PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The South Dakota House has passed a proposal to create an office under the attorney general to coordinate tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies in tackling the crisis of missing Indigenous people.
Democrat Rep. Peri Pourier, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, proposed the office as part of an effort to solve how a disproportionate number of Indigenous people go missing and are murdered in the state.
She says that of 179 missing people statewide, 77 are Indigenous.
Pourier’s bill creates a one-person office within the attorney general’s office to specialize in coordinating and training law enforcement across agencies.
