Searching for Justice

Opening image by Jon Labillois, used with permission.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) represents an international movement to bring urgent recognition and demand justice for the  disappearances and murders of Native women and girls . MMIWG is portrayed by  the use of the red hand over a mouth; this image symbolizes the voices of women who have been silenced .  Sheila North Wilson , former Grand Chief of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Inc., began to use the hashtag #MMIW on social media, and other groups soon followed.

The movement began with First Nations women and their families in Canada calling on the Canadian government to investigate the alarming rates of MMIW (the G was added later to note the effects on girls). Organizations like  Native Women’s Association, Amnesty International Canada, KAIROS, Elizabeth Fry Society, the United Church and the Anglican Church came together and formed the National Coalition for our Stolen Sisters  in 2002.

Founded in  December 2015 ,  the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls  of Canada covers all forms of violence —  sexual assault, child abuse, domestic violence, bullying and harassment, suicide, and self-harm . The  pre-inquiry process  lasted from December 2015 to May 2016 and included meetings with families of survivors in order to ensure their voices were being heard. The inquiry itself began on September 1, 2016, and concluded on June 30, 2019, with the Canadian government pledging $53.86 million CAD to the inquiry. The National Inquiry sought to build on previous studies and reports about violence against Indigenous women in Canada, in which  approximately 1700 recommendations  had been put forth to proactively address and prevent violence against Native women and girls in Canada.

 May 5th  is the United States' National Day of Remembrance for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls; Canada does its remembrance on October 4th. May 5th honors the birthday of Hanna Harris and other missing and murdered American Indian and Alaskan Native women. Hanna Harris was a 21-year-old Northern Cheyenne woman who went missing on July 3, 2013. Law enforcement wanted to wait until after the July 4th holiday to start their search, but a  community search party  proceeded instead to search for Hanna. On July 8, 2013, her body was found in Lame Deer, Montana. 

Awareness about MMIWG has grown in the United States, with organizers leading  marches, lobbying lawmakers, and partnering with local organizations , including the  Urban Indian Health Institute  based in Seattle, Washington, to demand justice and document the systemic nature of this human rights issue. By lobbying and applying pressure on American local, state, and federal governments, U.S. Congress passed MMIWG legislation known as the  Savanna’s Act in 2020 . It was named after Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a 22-year-old pregnant member of the Spirit Lake Tribe, who went missing on  August 19, 2017, in Fargo, North Dakota . Five days later on  August 24, 2017 , her baby was found alive in the possession of their upstairs neighbor. Three days later on  August 27, 2017 , kayakers found her body floating in the nearby Red River.  This Act requires the U.S. Department of Justice to develop law enforcement protocols  to address missing or murdered Native Americans, provide training to law enforcement agencies and assistance to tribal police, implement a strategy to educate the public on MMIWG, outreach to tribal organizations, and report accurate statistics on MMIWG.  

In April 2021, newly appointed Secretary of the Interior,  Deb Haaland – enrolled member of the Laguna Pueblo – announced the formation  of the Missing and Murdered Unit (MMU) within the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services (BIA-OJS).

 The American Indian Resource Center at the University of California (UC), Santa Cruz , organizes an annual public event to honor MMIWG. The annual event includes background information about the MMIWG crisis as well as sobering statistics that underscore the severity of the issue. AIRC also provides the audience with information about any legislation and other advocacy work in collaboration with or on behalf of those directly affected. 

AIRC staff and interns hoped to further the research and advocacy component of their work in preparation for their annual MMIWG event in May 2020. In learning about the  Human Rights Investigations (HRI) Lab at UC Santa Cruz , a partnership formed in which the crisis of MMIWG could include an online open source research component. Having to postpone initially working together due to the COVID-19 pandemic, AIRC and the HRI Lab started to work closely in the design of this research starting in Fall 2020; this collaboration involved several meetings and regular email communication. Fortunately, Jemzi Ortiz, the Program Coordinator at the AIRC and a Northern Cheyenne tribal member, joined the research team as a human rights investigator and was the interlocutor between the two units.

The research team obtained training in online open source research by experts in the field, including from  Bellingcat , a leading collective of global experts in open source investigations. For this particular investigation, the research team collected and analyzed data from the following sources:

• social media outlets like Facebook and Instagram, 
• databases like NamUS and police records,
• tribal websites, and
• online news articles. 

We also  used techniques  such as social media discovery, geolocation, chronolocation, network analysis, and digital mapping for this investigation.

Since October 2020, the research team met every week to discuss our research progress. These times ensured we felt safe and had community while navigating this difficult material. Weekly meetings began with a check-in on everyone’s mental and emotional health. We even began some meetings with meditation or games to encourage mental and emotional wellness. Dr. Rebecca Hernandez, the AIRC Director, led a presentation for the team about Native issues particular to the United States to ensure we would conduct this research with an appropriate understanding of context. Throughout the research process, we met with Dr. Hernandez to provide updates as needed and to practice transparency as well as obtain feedback, suggestions, and advice. Dr. Hernandez opened our virtual spaces with a prayer to protect us during the investigation.

To begin identifying the direction of this research we followed relevant social media hashtags, such as, #mmiw #NoMoreStolenSisters #NotInvisible #mmiwg #mmiwg2s. We then monitored the cases that were coming to our attention through this early discovery phase. We would then spend time searching for online news articles and tribal websites to see if anything else had been written about this missing or murdered person. To determine if a case would be considered MMIWG, we took the cues from the community: if a family or community member of their tribe said that their relative was a case of MMIWG, we marked it as so. Put another way, the Human Rights Investigations Lab at UC Santa Cruz respects the families of the victims involved and considers it a MMIWG case if the family does too.

In the early weeks of this investigation, the research team consulted with AIRC on the direction of the research based on what the team discovered in the preliminary research stage. From this consultation, the research team directed their focus on local tribal communities based in Northern California, close to our area of Santa Cruz county.

