The San Carlos Apache Tribe requested that Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, and Governor Katie Hobbs “tighten regulations for state-licensed residential group homes” following the death of 14-year-old Emily Pike, according to a news release sent to ABC15.
The resolution also encouraged the Arizona Legislature to pass House Bill 2281, a bill that aims to create an AMBER Alert-style system for missing Indigenous people.
Pike ran away from a Mesa residential group home, Sacred Journey Inc., on January 27. Mesa police sent out a statewide missing person bulletin on January 29.
On February 14, dismembered remains were found on the U.S. 60 northeast of Globe. The remains were identified as Pike’s on February 27, exactly one month after the 14-year-old ran away from her group home.
In a resolution sent to the governor and attorney general on Friday, members of the San Carlos Apache’s Tribal Council outlined requests for a larger investigation into the group home Pike ran away from, noting, “The Mesa Police Department reports that about 30 children have run away from Sacred Journey over the past three years.”
Additionally, the council recommended that the Arizona Attorney General and Tribe’s Social Services Department “determine the causes of children who run away from their caretakers, and where improvements may be made to prevent future runaways.”
The council also recommended that the Arizona Legislature enact legislation “in the name of Emily Pike that will strengthen safety, security, monitoring, licensing and operational standards for foster and children group homes.”
According to the resolution, the Tribe’s Social Services Department operates the San Carlos Youth Home on the San Carlos Reservation. However, “the San Carlos Group Home has limited staff and beds; and cannot handle the demand for placement of children by the Tribe’s Social Services Department,” the resolution read.
Due to the aforementioned “demand for placement,” the Tribe’s Social Services Department works with the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) to place children who are members of the Tribe or eligible Tribe members into state care and custody for issues related to child protective services, according to the resolution.
The Tribe’s Social Services Department placed Pike at Sacred Journey Inc., the Mesa group home, according to the resolution.
The resolution requested that the Tribe’s General Manager, Treasurer, Director of the Tribe’s Social Services Department, and Health & Human Services Department work together to determine whether the San Carlos Group Home has “sufficient resources and whether it may be expanded.”
