Savanna's Act

The Savanna's Act or #MMIW Act reforms law enforcement and justice protocols appropriate to address missing and murdered Native women, and for other purposes. An initial version of the bill passed the Senate on December 6, 2018.[1] It was held by Bob Goodlatte on December 10, 2018.[2]

Savanna's Act
Great Seal of the United States
Other short titlesMMIW Act
Long titleTo update the online data entry format for federal databases relevant to cases of missing and murdered indigenous women.
Acronyms (colloquial)Savanna's Act
Legislative history

The bill, after the 2018–19 United States federal government shutdown reintroduced in 2019 as S.227, was nicknamed after Fargo, North Dakota resident Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind was brutally murdered in August 2017 as an example of the horrific statistics regarding abuse and homicide of Native American women.[3] A related bill on the state level is Hanna's Act in Montana, a bill named after Hanna Harris of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe in Montana, who was 21 years old when she went missing on July 4, 2013.[4][5]

Support and opposition

Initially just a method to improve data collection on missing and murdered Indigenous women to address that crisis for law enforcement bodies on both reservations and non-reservation US territories, modifications to give tribal law enforcement access to federal databases seems to expose a lack of trust on both sides. In this specific case, the woman being pregnant and her baby having been harvested by the murderer, two people went missing: the woman and her baby. To help this act along, the S. 982 Not Invisible Act of 2019 was introduced (since replaced by S. 5087) to the House on the initiative of Deb Haaland and Norma Torres and to the Senate by Catherine Cortez Masto on April 2, 2019 to increase intergovernmental coordination to identify and combat violent crime within Indian lands and of Indians.[6][7][8] It was finally passed by Congress alongside the Not Invisible Act in September 2020.[9] Both acts were signed into law by President Donald Trump.[10]

Legacy

The story of the LaFontaine-Greywind murder was made into an episode of a true crime series on HLN called "Nightmare in Fargo" in 2021.[11]

References
  1. "Savanna's Act". Actions – S.1942 — 115th Congress (2017-2018). Congress. 6 December 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  2. A Single GOP Congressman Is Blocking A Bill To Help Abused Native Women, Huffington Post article by Jennifer Bendery, 12/17/2018
  3. S.1942 on congress.gov
  4. House Bill No. 21 on Montana Legislature website
  5. Addressing Crisis of Missing and Murdered Native Women - NCAI on the website of the National Congress of American Indians
  6. S. 982 on congress.gov
  7. Reps. Haaland, Torres announce U.S. House version of Savanna’s Act, address MMIW efforts on Digital Indigenous News
  8. Opinion: Native Women Are Getting Murdered. This Is How We Stop It, by Catherine Cortez Masto on June 20, 2019 for Vice
  9. Congress Finally Passes Bill To Address Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women 2020 coverage, by Jennifer Bendery, Huffington Post, 21 September 2020
  10. Statement from the Press Secretary Regarding the Signing of Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act White House archives. October 10, 2020.
  11. Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind's murder is the topic of a new true crime series episode, article in local newspaper Park Rapids Enterprise, February 23, 2021
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