As a member of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Colorado, Gina Lopez with the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CCASA) helps a community she’s familiar with.
“I believe very strongly in bridging communities and working from within to help inform and hopefully work towards creating safer and more honorable spaces within non-Indigenous resources for our community to see themselves and to get the support that they would like to have in their survivor journey and their healing journey,” she said.
Lopez is the Rural and Indigenous Program Manager for CCASA, and said she recognizes that resources can be lacking when it comes to serving justice for those impacted by violent crime.
“We have represented in our Coloradans hundreds of tribal nations of folks who call Colorado home, who also experienced violence and also are experiencing a lack of our supportive resources and responses that have those cultural components,” she said.
However, a new bill introduced Tuesday in the Colorado state legislature looks to help with resources by proposing to create the Office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR).