California awards Tribes Nearly $20 Million in Grants to Support Missing and Murdered Indigenous Person Crisis

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom July 16 announced the state has awarded almost $20 million in grants to 18 Native American tribes in California to support their efforts addressing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People or MMIP crisis.

The California Board of State and Community Corrections or BSCC approved a second round of awards under the MMIP Grant Program, established in the 2022 budget to provide competitive grants to California tribal nations. Grants focus on work such as developing culturally-based prevention strategies, strengthening responses to human trafficking, providing culturally appropriate support services to affected families and their communities, and improving cooperation and communication on jurisdictional issues between state, local, federal, and tribal law enforcement agencies.

Some of the work funded by these grants includes: 

• The Pit River Tribe will develop MMIP projects to include culturally-based support and resources for family members whose loved one is missing, through their Tribal Victim Witness department,
• The Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians will establish a small home village for the unhoused, providing a safe and culturally sensitive living environment for the tribe’s most vulnerable members.
• The Pechanga Band of Indians plans to hire a trained law enforcement investigator, a human trafficking coordinator, and a master’s-level social worker with a comprehensive background in commercial sexual exploitation to effectively respond to runaway juveniles, missing persons incidents, and potential victims of human trafficking.

The MMIP crisis is a worldwide issue, recognized in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In the United States alone, 84% of Native women and 82% of Native men will experience violence in their lifetimes. MMIP cases are seven times less likely to be solved than any other group, and Native women are victims of murder at rates more than ten times the national average. California has worked closely with tribes across the state to develop strategies to support tribal work and investigations to solve and prevent these cases. 

The Governor has signed several bills into law to address the MMIP crisis, including: 

• AB 3099 in 2020, by Assemblymember James Ramos (D-San Bernardino), directed the California Department of Justice to increase collaboration and training among law enforcement agencies related to MMIP-related cases and provide outreach to victims, their families, and advocates.
• AB 1314 in 2022, by Assemblymember Ramos, established the Feather Alert, which functions like an Amber or Silver Alert, providing law enforcement with the resources they need to provide the public with timely information to help find a missing Indigenous person.
• AB 44 in 2023, by Assemblymember Ramos, granted tribal governments and tribal law enforcement access to the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, which will allow them to enter, verify, and update missing persons’ information.

The 2024-2025 state budget provides an additional $13.25 million for the MMIP grants, and the BSCC anticipates releasing another Request for Proposals later this year. 

Details: MMIP Grant page.