{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.heitkamp.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/heidi-in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=77897371-B6B8-4EED-A99C-B3061D50FEEC", "Gray TV: Push for federal help in Washington to address issue of missing, murdered Native women", "2017-11-07", "2017", "2017-11", "Democrat", "House", "ND", "Heidi Heitkamp", "H001069", "www.heitkamp.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Peter Zampa \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\tWASHINGTON (Gray DC) -\u00a0Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) is pushing for more attention to be paid to missing and murdered native women. She says these women are facing murder rates well above the national average and not enough is being done to address the issue. She\u2019s pushing legislation that would call on the federal government to implement better practices. A member of a South Dakota tribe says something needs to be done immediately.\r\n\r\nCarmen O'Leary says Native women need to see the same justice as people around the country.\r\n\r\n\u201cNative women deserve justice too,\u201d said Carmen O\u2019Leary, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.\r\nO\u2019Leary says she wants an end to the negligence. She says native women are being murdered and going missing at extremely high rates. O\u2019Leary says not enough is being done to change that.\r\n\u201cI want to take the target off Native women and that there\u2019s consequences for the violence against native women,\u201d said O\u2019Leary.\r\nA federally funded study shows that on some reservations, women are murdered at 10 times the national average, and 84 percent of native women have experienced violence in their lives. O\u2019Leary says the first step is making people aware of the issue.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf we won\u2019t even acknowledge a problem, it\u2019s very hard to come up with solutions,\u201d said O\u2019Leary.\r\n\r\nHeitkamp is trying to get those solutions. She introduced \u201cSavanna\u2019s Act,\u201d named after Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a 22-year old native woman murdered in August.\r\nThe legislation calls for better response protocols for missing and murdered cases, improved access to data and reporting statistics on missing and murdered Native women.\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s critically important that this issue be elevated to a national issue,\u201d said Heitkamp.\r\nHeitkamp says it is up to federal law enforcement to act quickly in these situations and get justice for victims\u2019 families.\r\n\u201cSend the message that you can\u2019t do this with impunity. We are going to catch you, and we are going to prosecute you,\u201d said Heitkamp.\r\nThe legislation currently awaits a vote in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.heitkamp.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/heidi-in-the-news?ContentRecord_id=77897371-B6B8-4EED-A99C-B3061D50FEEC"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6554541178047657, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}