By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-08-25 15:51:54 | Updated at 2026-09-03 19:08:55
1 week ago
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has established a minimum reward of $25,000 in a bid to solve more than 50 unsolved homicides and missing-person cases involving Native Americans. The cases are listed on a new website called Voices Not Forgotten.
On Aug. 18, FBI Director Kash Patel announced the Voices Not Forgotten initiative, which includes increased rewards.
“The new protocol is designed to raise public awareness as well as create a minimum reward of up to $25,000 for all publicly advertised cases involving homicides, kidnappings and missing persons in Indian country—compelling any member of the public with information to come forward and help us bring justice,” Patel said.
“Thank you to our brilliant partners in Indian country who continue to work with this FBI all over the country making America safer,” Patel said.
The FBI investigates federal crimes on nearly 200 Native American reservations, along with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
Among the cases the FBI is investigating is the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl, Sa'Wade Birdinground, who was last seen at her family’s home on the Crow Indian Reservation in Garryowen, Mont., on Oct. 6, 2024. The reward in that case has been increased from $15,000 to $25,000.
Her father, Wade Birdinground, said in an interview posted on the FBI’s YouTube page that he prayed every day for her.
“There’s times where I don’t want to do nothing,” he said. “Every day’s the same. We pray. Every time we wake up we pray for her.”
FBI ‘Have My Back’
“I think someone will come forward and talk now,” Birdinground said. “The FBI are there for me, they have my back. They’re looking for her.”
But other Native Americans are more critical of the federal authorities.
Mary Kathryn Nagle, an attorney from the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, said federal investigators often “parachute in” to investigate crimes in tight-knit communities where witnesses are afraid to talk.
“We have people in Indian Country who know what happened to our relatives,” Nagle said.
Luana Ross, co-director of the University of Washington’s Native Voices program, said cash rewards were often not paid out.
“It is my opinion that in reservation communities, people would be extremely reluctant to turn a friend or relative into a criminal justice system that hasn’t served them well,” said Ross, who is a member of the Bitterroot Salish nation.
The reward for information about the 2023 death of Patrick Carlow Sr., a 73-year-old Oglala Lakota rancher on the Pine Ridge reservation, was put up from $10,000 to $25,000 last month.
“It’s so hard to get your hopes up like that and think, ‘This is it, we finally got dad’s killer’ and then nothing comes of it,” his daughter, Lisa Carlow, said.
Her sister, JoDee Carlow, said fear in Native American communities often prevented them from cooperating with the authorities.
‘Deep-Rooted’ Fear
“I think that’s like deep-rooted within our people,” JoDee Carlow said. “It’s not just on Pine Ridge. It’s on every reservation.”
The FBI has urged people with information on any of the unsolved cases to contact their local FBI field office, submit a tip online or 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Violence among Native American communities has long been considered a problem and is sometimes linked to high rates of alcohol and drug abuse.
In 2012, the Department of Justice said that on some reservations Native American women were murdered at a rate more than 10 times the national average.
In October 2020, President Donald Trump signed into law the Not Invisible Act and Savanna’s Act, two measures that addressed the issue of murdered and missing indigenous women.
Savanna’s Act was named after Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind—a pregnant 22-year-old who was murdered in North Dakota in 2017—and established law enforcement protocols relating to cases of missing and murdered indigenous women.
It later emerged that LaFontaine-Greywind had been murdered by her neighbors, and her unborn baby was cut out of her belly.
In 2019, her neighbor Brooke Crews was jailed for life without the possibility of parole. Crews’ boyfriend, William Hoehn, was initially jailed for life, but that sentence was later overturned and replaced with a 20-year sentence.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
