EPISODE II: hanna harris

THE FACE AND STORY BEHIND MAY 5TH

On the 4th of July, 2013, a night of watching fireworks would end in a brutal tragedy for a young mother from the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. It would be this woman’s story that would help to inspire a movement, raise the voices of the victims and their loved ones, and demand that their stolen and murdered girls and women no longer be ignored. May 5th is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. This is the story of Hanna Harris and her mother whose love, sorrow, and dedication to her daughter led to real progress in the system.

Females, in spirit, mind, and especially in body, are threatened by the powers of the patriarchy which governs most nations. Our bodies are not considered fully our own. We are sexually abused and exploited, and too often than not, those responsible for this violence are not held accountable either in a court of law or by society. As our rights, liberties, and equal opportunities have expanded around the globe, the violence against us has only grown. As girls and women face an unprecedented amount of physical abuse and violence perpetrated against them in this country, and all around the world, no demographic of the female population is at higher risk of being victims than those who are indigenous. 

Almost half of all girls and women of Native American and Alaskan Native descent face rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner, and 1 in 3 will experience the violence and trauma of being raped in their lifetime. Pertaining to the crime of homicide, indigenous women who reside in the United States are ten times more likely to be murdered than any other race or ethnicity. Let us all absorb these statistics for a moment. Indigenous girls and women are ten times more likely to be killed than all non-native Americans, or non-Alaskan Native women. For girls between the ages of one and nineteen years old, homicide is the 4th leading cause of their deaths. For women who are between the ages of 20 and 24 years old, it is the 6th. These numbers are shocking and heartbreaking beyond words. Yet our country, and many others, have ultimately done nothing of any real significance to prevent this epidemic of violence. From the racist, unenlightened, and patriarchal individuals who are at the helm of great control in our government, to racist law enforcement, inherently prejudicial judicial officials, in addition to our biased media, this tragic existence of the likelihood of being a victim of violence continues.

The true number of Native American and Alaskan Native female victims has also been grossly underreported. A report released by the Urban Indian Health Institute which gathered official law enforcement data across 71 urban cities in the United States, found that there were more than 5,700 cases in 2016 alone of missing indigenous girls and women. However, between 1900 and 2017, 85% of the women and children who have gone missing were not reported within the Department of Justice’s official database.

Realistically, based on the methods law enforcement employs when cataloging races or ethnicities of people, this number is likely much higher due to the misidentification of these victims as being Caucasian or Latina. What is truly shocking, and cannot be explained in any logical or data-based manner, is how the Department of Justice had only 116 cases officially recorded in its national database. How can any level of incompetence account for that degree of crime discrepancy? No, not incompetence, but rather this country’s deeply rooted bigotry, and emotional detachment from indigenous people. There is only one answer as to how this kind of extreme conflict in official crime statistics exists, and that is the five hundred years of colonial and patriarchal conditioning this country is still bound by. It continues to harshly and negatively impact how Native Americans and Alaskan Natives are viewed and treated including their culture, traditions, and their ways of life amongst the reservations. Those who dictate legislation, and therefore the individuals who have the resources and power to protect indigenous people from harm, have instead neglected, abandoned, and have ultimately done nothing of value to prevent them from being abducted, raped, trafficked, and murdered. 

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Organization seeks to overturn and transform these laws and the procedures of our government, in addition to opening up the eyes of the blinded and biased media. One of their main purposes is to place focus on the importance of the lives of the girls and women who have disappeared never to be seen again or are later found to be murdered. With zero to little help from law enforcement agents, and minimal interest or engagement from the media, these girls and women are victims of sexism and racism. They also represent the most extreme forms of societal acceptance of violence toward women. This is a social epidemic in itself that continues to escalate toward girls and women of all races, in this country, and all around the world. 

