Haaland Announces New Missing and Murdered Indigenous Unit at Interior [View all]

On April 1, 2021 U.S. Interior Secretary announced a new Bureau of Indian Affairs unit dedicated to the investigation of missing and murdered Indigenous people. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

Human rights defenders on Friday applauded the announcement by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland that the Bureau of Indian Affairs will establish a unit tasked with investigating missing and murdered Indigenous people.

"Violence against Indigenous peoples is a crisis that has been underfunded for decades. Far too often, murders and missing persons cases in Indian country go unsolved and unaddressed, leaving families and communities devastated."
—Interior Secretary
Deb Haaland

The Interior Department said in a statement Thursday that "approximately 1,500 American Indian and Alaska Native missing persons have been entered into the National Crime Information Center throughout the U.S., and approximately 2,700 cases of murder and nonnegligent homicide offenses have been reported to the federal government's Uniform Crime Reporting program."

The agency said that the new Missing & Murdered Unit (MMU) "will help put the full weight of the federal government into investigating these cases and marshal law enforcement resources across federal agencies and throughout Indian country."


https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/04/02/haaland-announces-new-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-unit-interior?cd-origin=rss