LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska could take new steps to address violence against Native American women if two state lawmakers have their way.
Sens. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln and Tom Brewer of Gordon announced plans Wednesday to introduce a bill in next year’s session.
The proposal would require the Nebraska State Patrol to join forces with Indian tribes, the U.S. Justice Department and the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs to examine the problem and brainstorm solutions.
The bill was partly inspired by the unsolved 2016 murder of Sherry Wounded Foot, who was found unconscious behind an abandoned building in Whiteclay, near South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Activists plan to visit Whiteclay on Saturday, the one-year anniversary of a Nebraska Supreme Court’s ruling that prevented the town’s maligned beer stores from reopening.