MMIP advocates and lawmakers react to FBI’s latest ‘surge’

“The FBI will manhunt violent criminals on all lands — and Operation Not Forgotten ensures a surge in resources to locate violent offenders on tribal lands and find those who have gone missing,” FBI Director Kash Patel stated in an April 1 press release.

The U.S. Department of Justice says the 60 agents will be given rotating 90-day assignments over a six-month period. They’ll be helped by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit.

“Crime rates in American Indian and Alaska Native communities are unacceptably high,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in the release. “By surging FBI resources and collaborating closely with US Attorneys and Tribal law enforcement to prosecute cases, the Department of Justice will help deliver the accountability that these communities deserve.”

The news has been met with mixed responses across Indian Country.

“I welcome Operation Not Forgotten, as I believe it is a step in the right direction,” said North Dakota State Representative Lisa Finley-DeVille, a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. “It addresses the violence and human trafficking we face in the Bakken, where crime rates are high.”

Finley-DeVille added that the FBI’s increased resources and personnel — combined with working with tribal authorities — are “much needed” to address long-standing issues. “However, I hope this effort is sustainable and not just a temporary fix to a growing problem in Indian Country.”

Part of last year’s surge, according to a video released by the FBI, included at least one agent from Atlanta being sent to Minot, North Dakota, to help investigators. (An FBI spokesperson declined to provide Buffalo’s Fire with the exact number of agents deployed to specific locations under Operation Not Forgotten, saying only that 40 agents were sent to field offices across the country in 2023, followed by 50 in 2024.)

Another Native lawmaker in the North Dakota Legislature, Rep. Jayme Davis, also expressed hope that Operation Not Forgotten will benefit her community, even if this time it will not immediately reach her state.

“North Dakota continues to experience the devastating impacts of missing and murdered Indigenous people, and we need all the support we can get—from federal, state, and tribal partners,” said Davis, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

Davis described the surge as a welcome step toward justice in Indian Country, and she applauded the DOJ and FBI for recognizing the urgency of these investigations.

“But we also know that rural, remote areas like ours cannot be overlooked. Every Indigenous life matters, and every family impacted by these tragedies deserves answers, accountability and healing.”

One such family is that of Standing Rock tribal member and United Tribes Technical College student Renzo Bullhead. He’s been missing since March 16 and was last seen on the Burlington Northern train bridge between Mandan and Bismarck. The Native community has felt helpless and frustrated in the absence of recent fresh leads.

“In the search for our son, Renzo, the early involvement of the FBI could have significantly altered the course of our efforts,” said Delane Blue Thunder, Bullhead’s stepfather. “With their participation, we might have experienced greater cooperation among various jurisdictions and law enforcement agencies, potentially transforming a matter that has stretched into weeks into one resolved in days. Our hope remains that no other family endures this painful journey.”

One of the FBI offices benefiting from Operation Not Forgotten is in Portland, Oregon. The area has seen its share of MMIP/MMIW cases, including the recent disappearances of Grand Ronde elder Jonathan House and Louann Marie Aiken of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

Kimberly Lining, of the Portland-based MMIW Search & Hope Alliance, has worked to spread awareness of these cases, including several searches across Oregon. She also stressed the need for effective partnerships.

“The MMIW/P crisis is a national emergency that demands urgent action, accountability, and meaningful collaboration,” Lining wrote in an email to Buffalo’s Fire. “Building strong, trust-based relationships with federal law enforcement agencies like the FBI is not just important—it’s essential. Our families and communities cannot afford to wait days or weeks for critical information like police reports, photographs, or updates that could lead to finding our missing loved ones. Time is everything.”

Skepticism, wariness and mistrust aren’t uncommon between tribes and the federal government. Tensions broiled and sometimes exploded during the late ‘60s and ‘70s as the American Indian Movement and other groups asserted “Red Power” through occupations and standoffs. One of the most violent incidents happened on June 26, 1975, at the Jumping Bull residence in South Dakota, where two FBI agents and an AIM activist were killed in a shootout. Leonard Peltier — long accused by the FBI as the triggerman behind the agents’ deaths — just had his sentence commuted in January after serving nearly half a century in prison.

