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2019: addressing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People crisis

Posted at 11:42 AM, Dec 26, 2019
and last updated 2019-12-27 11:14:12-05

GREAT FALLS — 2019 featured a continuing crisis of missing and murdered indigenous people in Montana, but the state is taking steps to combat the issue.

Among the issues debated in the Montana Legislature was "Hanna's Act," legislation designed to address the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous persons (MMIP) and paving the way for the hiring of a missing persons specialist in the Montana Department of Justice.



While Governor Steve Bullock signed Hanna's Act into law in May, some Montana families still grieved the loss of loved ones and waited anxiously on word of their whereabouts.

The family of 18-year old Brittany Madplume of Browning confirmed with MTN that she was found dead in a vehicle on the morning of January 12th.

In April, family and friends gathered to reflect on the life of Jermain Charlo on her 24th birthday - her first since being reported missing almost 10 months earlier in Missoula.

And in June on the Blackfeet Reservation, family and friends of Ashley Loring Heavyrunner walked to remember her, two years to the day after she was last heard from.