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LINCOLN — Renee Sans Souci learned as a young teenager, growing up in Lincoln, to walk warily and always be on alert.

Experience taught her that, as a Native American woman, she was a target for harassment, violence and sexual exploitation. She still wound up being sexually assaulted and suffering from domestic abuse.

Sans Souci, of the Omaha Tribe, was hardly alone among the Native American women testifying Thursday before the Judiciary Committee. Almost all said they, too, had experienced rape and domestic violence in their lives.

“For a long time, I thought that was the norm,” said Chandra Michelle Walker, who chairs the Native caucus for the Nebraska Democratic Party.

Both women spoke in support of Legislative Bill 154, introduced by State Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon. The measure would add Nebraska to a growing number of states that are taking a closer look at cases of missing Native American women and girls.

The proposal would require the Nebraska State Patrol to work with the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs on a study looking at how many Native American women have gone missing and at the law enforcement resources available to investigate those cases and protect women.