Members of the Not Invisible Act Commission conducted listening sessions in Billings on July 25 and 26.
Commissioners heard from a three-person panel Tuesday morning that included Crow tribal member Earline Bearcrane Cole, mother of the late Steven Bearcrane Cole, who was shot and killed in 2005.
She told commissioners she wants to see the FBI keep families like hers better informed as their investigations progress.
“What’s gonna happen around the corner, what’s gonna happen next in court. That’s the biggest thing,” said Bearcrane Cole. “When a family don’t know, it’s hard - that guessing, that hoping, that thinking.”
Recommendations from the Billings panel included establishing a governmental position or another system to keep FBI agents in Indian Country accountable and recruiting tribal members to return to their communities to serve.
The Not Invisible Act Commission since April has held listening sessions in Oklahoma, Alaska, Arizona, Minnesota, California, New Mexico - and now, Montana - to hear from tribal members and communities. Most of the two-day hearings in Billings were closed to the media with the exception of the panel on July 25 in order to provide a safe space for friends and family.
Testimony will inform a report to the U.S. Congress, and U.S. Department of the Interior and Department of Justice leadership. The commission’s recommendations are due in October.
