Interior Department to launch Bureau of Indian Affairs unit to investigate missing and murdered Native Americans

"Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the U.S.’s first Indigenous cabinet secretary, will create a unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs to investigate missing and murdered Native Americans, the department announced Thursday evening," Zack Budryk reports for The Hill. "The federal government formed a task force on the issue in 2019 to pursue such cases. Haaland said the new unit will expand on that work and establish a unit chief position to develop policy for the unit. The unit will review unsolved cases and work with tribal, BIA and FBI investigators on active cases as well, according to the department."

Native American and Alaska Natives are at a far higher risk of violence than average. "There are some 1,500 American Indian and Alaska natives in the National Crime Information Center’s database of missing persons, while about 2,700 murders and nonnegligent homicides have been reported to the federal Uniform Crime Reporting program," Budryk reports. "Native American women in particular are the victims of murder at over 10 times the national average, according to the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women. Homicides are the No. 3 cause of death for American Indian and Alaska Native girls and women ages 10 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

The issue has been well known for years, but efforts to address it have been piecemeal. South Dakota recently established an office to investigate missing and murdered indigenous persons, and a six-state federal pilot program unveiled in December aims to help federal, state and tribal agencies better coordinate such investigations. It's unclear how the newly announced unit will affect the pilot project.