The origin of MMIW, or Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, began in Canada amongst its First Nation tribal community. By 2015, their grassroots movement carried enough of a voice for prime minister Justin Trudeau to genuinely listen to their concerns, their stories, and make an attempt to bring real change to the system in Canada. This movement spread over into the United States and grew momentum through the tireless efforts and powerful voice of Malinda Harris Limberhand. This mother had suffered greatly from the murder of her own daughter, and she sought to bring awareness to the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women to the government, and to the media. The death of this young woman would come to be viewed as a symbol, a face of the stolen but not forgotten, for all Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. May 5th is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. **It is for this day that I share this story with you so that we never forget these missing and murdered girls and women, and we continue to strive to change the system so this violence ends. This is the story of Hanna Harris. On May 5th, 2023, it would have been her 31st birthday.

The Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation encompasses an estimated 444,000 acres of land in southeastern Montana. To the east lies the Tongue River, and to the west sits the Crow Reservation. The city of Lame Deer, Montana serves as its tribal headquarters and has its own community college called Dull Knife College, which is operated by the tribal nation. There are approximately 11,300 members of the Northern Cheyenne tribe with around 5,000 who call the reservation their home. The economy in Lame Deer consists mainly of farms, ranches, and businesses run by both native and non-native citizens. 

Calling themselves "Tsis tsis'tas" (Tse-TSES-tas), which means “the beautiful people”, the Northern Cheyenne have long made their voices heard against the wrongs of the government. The leaders of the Northern Cheyenne are known for proactively speaking out, and fighting for what is in the best interest of their tribe, and their lands. During the 1970s, the Northern Cheyenne endured a seven-year battle in the courts against a coal development company that had purchased a lease to operate on their lands. Through negotiation and aggressive acts of diplomacy, Congress canceled the lease in 1980, and title to the rights of the land was granted back to its rightful place with the Northern Cheyenne Nation. Several decades later, the Northern Cheyenne would strongly raise their voices again, this time to demand that the missing and murdered girls and women of their tribe no longer be ignored.

On the 4th of July, 2013, a young and beautiful twenty-one-year-old mother disappeared from the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation after setting out to watch some fireworks in nearby Lame Deer, Montana. When she did not return that night, and morning came without any sign of her, her mother was deeply concerned. Her instincts told her that something was terribly wrong. She was very close with her daughter Hanna, who always let her know where she was, and when she would return. On top of this, Hanna had a toddler at home whom she was still breastfeeding. The child needed her and loved her, and she knew that her daughter would never abandon her son. 

According to Hanna’s mother, Malinda Harris Limberhand, she and her family immediately reported her missing to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Instead of filing a missing person report, they told her that they would not spend time looking for her daughter because she had likely partied too hard that night, and would probably return home soon. Besides, she was twenty-one years old, and when someone goes missing who is a legal adult, law enforcement rarely takes the concern seriously, nor do they immediately file a missing person report, sometimes not for several days. Unfortunately, as most of us true crime fans are aware, the first 24 to 48 hours are critical to locating a missing person and unearthing the clues and evidence which can help to find them.

Hanna Harris’s mother did not let the lack of concern displayed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs discourage her from investigating her daughter’s sudden and strange disappearance. She utilized her own crime sleuthing skills to find her. Malinda Harris went to social media, called everyone she knew, and posted pictures of Hanna all over town. She spread the word about Hanna in Lame Deer and throughout the reservation. She even pushed the local media to cover her missing daughter’s story. It was determined that the last location where Hanna had been seen was at Jimtown Bar in Lame Deer. She went to the local bar and collected that night’s security tapes. Hanna’s Mother took investigative matters into her own hands and coordinated a search team composed of members of their Northern Cheyenne tribe. 

She, along with her other daughter Rose, discovered Hanna’s vehicle abandoned in town on the side of the road with two flat tires. They noticed that there was a distinct kind of reddish dirt on them. Now they had their first clue as to where Hanna may have been. They directed the search teams to locate areas in town where this specific type of dirt lay. Hanna’s sister Rose credited their watching crime shows to giving them insight and direction on how to go about investigating a missing person. Without her and her mother’s persistence and intelligent quick thinking, it’s a possibility Hanna’s case would have forever gone unsolved.