This history has remained etched in the memories of many people across Indian Country, and FBI officials acknowledge that engagement has to begin well before a crime has been committed in a tribal community.

“I had the opportunity to work in Oregon between 2013 and 2016,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Doug Olson, who’s based in the Portland FBI office. “As I come back, I’ve been here for about a year, I’ve definitely seen an increase in terms of our community engagement with the various tribes, all the way at my level, all the way down to the working employee level in our office. We could never do enough of that.”

Olson says for his state’s part in Operation Not Forgotten, they’ll have tribal matters covered by resident agencies in Bend and Pendleton. The latter covers the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

“So over the course of six months, we’ll benefit from adding three additional agents to work specifically on these issues,” added Olson.

As to the extent of the MMIP crisis in Oregon, those numbers will be coming soon, assure FBI staff. But Olson was able to share the latest national figures for the bureau’s Indian Country program. He said as of 2025, there are 4,300 open investigations: 900 death investigations, 1,000 child sexual abuse investigations, 290 domestic violence investigations and 260 adult sexual abuse investigations.

Agent Olson said it’s too soon to measure the success of Operation Not Forgotten as it heads into its third year of implementation, but he welcomed Buffalo’s Fire to revisit the issue midway, in July, and then at the end of this latest effort in October. He also invited tribal advocacy groups to weigh in and develop partnerships with his team.

For MMIP advocates like Amanda Freeman, that gesture leads to cautious optimism.

“This is work we’ve carried ourselves,” said Freeman, founder and head of Ampkwa Advocacy, based in Grand Ronde, Oregon. “Federal involvement in these cases has been inconsistent at best, and any new initiative deserves close attention.”

Freeman told Buffalo’s Fire that she was initially hopeful that Operation Not Forgotten would lead to more closed cases. But after time to reflect and talk to others in the Native community, she felt that the overture lacked transparency.

“Are they doing this to help us, or to monitor us?” she asked, adding that her mistrust is fueled by centuries of broken promises and hidden agendas from federal authorities.

“There is no mention of healing. No meaningful transparency. No indication this was created with us — only around us. And in a political climate where diversity, equity and inclusion are increasingly under attack, we cannot afford to assume that more federal law enforcement automatically means more safety for our communities.”

An October 2023 release from the Portland FBI says more than 220 cases were tackled during that initiative, resulting “in several arrests, including that of a fugitive who had been on the run for years.”

When asked how success will be measured in this latest round of the effort, Agent Olson said he hoped to not only have more resolved cases, but also improved relationships with tribes. This would include community groups as well as elders and police departments.

“To be honest, if the community doesn’t see the benefit of this, then we wouldn’t continue to request the resources and be part of this initiative from our headquarters,” he said.

Spirit Lake Nation Wood Lake District Council Representative Kooper Longie is among those welcoming the increased response. Spirit Lake currently has two active and open MMIP cases from 2024.

“Instead of fragmenting our resources, we must explore collaborative partnerships among law enforcement, emergency responders, and search and rescue teams,” Longie shared in a statement to Buffalo’s Fire. “This approach aims to provide families with the closure they deserve. The tragic cases of Jemini Posey and Isaac Hunt within our own homelands remind us of the urgency of our mission, and with the FBI’s support through Operation Not Forgotten, we hope to bring justice to our community.”

In addition to Portland, the initiative will send FBI personnel to field offices in Albuquerque, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Seattle and Jackson, Mississippi.

The Justice Department release from April 1 says in the previous two years of Operation Not Forgotten, the FBI provided investigative support to more than 500 cases. It says this resulted in 52 arrests, 25 indictments or judicial complaints and the recovery of 10 child victims.