Allison Herrera / KOSU
A bill that would allocate resources, collect better data and be a resource for Indigenous families when their loved ones go missing is headed to Gov. Kevin Stitt s desk for a signature.
Senate Bill 172 is also known as Ida s Law, named after 29-year-old Cheyenne-Arapaho woman Ida Beard, who went missing in 2015.
Too often, when an Indigenous person ends up missing or is found murdered, family members have a hard time getting answers from the maze of law enforcement agencies because of jurisdictional complexity. This law aims to solve that by creating the Office of Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons.
State Bill 172, which provides federal funding to address missing and murdered Native Americans, passed in the Oklahoma House on Tuesday and is now eligible for Gov. Kevin Stitt to sign into law, according to an Oklahoma House of Representatives release.
According to the release, the bill, also known as Idaâs Law, provides federal funding to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to help with the investigation of cases involving Native American communities.
Named after Ida Beard â a Native American woman from El Reno, Oklahoma, who went missing in 2015 â the bill will create the Office of Liaison for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons in the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, alongside a database of missing persons reports, according to the release.
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