With the location of her vehicle discovered, The Bureau of Indian Affairs finally acknowledged that Hanna had gone missing. Days later, her hopes of finding Hanna would be shattered when one of the volunteer search teams located her daughter’s remains near the rodeo grounds in Lame Deer. Her body was terribly decomposed from the blistering summer sun. Hanna’s body had reached such a great extent of decomposition within four days, that the crime scene technicians could not gauge whether or not she had been sexually assaulted, nor what was the cause of her death. 

On July 8th, 2013, Hanna Harris’s mother received the most devastating news a mother can ever receive. The Bureau of Indian Affairs police knocked on her door to let her know they had just discovered a young woman’s body. It had been thrown into a ditch on the rodeo grounds by the reservation. They inquired with her as to if Hanna had something special or unique on her body that would identify her such as a tattoo. She did. Hanna had her Native American name, Amesekehae’e, which means Pemmican Woman, tattooed on her back. The mother waited two agonizing hours for confirmation of what in her heart she already knew…that her daughter was dead. 

Months would pass, and very little effort was placed into the investigation of Hanna’s murder. Every few months, Malinda Harris and her family would coordinate a walk down the main street of Lame Deer, which received a great amount of support from the community. Hanna’s cousin, Deidre Harris, conveyed when speaking to the press that she understood how people may be frightened to share what they know out of fear of retribution, but that if they know something, their information could be important, and they would regret staying silent. At that time, it wasn’t just Hanna’s death that had gone unsolved, but on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation alone, there were 42 unsolved murders.

At the 2013 Oglala Lakota Nation Powwow, Malinda Harris Limberhand, and her husband, Sam Long Black Cat, hosted a rally in front of the Oglala Sioux headquarters. They did this with the purpose of speaking out about law enforcement’s inefficiency, and the lack of an in-depth investigation into their daughter’s death, and also to remind others to remember Hanna and her life.

Malinda Harris had heard word of mouth through the community about two individuals who were believed to have taken her daughter’s life. There was a strong suspicion that one of the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s members, Eugenia Rowland, was involved in Hanna’s death along with Sidney Henderson Wadda of Lame Deer. The couple had been witnessed hanging around with Hanna the day prior to her disappearance. Malinda Harris shared this suspicion with the BIA when Hanna’s body was discovered, but the suspects were barely looked into. The couple had even participated in the collective volunteer efforts to find Hanna and were interviewed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs multiple times. Malinda Harris herself brought Eugenia Rowland to the police station for her to be questioned about her possible involvement in her daughter’s death, but the suspects were not pursued any further. 


There was brewing frustration and anger with the minimal amount of progress that had been made in the investigation. Hundreds of people would soon come together to protest on the southeastern Montana reservation, and demand justice for the countless lives of Native Americans whose murders were yet to be solved. Soon after Hanna’s disappearance, Rowland and Wadda fled the state and stayed with relatives near the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. During the police investigation, it was revealed that the couple had been lent a vehicle by one of their family members. This individual reported to the police that when the vehicle was returned, there was a very strong and offensive odor in the back seat. This information provided law enforcement with enough probable cause to search the vehicle. When they did, they discovered Hanna’s DNA on a rear seat cushion that had been removed from the car. 

It was determined by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Suek that Eugenia Rowland, of Rapid City, South Dakota, and Sidney Henderson Wadda, of Fort Washakie, Wyoming, who was known as her common-law husband, were drinking heavily along with Hanna inside an abandoned trailer on the night of the Fourth of July. Eugenia Rowland’s own sister-in-law, Joy Means, shared with the investigating officers that Rowland confessed to her about how they had murdered Hanna that night. According to the testimony of Joy Means, Eugenia Rowland had confessed to her that the three of them had been partying hard together when she passed out. When Eugenia suddenly awoke to the sounds of screaming and yelling, she saw her husband raping Hanna in another room. 


Her story is that she initially attempted to help Hanna away from Wadda, but Hanna turned on her, and attacked her. This enraged her, so together, Eugenia and her husband beat Hanna until she lost consciousness. They then wrapped her body inside a sheet and dragged it outside. Hanna was then brutally beaten to death by both of them. The couple drove her body over to the rodeo grounds, and they threw Hanna’s lifeless body inside a ditch. 