During our research, we learned about the Sovereign Bodies Institute (SBI) ground-breaking report titled “To' Kee Skuy' Soo Ney-Wo-Chek': I Will See You Again in a Good Way,” published in July 2020 and included 105 cases of MMIWG in Northern California, dating all the way back to 1900, with 87% of the documented cases occurring after 1980. This report provided a tremendous amount of guidance for our work, including further context into the complicated history of MMIWG.  Sovereign Bodies Institute  is located in Humboldt, California, in Northern California. They published a second progress report in July 2021.

Our investigation prioritized three tribes -- the Hoopa Valley Tribe, Yurok Tribe, and Round Valley Tribe -- which were shown in the  SBI 2020 report to be “the most highly represented” in their research of the “28 tribes represented among the victims ” (see page 44 of the 2020 SBI report). We conducted background research on each of the three tribes -- Yurok, the largest tribal reservation and population in Northern California; Hoopa Valley, the largest reservation in California spatially, and the Round Valley, which includes several tribes (see map below). This background research helped our team understand the tribe, its geographic location, history, and current issues including the "Emerald Triangle,"  the Klamath dam , and MMIWG. The research team created digital maps for each reservation, focusing on various places of interest such as schools, casinos, campsites, bars, dispensaries, and hotels. We also created a map of key locations pertaining to the MMIWG cases, such as the location of the last residence or site where the crime may have occurred.

"People don't pay attention to Native women because maybe they think it's their fault what happened to them. But I can't give up on my mom." – Charlene (daughter of Sumi Juan, MMIWG victim from Hoopa Valley Reservation, CA).

California has its own unique and lengthy ongoing history of settler colonialism in the United States, beginning with Spanish intervention in the southern region of California and continuing in Northern California during the Gold Rush Era. California state policies have historically set the precedent that Native livelihoods are not important. One example of such policies is the  1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians , which  legalized forced labor and sexual exploitation  of Indigenous peoples in the state and determined that  white settlers could not be convicted of any offense upon the testimony of a Native person .

California has 109 federally recognized tribes with  78 additional communities petitioning for recognition , and “ [a]ccording to most recent census data, California is home to more people of Native American/ Alaska Native heritage than any other state in the country .” Over one-half of California’s Native population consists of individuals forcibly relocated to urban areas following the United States’ relocation and termination policies. Due to the  Four Reservations Act of 1864 , an act that stated there should be no more than four reservations in the state of California, many tribal members were relocated to other tribes’ reservations, leading to multi-tribal reservations today. Some remained in urban areas.

The Rancheria Act of 1958 led to the termination of federal status for 44 California tribes. During the missionary period, rancherias were  separate settlements sponsored by missions , and remain today akin to tribal reservations.  According to a 1996 report released by UCLA , twelve tribes which were terminated during this period have remained officially unrestored, affecting over 80,000 individuals. These federally terminated tribes, as stated in the UCLA report, were expected to “assimilate” to “American” norms as Congress falsely promised “improved roads, water systems, sanitation facilities, and vocational schools before the termination would become effective.” These promises were largely unkept, and communities still residing on terminated rancheria lands endured inadequate living conditions. 

According to a  report by the Urban Indian Health Institute , federal recognition affects the investigations and tracking of MMIWG cases, especially in urban areas, due to race misclassification and lack of support by official investigation services. According to California-based research conducted by SBI about MMIWG2, in which the number 2 refers to two-spirit people, “Approximately two-thirds of identified [California] cases occurred in Northern California, and 15% of cases occurred specifically in the Yurok tribal service area” ( see page 34  of the 2020 SBI report).

In the 2020 SBI report, an anonymous participant remarked on the community responsibility in MMIWG cases stating,

"If it takes a tribe to raise a child, it takes a tribe to traffick one. You know, if it takes a frickin tribe to heal one person, it's going to take that entire tribe to also hurt them."

To contextualize our investigation focused on Northern California, we spent time researching specific tribal histories in the state. The Yurok, Hoopa Valley, and Round Valley Reservations are the three largest ones in the Northern California region and are the primary focus of this investigation.

Research demonstrates that jurisdiction in the context of the MMIWG crisis is a significant issue that touches the lives of nearly every Native person. Even though jurisdiction seems to not have been a primary factor in the cases discussed in this ArcGIS StoryMap, the challenges of jurisdiction on Native lives remain prominent. California has the sixth-highest number of MMIWG cases (1).

This section discusses three themes: (a) jurisdiction as a settler’s project and as “domestic dependent sovereignty,” (b) jurisdiction in domestic violence cases, and (c) the urgent need to protect Native women from violence.

Jurisdiction as a Settler's Project and "Domestic Dependent Sovereignty"

The history of colonization and settler-colonialism in the Americas plays a large role in the MMIWG crisis and to what extent cases are properly investigated. Since the colonization of the Americas, Indigenous peoples have faced injustice and violence at the hands of the settlers. The restrictions and loss of sovereignty resulting from colonization have impacted the ways in which tribal members are able to seek justice due to the difficulties and complexities existing around jurisdiction. Despite the U.S. Supreme Court recognizing Indian Tribes as sovereign units, the federal government maintains its power to “encroach on Indian tribal sovereignty when necessary to protect tribes” (2). If at least one person isn’t Native American in a crime, then tribal police have no jurisdiction at all over the case.

As described by lawyer Stacie S. Polashuk, there are numerous inquiries when considering which entity – tribal, state, or federal – gets jurisdiction over a case. First, if a case did not occur within reservation lands, state courts generally have jurisdiction. Second, if the state in which an incident occurs is a Public Law 280 state, federal courts do not have jurisdiction, and instead, state and tribal courts have concurrent jurisdiction and the case is prosecuted through the District Attorney’s office. If the incident occurred on tribal reservation land, law enforcement must assess who the key actors are before determining who has jurisdiction over the case. If the perpetrator of a conflict is Native, tribal and state courts have concurrent jurisdiction. If the victim is Native and the perpetrator is non-Native, state courts have full jurisdiction (3). Importantly, as reported in a  fact sheet by Futures Without Violence , “A larger percent of victimization against American Indian and Alaskan Native women are committed by white offenders compared to American Indian and Alaska Native offenders” (4).

