The U.S. Department of the Interior on Tuesday announced its new Indian Country Violent Crime Task Force, which is tasked with targeting violent crime and drug activity in tribal communities.
In an order titled “Honoring Our Commitment to Protecting Indian Country Communities,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote that he would continue to “honor America’s trust responsibility” to the nearly 2 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives served by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“With American Indians and Alaska Natives facing alarming levels of violence across the country, protecting our children, elders, and the most vulnerable are key to protecting Tribal culture and living so that communities are safe from crime and drugs,” Burgum wrote. “Drug-related activity in Indian Country also continues to be a major contributor to violent crime and imposes serious health and economic hardships on our Tribal communities.”
The task force builds on previous Federal Bureau of Investigation work to investigate violent crimes in Indian Country. The FBI’s Operation Not Forgotten initiative sent federal agents to field offices in cities with large Indigenous populations, including Albuquerque, Denver and Phoenix.
Last year, the agency said the operation assisted with law enforcement investigations in more than 500 cases and led to “the recovery of 10 child victims, 52 arrests, and 25 indictments or judicial complaints.”
In his Tuesday announcement, Burgum said the Interior Department would deliver “decisive action to restore law and order, strengthen tribal sovereignty and equip tribal law enforcement with the tools they need to protect their communities.”
“Protecting communities in Indian Country is central to our trust responsibility, and under President Trump’s leadership, we are taking a zero-tolerance approach to violent crime, drug trafficking and those who prey on vulnerable populations,” he said in a statement.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Missing and Murdered Unit, which former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland established in 2021, has agents across New Mexico and the U.S. who work with tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate crimes related to missing and murdered Indigenous people. Haaland previously told Source NM that, five years after launching the unit, there still exists an “an issue with data sharing.”
To that end, the New Mexico Department of Justice hosts a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples portal, where residents can search for information about missing people or report a loved one missing. According to the department’s data dashboard, 201 Indigenous people have been reported missing in New Mexico.