In March 2014, nine months after Hanna Harris had been brutally killed, Rowland and Wada were, at last, tracked down, and arrested for her murder. The couple was located in Wyoming and brought back to Montana to face charges of first-degree murder amongst other felony charges. Eugenia Rowland initially denied being involved, but then she made a plea bargain and ended up pleading guilty to second-degree murder. U.S. District Judge Susan Watters sentenced Eugenia Rowland to 264 months in prison, and an additional five years on supervised release, which equated to her being incarcerated for a total of 22 years. The judge also ordered her to pay the family $13,215 in restitution, but as in most cases of court-ordered restitution, the money is rarely ever seen by the victims’ loved ones. More than anything, it is done as a mere symbol of her deserved financial punishment in addition to her criminal conviction.

Her husband, Sidney Henderson Wadda, was initially charged with first-degree murder and aggravated sexual assault, but the prosecution offered him a plea deal in exchange for testimony against his wife. They threw out the charges of murder and rape altogether. It effectively minimized Wadda’s involvement in Hanna’s death. Wadda’s charges were plea bargained down to his being an accomplice in the disposal of her body. Due to the fact that the weather conditions had destroyed any evidence of the sexual assault upon Hanna, there was no proof that the rape had happened even though his wife testified to it. 

This man who had brutally sexually assaulted Hanna Harris, and then helped beat this young lovely mother to death now only faced charges of being an accessory after the fact. Based on these downgraded charges, he was given a measly ten years in prison. During his sentencing phase, Hanna Harris’s mother declared to the murderer of her child, and I quote “I don’t know how you were raised, but you don’t rape women, you don’t kill them, you don’t hide them, you don’t bury them. People say if you want to get away with murder, go to the reservation. I think it’s true.” Hanna’s father, Sam Long Black Cat, also expressed during the same hearing that if Wadda was not handed down a sentence worthy of his crimes, he felt confident that family members would take care of him on their own. 

Although I would never condone or encourage vigilante justice, I absolutely understand that when people have lost their loved ones, especially in such a vicious and cruel manner, and the perpetrator is not given a harsh sentence, they feel that the law has let them down. When violent offenders have not been given adequate punishment, it makes sense for the victim's loved ones to believe that the only real justice the perpetrator will ever face is at their own hands. Although Wadda’s sentence did not even scratch the surface of being any form of real justice, he would not have the chance to ever harm another woman or person again. He died on November 8th, 2022.

Unfortunately, a lack of sufficient justice is a common pattern seen in the sentencing of violent crimes that are perpetrated against indigenous people. Whether it is due to a lack of diligent investigative work, a neglectful forensic chain of command, a lack of concern about tribal members receiving due justice, or a combination of all three, most of these crimes, often indicated by the evidence to be clearly first-degree cases of murder, are pled down to lesser charges. It is also believed by many that the charges are frequently lowered to the degree of manslaughter, versus that of first-degree murder, so as not to taint the FBI's extremely high conviction rates, as well as to save their time and resources for what they perceive to be other more important matters. 

In the case of rape and sexual assault charges, it was reported by Timothy Williams, a New York Times reporter whose story, “Higher Crime, Fewer Charges on Indian Land” highlighted the lack of justice for indigenous victims of sexual assault. According to federal data, which he utilized in this 2012 expose on the matter, the FBI failed to file charges for rape that occurred on reservations in 65% of the cases, and for other serious crimes, they filed charges roughly half of the time. This is horrifying, but not at all that surprising considering how victims of sexual assault in this country rarely ever see true justice brought to their perpetrators. In fact, most cases of rape and sexual assault are never even reported. For those that are, very few prosecutors file charges for them, and even fewer win convictions. Statistics have revealed that only one in every 100 rapes that are reported to law enforcement ever leads to charges being filed. Of that one rape that leads to prosecutorial charges, only 1% of them ever end up in a felony conviction. That women and girls continue to be subjected to sexual violence year after year, and generation after generation is something our society continues to accept. I won’t deep dive into the patriarchy, the misogynistic forces in power which still thrive in 2023, and those which have failed to give us full autonomy to our own bodies, adequate protection of them, or any justice for victims of sexual assault, but if these are the institutional conditions that non-Native and non-Alaskan Native women find themselves faced with, imagine how much more vulnerable indigenous females are.