These complicated determinations of jurisdiction contribute directly to the lack of justice in the MMIWG crisis, and contribute to what Rebecca A. Hart and M. Alexander Lowther both refer to as “domestic dependent sovereign” status (5). This term signifies that for the settlers, tribal sovereignty is subordinate, meaning tribal governments must operate below the federal system in a capacity that is separate from the federal nation yet still within it (6). 

This belief of subordination came to influence the creation of laws and federal acts such as the Major Crimes Act (MCA) and Public Law 83-280 (PL 280), adopted in 1953 and amended in 1968, which have changed how and to whom jurisdiction is assigned. Both Hart and Lowther explain how states and local law enforcement agencies in PL 280 states often have weak and inadequate administration over crimes committed in Native Country (7). These structural weaknesses are counterintuitive to finding justice for victims of the MMIWG crisis. They can create complications in cases, especially when jurisdiction lines are unclear. In addition to complications created, to restrict tribal jurisdiction is to uphold the colonial idea that tribal communities are unable to govern themselves using their own practices and processes. Another example of a legal manifestation of the settler’s subordination of tribal sovereignty is the creation of the Courts of Indian Offenses (CFR Courts) under the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in the 1880s, which prevented Native tribes from practicing traditional customs (8). Today, CFR Courts operate as placement courts for tribes who do not have their own operating court systems (9).

Restoring sovereignty and self-determination to Native peoples would aid in the strengthening of Native identities and communities (10). The gaps that become apparent in jurisdiction disputes expose the structures and policies created by a settler-colonial nation-state, which allow for people to exploit these gaps, and therefore cause harm to Indigenous communities. These gaps result in the perpetuation of the following: 

• Underreporting 
• Racial misclassification 
• Poor relationships between law enforcement and Native communities
• Poor record keeping protocols and lack of data sharing
• Institutional racism in media
• Lack of relationship between Native communities and journalists

The assignment of jurisdiction is a complex process, one that can often restrict the amount of influence and dominion that tribal authorities actually hold in MMIWG cases. Ultimately, communities maintain that there is a continuous need for the revitalization and extension of tribal sovereignty. 

Jurisdiction in Domestic Violence Cases

 As apparent in statistics compiled by Futures Without Violence  and supported by our investigation into two cases discussed below -- Khadijah Britton and possibly Angela McConnell -- domestic violence is a pervasive issue within tribal communities, and the legal processes of addressing intimate violence is a complex terrain.  By legal definition , domestic violence includes physical harm, emotional abuse, sexual violence, and forms of harassment such as stalking. Approximately 75% of intimate violence cases (including current and former spouses and partners) against American Indians involve a non-Indian perpetrator (11). Determining jurisdiction in cases of domestic violence including tribal actors is complicated due to the cumbersome system of distributing jurisdiction (see previous section); these complications lead to “ conflict and confusion for law enforcement, prosecution, courts, service providers, and crime victims in Indian Country  (12).  As a result, non-Indians who commit misdemeanor acts of domestic violence on Indian reservations are virtually immune from prosecution in most areas of the country. This is because the Supreme Court has held that tribal governments may not prosecute non-Indians " (bold emphasis added) (13).

Federal acts such as the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the VAWA Reauthorization Act, and the Stand Against Violence and Empower Native Women (SAVE) Act have attempted to render tribal jurisdiction over domestic and dating violence cases as well as with cases involving non-Native offenders. Passed in 2013, VAWA aims to minimize the jurisdictional gap and provide tribes with increased sovereignty by allowing Native communities to have jurisdiction over domestic violence cases that occur on their land, regardless of the identities of those involved. This does not result in a clearer path towards accountability per se; determining jurisdiction results in time wasted in investigating a matter, whether it be about domestic violence, MMIWG, or both. 

The Urgent Need to Protect Native Women from Violence

While undoubtedly complicated and difficult to tackle, the issue of jurisdiction is of high importance as it can lead to devastating situations in which families and communities are unable to achieve accountability and resolution for their loved ones on matters of violence. The jurisdictional gaps created through the U.S. settler-colonial judicial system contributes to Indigenous women being less protected and more vulnerable to violence: "Over 85% of perpetrators in rape and sexual assault against Native American women are described by their victims as 'non-Indian;'" Native American people are twice as likely to face violence, and there are explicit attempts to undermine the sovereignty of tribal communities (14). It is imperative to address the means in which tribal communities wish to seek justice.

