MILWAUKEE— As much of the country continues to follow the case of Gabby Petito and the ongoing search for her now-missing boyfriend in Florida, Brian Laundrie, those looking to help find missing women here in Wisconsin want to make sure Wisconsinites remember to do their part to shine a spotlight on similar cases in their own state, especially among Wisconsin's tribal communities.

"Here in Wisconsin, Indigenous communities continue to see the highest rate of violence and sexual assault against Native women, while also experiencing a lack of direct access to reporting systems," Skye Alloway, a co-chair of the state’s Missing and Murdered Women Indigenous Task Force, told Spectrum News 1 Thursday. "When an individual does go missing, there's a severe lack of access to emergency resources, roadblocks due to jurisdictional issues, and limited or incorrect data collection practices by responding agencies."

Formed by the Wisconsin Department of Justice back in July, 2020, the group is tasked, per the Department of Justice, with "examining the factors that contribute to missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) and the response from social service organizations, understanding the roles federal, state and tribal jurisdictions play, and improving and implementing robust data collection and reporting methods."

"I'm glad that Gabby's case received nationwide coverage— our hearts from the task force are with her family and we would never attempt to speak on the tragedy that they're facing," Alloway, a member of the Forest County Potawatomi said. "We are looking to highlight that the hundreds of Indigenous women who are missing could really benefit from the same sort of coverage because our mission is to insure that resources and coverage [will help] find all of our missing loved ones and be sure justice is served for them.

You can watch the entire interview above.

September 23 Editor's Note: Potawatomi has been updated to reflect the correct spelling.