When Hanna Harris vanished, Sheriff Allen Fulton of Rosebud County claimed to have offered his assistance in locating the young mother, but that the Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected his help. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA, on the other hand, alleged that the county’s commissioner, in addition to a handful of deputies from the local police force did participate in the initial process of Hanna’s investigation, but the Sheriff denied this to be true.

Given the muddled blurry lines of authority our different law enforcement jurisdictions dictate, it is understandable how such confusion and a lack of cooperation happened, although very unfortunate. Jurisdiction is what essentially gives one law enforcement agency over another the rights, and thus the authority, to investigate a crime that takes place within their designated area. There are local, state, and federal jurisdictions that determine what boundaries law enforcement officers, or agents, are authorized to handle crimes. For example, a local police officer has jurisdiction within the city they are employed by, and the Sheriff’s department would have authority over any city within that particular county. State law enforcement includes state and highway patrol, and federal law includes the FBI and Secret Service, which have jurisdiction over federal-level crimes

However, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the tribal police, unless specifically given the powers to do so by the federal government, do not have jurisdiction within the reservation if a crime has been committed by a person who is non-native. The only exception to this is if that individual resides at, or conducts business on the reservation. What this essentially equates to is if a Caucasian, or a person of any other race other than that of Native American, commits a crime on the reservation against an indigenous person or their property, the tribal police do not have the right to investigate much less prosecute the crime. This jurisdiction is given exclusively to federal law enforcement, in particular the FBI, except for in the cases of domestic violence, but this is not clearly defined within the law, and so more often than not, cases of domestic violence and intimate personal abuse go unreported. This gives law enforcement on the reservation, specifically the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the tribal police, the autonomy to not accept assistance from outside agencies when it comes to cases of missing persons, in particular help offered by the state police. It is critical that the tribal police be given absolute authority in the investigation of crimes committed on their reservations, but thanks in large part to the conflicts which arise by the divisions of jurisdiction, too many girls and women who disappear are never found alive, if at all. 

The laws of jurisdiction are not concise or transparent to either the members of the tribe or law enforcement agencies as to where the proper place is to officially file a missing person report, or whether they have the authority to do so. Definitions and instructions as to where and when a missing person can be reported should never be an element within the laws which effectively halts or holds up an investigation from being pursued. It is not surprising though given the trite, and often vague use of language, within our criminal legislation. I find it infuriating that a lack of transparency in the law is directly leading to girls' and women’s disappearances and ultimately their deaths. 

Thanks to her incredible perseverance, and her brave voice in the fight for change, Hanna Harris’s Mother, Malinda Harris Limberhand, brought others together and pushed the government to finally listen. Victims, their families, and women’s advocates across the United States and Canada collaborated and organized rallies so that their cries for justice and awareness would be heard. Between 2017 and 2018, more than two hundred organizations joined the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center to help support their mission of raising awareness of this epidemic, and to fight for justice for the victims.

On May 5th, 2018, Malinda Harris would organize the “Walk for Justice for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls” which was a call to action for the state, the country, and the entire world. The walk was a way to express to everyone that indigenous girls' and women’s lives matter, and how the historical lack of response and efforts made to find them when they go missing, and the lack of justice given when they are murdered, will no longer be tolerated.

In words spoken by Malinda Harris Limberhand in a statement during the Walk, she acknowledged the importance of the walk, and what it signifies to her. Women and girls were traditionally highly respected and revered amongst their tribes. Thanks to the destruction of their culture, the theft of their lands by colonialism, and the unwelcome invasion of the patriarchy, every tribe is riddled with violence being perpetrated against their women and girls, and for the most part, the problem is completely ignored. Their women and girls are snatched up by rapists, abusers, sex traffickers, and oil riggers who know they can get away with abusing, beating, raping, and even murdering them because nothing is ever done to prevent it, or bring justice to the victims. 

