HELENA, Mont. – Three bills that would continue the work of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Task Force had their first hearing in the House Judiciary Committee Thursday.
Proponents came from both inside of and outside of tribal communities. There were no opponents to the bills, all of them sponsored by Rep. Sharon Stewart Peregoy, D-Crow Agency.
Jason Butterfly was one of the proponents. He lost his aunt in 2013, and the case went cold.
“She don’t deserve this,” Butterfly said. “She deserves justice. If it was one of your people, you would do the same thing.”
House Bill 98 re-authorizes the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Task Force, which was formed by 2019 legislation, and the Looping In Native Communities or LINC grant fund for two years.
The LINC grant fund was sent to Blackfeet Community College to create a database of every missing indigenous person in Montana. It also funded a Montana Department of Justice study that produced a report on how many indigenous people disappear every year.
House Bills 35 and 36 establish a commission to look into cold cold cases involving missing Indigenous people, and to provide training for teams searching for missing people.
Sen. Jason Small, R-Busby, emphasized the importance of the bills Thursday. He also noted his annoyance at the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“What we’re dealing with right here in this room with the legislation we have is probably the best we can do without the federal government doing their jobs,” Small said.
Small is also sponsoring a bill in the Senate that would re-authorize the MMIP Task Force, but would not re-authorize the LINC grant fund. In an interview with UM Legislative News Service reporter Austin Amestoy, he said he and Stewart Peregoy had opted for a two-bill approach in case funding for the grant fund became an issue.
James Bradley is a reporter with the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Broadcasters Association, the Montana Newspaper Association and the Greater Montana Foundation.