Sources

1. Farris, Jeanne, "Restoring the Power of a Free Mind and Body: End the Violence Against Women," News from Native California Magazine, Volume 33, Issue 2, Winter 2019-2020. Accessed May 19, 2021,  http://www.jeanneferris.com/articles/FreeMind.pdf .
2. Stacie S. Polashuk, "Following the Lead of the Indian Child Welfare Act: Expanding Tribal Court Jurisdiction Over Native American Juvenile Delinquents," Southern California Law Review 69, nos. 1191, 1192 (1996).
3. Shelbourne, Talis, “Chapter Six: Jurisdiction and Justice in Indian Country,” Media Milwaukee, June 14, 2019, Accessed May 20, 2021,  https://missing2019.mediamilwaukee.com/tribal-law-jurisdiction-crime-indian-missing/ .
4. See Bachman, Ronet, Heather Zaykowski, Rachel Kallmyer, Margarita Poteyeva, and Christina Lanier, "Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and the Criminal Justice Response: What is known." Report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice, 2008: 38. Accessed May 19, 2021,  https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/223691.pdf  .  See also "The Facts on Violence Against American Indian/Alaskan Native Women" Fact Sheet by Futures Without Violence,  https://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/userfiles/file/Violence%20Against%20AI%20AN%20Women%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf .
5. Hart, Rebecca A., and M. Alexander Lowther. "Honoring Sovereignty: Aiding Tribal Efforts to Protect Native American Women from Domestic Violence." California Law Review 96, no. 1 (2008): 185-233. Accessed May 19, 2021,  http://www.jstor.org/stable/20439173 . 
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. U.S. Department of the Interior Indian Affairs, “Tribal Court Systems.” Accessed May 19, 2021,  https://www.bia.gov/CFRCourts/tribal-justice-support-directorate .
10. Hart, Rebecca A., and M. Alexander Lowther. "Honoring Sovereignty: Aiding Tribal Efforts to Protect Native American Women from Domestic Violence." California Law Review 96, no. 1 (2008): 193. 
11. Greenfeld, Lawrence & Smith, Steven. American Indians and Crime. Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, February 1999. NCJ 173386. Accessed May 19, 2021,  http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/aic.pdf .
12. As referenced in the Futures Without Violence Fact Sheet: Valencia-Weber, G., and C. P. Zuni, “Domestic Violence and Tribal Protection of Indigenous Women in the United States.” St. John’s Law Review 69:69 (1995): 16.
13. As referenced in the Futures Without Violence Fact Sheet: See Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe, 435 U.S. 191 (1978). See also "Honoring Sovereignty." 
14. Hart, Rebecca A., and M. Alexander Lowther. "Honoring Sovereignty: Aiding Tribal Efforts to Protect Native American Women from Domestic Violence." California Law Review 96, no. 1 (2008): 188-89.

"'Disappear' is not a strong enough word to describe what has happened and is happening to Indigenous women. It's more like we are invisible, and then we become erased."– Chelsea Tayrien Hicks (Osage Nation of Oklahoma, as quoted in Indian Country Today)

Throughout this section of our report, we will refer to Khadijah Britton, Angela McConnell, and Sunni Jo Grant, and those highlighted in the interactive map below by their first names. Throughout our investigation, it felt impersonal and inappropriate to refer to them by their last names only, as many official investigative forces traditionally do; we felt closely connected to these women after months of investigating their cases. They are people, women, daughters, sisters, cousins, nieces, and friends, and we feel we are honoring those relationships when saying their names. 

The many injustices and harm committed against people of color and Black women particularly is undeniable. The #SayHerName campaign, founded by Andrea J. Ritchie and Kimberlé Crenshaw, is used frequently when discussing women like Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, Oluwatoyin Salau, and Ma’Khia Bryant. We join this community call as there is power in saying and repeating a name. We say Khadijah, Angela, and Sunni's names with the utmost respect and honor for their communities and families.  

Khadijah “Dij” Rose Britton, a member of the Wailacki Tribe of the Round Valley Indian Reservation, was born and raised in Covelo, California. She was  born on April 22, 1994 , and was just 23 years old at the time of her disappearance on February 7, 2018. Khadijah’s parents are Connie Hostler and Jerry Britton Jr., her grandparents are Lydia and Ronnie Hostler, and she has a younger sibling. She graduated from Round Valley High School in 2012, and according to her friend, Khadijah started using drugs regularly and began drinking heavily after she began dating Negie Tony Fallis IV around 2014. Khadijah's stepmother, Andrea Oliver, filed the missing person’s report for Khadijah on February 10, 2018.

The interactive timeline below highlights key moments in Khadijah's case. Click the arrow on the right to go through the timeline or click the box on the top right to open the timeline in a new tab.

According to a  video of a December 6, 2018 press conference by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office (MSCO) and family members , Negie Tony Fallis IV, Khadijah’s former boyfriend, has been the “main investigative lead” with regards to Khadijah’s disappearance. Fallis and his girlfriend, Antonia Bautista-Dalson,  reportedly  pulled up around midnight in a  black Mercedes sedan  to a  "weathered beige home”  where Khadijah was at the time, armed with a small Derringer pistol. Fallis allegedly assaulted Khadijah and shoved her into the car, and Bautista-Dalson promptly drove away. Khadijah has not been seen since this incident.

Just days prior to Khadijah’s February 7, 2018, disappearance, she filed a domestic violence report against Fallis after he allegedly assaulted her with a hammer.  According to an MCSO immediate press release  following Khadijah’s disappearance, Fallis was also wanted for a January 2018 domestic violence incident involving Khadijah. Khadijah's mother, Connie Hostler, had been worried about her daughter’s safety, as reported in a May 11, 2018,  Press Democrat article . In that same article, Hostler described an unsettling incident prior to her disappearance that led Andrea Oliver, Khadjiah’s stepmother, to call the police. Khadijah provided the police with an incident statement at that time, but just hours before her disappearance, Khadijah told the police that  she did not want to press charges against Fallis . Khadijah’s family believes Fallis may have coerced her into withdrawing the police incident statement against him.

"Why is my granddaughter still missing?"– Ronnie Hostler (Khadijah's grandfather, at the AVCP's Listen to Herstory: Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women event, November 23, 2019).

Andrea Oliver reported Khadijah missing on  February 10, 2018 , after not hearing from her stepdaughter Khadijah for nearly three days.  Tribal police did not suspect foul play until two days after the February 10 missing person’s report . Over one week later, on  February 19, 2018 , the police charged Fallis in Khadijah’s case with assault, kidnapping, first degree burglary, threats to commit a crime resulting in death or great bodily injury, attempted murder, and being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. Fallis pleaded not guilty. 

On February 20, 2018, MCSO  posted on Facebook a correction to Fallis's age .

On March 11, 2018, MCSO  posted on Facebook  all the agencies that helped look for Khadijah, which included search and rescue teams from nearby Sonoma and Marin Counties, as well as CAL FIRE, community volunteers, and even animal rescue teams.