Home to eight recognized native tribes that encompass more than 55,000 tribal members, Montana has become a significant center for important legislation and hopeful change. On January 30th, 2019, a flood of Northern Cheyenne tribal members entered the Montana Capital to address the committee and share stories of their own missing and murdered daughters, sisters, and fellow tribal members. 

House Bill 21, also known as Hanna’s Act, was initially introduced by Democratic Representative Rae Peppers of Lame Deer, Montana. She along with the other members of the committee listened to the stories of twenty-seven indigenous persons whose loved ones were the victims of this epidemic of violence. Many were adorned in red, which has become the symbolic color of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Movement. Malinda Harris Limberhand, and Hanna’s sister, Rose, were amongst the twenty-seven to have their voices and heartbreaking stories heard that day. 

Hanna's sister Rose shared her and her family’s story of how they had to do all the investigative work on their own when Hanna went missing. Thanks to the utter lack of involvement and concern shown by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, it took far too many days to find Hanna’s remains. When they did, her family was denied the chance to see her body due to it being severely decomposed by the weather conditions, especially the heat of the summer sun. Rose shared how terrible it was that she and her family were not able to see Hanna one last time and give her a proper goodbye. Instead, she could only feel her sister’s body through the morgue bag she had been placed in.

In response to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s movement, and the uproar against law enforcement who neglected to help assist the family in finding their missing daughter, the 2018 Hanna’s Act was passed and signed into law on May 3rd, 2019. This Act was designed to bring together the Montana Department of Justice and the Tribal Police so that they collaborate in cases of missing persons and that issues of jurisdiction do not prevent victims from being properly reported, and promptly pursued. Within the Act, a new position for a specialist in missing person cases has been created to assist in the investigation. Under this Act, it would be required that a report be filed within two hours of any person under the age of 18 who goes missing and that for any person over 18 years old, a report must be filed within eight hours. On a side note, I would like to address how this requirement should be mandated across all law enforcement agencies, at least under certain circumstances. Some people do just disappear of their own accord and free will, so I do understand why there are restrictions set in place to minimize the amount of time and resources spent on locating someone who was never in any danger, or who just end up coming back on their own. However, as most of us true crime fans already realize, and aforementioned, the first 24 to 48 hours are critical in gathering evidence and increasing the chance of locating the missing person. The chance that the person is found alive if they are in danger diminishes drastically after the first 48. 

The role of the missing person specialist is also meant to act as a victim advocate of sorts by providing the loved ones of the missing person with support and resources, giving them information, and keeping them updated on the investigation. This position has also been established to enhance public awareness and community involvement, as well as conduct training for the local police so that they are more sensitive to, and educated on the circumstances, and how best to handle them. This is all great in theory, but in order for any of this to really make an impact, the institutions which have fed into, and helped perpetrate centuries-old inaccurate and harmful depictions of Native Americans, must be transformed. 

Montana’s Senate Bill 312, titled “Create the looping in native communities network grant program”, was signed and enacted into law on May 18th, 2019. This is what is known as companion legislation to Hanna’s Act, which if executed as it is designed, should increase the chances that missing persons are found. It also should result in significantly fewer indigenous people, in particular girls and women, going missing and being murdered. In 2018, in the state of Montana alone, twenty-five native women and children disappeared, and out of these twenty-five, only one was found alive. This law creates a missing-person task force. It also provides a grant for tribal colleges to compete for the opportunity of being involved in the development and maintenance of a location that collects, stores, and secures all crime-related data. Accurate, thorough, and diligently gathered and stored data could lead to a breakthrough in this epidemic of violence.

Prior to this bill, there has never been a comprehensive system of data that collects information used to report and track missing Indigenous persons. This bill is very transparent and speaks outwardly, even boldly, about the continued lack of involvement, negligence, and resistance to change which is exhibited by government forces. It calls out how the nonsense of bureaucracy prevents any real action to be taken on these cases since they are tied up in issues of jurisdiction. This creates a massive gap in the time between when a loved one goes missing and is reported to law enforcement, to when that person is actually recorded as having gone missing in the system. It can be days, even weeks before an investigation even commences. This leaves native communities to fend for themselves, to take to social media and spread the word however they are able to let others know their loved one has disappeared. The Missing Indigenous Task Force also gives most of the autonomy to the hands of the tribe.

