SHAWNEE, Okla. — In the state of Oklahoma, there are roughly 500 cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
The Kasey Alert system took effect Nov. 1, 2023, and it’s named for a man named Kasey Russell.
He was a 29-year-old, Cherokee Nation citizen who went missing in 2016.
The alert is sent for a person between the ages of 18 and 59 who is missing or believed to have been abducted.
It’s sent to your phone similar to the Amber Alert or Silver Alert.
It includes information about the missing person and the situation surrounding their disappearance.
The Citizen Potawatomi Nation is working to highlight the widespread violence against natives and make it more visible.
“Really it works a lot like the Amber Alert system or the Silver Alert system that we have for either minor individuals or elderly, but what’s really neat about this particular system is that it’s for those in the gap you know those individuals that are between the ages of 18-59 who are being missed. Specifically, because we have a large number of native individuals missing we are really hoping that it would have a big impact on trying to find these individuals and bring them home safely,” said Kayla Woody.
She said the majority of natives do not live on the reservation, but rather 71% of them live in urban areas.
Because there wasn’t a specific alert for them to set up in the past the large majority of the public didn’t know about it.
If you have someone who falls into the 18-59 age category, you must file a police report with your local law enforcement agency to get a Kasey Alert issued.
The Kasey Alert is just one more tool to address the critical need for improved coordination and rapid response when someone goes missing.
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