Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, Savanna's Act, which we have talked about, is named in honor of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a 22-year-old pregnant member of the Spirit Lake Tribe who was murdered in my home State of North Dakota in 2017. Her disappearance and suspected murder not only devastated the Spirit Lake Nation, but it also devastated the community of Fargo and was truly a horrible issue felt by every member of my State from one end to another. For 8 days, her family, friends, and the community searched for her, hoping that she would be found alive. As we all know, she was not. Thankfully, her baby was found alive after surviving the attack and literally being cut from the womb. Savanna's murder brought to light that data on missing and murdered indigenous people--women and girls in particular--is scattered around government agencies or it is completely nonexistent. Savanna's Act attempts to address this issue. It requires the Justice Department to develop protocols to address missing and murdered Native Americans, including information-sharing and training for law enforcement. We must do more to bring justice for victims and prevent these crimes from happening, and the reason is that the statistics are staggering. On some reservations, Indian women are murdered at a rate of more than 10 times the national average. Native Americans are two-and-a-half times as likely to experience violent crimes and two times more likely to experience sexual assault crimes.…”