Soaring rates of violent acts impacting Indigenous communities and mounting unsolved cases have prompted a surge of FBI agents, analysts and victim specialists from across the country to help investigate crimes on tribal lands.
Dubbed “Operation Not Forgotten,” the effort is a partnership between the FBI and the US Bureau of Indian Affairs aimed at investigating physical and sexual abuse of children, missing persons cases, violent assaults, domestic violence and murder.
From June to September, the operation resulted in the arrests of 40 suspects, the indictment of 11 alleged violent offenders and the removal of nine children from abusive or neglectful situations, the FBI announced Wednesday.
The operation, now in its second year, “expands and builds partnerships with federal and tribal law enforcement partners; moves more cases through the criminal justice process – oftentimes in a more timely manner; and provides care, resources, justice and, sometimes, closure for victims and their families,” an FBI official said during a briefing with reporters.
As part of the surge of resources, forensic teams have been poring over crime scenes in an effort to help solve investigations on tribal lands.
In one case, police were called after a man was reported missing by family members and his body was later found in a field.
Agents scoured the scene for evidence and worked to map out a timeline of his death, including a review of the victim’s final text messages.
“When you work something like this, you feel like you get to know the individual,” FBI Special Agent Hailey Evans said in a video released by the bureau. “You get to know them on that kind of personal level. It really makes you want to find justice for them.”
‘Scarce’ public awareness
Indigenous Americans face some of the highest rates of violence in the nation, numerous studies have shown.
According to Justice Department figures, more than 84% of American Indian and Alaska Native women and 82% of men have experienced violence in their lifetime.
“Studies have also shown that (Indigenous) children are more likely to experience abuse and trauma than their non-Native peers,” the Congressional Research Service wrote in a report last year.
One major barrier to helping bring justice to victims: a lack of public awareness, officials say.
“The media coverage of these incidents is very scarce,” Michael Henderson, director of criminal investigations at the Navajo Nation Police Department, said in a previous interview with CNN. “The limited ability for us to publicize it has been a major obstacle in putting it out there to the public.”
And as CNN has reported, some advocates say they don’t believe police have dedicated enough resources to investigating cases of missing and murdered Native Americans.
Darlene Gomez, an attorney in New Mexico who represents the families of missing and murdered Indigenous people, said she believes police agencies in the Navajo Nation don’t have adequate staffing for these cases.
For example, Gomez said, some Native Americans live up to 200 miles away from the nearest police substation in their tribal community. With only a few officers employed at those stations, there are times when no one is even there to take a report or follow a lead, Gomez said.
Some Native Americans also don’t trust police because there is no representation from their community, Gomez said.
‘You are part of our community’
Beyond the surge in investigative resources to solve crimes of violence, more government agencies and nonprofit groups are increasing efforts to create greater public awareness of the thousands of missing Indigenous people across the nation, in hopes that tips lead to recoveries.
For example, the FBI is enlisting the agency’s intelligence resources – best known for fighting crime and terrorism – to create a master database of missing Native Americans. The database includes photos of the missing along with their age, gender and date of last contact.
On a more local level, efforts to use social media, traditional news media and direct public engagement to highlight the plight of Indigenous people have paid significant investigative dividends, authorities say.
The state of Washington, for instance, created the nation’s first public alert system for missing Indigenous people.
Since the state’s public alert system launched in July 2022, 101 of the 121 missing persons who were the subject of an alert were successfully located, Chris Loftis, Washington State Patrol director of communication, said in an interview with CNN.
Those resolutions included recoveries, reunifications and instances where a person was reported missing by a loved one but later were discovered to have left of their own accord. In addition to the 101 individuals found, five were discovered deceased.
Washington state’s system includes text and email messages to the public, which are then frequently amplified by the news media, as well as resources like electronic billboards along roadways that alert motorists about missing Indigenous persons, Loftis said.
In one case, Loftis said, a man kidnapped a young Indigenous girl from her home and fled. After seeing his own vehicle description flashed across an electronic highway sign as part of the public alert system, he stopped and let the girl out.
“Our Indigenous neighbors are much more likely to be victims of assault, murder, crime, and human trafficking,” Loftis said, noting the ramped-up efforts by law enforcement to protect native persons, “sends a message that you are part of our community, and we are part of yours. When one person is missing, we are all concerned.”