California forms first Indigenous task force to tackle MMIP [Video]

WILTON, Calif. — In a historic first for California, a tribal government, a sheriff’s department and a district attorney’s office have joined forces to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people — a largely untracked and unresolved issue across the nation.

The Wilton Rancheria Tribe, Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office signed a memorandum of understanding this week, forming the state’s first Regional Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Task Force.

The initiative began with a blessing. It aimed to honor those who are missing and those who were killed.

“These are not statistics — these are human beings,” said Jesus G. Tarango, chairman of Wilton Rancheria. “They are daughters, they are sons, they are sisters, they are mothers — people whose lives mattered.”

California ranks …