Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland announced the formation of a new Missing and Murdered unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services. The unit will provide leadership involving missing and murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives. The unit will help the government in these cases and use marshal law enforcement resources across federal agencies and throughout the country to hold people accountable, keep communities safe, and provide closure for families.
Interior Secretary Haaland spoke on the manner recently to CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell:
Approximately 1,500 American and Alaska Native missing people have been entered into the National Crime Information Center. A task force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives – Operation Lady Justice – was formed in 2019 to pursue these unsolved cases. The Department is also designating new positions with existing federal funding to support the investigative needs of the Missing and Murdered Unit, including the collection and analysis of performance data and coordination of services with the families of victims.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, investigations remain unsolved due to a lack of investigative resources available to identify new information from witness testimony, re-examine new or retained material evidence, and review fresh activities of suspects. The Unit will immediately begin work with Tribal, Bureau of Indian Affairs and FBI investigators on active investigations.