Operation Not Forgotten adds FBI personnel to support investigations of violent crimes

PORTLAND — The Justice Department announced April 1 it will surge FBI assets across the country to address unresolved violent crimes in Indian Country, including crimes relating to missing and murdered indigenous persons.

The FBI will send 60 personnel, rotating in 90-day temporary duty assignments over a six-month period, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon.

This operation is the longest and most intense national deployment of FBI resources to address Indian Country crime to date. FBI personnel will support field offices in Albuquerque; Denver; Detroit; Jackson, Mississippi; Minneapolis; Oklahoma City; Phoenix; Portland; Seattle; and Salt Lake City. The FBI will work in partnership with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and tribal law enforcement agencies across jurisdictions.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit will assist FBI personnel and use the latest forensic evidence processing tools to solve cases and hold perpetrators accountable.  U.S. attorney’s offices will aggressively prosecute case referrals.

William M. Narus, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Oregon, said in the release the operation “provides critical resources to support the ongoing efforts by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and partners to address violent crime, including missing and murdered indigenous people, in tribal communities throughout Oregon.”

“Crime rates in American Indian and Alaska Native communities are unacceptably high,”  Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the press 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.”

Indian Country faces persistent levels of crime and victimization. At the beginning of Fiscal Year 2025, FBI’s Indian Country program had approximately 4,300 open investigations, including more than 900 death investigations, 1,000 child abuse investigations and more than 500 domestic violence and adult sexual abuse investigations.

Operation Not Forgotten renews efforts begun during President Donald Trump’s first term under Executive Order 13898, Establishing the Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives. This is the third deployment under Operation Not Forgotten, which has provided investigative support to more than 500 cases in the past two years. Combined, these operations resulted in the recovery of 10 child victims, 52 arrests and 25 indictments or judicial complaints.

Operation Not Forgotten also expands upon the resources deployed in recent years to address cases of missing and murdered indigenous people. The effort will receive support from the department’s MMIP Regional Outreach Program, which places attorneys and coordinators in U.S. attorneys’ offices across the nation to help prevent and respond to cases of missing or murdered indigenous people.