WASHINGTON D.C.—In a speech before the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Representative Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.) today mourned 14-year-old Emily Pike, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe who was brutally murdered earlier this year, and to express solidarity with the families and loved ones of Missing and Murdered Indigenous women across the country.
Stanton also joined with a bipartisan coalition to introduce a resolution designating May 5 as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Stanton introduced the resolution led by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.). Text is available HERE.
Video of Stanton’s floor speech is HERE. His remarks as prepared are below.
Mr. Speaker, I rise on the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, to express my outrage over more broken promises.
In my home state of Arizona, we’re mourning the tragic death of 14-year-old Emily Pike…. a member of the San Carlos Apache tribe.
Emily disappeared in Mesa in January of this year and was found brutally murdered two weeks later off U.S. Highway 60.
Months later, her case remains unsolved. Emily Pike, like Hanna Harris thirty years ago, and like hundreds of Native women and girls, should be alive today.
But it’s far too common that their cases go cold. Loved ones are left without answers … and without justice.
The MMIP crisis to this day remains the most under-reported, under-discussed, and under-resourced tragedy in America. And for decades, Congress and presidents have promised to do much more to address it.
Despite some progress towards justice for victims and their families, Trump’s budget, announced Friday, strips millions of dollars from public safety and criminal justice programs across Indian Country.
We have unique trust responsibilities to our Tribal Nations and rarely, if ever, has our federal government delivered.
Trump’s budget asks Congress to break our promise to protect Native women and girls. In Emily’s memory, we must reject it. I yield back.