A Proposed Washington Cold Case Unit Will Focus on Native Americans. Washington state lawmakers have proposed a bill to address the disproportionate number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and people in the state, partnering with state Attorney General Bob Ferguson to create a cold case investigations unit to solve the crimes. The proposed legislation would create an investigative unit within the attorney general’s office to assist local and tribal law enforcement with unsolved cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people. According to the state attorney general’s office, Indigenous victims comprise 5% of the state’s unresolved homicides while making up less than 2% of the population — a disparity likely more significant due to data and reporting issues, the office said.
A Native American interpretive ranger program is being sponsored by entities in Sheridan County in Wyoming. Federal, state, and local nonprofit organizations in Sheridan County have formed a partnership to sponsor a Native American interpretive ranger program this summer. It will allow funding for two college students to be rangers at Fort Phil Kearny as well as the Wagon Box Fight site and the Fetterman Battlefield, sites managed by staff from Fort Phil Kearny. The partnership is between the Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association, the Bighorn National Forest, and Fort Phil Kearny State Historic Site, and the Wyoming Humanities Council.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.
