Governor Armstrong says in 2020, federal officials approved a similar plan based on discussions from a decade earlier.
“I really honestly believe this bill that they work through at the state level will have a tremendous, tremendous impact and a more meaningful impact than anything that can come happen out of the halls of Congress.”
Armstrong says instead of going through layers of bureaucracy, North Dakota's plan starts with main streets across the state.
“Doing it with local law enforcement, collaborations with tribal, BIA, state, Highway Patrol, National Guard, and it's really, truly something that I think we are going to see almost an immediate impact. And we're going to continue to work with everybody to make sure it's implemented in the best way possible.”
Brad Hawk is executive director of the Indian Affairs Commission. He says over the next calendar year, the commission will be gathering partners and organizing.
“Obviously, you know, we have silver alert and amber alerts and things for other other, you know, for children and for other missing persons or for for some of our elders. And so we wanted to add this because of the high prevalence and the high rate of missing indigenous persons.
And so we just want to make sure that, you know, all law enforcement are aware of it, what that means. And there'll be an education component, obviously, for the state on that issue also.”
Jodi Rave Spotted Bear is founder and executive director of the Indigenous Media Freedom Alliance. The organization publishes the online news outlet buffalosfire.com. She says the organization of the task force will also include getting and sharing data about missing and murdered people, something that's currently not easy to obtain even by those reporting on the issue.
“I've seen numbers saying right now there's maybe about 15 or 30 and then people are disputing those numbers again, which is why we need a more unified data system to really track in real time what is happening on the ground.”
Spotted Bear says 95 percent of missing and murdered indigenous people cases go unreported by the media. She's hoping the task force and new databases can help change that.
Brianna Iron Road is an enrolled member with the Standing Rock Sioux.
She says after venturing out after high school and attending college in Minnesota, she's returned to the reservation and operates a traditional Indian craft store in Bismarck. She says when it comes to the missing and murdered issue, there's awareness, but it needs action as well.
“Honestly, it's pretty prevalent in everyday just conversation. I mean, there's always updates on social media where you kind of hear about either the lack of updates or, you know, unfortunately, when you hear that somebody has been located both in a good way, you know, that that person, that individual is home, but also knowing that the unfortunate news is that something did happen to them. It's pretty prevalent in everyday conversation in our homes, I would say, especially with the influence of social media, whether that be radio, podcasts, YouTube, a lot more emphasis is being shown on to the matter. So I feel like that is important as well. But I also do believe that those conversations are important to have. Otherwise, you know, it's going to get no effort behind it. And, you know, it doesn't move much. So it is tough to have those conversations, but I think it is important to have those conversations frequently.”
Iron Road says, if anything, the issue has taught her to be more vigilant when she's in public.
“I believe overall learning, you know, different strategies of how to stay safe, who to talk to, all those different things. I think it does raise awareness to, I guess, be more vigilant, I guess.”
Governor Armstrong says the development of the task force also lends itself to building more trust between tribal and state governments.