Oklahoma Attorney General's Office Discuesses MMIP Issues
On Thursday, February 19, Comanche Nation Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) hosted a meeting with Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office MMIP Subcommittee.
Roxe Large, the director and coordinator for Comanche Nation MMIP, said it was important to involve all of the attorneys working in the state.
“We have a lot of MMIP cases that are not just in tribal jurisdiction or federal, but a lot of that goes through state, and so it's very important that we have these connections and we have communication with attorneys in the state of Oklahoma,” she said. “So it's important to not have those barriers, but to also have communication with law enforcement, with the attorneys, so that way they can help us along the process and to get information out there to find out where the case is, which jurisdiction, or if there's any evidence that they could be able to collect on their end because there's a lot of information that they have access to that we don't as MMIP advocates or law enforcement.”
This, however, is not their first meeting with the state.
“We had originally got an invitation from Attorney General Gentner last year as an invitation to come to the Capitol and to be part of the subcommittee towards the MMIP initiative, so the plan or the goal was to send out an invitation to all the tribes and MMIP victim services and all the other agencies involved because you can approach it from different areas, so there's not only Comanche Nation, but there's other tribes in the state of Oklahoma that were involved with this initiative,” Large said. “So, I think today we were on the actual third meeting, so the first meeting we met at the Capitol, the second meeting was held in Concho, and then today was a third meeting, which is a southwest regional meeting, so the goal of the Oklahoma Attorney General, they want to hold these regional meetings across the state so they can get with each tribe and each jurisdiction to say, hey, what are you guys' issues with these MMIP cases? What kind of problems do you see? What type of suggestions do you have that could help them eventually formulate an MMIP task force?”
She said there are many barriers to solving MMIP cases.
“One of the main things that we did talk about is data collection. There's no overall data collection agency. You have information from multiple agencies,” Large said. “You have information from NamUs. You have information from the state that could be OSBI, that could be from law enforcement, or it could be from the Department of Justice, so you have multiple numbers. And sadly, I don't think any of them match up, so it's to have an overall database so that we're able to look at that and say, okay, this is exactly how many cases we have in the state of Oklahoma, because figuratively, when you have 80 cases, it could be 100 cases. It's just a matter of making sure that we have the right information, but some of the problems that we have is we don't know or have information for out-of-state cases. All the information that we have we find in the state of Oklahoma. So, I can't imagine how many more people we have out throughout the United States, so there needs to be a national database, which there is, NamUs. There is a NamUs database, which is very beneficial and helpful for our people, but that's just limited access just for law enforcement. [We], as MMIP victim advocates…don't really have that information handy, so it would be beneficial just to start something from a national standpoint, which is very difficult because you would probably have to go through the Department of Justice to get something like that set up.”
New data collection sheds light on unsolved cases.
“Indigenous or non-Indigenous people shouldn't have to be left in the dark, so it's very important to have these conversations to let people know our own people are experiencing this, you know, 50 years, and then we even have cases that are maybe not so much back in the 70s, but cases in the 80s that are still unresolved also,” she said. “And so, it's important to shed light on the person that lost their life, and so people know their name, people know that these families are not getting any answers, and so people know the truth, and it's not easy. It's a very heavy topic, and I know a lot of people don't feel comfortable with those conversations. But it's very important that we do talk about our people that have missing and murdered family members because they're still grieving. They still wake up every day. They have to wake up not knowing exactly what happened to their family member, so it's hard. It's a hard thing to do, but we have to have these conversations.”
Large said many barriers and factors cause the MMIP epidemic.
“You have multiple factors as far as drug addiction, alcohol addiction. You have homelessness. You have mental disabilities. You have juvenile runaways. You have sex trafficking, human trafficking. You just don't know exactly how to pinpoint that answer because there's multiple barriers. There's also generational trauma that a lot of Natives deal with in growing up, unfortunately, and that's biologically inherited throughout generations, so that's very important to address is generational trauma. And there's just so many different issues, and it's hard to pinpoint that answer to give someone one specific answer because what I've learned in this field is a lot of people ask me that,” she said. “A lot of Natives say, ‘Why are there so many missing and murdered Indigenous people?’ It's also jurisdiction. Jurisdiction plays a huge role in that, and it just comes into play with dealing with federal laws and state laws and tribal laws because if a murder is committed on Indian land, that automatically goes to the feds, and like we discussed today, you have that problem with communication between jurisdiction and not communicating with each other, not being on the same page, so it's very important that we start to create that communication…we can be the middleman to say, ‘Hey, what's going on with this case?’ Get a hold of that law enforcement agency for the family, be that middleman, and find out where that case sits, who has that case, so it's very important that we do work hand-in-hand with law enforcement, not against them, but work with them. We found that to be very effective in communicating with multi-different agencies.”
As an advocate, Large said they can’t guarantee outcomes.
“…We're not law enforcement, and we're very, very limited, and the investigators, they don't really have to tell us anything, but they know that we're there to help, and with a lot of laws that come into play, I think they're seeing like now in the state of Oklahoma, this is a big issue. You know, these are MMIP programs. I think we need to work with them, and so what we'll do is make sure that there is a case number. If there's a missing person's report, there's going to be a case number. And oftentimes, a lot of people do run into the issue of not even having a case number, so we'll call law enforcement, and we'll get that case number before we even make a flyer, because we cannot make a flyer if we don't have that missing person's case. And so we'll contact them, verify that number, and then a lot of times, we don't even ask questions about, we won't ask any questions,” she said. “We'll just say, ‘Is there a missing person's case?’ You know, ‘Hey, we're advocates. We're here to help the family. We're with Comanche Nation.’ And they will say, ‘Oh yeah, we got that case number, you know, and I spoke to so-and-so.’ And like, I'm just so surprised how they're willing to work with us…I just thought I was going to have the most difficult time ever with law enforcement, but I found it to be very beneficial. Like we work and communicate with the investigators, because we're advocating for the family, and so that's what we do, is we'll make sure there is a case number, and that if we have to verify with the feds, because we have an FBI office here in Lawton, so we can verify with them…but we don't directly communicate with FBI agents. We can communicate with the FBI victim advocate, and she can tell us, ‘Hey, yes, we do have that case, so by verbally verifying that, we make sure that it is within that jurisdiction or law enforcement agency.’”
The state of Oklahoma ranks third-highest in the nation with MMIP cases.
Comanche Nation Chairman Forrest Tahdooahnippah, Professors from The University of Oklahoma, BIA Victim Services, MMIP families, OSBI, Comanche Nation Law Enforcement, tribal prosecutors and tribal representatives were at the meeting with the Attorney General’s Office.
