Bill bolstering missing person searches becomes law

Bilings Gazette

Nora Mabie

April 23, 2023

A bill that bolsters community-led searches for missing people was signed into law earlier this week.

Photo by: Billings Gazette-Diana Burd, Jr,

Brought by Rep. Tyson Running Wolf, D-Browning, House Bill 18 establishes a missing persons response team training grant program. Administered through the Department of Justice, local groups can seek financial support from the grant account for formal training, resources, conference fees, travel expenses and more.

The law will take effect in July, and it costs the general fund $61,000. Running Wolf brought a similar bill last session, but it died over objections to the cost.

Indigenous people represent 6.7% of Montana’s population and yet account for, on average, 26% of the state’s active missing persons cases.

In committee hearings, several Missing and Murdered Indigenous People advocates supported the legislation. Diana Burd, Blackfeet, told lawmakers of a community-led search for Arden Pepion, a 3-year-old girl who went missing from the Blackfeet Reservation in 2021.

In her testimony, Burd said the search was chaotic. The search, according to her, lacked a leader, coordination and resources. She said searchers didn't have formal training and didn't know how to organize, how to be efficient or what clues to look for.

“Because of the lack of collaboration,” she testified in January, “(Pepion) was not found.”

In various hearings, Running Wolf stressed that the bill is not just for Native Americans but can benefit all Montanans.

House Bill 163, also brought by Running Wolf, would extend and expand the state’s missing Indigenous persons task force. The bill passed the House and Senate and is pending reconciliation. Rep. Lola Sheldon-Galloway, R-Great Falls, brought a resolution requesting an interim study on missing youth. A Montana Department of Justice report found that in 2021, more than 80% of missing Indigenous people in the state were under the age of 18. Her resolution passed in February.