Deb Haaland creates unit to investigate killings and disappearances of Indigenous people

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced a new unit within Bureau of Indian Affairs that plans to tackle the decades-long crisis of missing and murdered Native Americans.

"Violence against Indigenous peoples is a crisis that has been underfunded for decades," Haaland said in a statement Thursday. "Far too often, murders and missing persons cases in Indian country go unsolved and unaddressed, leaving families and communities devastated." Thousands of Indigenous women and girls have been killed or vanished for years. Their families and activists say the cases are often disregarded by law enforcement, which has forced them to bring the spotlight on the issue through social media campaigns, marches and protests.