Biden signs executive order to improve public safety for Native Americans

By Michel Marizco
Published: Tuesday, November 16, 2021 - 11:03am
Updated: Wednesday, November 17, 2021 - 12:33pm

Indigenous men and women used the #MMIW hashtag and the red hand, a symbol of the movement, during a 2018 Women’s March in Phoenix
Melina Zuniga/Cronkite News
Indigenous men and women used the #MMIW hashtag and the red hand, a symbol of the movement, during a 2018 Women’s March in Phoenix to honor missing and murdered indigenous women.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order Monday that instructs federal agencies to develop plans to improve public safety for Native Americans and to investigate the cases of hundreds of missing Indigenous people across the country. 

Biden’s order directs the Justice and Homeland Security departments and Health and Human Services to work together to prevent crime on Native lands. 

The order calls for mental health and community organized strategies to address mental health and to help prevent gender based violence, human trafficking and elder abuse. 

The order follows a Government Accountability Office investigation last month that found the magnitude of Indigenous women that have gone missing is unknown because there’s no one database with comprehensive information nationally. And agencies like the Justice Department have not followed the instruction of a pair of 2020 laws that required them to work together with other agencies to solve the crimes.

→ When it comes to missing Indigenous women, we don't actually know how bad it is

Fronteras Native American Affairs