ASSOCIATED PRESS
GREAT FALLS
– Montana’s Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force has extended the deadline for
tribal colleges to apply for a grant to start and administer a database of
missing American Indians.
Officials
say none of the state’s seven tribal colleges applied for the $25,000 grant by
the Dec. 13 deadline so the task force voted to extend the deadline to Jan. 25
with the goal of awarding the grant by mid-February.
The grant
requires the database be administered by a data specialist who meets certain
qualifications. Applicants must also include a plan for meeting data
verification and security standards.
The money to
create the database was appropriated by the legislature as part of an effort to
get state, local, federal and tribal agencies to work better together in
reporting and searching for missing American Indians.
