South Dakota’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons coordinator has held the job for a full year.
The Oglala Lakota lawyer said the first year has flown by.
Native Americans make up a disproportionate number of missing persons cases – roughly 60 percent. That’s partly due to cross jurisdictional communication fallout—whether at the state, county or tribal level.
Allison Morrisette is the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons coordinator, which falls under the Attorney General’s office. She said every case she’s interacted with deals with jurisdictional issues.
Morrissette points to a good working relationship between Pennington County and the Oglala Sioux Tribe because of an emergency management memorandum of understanding.
She said she’s still learning how to navigate solving cases with tribes that don’t have an MOU in place with the state.
“This first year has been me learning the issues and identifying them,” Morrisette said. “I think this next year is figuring out how we’re going to eliminate that or work around it.”
It took over a year for the Attorney General’s office to fill the position after it was announced.
The position remained vacant during then-Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg’s administration. After he was impeached, his replacement—Mark Vargo—hired Morrisette. Delays were partially tied to funding. Native Hope, a native nonprofit outreach center, is funding the position for the first three years.
Morrisette, who works out of Rapid City, encourages anyone in the state working in the arena of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People to out to her.
“I like to know what’s going on with MMIP organizations across the state just so that way if somebody does reach out to me who is across the state or East River and you’re also on that side, I can refer that family to you,” Morrisette said. “It’s all about networking and being able to connect families with the right people and the right resources.”
Morrisette can be reached by phone at 605-295-0003, or by email at Allison.Morrisette@state.sd.us.
