Last week, a state task force formed in 2021 by New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration to explore solutions to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and individuals was dissolved. In 2019, New Mexico House Bill 278 was passed, and in May of 2021, Governor Lujan Grishman signed Executive Order 2021-013, which established the first phase of the task force. The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Task Force was comprised of representatives from across several Native Nations in New Mexico, including state legislators and community groups. 

Although the governor’s executive order expired at the end of June 2022, the Indian Affairs Department (which runs the task force) has kept the group going with a dedicated staff plus an annual budget of $107,600.

Unfortunately, the task force hasn’t met since last May due to several issues, including concerns over the Governor’s appointment of Ildefonso Pueblo Gov. James Mountain to head the Indian Affairs Department. Mountain was accused of sexual assault in 2007 and was indicted in 2008 but never convicted due to insufficient evidence. Because of the nature of the indictment, leading members of the state’s task force demanded Mountain’s removal last February.

Although the case against Mountain was dropped, the fact that Native women in New Mexico and other parts of the U.S. have struggled with high rates of assault, abduction, and murder is still a cruel reality. Advocates describe the crisis as a result of generations of government policies of the forced removal of Native people from their ancestral lands, and decades of violence inflicted upon them. Sadly, Native women in America have suffered greatly from sexual assault, kidnapping, and violence.

For example, a 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) found that more than 84% of Native women in America have experienced violence in their lifetime, including 56% who have experienced sexual violence. As a group, more than 1.5 million Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime, and face extremely high rates of violence. This crisis is exacerbated by the lack of data surrounding the number of women who go missing or are murdered in and outside of reservations.

Over 5,700 American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls were reported missing as of 2016, according to the National Crime Information Center, but only 116 of those cases were lodged with the Department of Justice. Eighty-four percent of Native women experience violence in their lifetime, according to the National Institute of Justice. A 2008 study found that women in some Native communities are 10 times more likely to be murdered than the national average.

In addition to the issues surrounding Mountain’s indictment, the lack of data perhaps slowed down the task force. For example, a number of law enforcement agencies around the state couldn’t provide demographic information about victims. Despite some hurdles, the task force found that native people accounted for a disproportionate percentage of missing persons cases in New Mexico.

Rep. Pamelya Herndon (D-Albuquerque) stated that without another executive order, or the Indian Affairs Department informally re-convening the task force, the group’s future is up to the state Legislature. Herndon, who was a policy advisor to the task force, said the Legislature should codify the group into state law so it will persist after Lujan-Grisham’s tenure, pointing out that an executive order only lasts as long as the governor who signed it is in office.

For years, scores of Indigenous people, mostly women, have gone missing or have been murdered across the nation, well exceeding national averages compared to other demographic groups. Native Americans comprise 10.6% of the New Mexico population, a higher percentage than other states. 

It is my hope that the task force will be renewed, and their efforts not forgotten. We owe that much to the victims and their families, and we owe it to present and future generations of Indigenous women.