Sean Cruz Email and Phone Number

I served in the Oregon legislature as Senator Avel Gordly's legislative staff for six years (2003-2008). Several of Senator Gordly's bills became key to my career afterwards.In 2010, I co-founded the Friends of Celilo Falls, an Oregon nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of Celilo Falls and its environs among policy makers and the public. Senator Gordly sponsored the two Celilo bills in the 2007 legislative session.I registered the business name 1000 Nations in 2012, offering public policy consulting and editorial services, later adding video production to my range of projects.In 2012, Winona LaDuke gave me co-authorship credit for The Militarization of Indian Country, which had a Standing Rock edition in 2017.In 2016, I was editor of The Winona LaDuke Chronicles: Stories from the Front Lines in the Battle for Environmental Justice.In 2013, I produced the 1st annual Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival, and in 2014 I formed a board of directors and founded what became the Jim Pepper Native Arts Council. Senator Gordly sponsored SJR 31, honoring the life and achievements of Jim Pepper in the 2005 legislative session.In my personal life, I have been pursuing the recovery of my children from their abduction into Mormon Utah since their disappearance in February 1996 and working to improve the way the legal system and law enforcement handle cases of children abducted by parents, family members, religious groups and others.The Oregon Legislature passed Senator Gordly's SB 1041 in 2005 on a unanimous House vote after the death of my son Aaron Cruz, who died in Utah in the course of his Mormon abduction. SB 1041 (now ORS 30.868) made Oregon the first and only state in the nation where abducting a child creates a civil cause of action, providing new tools to kidnapping victims, particularly when law enforcement is unable or unwilling to act.I worked with State Representative Alyssa Keny-Guyer and State Representative Barbara Smith-Warner on new child abduction legislation for the 2015 legislative session. HB 2601, requiring local law enforcement to notify the Oregon State Police of any reported child abduction, passed on unanimous votes and was signed into law by Governor Kate Brown. HB 2603, naming ORS 30.868 "Aaron's Law" for my son passed the House on a unanimous vote, but ran out of time in the Senate. The House in effect voted to remember my son forever.