"May the people who know what happened to Dij be haunted by her beautiful face and big brown eyes with every breath that they take. When they close their eyes to sleep may they see her as they left her. When they go out in public may they look over their shoulder as they wonder when Karma will strike them. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe 10-15 years from now, may your involvement with her disappearance haunt you."– Laura Betts (Khadijah's aunt, Facebook post, May 13, 2018)

A few months later, on  June 4, 2018,  authorities dropped most charges against Fallis due to lack of evidence and cooperation. Neither Fallis nor possible witnesses were cooperating in the investigation of Khadijah’s disappearance. However, the possession of a gun and ammunition charges remained. Due to the reduced charges, bail dropped from  $400,000 to $35,000  and Fallis was released until his October 2018 court date. 

In August 2018,  police arrested Antonia Bautista-Dalson , girlfriend of Fallis, for felony suspicion of harboring or concealing a wanted felon (Fallis). In October 2018, a judge sentenced Bautista-Dalson to eighteen months in jail and eighteen months of parole. Bautista-Dalson was also ordered to have no contact with Fallis and ordered to attend an inpatient drug rehabilitation program after pleading no contest to the charge. Also in  October 2018 , the judge sentenced Fallis to a four-year state prison sentence after he pled no contest to the felony charge against him. 

Since California is a  Public Law 280  state, crimes involving a Native victim and Native perpetrator are investigated under tribal and state jurisdiction, meaning the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) does not have jurisdiction over the case. With the request of the MCSO though, the  FBI opened a Domestic Police Cooperation Case , allowing for the  FBI's Evidence Response Team  and the  Cellular Analysis Survey Team (CAST)  to support the Tribal Police and MCSO in Khadijah’s investigation. As of December 6, 2018, MCSO claimed to be meeting with the FBI monthly to discuss the case.

According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System ( NamUs ), a federal database funded by the U.S. Department of Justice for “ missing, unidentified, and unclaimed persons. ” Khadijah's case has been assigned to Clint Wyant, a detective working for the MCSO. The records did not clearly indicate when this transition occurred.

 The local TV ABC News affiliate  reported that the MCSO and Mendocino County Search and Rescue finally drained a pond "within a third-mile of the home she was kidnapped from," looking for Khadijah's body, on Monday, March 11, 2019, one year after Khadijah's disappearance. As reported by the local ABC News affiliate: “Investigators say during a recent search of the area, a  K9 showed interest in the pond area in January  so they decided to look further. The MCSO requested the Round Valley Indian Tribal Council let them drain the pond, which was granted. A plan was developed and the pond was drained with several large water pumps.”

Investigators did not find her body in the pond and she remains missing. 

During our investigation, we confirmed  Fallis is currently detained  again, but on a different felony charge for possession of two firearms and ammunition. Fallis had a sentencing appointment on May 25, 2021, according to  an online court calendar for Judge William Alsup , and is scheduled for another sentencing appointment on June 7, 2021.

The lack of stable employment at the tribal police enforcement is also a barrier for justice in this case. For example, according to an  MCSO press conference , Vincent Cordova from the Round Valley Indian Tribal Police was in charge of the case as of 2018, but he is not currently listed as staff on  the tribe's website . According to the tribe’s website, The Round Valley Indian Tribal Police currently does not have a Chief of Police on duty. Also suggesting instability for the tribal law enforcement, Ronnie Hostler noted at the Sacramento event – mentioned above from November 23, 2019 – that the Tribal Police had five officers employed,  Sgt. Vince Cordova, CJ Bettega, Coleman Britton, Rosento Cordova, and Cole Rabano . The website’s list of staff names only two officers though, as of May 2021: Cole Rabano and Coleman Britton. Although tribal police are more familiar with the terrain, they were not able to take lead when their tribal member was missing, and instead, Mendocino County Sheriff took the lead in the investigation.

Sheriff Tom Allman from MCSO, a lead on Khadijah’s case,  r  etired in late 2019 . Since MCSO has jurisdiction over Khadijah’s case, Allman leaving the force with the case still open potentially creates another obstacle for finding Khadijah. High staff turnover along with a lack of sufficient personnel could lead to the loss of evidence and an inability to pursue credible leads.

A Facebook post by Khadijah’s aunt, Laura Betts, posted on May 13, 2018, states that a friend of Khadijah’s heard a woman yelling on the night of Khadijah’s disappearance: “you killed her and ruined MY life.” An individual (name redacted) confirmed this and posted below, “I was on  Crawford  [Road] and the yelling came from  tabor  (sic) [Lane],” which is less than one mile from where Khadijah was last seen. Who was the woman yelling and had the police located and interviewed her?

According to public comments from family members, a lack of cooperation existed between the family and investigators from the beginning of this case. In general, the community seems to believe that the police did not take the case as seriously as they should have, even initially suggesting she was not truly missing.

Laura Betts, Khadijah’s aunt, also expressed her dissatisfaction of the handling of her case in an interview on a  podcast called “The Vanished ” on October 14, 2018. After giving the police a list of places to go check out, the aunt said the police were not interested in the case, saying things such as: "'Well she probably just got back with him and she's hiding from her mom and dad. And we'll go to these houses but you guys wait here.’ They kept asking the police for updates on the police response would be 'no, she's not missing and she's just hiding out from her mom and dad.'”

Furthermore, during the " Vanished" podcast  Betts reveals a disturbing piece of information. She states that Fallis’s mother was said to be acting strangely following Khadijah’s disappearance; the mother was allegedly seen burning dead dogs in a barrel, hosing down her house, and repainting. When police questioned Fallis’s mother about this behavior, she claimed to be just remodeling. How did the police reconcile this claim with the allegations made?

