House Subcommittees Examine Technology’s Role in Addressing MMIP Crisis
On July 14, the House Natural Resources Subcommittees on Indian and Insular Affairs and Oversight and Investigations held a joint hearing titled “Leveraging Technology in the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons.” The hearing examined how emerging technologies and improved interagency coordination can strengthen law enforcement responses in tribal communities facing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) crisis.
The hearing centered on a range of investigative tools now being deployed or considered for Indian Country: advanced DNA and genetic genealogy analysis, artificial intelligence-powered sonar devices, and drones equipped with LiDAR (light detection and ranging), infrared, and thermal imaging technology.
Tribal communities face disproportionate rates of violence — an estimated 84 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetimes. FCNL has been lobbying for legislation that would improve interagency coordination and secure more resources for tribal communities.
Trump Slashes Bears Ears; Tribal Nations Prepare Legal Challenge
President Trump signed proclamations on July 13 reducing Bears Ears National Monument from approximately 1.36 million acres to roughly 121,000 acres — a cut of more than 90 percent — and ordering the dissolution of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Commission. The administration simultaneously reduced the size of the adjacent Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The lands removed from monument status will become open to mineral leasing, mining claims, and other public land uses.
Bears Ears is considered sacred by the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, Ute Indian Tribe, and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. It contains thousands of archaeological and cultural sites, including cliff dwellings, rock art, and ceremonial locations where tribal citizens continue to hunt, gather medicinal plants, and conduct traditional practices.
This is the second time Trump has moved to shrink Bears Ears. His administration made a similar reduction in 2017 before President Biden restored the monument’s original boundaries in 2021.
The Native American Rights Fund (NARF), which has represented tribal nations in Bears Ears litigation since 2017, condemned the decision and pledged to pursue “every available legal course of action.” High Country News also reported that the order’s termination of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Commission ended what had been a first-of-its-kind formal tribal co-management partnership with the federal government.
Murkowski and Schatz Introduce Native Children’s Commission Implementation Act
Senators Lisa Murkowski (AK) and Brian Schatz (HI) introduced the Native Children’s Commission Implementation Act on July 14. The bipartisan bill is a comprehensive legislative response to the final report of the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children, a congressionally established body that made recommendations to Congress in February 2024 after years of regional hearings and listening sessions across Indian Country. The commission was charged with studying federal, tribal, state, and local programs serving Native children and recommending systemic improvements.
The bill addresses health, research and data, environmental health, nutrition, homelessness, workforce development, and the justice system. Key provisions include a new Tribal Health Research Office within the National Institutes of Health (NIH); expanded resources for tribal juvenile justice; a new Alaska Native Victim Services Fund; new pilot programs for tribal administration of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); and a new grant program to address Native homelessness.
White House Report Criticizes Smithsonian’s Portrayal of Native History
On July 4, the White House released a 162-page report titled “Saving America’s Story: How Ideological Capture at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History Erases Our Heritage.” The report also criticizes the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI).
The report singles out NMAI’s “Nation to Nation” exhibition for criticism, objecting to its framing of U.S. history as “the rise of a new great nation at the sacrifice of hundreds of others.” It also criticizes a video by Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne and Muscogee/Creek), a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and a curator of the exhibition, in which she states: “When you wrench people from their homelands, wasn’t that genocide? We don’t make the case that there was genocide. We know there was.”
More broadly, the report objects to the use of land acknowledgments by Smithsonian officials. The report challenges content across multiple NMAH exhibits that describes the federal government’s forced removal of Native peoples and the acquisition of their lands through policy and war. Anthea M. Hartig, the National Museum of American History’s director, said that the report “does not fairly or accurately characterize the full body of work at the museum.”
Staff Transition
After over two years at FCNL, I am transitioning away from the organization to pursue a law degree. I will continue writing the NALU over the next few months as FCNL hires a new lead lobbyist for Native American Advocacy. Thank you all so much for continuing to support FCNL and engage with us on Native issues.
What We’re Reading
- Washington Tribes, Environmental Groups Sue over Endangered Species Act Rule Change | Washington State Standard
- Current, former Indigenous elected officials reflect on death of Lindsey Graham | Indian Country Today
- A Trail of Broken Promises: The Farce that is Tribal Consultation | Native News Online
- Data Centers are Booming. Indigenous Leaders Want Help Protecting their Lands. | Grist
