Federal website aims to help cases for missing, murdered Indigenous people; may need more grassroots input

"A new website by the Bureau of Indian Affairs is meant to help increase visibility for missing and murdered indigenous people's (MMIP) cases and help with investigations, but at least one grassroots worker questions whether it will be useful for members of the American Indian and Alaska Native communities," Kristi Eaton reports for The Daily Yonder.

Olivia Gray, chair of the board of directors for the Northeast Oklahoma Indigenous Safety and Education Foundation, said many Indigenous communities might not know about the website or have internet access to use it. She recommends an outreach effort to get the word out in tribal communities, Eaton reports.

Gray also said state and federal governments rely too much on tribal governments to do footwork in such cases, instead of reaching out to grassroots organizations that commonly do a great deal of work, such as investigation, putting out flyers, and consoling families. Unless BIA recognizes and harnesses the efforts of grassroots organizations, efforts to solve MMIP cases are mostly "cosmetic," she told Eaton.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo, vowed in April to create a BIA unit dedicated to MMIP cases. Native Americans and Alaska Natives are at a far higher risk of violence than average, but often fall through the cracks because of conflicting jurisdictional issues.