Hassler is the founder and manager of the Cowlitz Tribal Pathways to Healing program, which provides victim services and advocacy services to members of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. The Pathways program works with people who have experienced sexual assault, domestic violence and other acts of violence.

Over the past few years, Hassler has also become the custodian of a list of missing and murdered members of the Cowlitz tribe. The count rises to six cases: a missing woman and five murdered members.

“I don’t think six is ​​our final number, and six is ​​way too much. We hope we never have another murdered person,” Hassler said.

The high rate of missing and murdered Native women (MMIW) has increasingly become a point of attention for Native American tribes. According to the Department of Justice, women in some tribal communities face a murder rate 10 times higher than the national average.

Washington’s bill for the alert system passed unopposed in the state Legislature and was signed into law by Governor Jay Inslee on March 31.

The law mandates the Washington State Patrol to treat missing Natives with the same alerts as missing children and medically vulnerable adults. Details of missing persons will be sent to law enforcement and news agencies, as well as posted on social media and electronic road signs.

“I’ve seen what these alerts can do to rally people and bring multiple jurisdictions together. Native people want the same respect and help,” Hassler said.

Hassler said she was inspired to start searching for missing and murdered members of the Cowlitz tribe after a 2018 report on missing and murdered Native women by the Urban Indian Health Institute in Seattle. The report found that Washington, and the Seattle area in particular, had some of the highest numbers of MMIW cases among major cities, but did not specify how different tribes were affected.

Putting the list together was a lot of work, especially since the Cowlitz tribe is not centered around a reservation where many members live. Hassler posted in the Tribal Bulletin asking for information. She set up a head table at events with details of missing and murdered members, which inspired other families to share their stories.

Hassler said two other people from Cowlitz were missing until recently when they were found and reunited with their families.

The missing member of Cowlitz is Misty Copsey. Copsey was a 14-year-old from Tacoma when she disappeared while walking home from the Puyallup Fairgrounds in 1992.

Copsey was listed as white or white for years in police records and news reports about her disappearance, but Hassler said she was actually a member of the Cowlitz tribe. Hassler confirmed the connection to Copsey’s mother before her death a few years ago.

Hassler said determining the race and ethnicity of missing persons must be resolved for the new alert system to work as intended.

“If law enforcement doesn’t ask or write it down, people will be misclassified. These alerts will only work if we can identify Native Americans early on,” Hassler said.

Rosalie Fish is the most prominent Cowlitz Indian Tribe advocate for MMIW. A member of the Cowlitz Tribe who grew up on the Muckleshoot Reservation, Fish caught attention as a high school track runner in 2019 for competing with a red handprint painted on her face – a symbol to honor women Native Americans who had been silenced.

Fish, who is a student at the University of Washington, spoke in favor of the alert system as it was discussed in the Legislature.

Future changes to help Indigenous communities in Washington may come from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Persons Task Force led by the Attorney General’s Office. Hassler represents the Cowlitz Indian Tribe on the Washington Tribes Task Force Subcommittee and has attended other subcommittee meetings.

The task force is due to present its first report to Governor Inslee and the state legislature in August.