Why Oregon Needs the Indigenous Persons Alert and Reporting Act

For far too long, Indigenous people who go missing have been treated as invisible by the systems that are supposed to protect us. Families are forced to fight for attention, for paperwork to be filed correctly, for anyone to even take their case seriously. Too often, by the time help arrives, it’s already too late.

That is why myself, and a group of other indigenous community members worked together to write the Indigenous Persons Alert and Reporting Act.

This bill is not just about policy; it is about people. It is about mothers, fathers, siblings, and children who deserve to know that when someone they love disappears, the full weight of the system will move to find them.

What this bill does

The most visible part of this law is the creation of the Salmon Alert System. It works like an Amber Alert, but it is designed specifically for Indigenous people. When an Indigenous person goes missing, an alert would go out immediately, to cell phones, highway signs, social media, and news outlets so the public can help locate them as quickly as possible.

Time saves lives. The Salmon Alert ensures that Indigenous people get the same urgent response that others receive.

But this bill goes much deeper than alerts.

Right now, Indigenous people are often misclassified in police reports and missing-person databases. That means our loved ones are harder to track, easier to overlook, and sometimes never properly counted at all. This law requires that Indigenous people be correctly identified and included in statewide reporting, including people from North, Central, and South America — whether they are Tribal members, refugees, asylum seekers, or migrants. No one should disappear because of paperwork.

Ending jurisdictional chaos

One of the biggest barriers families face is that no one knows who is in charge. Is it the city? The county? The state? The Tribe? The federal government? While agencies argue, families wait.

This bill requires immediate coordination between Tribal, state, and federal authorities, following Tribal leadership. It also requires cultural training led by Indigenous nations, so law enforcement understands who they are working with and how to do it respectfully and effectively.

Supporting families — not just investigations

When someone goes missing, families are thrown into trauma, fear, and confusion. This law requires that support services be provided including

-counseling

-legal assistance

-and victim advocacy

So families don’t have to fight alone while they are already in crisis. It also creates a task force to revisit cold and unsolved cases, because justice does not expire. This bill is retroactive, meaning it applies to past cases too. Those families matter just as much.

Why this matters to me

We wrote this bill because we have seen how Indigenous families are treated when they ask for help. We have seen the dismissiveness, the delays, the excuses. And we have seen how those failures cost lives.

Indigenous communities have always taken care of each other when the system would not. But we should not have to do this alone. We deserve a government that shows up, that acts fast, and that respects our people.

Why Oregon can lead the nation

If Oregon passes this law, we will join California to become a model for the rest of the country. We will show that it is possible to center Indigenous lives in public safety, to respect Tribal sovereignty, and to build systems that actually work.

This law tells every Indigenous child, every Indigenous parent, and every Indigenous elder: You matter. You will not be ignored. You will not be invisible.

That is the Oregon I am fighting for.