Dozens of Native people have gone missing in Colorado since the state activated a new alert system in late December 2022. But advocates say some of those alerts are not reaching the public fast enough. One instance involved a Lakota woman named Christine Tail who went missing in Denver over the summer. She eventually returned safely to her family but authorities failed to activate an alert for several days. At the time, a spokesperson for the Denver Police Department told KUNC that “large caseloads” and “an internal misunderstanding” contributed to the delay.
Raven Payment, who is Ojibwe and Kanienkehaka, is on the task force that helped set the alert system in motion through the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Act. The law is the culmination of work by multiple Indigenous activists like Payment. She continues to work closely on the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people, who face disproportionately high rates of violence.
Payment sat down with In the NoCo's Robyn Vincent to discuss the strides and setbacks Colorado has made in addressing this long-simmering problem.
Editor's Note: After the airing of this episode, In The NoCo learned that Julian Arron, director of the Office of Liason for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives, resigned on Sept. 26. That office was created under the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Act and advocates like Payment were hopeful about Arron's appointment given his Native ancestry — he is a member of Jicarilla Apache Nation. A spokesperson with the Colorado Department of Safety said Julian resigned so he could spend more time with family. The department declined to share the resignation letter with In The NoCo.
