Not Forgotten

Joint Operation Shines New Light on Indian Country Cases

October 23, 2024

In a hidden field on a remote patch of Navajo Nation land in northwest New Mexico, an FBI special agent from Los Angeles recently unearthed new leads in a four-year-old homicide case. Around the same time, a special agent from Atlanta collected fresh crime scene evidence on a windswept prairie on indigenous territory in North Dakota. Their work—on remote Tribal lands far from their home field offices—was part of a four-month surge of resources by the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and Tribal law enforcement to generate new leads and bolster cases in some of the most violent crimes against Native American women and children.