Mackenzie Howard is seen in February 2013, shortly before her murder in Kake, Alaska. Photo from Howard family
A 14-year-old teenage boy from Kake, Alaska, is being held in connection with the brutal murder of a 13-year-old Native girl. Mackenzie Howard, who was Tlingit, was beaten to death in February 2013. The crime shocked the tiny community but locals said it highlights the lack of law enforcement in Alaska Native villages. “People don’t really fear the law here," Marla Howard, Mackenzie's mother, told The Washington Post. It took 11 hours before someone from the Alaska State Troopers arrived on the scene, the Post reported. Investigators didn't show up until hours later, village residents said. "When there’s any fishing violation or hunting violation, they’re here in full force — over a dead animal," Joel Jackson, a carver who helped gather people to guard the crime scene while law enforcement arrived "To have one of our own laying there for [so long] was traumatic for everybody.” “The fastest way to get law enforcement here is to shoot a moose,” added Liz Medicine Crow, the president of the First Alaskans Institute who had been in Kake for an unrelated memorial service that occurred the same day Mackenzie was murdered. Authorities arrested the 14-year-old boy on the morning of Mackenzie's funeral. He is reportedly being held in a detention facility in Ketchikan. A hearing this fall will determine whether he is tried as an adult or a juvenile, the Post said. Kake lacks its own police force, a remnant of the state's assumption of criminal jurisdiction in Native communities. The state finally sent a village public safety officer to Kake after Mackenzie's murder. Get the Story:
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