California tribe confronts crisis of missing, murdered women

By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press

YUROK RESERVATION, Calif. (AP) — A Native American tribe has issued an emergency declaration on human trafficking and missing women. There have been five instances in the past 18 months where Indigenous women have gone missing or been murdered between San Francisco and the Oregon border. The Yurok Tribe along California’s rugged Lost Coast is working with an Indigenous-run research group called the Sovereign Bodies Institute to create a case database. The most recent incident involves a 33-year-old mother of two who vanished on the Yurok Reservation in October. Emmilee Risling is a Hoopa Valley Tribe citizen and also has Karuk and Yurok blood.