OKLAHOMA CITY — Four bills targeting Oklahoma’s high rate of missing and murdered Indigenous people are still waiting for a committee hearing.
Without discussion or debate, House Judiciary Committee chairman Chris Kannady (R-Oklahoma City) laid over House Bill 3345 Tuesday afternoon.
House Bill 3345, also known as Ida’s Law, would create a liaison’s office within the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations to work with tribal communities and law enforcement, the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office and the Office of the Secretary of Native American Affairs on cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people. The bill also specifically calls for the liaison’s office to be staffed by a missing person specialist who has extensive experience working in and with tribal communities.
The bill is named in honor of Ida Beard, a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. Beard disappeared from her El Reno neighborhood in 2015 and to date, is still missing. Under the Legislature’s standing deadlines, bills must make it out of their original committee by Feb. 27. The Judiciary Committee’s Feb. 18 meeting has already been canceled, thus giving the bill just one more opportunity to be heard this session. Meanwhile, three related bills are nowhere to be seen on upcoming committee meeting notices.
Assigned to the Public Health Committee, House Bill 2847 from Rep. Daniel Pae (R-Lawton) would create a Red Alert system to go out when an Indigenous person disappears and is believed to be at risk for foul play or has other conditions that warrant additional concern. Similar to an Amber Alert when a child is reported missing or a Silver Alert when a senior citizen is missing, a Red Alert notification would be sent out statewide. That committee is chaired by Rep. Sean Roberts (R-Hominy).
Another bill from Pae, House Bill 2848 would require the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training to add cultural sensitivity training and at least one hour of instruction on the issues connected to the missing and murdered Indigenous people to its basic training curriculum for law enforcement certification. It has been assigned to the Public Safety Committee.
Authored by Rep. Merelyn Bell (D-Norman) and assigned to the Judiciary Committee, House Bill 3890 expands the parameters of spousal rape to include instances where the victim is unconscious, unable to give consent due to mental illness or incapacitated by narcotics. As those four bills languish, a federal task force is preparing to come to Oklahoma to gather local perspectives. Created in November via executive order, Operation Lady Justice is an inter-agency task force assigned to develop a response plan for the high rate of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Overseen by Attorney General William Barr and Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt, the eight-member panel includes representatives from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the FBI and departments of Justice, Interior and Health and Human Services and is charged with delivering its findings within two years. Along with establishing protocols and a cross-jurisdictional team to review cases, the task force is responsible for conducting tribal consultations and facilitating sharing resources, such as database access.
During a listening session hosted Wednesday by the National Congress of American Indians, federal officials announced that it would conduct a listening session in Oklahoma come March. Hosted by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the exact date and location have yet to be publicly confirmed.