Staffing problems stall federal investigations of missing and killed Native people

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Peter Martin went missing two years ago from the Fond Du Lac reservation in Minnesota. His family hasn’t stopped looking, but they say the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs investigation into Martin’s disappearance has stalled since the agent assigned to the case left the role in early 2025. “They’ve never had a person take his space for this region and yeah, we haven’t heard from them since,” said family friend Kayla Jackson. The bureau’s Missing and Murdered Unit was created in 2021 to address the crisis of violence against Native Americans and put new resources toward solving cold cases. But a recent federal audit by the Interior Department’s internal watchdog found staffing issues have plagued the unit since its formation during President Joe Biden’s administration, creating a backlog of cases and leaving families without required victim services.

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Scoop News DeskSioux Falls, South Dakota · Published Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 4:26 AM UTCUpdated Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 4:55 AM UTC

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The Missing and Murdered Unit had 83 open cases and nearly 400 pending referrals as of November 2024, according to the audit released Sept. They said most of the recommendations from the audit had been acted upon. “The deficiencies identified in the OIG audit reflect operations under the previous administration that were inconsistent with the objectives outlined in Operation Lady Justice,” the statement said, referring to a presidential task force established by the first Trump administration in 2019 to address the crisis of missing and killed Indigenous persons .