hard too. Tribes upset over a bill vetoed by Gov. Stitt The veto came this week from Gov. Stitt, and it applied to House Bill 1137. One of Stitt's reasons for the veto was that agencies shouldn't prioritize justice 'because of race.' 'OSBI is tasked with prosecuting all kinds of crime, including anyone who is murdered in Oklahoma, regardless of race,' said Gov. Stitt in a video on social media. 'Everyone is equally protected under the law, but Native Americans didn't have that protection under the law like everyone else,' said Morgan. The peacewalk was hosted for a second year in a row and was also held through the House of Hope, the tribe's domestic violence intervention program. The goal was to raise awareness for the disproportionate violence against indigenous peoples with a walk during National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Week. There were talks this week from lawmakers about a possible override. Senate Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton was asked specifically about overrides, and he said that there were 'several of Rep. Weaver's bills that were vetoed that we're going to talk about.' Rep. Weaver was the Senator co-author on HB 1137, he was also a part of a bipartisan-supported bill that would have required insurance companies to cover certain screenings that can catch breast cancer early, a decision that has left the bill's author, who is battling breast cancer herself, heartbroken. 'It seems like the governor has his legislation a little bit wrong in terms of what his bill was trying to do. Again, we have efforts that we're working on to hopefully see an override,' said Rep. Cindy Munson on Thursday. The way for an override to work, there would have to be a two-thirds vote to approve in both the House and the Senate. Both of those bills had overwhelming support. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Stitt vetoes bill funding Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples investigations
OKLAHOMA CITY – On a day multiple tribal nations were marching at the Oklahoma State Capitol for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Awareness Day, Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed a bill that would increase funding to a department inside OSBI that investigates those cases. House Bill 1137 was an amendment to Ida's Law, that Stitt signed into law in 2021. Ida's Law created the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples department but relied on federal funding that never materialized. HB1137 would have removed the federal funding requirement. In his veto message, Stitt did not point to budgetary concerns, rather he said the bill was an attempt to put one race above another. 'While I support efforts to solve missing persons and homicide cases, I cannot endorse legislation that singles out victims based solely on their race. House Bill 1137 requires the creation of a unit within the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation that focuses exclusively on missing and murdered Indigenous persons. But every missing person – regardless of race or background – deserves equal attention and urgency,' he wrote. 'Oklahoma already has both the Missing Persons Clearing House and the Cold Case Unit within OSBI, which are tasked with investigating disappearances and unsolved cases across all communities. Creating a separate office that prioritizes cases based on race undermines the principle of equal protection under the law and risks sending the message that some lives are more worthy of government attention than others. 'Justice must be blind to race. Our resources and investigative efforts should be deployed based on the needs of the case, not the identity of the victim.' In response, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. pointed to the fact that Ida's Law already was on the books. 'Gov. Stitt's breathtaking ignorance of the issues facing tribes and existing teamwork to resolve those issues reached an absurd level today with his veto of HB 1137. The existing 'Ida's Law,' a bipartisan reflection of the sort of teamwork needed to address missing and murdered indigenous persons cases, is an effective law that enables tribal law enforcement and OSBI to work better together on MMIP cases,' he wrote in a press release. 'HB 1137, a bipartisan amendment to Ida's law, was a housekeeping measure designed to strip an unnecessary federal funding requirement. Gov. Stitt's veto message, issued on a day we raise awareness across the country on MMIP issues, exposes that he lacks the foggiest idea that Ida's Law is on the books, what it does on a low budget cost high impact basis, or what the simple amendment was designed to do.' Hoskin accused Stitt of purposely sowing discord by using the term 'race.' 'He also continues to conflate the political status of tribal citizens with 'race,' a tired old subject meant to divide and confuse people,' Hoskin wrote. 'Native Americans are disproportionally victims of violent crime and disproportionally so in cases that go unsolved. Serious leaders across the state and the nation understand that and are taking action.' HB 1137 passed through both chambers with almost unanimous support. Stitt has taken similar action in the past concerning tribal exclusivity on gambling issues and concerns over tribal tags and hunting/fishing licenses. 'We are sovereign nations and our treaties require the U.S. Government to live up to certain responsibilities,' Iowa Tribe Chairman Jake Keyes posted to social media. 'They continue to not only fail at this, but now they look to completely eliminate those responsibilities. More than ever it's important for our people and our tribal leaders to make our voices heard.' KOCO television station in Oklahoma City reported OSBI told the news station it would continue to fund the MMIP department.