There was also a lack of compliance and monitoring of the connection between Negie Fallis and Antonia Bautista-Dalson, his current girlfriend.  She was court-ordered to not be in contact with Fallis , but they have since been seen together and have had one to two children following Khadijah’s disappearance, according to the Vanished podcast.

Apparently  the car Khadijah was taken in  was burned for an unknown reason. In addition,  Ronnie Hostler , Khadijah’s grandfather, stated three tribal police officers were closely related to Fallis, raises several questions about the quality and integrity of the investigation. Ronnie Hostler discussed the case of his grandaughter at a  public event posted on YouTube  on November 23, 2019, at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sacramento. There, he claimed that three of the tribal police officers were closely related to Fallis and expressed that this family connection might have interfered with the conduct of the investigation:

“I don't know if any one of them tried to find this guy. Because three of them are related to him; have close relations. So there was no interest there for them. This was our Round Valley Indian Police.” 

Hostler believes Khadijah was killed because she may have known sensitive information about previous crimes Fallis committed. Was Khadijah’s withdrawal of the police statement possibly coerced because she had criminal information about Fallis?

Lastly, on December 29, 2020, Khadijah’s mother, Connie,  posted to Facebook , expressing frustration about her daughter’s still unsolved case, especially when compared to another case in which the police seemed to respond more assertively. She said, "Why didn't my baby get the same treatment? I hear and read people's comments about prejudice treatment but I always try to think different about it but it is really starting to look like that. Please prove me wrong MCSO, please! (sic)."

On February 7, 2021, a  Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Rally  was held for the third anniversary of Khadijah’s disappearance. Family, friends, activists, community members, and MCSO officers all joined together to “say her name” in front of the Mendocino County Sheriff Office of Ukiah, CA. The Anthropology department from  Chico State University  filmed the event “for its research into the lives of California's native population.”

Khadijah's grandfather Ronnie Hostler attended the rally and thanked the community for their support. Another attendee was Jesse Armstong, a #MMIW activist, who went on  Facebook Live  during the MMIW rally when a woman spoke about domestic violence and the fight to protect Indigenous women and girls. Here, Jesse shared that on May 1, 2021, there is a planned motorcycle run where markers will be posted of missing and murdered women’s faces: Khadijah will be included in the first mile and every mile following.

The next day on February 8, 2021, detectives from the MCSO provided an update on Khadijah’s case at a  virtual press conference . Sheriff Matthew C. Kendall led the press conference with Khadijah’s mother, Connie Britton, by his side. He shared that he is a long-time friend of Khadijah’s mother and was speaking on her behalf. He gave an outline and timeline of what happened to Khadijah, and introduced the FBI Assistant Special Agent in charge of the San Francisco Division, Scott Schelble; they stated that they have been working together since the start of the investigation. They encouraged people to speak up if they know anything regarding Khadijah’s case and highlighted how the case will only be solved if the community helps.

The FBI also renewed calls for information on Khadijah’s disappearance, announcing an increase in the reward amount by $10,000 USD.  As stated in this February 5, 2021, Press Democrat article , the FBI’s reward is “about $100,000 in reward money to be put up in the disturbing disappearance and is part of a renewed effort to shake loose information that may help investigators learn what became of her.” For MCSO officer Matt Kendall, Fallis remains “my best person of interest” in Khadijah's case.

 Angela “Ang” Lynne McConnell  was a member of the Hoopa Valley tribe and was also of Mohave, Yurok, and Karuk descent. Angela’s given name in the Hupa language was Litsow and  she was born on December 20, 1991 . Angela’s immediate family includes her mother, Tammy Carpenter, and her younger brother Richie Carpenter. Michael Bingham, 31 years old, was her long-time partner and was also killed during the same incident as Angela. At 26 years old, Angela was studying to pursue a nursing degree, possibly at the  College of the Redwoods , and her goal was to become a journalist and creative writer. In her free time, she was a volunteer at the local radio station  KIDE-FM .

At one point, Angela lived on the Hoopa Valley Reservation with her mother, though it is unclear if her partner also lived with them. Angela’s mother, Tammy Carpenter, now  works for the Sovereign Bodies Institute  and continues to advocate for her daughter and other MMIWG and their families.

Angela was the niece of  Albert and Melanie Bender , both of whom are contributors to the progressive news site  People’s World . Melanie  authored an article dedicated to Angela, highlighting a one-year memorial gathering in Hoopa, California . Albert wrote two articles about his niece:  one in 2020 about the two-year anniversary of Angela’s death , and a  second article  for the May 5, 2021, National Day of MMIWG Awareness.

Michael Bingham’s father, Michael Bingham Sr, found his son Michael Bingham, Jr. and Angela  deceased  at the age of 26 on Friday, September 7, 2018. Michael Jr. was Angela’s (non-Native) boyfriend. In an  interview with the local ABC TV News affiliate , KRCR, on September 11, 2018, Angela’s cousin, Darin Marshall, Jr., stated Michael’s father was the first to find them.  Eighteen deputies from Shasta County were on the scene to respond  at around 12:15 pm on September 7, 2018. According to a February 21, 2021,  Red Justice Project podcast episode  about Angela’s case, the sheriff’s department initially used Facebook to identify her body,  then officially identified her through fingerprint analysis .

In the  KRCR interview mentioned above  from September 11, 2018, Angela’s cousin, Darin Marshall, Jr., claimed that the deputies did not contact Angela’s relatives to inform them of her passing; Michael’s sister, Kristina Bingham, was the first to notify them.

Kristina Bingham posted to Facebook on September 3, 2019, nearly one year after the murders, stating that she at one point lived across the street from the site of Angela and Michael’s deaths, and claims she would have “killed [the] killer as they were walking out” if she were still there.

Status of Official Investigation into Angela's Murder

As of June 2021, there is no public suspect in the death of Angela, and autopsy reports have not been released to the public. It has been over two years with no justice since the 2018 double homicide of Angela McConnell and her boyfriend, Michael Bingham. 

