New Mexico Indian Affairs Department

For decades, Native women and other women of color were subjected to forced sterilization by the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Health Service. Lawmakers introduced a memorial Tuesday in the Senate Indian, Rural and Cultural Affairs committee to create a truth and reconciliation commission that would conduct a study into the history, and continuing impacts of this abuse.

Human trafficking continues to be a problem in the state. The National Human Trafficking Hotline had 350 reports from New Mexico in 2021, the most recent data available. It’s an issue that also intersects with the 193 missing and murdered Indigenous people here. Two organizations spoke with lawmakers last week about how they could help.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez has convened the task force to continue the work of a group disbanded by the governor last year, to the displeasure of advocates

The public won’t be allowed to make comments at a state-run meeting this week about a crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

Sunday marked the second anniversary for the National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Person’s Awareness Day. The New Mexico Indian Affairs Department partnered with the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women to host an event for families to share their stories with officials – and bring attention to the ongoing crisis.

Among Native American communities, people go missing and experience violence at disproportionately high rates. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) - the first Native cabinet secretary - has been working to implement the Not Invisible Act, which she helped pass as a Congresswoman in 2019. A commission traveled round the country hearing testimony from survivors, advocates, law enforcement and tribal leaders. It released a list of recommendations last November, and now the Departments of Justice and Interior have responded.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced earlier this month the appointment of the former governor of Pueblo de San Ildefonso James R. Mountain to lead the state’s Department of Indian Affairs. As he awaits confirmation by the state Senate in the remaining weeks of the legislative session, New Mexico In Depth’s Bella Davis reports Indigenous women leaders are fighting his nomination.

New Mexico is among the top ten states for the most missing American Indian and Alaskan natives. That’s according to a report from Urban Indian Health Institute, which found Albuquerque was among other cities like Omaha and San Francisco, with the highest number of urban cases.