HELENA — Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is asking members of Congress to address jurisdictional challenges that he says make it tougher to resolve missing and murdered indigenous persons’ cases.
“The Montana Legislature can pass all the bills they want, but without action from Congress, we will never see meaningful change,” he said.
(Watch the video to hear more on Knudsen's statement to lawmakers.)
Knudsen was one of four witnesses who testified Tuesday morning before a U.S. House subcommittee, for a hearing titled “Missing and Murdered Indigenous People: Strengthening Public Safety in Tribal Communities.”
Knudsen told lawmakers, as a state law enforcement official, he has no jurisdiction on tribal lands, so his hands are tied in trying to tackle these cases. He said Congress has the authority to remove “unnecessary and confusing jurisdictional red tape” around tribes.
“My agents and law enforcement officers can't do anything on tribal lands unless they are asked by a federal agency,” he said. “That results in wasted time and wasted resources in some cases.”
Knudsen said he’s pleased with the FBI’s opening of a field office in Billings, which he sees as a sign the federal government is serious about providing law enforcement resources.
“Candidly, as a former prosecutor from Indian Country, that was always one of our biggest stumbling blocks, was just lack of federal resources, especially in rural Montana,” he said. “We didn't have a lot of FBI agents who were in a big hurry to travel to Poplar.”
Knudsen said 31% of people reported missing in Montana last year were indigenous, compared to 6% of the general population. While much of the attention has been on women and girls, he noted that 40% of the indigenous people who went missing last year were male.
As of Tuesday evening, the Montana Department of Justice’s Missing Persons Database included 172 individuals.
