In 2021, more than 9,500 Indigenous people were reported missing through the FBI’s National Crime Information Center. That’s a higher rate of disappearance than the general U.S. population. Murder is also the third-leading cause of death among Native women, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute.
Despite the progress the federal government has made recently, a recent summit made clear how much work remains in solving the persistent, intractable crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
