Rep. Teresa Martinez speaks during a press conference at the Arizona State Capitol Rose Garden on May 20, 2025, to urge action and raise awareness about the missing and murdered Indigenous peoples crisis. Photo by Shondiin Silversmith | Arizona Mirror
Two of Arizona’s Republican legislators are urging state and federal lawmakers to unite and work on solutions to address the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples. Following the recent signing of a bill that will create a Turquoise Alert System for missing Native people, a significant state legislative action, the lawmakers emphasized the importance of maintaining momentum.
Missing and murdered Indigenous peoples, also known as MMIP, is an ongoing issue within Indigenous communities across the country, with Indigenous peoples at the forefront of efforts to raise awareness about the crisis and to push for action.
Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, emphasized that their efforts are not just about policy, but about the people, lives, and families who have been deeply affected by the crisis. In some tribal communities, Indigenous women face murder rates that are more than 10 times the national average, according to the Department of Justice.
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In 2017, homicide was reported as the fourth-leading cause of death among Indigenous women and girls between the ages of one and 19 years old and the sixth-leading cause of death for ages 20 to 44, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In a report from the National Institute of Justice, 84% of Indigenous women experience violence in their lifetime, compared to 71% of white women.
Blackman, who represents a district that borders the Navajo Nation, said he has heard firsthand stories of how communities have been impacted.
“We need our congressional delegation to do a better job of tracking,” he said, adding that the state needs more help coordinating communication among agencies when someone goes missing.
Blackman said that will ensure that when an Indigenous person goes missing, it won’t take as long to put out an alert.
Blackman and Rep. Teresa Martinez, R-Casa Grande, held a press conference Tuesday at the Arizona State Capitol Rose Garden to urge action.
Martinez sponsored the Turquoise Alert System bill, House Bill 2281, which passed through the House and Senate unanimously. It creates a system that will coordinate alerts for missing Indigenous or endangered persons through the federally authorized Emergency Alert System.
The bill passed shortly after the state Senate amended the legislation to include minors who go missing. The change allows the alert system to be activated in cases like Emily Pike’s, an Indigenous teen whose disappearance and murder earlier this year was cited by lawmakers as the impetus for the measure.
“We have too much work to do to protect women and children of the state of Arizona,” Martinez said.
Martinez represents District 16, which includes the Gila River Indian Community and the Ak-chin Indian Community. She said her granddaughter is part of the Gila River Indian Community, and if she ever went missing, Martinez would turn the world upside down looking for her.
“ We have to have that same standard for all our children, regardless of the color of their skin and where they come from,” she said, adding that she is glad that more attention is being paid to the issue so that they can think of ways to find all the missing women.
The MMIP crisis has persisted for generations, with many efforts to address this issue in Arizona led by Indigenous women, leaders and their supporters.
Legislation has been introduced, rallies held, awareness walks organized, and various efforts have taken place over the years to highlight the ongoing MMIP crisis within Indigenous communities.
Arizona is reported to have the third-largest number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in the country.
That study reported 506 known cases in 71 urban areas across the country, 54 of which were in Arizona, including 31 in Tucson.
In 2021, Arizona had the third-largest number of unresolved missing Indigenous people cases in the country, according to NamUs. There are currently 91 missing Indigenous people cases in the NamUs database for Arizona.
More than 10,600 Indigenous people were reported missing in the U.S. in 2023, roughly 3,300 of whom were 18 or older, according to the FBI.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System reported that more than 23,700 missing persons cases were in the database at the end of 2023, and 255 of those were for Indigenous people.
There is still no single database that provides accurate numbers or data related to missing and murdered Indigenous peoples across the country. With no centralized database among the thousands of federal, state and tribal entities, the information available is limited.
When looking at the numbers, it’s important to note that Indigenous people make up only about 6% of the population in Arizona. There are only three major metropolitan areas in the state that have large Indigenous populations, and each of the 22 tribal nations in Arizona has a large number of people living on the reservation.
“ If this happened anywhere else in this state, the alarming numbers that we see, we would be on it,” Blackman said. “We would have laws written, we’d have green, yellow, blue alerts out, but for whatever reason, this is not being addressed appropriately.”
Blackman said that his and Martinez’s call for support is not about money or new programs, but rather about strengthening the support of existing programs so they can get involved and help Indigenous communities across the state.
Lorena Halwood is the executive director for Amá Dóó Áłchíní Bíghan, a nonprofit based on the Navajo Nation that provides crisis services for victims of violence, including domestic violence, human trafficking and sexual assault.
ADABI is based in Chinle, but Halwood said it serves multiple communities on the Navajo Nation. She has worked with the organization for nearly 30 years, and as one of the few victim services on the Navajo Nation, it gets by with whatever funding it can get.
“Crisis is not going to stop,” she said.
The only funding ADABI gets from the start is from the Victims of Crime Act, which was established by the Federal Victims of Crime Act of 1984 and serves as a major funding source for victim services throughout the country.
Halwood said they receive $87,000 through the Victims of Crime Act, covering two staff members, vehicle mileage, and part of their utility payments. She hopes to see more support available for victim services.
Halwood advocated for increased state and federal resources for tribal law enforcement and victim services.
“ Our presence here is to amplify the call for justice,” she said, and to ensure that the voices of families out there are heard.
“Together we can advocate for real change in our communities,” Halwood added. “We need everyone’s help.”
Karen Bedonie from the Navajo Nation said on Tuesday that it’s time for Indigenous people to stand up and represent themselves with the help of their state legislators.
“We want to be represented and not misrepresented,” Bedonie said, because often, Indigenous people and their issues are swept under the rug or forgotten.
“We are on the back burner of everything that is happening here,” she said, adding that it took the death of Emily Pike for any action to be taken.
Bedonie said her goal is to work with the representatives and push forward so that the Turquoise Alert System makes a difference and does not fade into the wind.
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