Indian Affairs

U.S. SENATE – U.S. Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester marked the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls after introducing their resolution designating May 5th earlier this week. “While we must continue to shed light on the tragic Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls crisis that is plaguing Montana, our native communities and families, we must also continue working to find solutions,” Daines said. “Let us remember the countless lives lost due to this crisis, including Hanna Harris, who would’ve been 30 years old today.” “Raising awareness about the MMIW epidemic in Montana and across the country is

U.S. SENATE — U.S. Senator Steve Daines is calling for the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services to provide more information on the purpose and scope of what they are considering on the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge (CMR) and to hold a more transparent deliberation process that guarantees any proposal on the reintroduction of bison in the CMR has State, local, and tribal support. Daines’ request comes after emails became public showing activists are lobbying the Biden administration to move forward “without Montana’s permission” and concerns from local stakeholders about the public input process

U.S. SENATE — U.S. Senator Steve Daines is once again urging the Biden administration to act to address the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis (MMIW). Daines is calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and the Administration to implement his bills, the “Not Invisible Act of 2019” and “Savanna’s Act,” which help address the crisis. This comes after Daines successfully pushed the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a review on efforts to combat the MMIW crisis and GAO released its findings this week.  “The recent GAO report found the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of the Interior (DOI) have failed

U.S. SENATE — U.S. Senator Steve Daines is urging Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland to direct the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to hire and transfer more law enforcement personnel to Montana. Increased law enforcement personnel would provide Montana tribal nations with more resources to combat the ongoing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis. “As you are aware, Indian Country is fighting an ongoing crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW). Tribal members make up 6.7% of Montana’s population, yet are 26% of our missing persons cases,” the letter states. “Our state’s Indian Reservations are hurting, and tribal leadership find themselves desperate

U.S. SENATE —U.S. Senator Steve Daines joined a group of bipartisan senators to urge U.S. Department of Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to establish an Office of Tribal Affairs to strengthen the Department’s relationship with Montana’s tribal nations and provide more in-house expertise on matters affecting Indian Country. “The recent tribal consultations and interactions between Treasury and tribal nations underscore the need for sufficient, dedicated, in-house expertise at Treasury on tribal policy matters. The establishment of such an office has support from Indian Country and would improve Treasury’s ability to fulfill its trust responsibilities to respect the nation-to-nation relationship between the federal government

U.S. SENATE — U.S. Senators Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced a bipartisan bill to increase awareness and reporting of fraud and scams that target Tribal members.  “The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on enough hardships, and now Montana triba lmembers are being targeted by scammers,” Daines said.  “This is unacceptable, and we must do more to protect our tribes and bring awareness to these predatory acts.” “For too long fraud and scams have targeted tribal communities, and the pandemic has only made this issue worse,” said Klobuchar. “We must ensure we have policies in place to prevent future schemes and stop bad actors, and this bipartisan legislation will do just

U.S. SENATE – U.S. Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester’s resolution marking May 5th, 2021, as a National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls passed the U.S. Senate. “It’s important to keep the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis at the forefront of the national conversation. On May 5 we remember Hanna Harris, who would be celebrating her 29th birthday, and the countless other lives that have been lost due to this crisis. Shedding a light on this tragic issue is a way to effectively address and protect our native communities,” Daines said. “I will continue to advocate for public safety as we look