BISMARCK, N.D. -- The murder of a Native American woman in North Dakota has inspired lawmakers in Congress to introduce a bill aimed at protecting Native women.

The bill from North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is known as Savanna's Act for Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, the pregnant 22-year-old Fargo resident who went missing in August and was later found dead.

Caroline LaPorte, senior policy advisor on native affairs at the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center, said the police response to cases of missing Native American women has been riddled with prejudice. And said often, no report is taken at all. Savanna's Act focuses on this issue.

"It's really supposed to require them to come up with a protocol to address the issue,” LaPorte said. "And that's great and we support the bill, and we supported the bill when it came out. But really, they should be doing that already."

LaPorte said the bill's greatest accomplishment may be raising public awareness of this issue. According to the Department of Justice, Native American women on some reservations are murdered at 10 times the national average, and 84 percent have experienced violence.

Sen. Heitkamp is among those who call these figures an epidemic. But LaPorte contends it's been the status quo for Native American women since the colonization of North America.

LaPorte pointed out another disturbing statistic. Of Native American women who have been sexually assaulted, 96 percent said their assailants include at least one non-native perpetrator. She said that's problematic for native communities because the Supreme Court has ruled tribes don't have jurisdiction to prosecute non-natives for crimes committed on tribal lands.

"Really, what it was, was an inherent stripping of the authority that tribes have based in their sovereignty, which predates the U.S. Constitution,” LaPorte said. "So, it's kind of the fight that we're always fighting in the background - on top of the gender-based violence, we're also always trying to consider those sovereignty pieces."

Jurisdictional lines often cross in cases on reservations, which can make it confusing for local law enforcement to know what authority they have. LaPorte said the federal government often ends up stepping in. She added the many tribal, local, state and federal agencies involved could make implementing Savanna's Act tricky if it passes.


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PORTLAND, Ore. -- Hispanic Heritage Month began this week, and will be celebrated through Oct. 15.

Oregon has a rapidly growing Hispanic population, according to census data, increasing from 450,000 in 2010 to nearly 590,000 in 2020.

Dr. Carlos Romo, a volunteer for AARP Oregon with a Ph.D. in foreign languages and literatures, said the month is a time to reflect.

"I think we simply have to stop and pause to recognize the contributions, the needs that Hispanics have made, are making and are going to be making for our society, for our community in the United States," Romo explained.

Romo noted the Hispanic population is expected to double in Oregon over the next three decades. Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated starting on Sep. 15 because the date coincides with five countries gaining their independence from Spain: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico celebrates its independence today, Sep. 16.

Romo pointed out Spaniards visited Oregon's coast as early as the 16th century. Cowboys from Mexico came to the state in the 19th century, and in the 1940s, the bracero farmworker program brought a Latino workforce to the state.

Romo emphasized Oregon's Hispanic population works in all kinds of sectors today.

"The Oregon Office of Economic Analysis estimates that there's 3,250 Hispanic-owned firms in Oregon," Romo observed. "So there's a rich history, a rich contribution that Hispanics have made here in Oregon."

DENVER - The rate of people experiencing hunger in Colorado and across the U.S. remained statistically steady overall during 2020, according to initial data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But people of color and low-income workers experienced food insecurity at dramatically higher rates during the pandemic.

Geri Henchy, director of nutrition policy at the Food Research and Action Center, said 40% of single-parent households headed by women did not know where their next meal was coming from.

"A lot of single moms were working at jobs that you couldn't do at home," said Henchy. "They lost their jobs during COVID, and some of them can't find child care so they can go back to work. And so all of this results in these households really struggling to put enough food on the table."

Government aid packages boosting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other programs passed with bipartisan support, are credited for keeping overall hunger rates steady as the economy shed some 20 million jobs.

Critics of proposals making their way through Congress to permanently expand supports for struggling families argue that additional spending is not needed, because overall rates remained at just over 10% of U.S. households.

Henchy said she isn't sure the initial data tells the whole story, in part because getting people to respond to surveyors going door to door during a global pandemic was no easy feat. Even if overall hunger rates did remain steady, Henchy said the need continues to be significant.

"There were already unacceptably high rates of food insecurity in the U.S, and those have continued," said Henchy. "So that's 38 million hungry people and hungry households."

Communities of color were also disproportionately impacted in 2020. Black households experienced hunger at three times the rate of white households.

"Basically 22% of black families, and 17% of Latinx households, were impacted by food insecurity," said Henchy. "And that's considerably higher than the rate of white households, which was only 7%."

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- As the nation marks the 20th anniversary of the Sep. 11 attacks, Muslim groups are reflecting on progress in the treatment of American Muslims.

According to the Institute for Policy Studies, the "War on Terror" in the aftermath of 9/11 created a culture that framed Muslims as suspects and taught them to fear the government.

Amina Barhumi, outreach director, Council on American-Islamic Relations-Ohio, said two decades later, many prejudices linger.

"Anti-Muslim discrimination still exists in policies," Barhumi explained. "Secret watch lists still exist. Muslims are oftentimes spoken of from the framework of national security, rather than being ordinary citizens, that just want to live their ordinary American lives."

Roughly 60% of American Muslims reported experiencing religious discrimination between 2016 and 2020. However, a recently released survey of American mosque leaders found fewer than one in five felt American society is hostile to Islam.

There are 1.5 million more Muslims in the U.S. now than in 2007, who account for 1.1% of the overall U.S. population.

Barhumi explained even young Muslims, who weren't alive on 9/11, often face bullying and anti-Muslim content in the classroom. She argued it is important these youths are supported in their religious and cultural identities.

"Young Muslims see themselves as both American and Muslim," Barhumi pointed out. "They no longer should bear the burden of carrying any sort of guilt or shame around 9/11, which is oftentimes how the conversation is being had."

The Family and Youth Institute created an online toolkit to help parents and educators navigate challenging conversations about 9/11 and Islamophobia with young people. It includes information on how to create a safe space for Muslim students, counter bias and better understand the identifies of Muslim youths.

Reporting by Ohio News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.