Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul announced recently the formation of a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force. This is good news to a Northwoods legislator who helped author a bill last fall to bring about this task force.
There was a meeting in Lac du Flambeau last fall to announce the effort to form a task force. Democratic State Senator Janet Bewley of Delta was joined by state representatives Beth Meyers and Amanda Stuck at the meeting. Representative Jeff Mursau of Crivitz also co-sponsored the bill.
Bewley says after the measure was introduced in the legislature it died there. So she was pleased to see Kaul bringing it back...
"I'm thrilled that the Attorney General agrees with quite a few of the people in the native communities and law enforcement throughout the area. We need to find a way to understand what this problem is..."
Bewley says they need more data to understand the scope of the problem and to face the issue. Bewley says getting the right people on the task force is important...
"What is significant is representation not only by tribal communities themselves but by women who have been exploited. I know there are women out there who are brave and will come forward and help us with their stories and their information..."
Native American women are murdered and sexually assaulted at rates as high as 10 times the average in certain counties in the United States.
