Tribal courts could soon have easier access to electronic evidence such as emails and social media messages in criminal cases—a move that would be beneficial, among other things, in Internet crimes against children investigations. U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Mike Rounds of South Dakota introduced the bipartisan Tribal Access to Electronic Evidence Act as a way to give Tribal courts equitable access and better equip them to deliver justice for victims. “We know that criminals are using online tools to traffic drugs and commit other crimes in Indian Country,” Cortez Masto said. “What we also know is that Tribal courts struggle to get electronic evidence because tech companies won’t honor those Tribal warrants.” Rounds added that it’s important that Tribal law enforcement is able to do its job “without the federal government getting in the way.”

Indigenous female motorcyclists continue to rev up their engines—as well as their messaging—to raise awareness about the high rate of missing and murdered girls and women in Native American communities. This past July, the Medicine Wheel Ride motorcycle group from Phoenix partnered with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians in Santa Barbara County, California, for a “We Ride for Her” event. Organized through the Santa Ynez Tribal Health Clinic, the event featured a screening of the “We Ride for Her” documentary highlighting the motorcycle group’s work, which includes fundraising, assisting advocates searching for missing Native American girls and women, and raising awareness through annual rallies and rides. The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians remains the only federally recognized Chumash Tribe in the nation.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted a proposal for an emergency alert that could help save the lives of missing and endangered Indigenous people. The new alert code would make it easier for public safety officials to use TV, radio, and cell phones to notify the public about missing Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The proposal was led by Native Public Media, a national organization supporting Indigenous radio and television broadcasters. The Indigenous groups comprise a significant portion of the missing and murdered cases in the United States, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. In May, the FCC sought public comment on the proposal, and a final vote to create the new alert code within the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) is pending.

Is there hope for the hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women? An article by Rachel Monroe in The New Yorker begs this question, and the answer may lie in the strength of other Indigenous women. Lela Mailman became an advocate for the voiceless after her 21-year-old daughter, Melanie James, vanished in 2014 in Farmington, New Mexico, a city bordering the Navajo Nation. Local police and media outlets seemed indifferent; Melanie’s name was misspelled in reports, and wasn’t entered in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) until three years later. Mailman sought strength in numbers, joining with mothers of other missing children at marches, protests, and prayer gatherings. The #MMIW social media movement traces back to 2012 when Canadian journalist Sheila North, a member of the Cree Nation, began using the hashtag to raise awareness and spark action in Canada and the United States. “North was particularly struck by how many cases went unsolved—evidence, to her, that society regarded Native women as essentially disposable,” Monroe notes. Melanie James’ case is one of more than 4,000 unsolved cases of missing and murdered American Indian and Alaska Natives, according to The Bureau of Indian Affairs. “Listening to Melanie’s family tell their story, I had the uneasy thought that justice in her case might not look like answers, arrests, and convictions but, instead, like subsequent missing persons cases being approached respectfully and rigorously the first time around.”

Native American voters could decide major elections in 2024, and grassroots efforts are underway across swing states to get this important electorate out to vote as Democrats and Republicans vie for power. Key issues for Native Americans, particularly Native American women, include the high rate of missing and murdered Indigenous women, according to a 2023 First Nations Development Institute (FNDI) National Survey of Native Americans. This demographic is a powerful voting bloc with at least five million voters in the U.S. who identify as Native and Alaska Natives, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates.