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Navajo Nation Officials to Create Tribal Amber Alert System

Jon Austria/Daily Times via AP

The abduction and murder last week of an 11-year-old girl on the Navajo Nation has highlighted the tribe’s lack of an Amber Alert system. Now, a task force will develop an emergency notification method for the 27,000-square-mile reservation. Arizona Public Radio’s Ryan Heinsius reports.

The system will send emergency text messages via cell phone, and also reach areas of the reservation that lack wireless service. Tribal officials are conducting meetings with landline and cell carriers to assess what infrastructure will be necessary for the plan. Wireless service is notoriously spotty on the vast reservation.

The tribe currently depends on outside law enforcement agencies to deliver Amber and other emergency alerts. Some officials and community members, however, say that process takes too much time. It was several hours before an alert was called in by the FBI for 11-year-old Ashlynne Mike and her younger brother.

Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye’s office says the new system is expected to be in place within 60 days.

Ryan Heinsius joined the KNAU newsroom as executive producer in 2013 and was named news director and managing editor in 2024. As a reporter, he has covered a broad range of stories from local, state and tribal politics to education, economy, energy and public lands issues, and frequently interviews internationally known and regional musicians. Ryan is an Edward R. Murrow Award winner and a Public Media Journalists Association Award winner, and a frequent contributor to NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered and national newscast.
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