‘Not just a crisis of Indian country’: Washington to form special unit to investigate scourge of slain Indigenous people

OLYMPIA – Washington will soon have a special unit to investigate cases of Indigenous people who were killed or are missing.

The unit, created by a bill signed Thursday by Gov. Jay Inslee, is expected to help law enforcement agencies requesting help from the attorney general’s office to solve cold cases involving Indigenous people.

A disproportionate number of unsolved killings and disappearances involve Indigenous people, particularly women.

While Indigenous people make up less than 2% of Washington’s population, they account for 5% of the state’s total of unsolved homicides, according to the attorney general’s office. State data shows that there are 117 cold cases in Washington involving homicides with Native American victims.

Lawmakers are hopeful the unit will lead to the resolution in many of these cases.

“This legislation will ensure Indigenous victims of crime receive robust, thorough investigations and potential prosecution,” Inslee said while signing the bill, flanked by tribal members, legislators and Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

A task force within the attorney general’s office conceived the idea for this unit in 2022, prompting Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Samish Island, to sponsor the bill.

The bill received unanimous bipartisan support from both chambers.

“Some people will think we fight over health care, we’ll fight over housing, we’ll fight over weapons, we’ll fight over budget. But when it comes to addressing the crisis with our people for 150 years since the treaties, it is a place where I feel like we belong. And the Washington state Legislature is making sure that we do belong and our lives do matter,” Lekanoff said.

Lekanoff is a member of the Tlingit tribe of Southeast Alaska, and her Tlingit name is “Xixch’I See.” She said the issue of missing and slain Indigenous women is a source of anxiety for Native women, especially for her as a mother.

“To know that because of what I look like, because of what (my daughter) looks like, it’s just a matter of when, and you live that fear of when,” Lekanoff said. “It’s difficult, in your own homelands, the place where we called home first, the place where our culture is, where our people are buried.”

Lekanoff noted that the Legislature meets on the homelands of the Squaxin and Nisqually tribes.

The investigative unit would prioritize smaller jurisdictions that may lack the resources to devote the time and manpower needed to investigate cold cases. Jurisdictions could turn to the unit voluntarily.

The unit will include a team of investigators, plus a case navigator to communicate with families in a culturally sensitive and trauma-informed way as investigations occur.

Lekanoff said she’s encouraged the bill became law but contends Indigenous representation in government is important for raising awareness to this issue.

“It is not just a crisis of Indian country, it’s a crisis of all of our governing bodies,” Lekanoff said. “We as Washingtonians take care of our own, and we’re certainly going to take care of the peoples whose land that we all call home.”

Editor’s note: This story was corrected on April 21, 2023 to remove incorrect data about the number of unsolved homicides in Washington involving Native American victims. State data shows that there are 117 cold cases in Washington involving homicides with Native American victims.