Gila River governor urges Amber Alert–style law for missing indigenous people

Governor Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community called on Arizona legislators to craft an Amber Alert–style law to improve responses to missing indigenous people, saying recent studies show Arizona ranks third in the nation in such cases.

"I'm asking all of you to work with our representative, Teresa Martinez, to craft an Amber Alert style type bill to allow us to coordinate state, federal, and tribal responses to missing indigenous persons and attack this problem head on, once and for all," Lewis said. He described the proposal as a nonpartisan priority and noted Representative Teresa Martinez had agreed to sponsor the bill.

Lewis urged lawmakers to look to other Western states that have already passed similar measures and to treat the proposal as an opportunity for Arizona to join those efforts this legislative session.

The governor framed the measure as a coordinated response tool rather than a substitute for broader prevention or investigative efforts; he called for state, federal and tribal coordination in both alerts and response.