Ashlynne Mike

For months, the Navajo Nation has been in the process of buying software for an Amber Alert system for the reservation. The purchase comes more than year after a young girl was killed on the reservation.

When 11-year-old Ashlynn Mike was kidnapped last May, it took eight hours for an Amber Alert to be issued. After her death, there were calls from across the country to expand Amber Alert systems to tribal communities.

Navajo Public Safety Division Director Jesse Delmar told the Gallup Independent newspaper that the tribe has been in the process of purchasing the software for seven months because it did not have the money.

However, he said the Navajo Nation Council recently acquired $250,000 from the Division of Public Safety. Officials expect this new system to respond to many kinds of emergencies.