Across the United States, Indigenous people are gathering this week to mark May 5, a national day of awareness for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement, honoring relatives who are missing or have been killed while calling for stronger data collection, law enforcement response and reforms. Organizers said the week features events that range from marches and rallies to talking circles, candlelight vigils, and self-defense classes in places including state capitols and major-city streets.
Advocates said many of the gatherings are also a response to what they describe as a hidden crisis affecting Native communities, where federal and local systems are strained and families often struggle to get answers. Organizers said many events call for participants to wear red, a color that has become linked to honoring Indigenous victims of violence in the U.S. and Canada.
Officials and advocates point to disparities in violence statistics involving Native Americans and Alaska Natives. The Associated Press reported that the U.S. Department of Justice says Native Americans and Alaska Natives are more than twice as likely than the general population to be victims of violent crime, and that Native women are twice as likely to be victims of homicide. The FBI’s National Crime Information Center recorded just under 1,500 active federal cases involving missing Native Americans as of the end of 2025, according to the report.
Experts told the Associated Press that those figures likely understate the scope of the problem, citing undercounting related to jurisdictional confusion, racial misclassification and inconsistent data collection. Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, said there has been progress in accounting for the true scope of the crisis but that law enforcement resources have lagged behind, adding: “Don’t look at the numbers and feel sorry for us. Look at the numbers and say, ‘How do we ensure that this doesn’t continue?’” Echo-Hawk is a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma.
The report also described recent federal efforts alongside gaps that advocates say remain. In 2020, President Donald Trump signed Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act into law, both intended to address and prevent violent crime in Indian Country through improved data collection and law enforcement reforms. Under the Biden administration, a federal commission to study the crisis convened in 2022 and made recommendations public in 2023, with proposals that ranged from expanding authority for tribal law enforcement to improving communication with victims’ families, the report said.
Advocates in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement said implementation has been slow and erratic, and they pointed to what they described as changes to the public availability of the commission’s recommendations. The Associated Press reported that the recommendations were removed from government websites last year amid the Trump administration’s purge of initiatives associated with diversity, equity and inclusion.
At the same time, the report said the Justice Department has continued Operation Not Forgotten by surging FBI agents, analysts and other personnel to field offices near tribal lands on a rotating, temporary basis. The FBI said those assignments have produced more than 200 arrests and convictions in homicide, domestic abuse and sexual assault cases since 2023, according to the Associated Press report. On Tuesday, the U.S. Interior Department announced the creation of a task force to prevent violent crime in Indian Country, with officials saying the effort would align investigative resources to improve case management and prosecution outcomes and refocus efforts on missing persons and homicide cases.
Not all responses to increased federal involvement are uniform. Michael Henderson, director of public safety for the Navajo Nation, told the Associated Press there are “pros and cons” to a larger FBI footprint in Indian Country. Henderson said federal officers can bring fresh eyes and high-tech forensic tools to cold cases, but he said federal agents often arrive with little experience working in tribal communities or investigating violent crime, and he argued that federal funds could be better spent staffing and funding tribal police departments.
The AP report also highlighted how families are pushing for attention and action as they grieve. At a Saturday prayer walk in Colorado Springs, marchers carried signs and chanted “No more stolen lives on stolen land.” The report said Denise Porambo attended; her daughter, Destiny Jeriann Whiteman, was killed last August where she lived on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation in southwest Colorado. Porambo said, “It hurts every day,” as her voice broke, according to the Associated Press account.
In other cities, crowds gathered to raise awareness. The report described trees decorated with red dresses in Duluth, Minnesota, and family members and supporters in Oklahoma marking the day with red shirts and ribbon skirts and carrying photographs of loved ones. It said some participants painted red hands over their mouths as a symbol of solidarity. In Albuquerque, the AP reported, marchers shouted the names of people who have gone missing or been killed, including Emily Pike, Ella Mae Begay and Zachariah Shorty.
Families described navigating overlapping tribal and federal law enforcement agencies while feeling left out. The report said Jessica Montoya drove three hours from the Jicarilla Apache Nation to call attention to her son Jamian Reval’s 2023 killing; Montoya said her family believes he was robbed and shot by a classmate on the first day of his junior year of high school. She said, “He had a lot of goals. He had a lot to look forward to,” as she carried a sign calling for an end to gun violence, according to the Associated Press.
The Associated Press also reported that in the absence of what advocates describe as a nationwide strategy for handling these cases, families often end up bearing the burden of searching for loved ones and investigating disappearances. It cited the case of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places, whose family organizes marches, vigils and courthouse demonstrations after she was found dead several days after she disappeared from the Crow Reservation in Montana in August 2019. The report said no arrests have been made and the cause of death was ruled inconclusive, and it quoted Grace Bulltail saying, “We have had to advocate for ourselves and for Kaysera every step of the way.”
This story was updated to correct the day of the event in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Saturday.