 According to a People's World article from September 27, 2019, written by Melanie Bender , Angela’s aunt, Angela’s case is still open with Deputy Sheriff Kody Broner as the lead investigator. Autopsies for both Angela and Michael have been pursued, but no results have since been released to the public or the families, as noted by Kristina Bingham in her Facebook post from September 3, 2019, mentioned above. 

According to the 2020  Sovereign Bodies Year report , Angela’s mother, Tammy Carpenter, has been kept in the dark from investigative findings or results from the Shasta County District Attorney.

Tammy stated in a  Red Justice Project podcast episode  that even after sending in multiple leads to the sheriff’s department, Shasta County has not provided her with updates about her daughter’s case. Tammy mentions this concern again in a  video dedicated to Angela, posted May 29, 2021 , by The Academy of Integrated Humanities and New Media (AIM) of Tamalpais High School in Mill Valley, California stating that the Shasta County Major Crimes Unit does not return her calls or emails. Tammy also states, “I struggle everyday for justice for my only daughter. The law enforcement does nothing for all these Indian women everywhere in Indian Country, they don’t do nothing (sic) for us! But that’s what we need to do, people, we need to go right to law enforcement, right to the FBI. Get on them! … My daughter is gone forever. I’m her voice now, and I have to speak loud and bold and tell them that I want justice for my loved one. That’s what I do everyday.”

Structural Obstacles to Investigating and Solving the Case

The various local news reports covering Angela McConnell’s passing contain no mention of clear jurisdictional issues. However, the handling of Angela McConnell’s case demonstrates that the issue may lie in the lack of care that investigators have for her case.  According to the video  mentioned earlier dedicated to Angela, three detectives have been assigned to Angela’s case in one year. There appears to be no prioritization or sense of urgency around her homicide, which has led to the case  remaining open for over two years .

Albert Bender, Angela's uncle and People’s World author, wrote in an  article about Angela’s death , dated October 16, 2020, that he believes the main obstacle in solving Angela’s case has been the lack of forensic evidence. Bender claims that the murder scene was not secured by investigators, potentially leading to destroyed or compromised evidence.   

Although Angela was a tribal member of the Hoopa Valley, the tribal police do not have any involvement in the investigation of her death because the murders occurred off-reservation; the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) has full jurisdiction over the case. The FBI does not have any involvement either, as the SCSO has not called them in for support. 

Three Potential Scenarios

 The Red Justice Project podcast episode dedicated to Angela , released February 21, 2021, brought up three potential factors behind the murder of Angela and her boyfriend. First, Angela was apparently a victim of intimate partner violence and family violence. According to the podcast, and observed by some Facebook commentary appearling below, Michael was abusive toward Angela and her family had a restraining order against him. The podcast also claims that Michael’s father pulled a gun on them one week prior to their deaths, leading to speculation about his potential involvement in their murders. 

Second, according to the podcast, Michael was heavily involved with drugs. The podcast suggests that someone involved in the drug scene could have targeted him, leading to their murders.  

Third, because Angela and Michael were allegedly residing in a transient camp, in which the populations are generally predominantly men as stated in the podcast, an altercation could have ensued and the perpetrator could have escaped being tracked by law enforcement due to the mobile nature of the camps. Reports about Angela’s case did not specify the type of transient camp she and Michael were living on, but it is possible that it was a logging camp.

A reward is currently being offered with  contributions from Sovereign Bodies Institute  that doubled the initial award amount of $15,000 from an anonymous donor to $30,000 for any concrete leads to solving the case (see flyer below). There is a private non-profit organization by the name of  Secret Witness of Shasta County  with a hotline number. The non-profit organization number leads to an anonymous 501c3 organization, and NOT to county officials or investigators. There is also a community Facebook page called  Justice for Angela McConnell  dedicated to gathering information about the case. On February 13, 2021,  Tammy Carpenter appears on a Facebook video  to unveil a billboard in Shasta Lake, CA, that shares Angela’s case and includes a hotline. 

Sunni Jo Grant was a mother, wife, daughter, and family member. She was born in Hoopa, California on  May 27, 1979  and is a Yurok tribal member. Sunni, her husband  Justin Cushman , and their son Justin “Gooey” Cushman, Jr., lived on the Yurok Reservation. They previously resided in Eureka, California. Sunni was 37 years old when she passed away on March 20, 2017.

As Sunni was getting her son ready for school at approximately 6 AM PST on March 20, 2017, an altercation occurred outside of her home that resulted in her death.  Reportedly , Sunni went outside of her home to respond to a conflict between four suspects (three males and one female) and one of her family members; this family member may have been her cousin, Michael Grant,  who reportedly shares a baby with Natalie Wright , one of the individuals in the car. It is not clear if Wright and Grant were together at the time of this altercation, but with Wright being identified as an individual in the car where this conflict occurred, we suspect the mentioned family member could have been Sunni’s cousin Michael Grant.  

One of the suspects allegedly fired their gun and Sunni was tragically shot in the chest. Sunni made it back inside of her home to call emergency services, but she unfortunately passed away in her home before help arrived.

The perpetrators fled southbound over 40 miles on Highway 101 from the scene, and were eventually detained south of Trinidad, CA. A minor child was in the car during the altercation, and Wright was subsequently charged with Child Endangerment, as mentioned by the Crescent City News.

The Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office  released the names  of the four individuals on the day of the incident, and they were charged with the following crimes on March 22, 2017, as  reported by the Crescent City News : 

• George Johnson, Jr. (33) of Galesburg, Illinois, charged with “Murder, Possession of a Firearm by a Felon, a Special Allegation of Personally Discharging a Firearm that Proximately Caused Death, and a Special Allegation of having suffered a prior conviction for Aggravated Battery with a Firearm in Knox County, Illinois”
• Cinque Chapman Pratt (32) of Chicago, Illinois, charged with “Accessory to Murder”
• Marcaulius Jaleel Woodard (25) of Jackson, Mississippi, charged with “Accessory to Murder”
• Natalie Rachelle Wright (37) of Eureka, California, charged with “Accessory to Murder, Unlawful Driving of a Vehicle, and Child Endangerment.”

