The U.S. Interior Department has formed a special unit to focus on missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives. For decades many such cases have gone unsolved. KNAU’s Ryan Heinsius reports.
The new Missing and Murdered Unit will operate within the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services. It’ll coordinate multiple agencies in examining cases that often go unsolved because of a lack of investigative resources.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna in New Mexico, calls violence against Indigenous people a crisis that’s been underfunded for too long. She says the new office will hold people accountable and provide closure for families.
“Whether it’s a missing family member or a homicide investigation, these efforts will be all hands-on deck,” said Haaland in a press release. “We are fully committed to assisting Tribal communities with these investigations, and the MMU will leverage every resource available to be a force-multiplier in preventing these cases from becoming cold case investigations.”
Some tribal members and advocates say breakdowns in communication between federal, tribal, state and local law enforcement is often to blame for failures in solving cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
According to the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women, more than 80% of Indigenous females are affected by violence, and they face murder rates more than 10 times the national average.
