MMIR AWARENESS MONTH
By Vivian LaMoore, Inaajimowin Editor
Native American and Alaska Native communities experience disproportionately high rates of murder, rape, and violent crime — far above national averages. According to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Native American and Alaska Native wom en represent a significant share of the missing and murdered across the country. The numbers are not just statistics—they are loved ones, family members, and community pillars. The crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) continues at an alarming level.
While recent years have brought a slow but growing aware ness of the MMIR crisis, true justice and systemic change re main far from realized. Awareness is only the beginning. The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Health and Human Services Victim Services aims to bring this truth to light each year through an annual event that honors those lost and supports those left behind. This year’s event was held on May 9, 2025, serving as a powerful call to action and a space for healing.
Chief Executive Virgil Wind read a list of names of relatives who remain missing and whose lives were taken too soon. “Every one of our missing or murdered relatives is remembered in our hearts, and we honor them all together here today,” Wind said.
Several Band members and guests shared emotional and heartfelt testimony to their personal experiences. Executive Di rector of Mending Sacred Hoops, Cinnamon Bankey. Mending the Sacred Hoop, Inc. is a Native-led non-profit organization dedicated to addressing and ending violence against Native relatives. “In Minnesota alone, in 2024, we had 716 missing and murdered indigenous relatives,” Bankey said. “Across the country, we had over 5,000. We should be outraged. We should be speaking up. We should be speaking with our legislators. We should be screaming. These are our relatives and not one of them should be missing, much less murdered.”
Dr. Rosemary White Shield, director of the National Native Center for Excellence, shared the importance of helping and supporting relatives who are going through the experience of having a loved one missing. She shared her personal and professional experiences, emphasizing that “Traditional and spiritual ways are what saved my life.”
In a separate event, Peter Rodriguez, Special Agent with the Bureau of Indian (BIA) Missing and Murdered Unit located in Bemidji, presented to a smaller group of interested community members. He explained the Missing and Murdered Unit was established to focus on analyzing and solving missing, murdered, and human trafficking cases involving American Indians and Alaska Natives. Investigators and other specialists work to leverage Tribal, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders to enhance the criminal justice system and address the legitimate concerns of Native communities regarding missing and murdered people.
The Missing and Murdered Unit is unique because it can coordinate law enforcement resources across the BIA Office of Justice Services and work closely with other agencies. Its expanded role includes strengthening the DOJ’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) and building partnerships with key stakeholders like the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Units, the FBI Forensic Laboratory, the U.S. Marshals Missing Child Unit, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In addition to reviewing unsolved cases, the MMU works with Tribal, BIA and FBI investigators on unsolved missing and murdered investigations.
Rodriguez emphasized that Minnesota is a Public Law 280 state. In that respect, his office cannot step in on a case unless it is requested by Tribal Law Enforcement to avoid overstep ping tribal sovereignty. If a request is made, he can lend his assistance in investigating and also with many high-tech tools such as ground penetrating radar, a mapping station that can create 3D mapping, ATV and UTV use, underwater drones, forensics, AI facial recognition, and more.
The MMU accepts jurisdictional and non-jurisdictional cases (case-dependent) on acute missing persons, cold miss ing persons, cold homicides, human trafficking, and internet crimes against children.