Yesterday I posted a diary about the elimination of flags representing Arizona’s 22 Indigenous nations at the VA medical center in Phoenix following trump’s boneheaded DEI order. According to news reports, the flags were “unceremoniously” dropped off at the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Scottsdale with no explanation. Several tribes worked with Gov. Katie Hobbs’s office, and today all 22 flags are on display at the Capitol in Phoenix. We’re grateful every day that it’s Katie Hobbs and not Kari Lake sitting in the governor’s office!
Given that Arizona is more than 40% Hispanic and has one of the country’s largest Native American populations, trump’s assaults on nonwhite individuals and groups is a nonstop freak show, but this recent attempt to erase Indigenous cultures is national in scope. The Not Invisible Act was signed by — wait for it — Donald Trump in 2020, when it was heralded as a landmark effort to combat the systematic violence perpetrated against Indigenous persons at rates far higher than the general population, especially homicides, abductions, and human trafficking that overwhelmingly affect girls and women (half of the murders in Arizona, which are tracked at this new online database, are mothers). Until a spotlight was shone on the tragedies by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) movement, too many crimes went uninvestigated let alone solved. Trump took credit for signing the Act and bragged about being the first president to recognize MMIP. That was then.
One important outcome of the Not Invisible Act is a 200-page report titled “Not One More,” which was available on federal websites until it wasn’t. You can still find general information about MMIP and the Not Invisible Act at the Department of Justice website, but if you click the link for the “Not One More” report, you’re greeted with “Page Not Found.” I guess reporting on crimes against American Indian populations, and making specific recommendations that the federal government should undertake in partnership with Native communities, is a bridge too far for that racist boob in the White House.
However, the wonderful folks at the Wayback Machine grabbed the report before it was disappeared. There you’ll find a comprehensive review spelling out the many problems specific to Tribal communities as well as for Indians living off the reservation, including: a lack of funding, training, and awareness; the roadblocks created by overlapping legal jurisdictions; the lack of historic and contemporary data; the need for tools and skilled professionals to conduct investigations, and so much more. The nearly 50 Commissioners, drawn from Tribal leadership, law enforcement, and federal agencies, make dozens and dozens of recommendations throughout the report, which begins:
There is a crisis in Tribal communities. A crisis of violence, a crisis of abuse, and a crisis of abject neglect affecting Indian Women & Men, Indian Children, and Indian Elders. The federal government must act now; not tomorrow; not next week; not next month; and not next year. Once and for all, the federal government must end its systematic failure to address this crisis and react, redress, and resolve this. We call on the federal government to declare a Decade of Action & Healing to address the crisis of missing, murdered, and trafficked Indian people.
That last sentence, which begins “We call on the federal government," is today a sick joke and no doubt the reason the report was scrubbed. Unless you are fabulously wealthy and preferably white, you can’t “call on the federal government” for anything except cruelty, which the president of today’s government is happy to provide.
