first and foremost, our hearts are with Gabby’s family. No one should ever have to lose a loved one in this manner, and it’s horribly tragic.
But I think what it brings up for a lot of our Native families who have lost loved ones is just the complete disparity, the obvious disparity, between how the FBI behaves when a white woman goes missing and how the FBI behaves when a Native woman goes missing. When a Native woman goes missing — and thousands do every year — the FBI does almost next to nothing. Oftentimes families are told that it’s not a crime to go missing.
The FBI oftentimes is the only law enforcement agency with jurisdiction to investigate, because — it’s complicated, but, in 1978, the Supreme Court in Oliphant eliminated tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians who come onto tribal lands and commit crimes. So, in many instances, the Department of Justice has reported that the majority of violent crimes committed against Native people are committed by non-Indians. But that means, for the majority of those violent crimes committed against our Native people on tribal lands, we’re relying on the FBI to do its job. And they’re not. They’re failing us. And as a result, that is why Native women are more likely to be murdered in this country than any other segment of the American population. So, that disparity is really painful for Native people, because there is no explanation for why the FBI simply won’t do its job when our women and girls go missing or are murdered.
— source democracynow.org | Sep 30, 2021