On December 1st, 2022, there was major potential progress made on the federal level when The FBI and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) signed an agreement to establish guidelines to provide for the effective and efficient administration of criminal investigations on Native American and Alaskan Native lands. This is the first update since the early 1990s to a memorandum of understanding between the agencies. During a summit hearing, Tribal leaders from 574 federally recognized Tribes were invited to share their input on how the federal government can further invest in their communities, and strengthen nation-to-nation relationships. Through the creation of interagency coordination, there will be no lingering issues of jurisdiction, and the two agencies will collaborate on investigations, share their information, and have clearly written guidance on the jurisdiction, and the roles and responsibilities each will play including the FBI, BIA, and the Tribal Law enforcement agencies. Part of the agreement also includes that there be training for all agents involved concerning trauma, and culturally responsive approaches to the investigation. No doubt in response to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s movement, as well as the data discrepancy released by the Urban Indian Health Institute, the government has launched a Missing and Murdered Unit to ensure that all missing person cases get reported and logged into the appropriate databases, and that DNA be submitted to the National Missing Person DNA Database when available and applicable.

It is an unforgivable crime in itself that it has taken thousands of missing and murdered indigenous girls and women for the victims and their loved ones to finally be given a voice. That a criminal epidemic of these proportions had to occur to begin to make changes within the government, which has for far too long neglected and ignored their existence, and the importance and value of their lives, is unacceptable. The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Organization has helped to bring these injustices and tragedies to valuable attention in the media and to that of the controlling government forces within both the United States and Canada. However, most of the time, it is done in the name of political ideology to further their own agenda, hush up the voices of the advocates fighting for change, and attempt to calm down the movement. 

I am hopeful but skeptical about the progress on paper that has thus far been accomplished, and only time will show us if anything significant has really changed. The only way this change can be exhibited is by a significant decline in the actual numbers of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls being reported. This can only be done if resources are used properly to make differences in the reporting, data collection, and investigations, and if Native Americans and Alaskan Natives are given real autonomy in helping to solve these cases. Our communities have a responsibility, and an ethical obligation to show that Indigenous people's lives matter and that we stand by them in unity, respect, and admiration. They deserve to be covered in the news, social media, and every source of information available to be acknowledged and supported. 

There should also be no disparities within the judicial system as far as the perpetrators of such violence being given leniency on any level. This is an unfortunate reality which continues to exist across our criminal justice system. Studies have revealed how offenders of non-Caucasian victims receive far less severe sentences versus when the victim is Caucasian, especially when they are women. This gross disparity in sentencing must end, and it is up to all elements of our society, especially the institutions in power to show through real action that all individuals, of all genders, cultures, races, and ethnicities, are of equal and beautiful value, and that therefore justice must be dealt out equally.  

Thank you so much for listening to this heartbreaking yet inspiring story of Hanna Harris. She did not die in vain for her story will live on through every step of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Movement. It is on her birthday, May 5th, which will forever mark the day that our nation finally began to wake up to this epidemic of violence and listen. 

Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions, comments, and suggestions you may have for the show. You can reach me via Gmail, DM me on Instagram, or find me on Facebook at the links provided in the episode description. I appreciate each and every one of you for being here with me, and I am beyond thrilled to be your host. These are the kinds of stories and cases that truly matter to me, and they are the primary reason as to why I pursued my degree in Criminal Justice and Criminology, and ultimately why I began this podcast. I want to use my education and my voice to raise awareness to cases, and to people of marginalized groups who are not given the same deserved degree of attention within our media. Hopefully, I have done that for even one person today, and they will share this story and remember the 5th of May every year for a different reason than before, and help spread awareness of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and the mission behind the movement. 

Until next time, be safe, and watch out for shades of murder that could be happening in the streets, next door, and especially inside your own home. 

AlitaDogma’s Shades of Murder was created, written, researched, and edited by AlitaDogma. 

Music composed by Danielyan Ashot courtesy of Pixabay.