The four perpetrators arrested and charged with “ murder and conspiracy to commit murder ” were  detained in the Humboldt County Jail  while being processed for transfer into the Del Norte County Jail.  District Attorney Trigg reportedly set Johnson’s bail at $1,000,000 and $500,000 for Pratt, Woodard, and Wright . It is unclear from open source research whether a trial took place following their arraignment on March 22, 2017 for Sunni’s death. 

Natalie Wright and her 18-month-old reportedly  went missing  on June 26, 2017, three months after the death of Sunni, after allegedly receiving death threats. Ten days prior to the date Wright went missing, on June 16, 2017, Sunni’s cousin, Michael Grant, was arrested for an attempted homicide in Eureka, CA. According to a Eureka Police Department press release, “ Michael Grant was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility on a warrant and fresh charges for felon in possession of a firearm. ” Michael Grant was then booked on June 23, 2017, with attempted murder and domestic violence charges, and  his bail was reportedly set for $500,000 . Though we have no way to verify a correlation, we note these two incidents’ close time proximity to each other and to Sunni’s death. 

During our investigation, we found that  Wright was no longer missing and the Crescent City Police arrested her  for “possession of methamphetamine with intent to sell, possession of heroin with intent to sell, prohibited person in possession of a firearm and ammunition, possession of a controlled substance while armed, and possession of stolen property” on March 16, 2021. 

Two of the others arrested for Sunni’s death, Maracaulis Jaleel Woodard and Cinque Chapman Pratt, have been active on Facebook since 2019 and are back in Illinois. As of June 2021, Chapman Pratt posts regularly on his social media account, and Woodard’s last update was in August 2020. It is unclear if they ever served a sentence since they are not in publicly available inmate databases, such as the California inmate locator, Federal Inmate Locator, or the Illinois inmate database.

Unfortunately, we believe Sunni’s remote location made it difficult for emergency services to reach her in time.  As one family member stated , “The town of Klamath can have a casino but you can’t get help for your people… They don’t have any type of emergency service at all… Maybe it is possible that she could have been saved. She could have at least not had to suffer.”

Other gaps and unanswered questions remain at the conclusion of our investigation, with the three most relevant listed below:

• Why were the three male perpetrators in California, and specifically on the Yurok Reservation? They reportedly resided in Illinois and Mississippi. Information online about Sunni’s death did not elaborate on why these men were there on the reservation nor why they were with Wright.    
• We found online postings that referenced  rumors Wright was an informant . It is unclear if there is any validity to this rumor or what information she may have been providing to law enforcement if true. Further, it is unclear if Natalie Wright ever received sentencing.
• The suspects were arraigned on March 22, 2017 and were scheduled to appear in court on March 24, 2017. As of June 2021, we have not been able to locate any records that prove there was a court date. This leads us to wonder if the three men served a sentence at all. If they were found guilty, how long was their sentence since they were active on social media in 2019 and 2020?

As a team, we acknowledge that there is more work to be done around and with the MMIWG movement. We felt as though there was no easy place to end our investigation as we could have continued searching and researching MMIWG cases in the region for several more months, so this digital story is by no means an exhaustive report. This issue truly is a crisis requiring a more robust response at the local, state and federal levels. 

For this reason, we are pleased at the ground-breaking appointment by President Biden of Secretary Deb Haaland, and Secretary Haaland's subsequent  f  ormation of the Missing and Murdered Unit (MMU)  under the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. At the same time, we believe the United States falls far behind Canada in responding to the crisis, acknowledging that Canada too could do more.  

The jurisdiction issue remains a central concern for families and MMIWG activists. For example, activist  Jesse Armstrong calls for all cases to be investigated at a federal level . Running as a candidate for mayor of Eureka, California in 2021, Armstrong’s call highlights how much jurisdiction complicates the investigations of these cases. We understand that streamlining these investigations may actually facilitate more timely reviews and even resolution.

We want to acknowledge and thank the Indigenous women who are at the forefront of this issue, raising the alarm bell even when no one was listening. In every single case discussed in this digital report, the families are the ones making the most impact, seeking and demanding justice. We found this to be both bittersweet and inspiring. We know for the families, there is no end for them in speaking out. On April 25, 2021, for example,  Angela McConnell’s family held a prayer walk in Sacramento, CA . 

We acknowledge that the extent of this crisis is monumental. We found additional cases towards the end of our research period, but did not have time to review them closely. This is, clearly, a global crisis, and it requires and merits a global and coordinated response.  

Through this process, we found open source research methods as contributing and uplifting the efforts of these families. We recognize the emotional toll they have experienced from this work and we felt it too, taking breaks as needed to pursue this research. We join them in calling for a more coordinated and systemic response, similarly frustrated as they are about the lack of progress. 

In closing, we note that we proceeded in conducting this investigation with a lot of love. This love extends to MMIWG victims, to their families, for each other, and for the tireless work done by leading organizations such as the ones highlighted in this report. We could not have conducted this research without love - it motivated us to keep going and to take care of one another too.

Disclaimer: Please note that some of the organizations below may be disturbing or troubling given their type of work and that this section only includes a select number of organizations and resources.

The interactive map below notes the names and locations of 16 MMIWG cases we identified during our research, 13 of whom we did not have ample time to investigate. The names included below come from multiple online sources and we include this map here for reference and further context about the epidemic in Northern California.

Any questions or concerns about this report can be directed to the AIRC (airc@ucsc.edu) and/or the HRI Lab (hrlab@ucsc.edu) at UC Santa Cruz.