The Brief

• • Two Bureau of Indian Affairs whistleblowers are raising concerns about cold case handling following a U.S. Department of the Interior audit detailing severe understaffing and backlogs.
  • The audit reveals the agency's Missing and Murdered Unit faces significant staffing shortages, diverted funding totaling $15.2 million over three years, and a massive screening backlog.
  • Federal inspectors issued eight recommendations to reform the unit, clear referral backlogs, fill vacant positions, and improve support services for grieving families.

PHOENIX - Two whistleblowers within the Bureau of Indian Affairs are sounding the alarm over the handling of cold-case murders and missing persons following a recently released audit from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The report criticized the BIA's understaffing and a heavy backlog of cases.

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons crisis is nothing new, yet reforms are still needed within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The 29-page report states that agents in the Missing and Murdered Unit, or MMU, had "unmanageable workloads" and that investigators should only have investigative duties, but that is not happening.

The BIA's Missing and Murdered Unit covers five regions: the Northwest, Great Plains, Great Lakes, Southeast, and the Southwest. Two BIA employees went on the record, agreeing with the U.S. Department of the Interior's Inspector General report.

"Indian country is suffering, and it's directly because of the...

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