Nov. 20—POJOAQUE PUEBLO — A crowd including tribal leaders from across the continent gathered outside Santa Fe Wednesday to hear new research into the problem of missing and murdered Native Americans in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation.
Now in its 19th year, the annual Government-to-Government Violence Against Women Tribal Consultation brings together leaders of tribal nations to request recommendations from the U.S. Department of Justice regarding public safety, including the management of federal funds and the response of federal law enforcement in this area. tribal countries.
FBI intelligence analyst Don Metzmeier told the crowd of hundreds at the Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder that several years ago he began looking for an answer to the question of how many missing Native Americans there were in New Mexico, and for the past few years he has been working to make the agency’s list as accurate as possible.
‘I will often say: [missing and murdered Indigenous people] is not a problem, it is an indication of problems – complex problems,” Metzmeier said. “How do we know if the problem is getting better or worse if we don’t have good data?”
The FBI’s latest list shows 197 missing Native Americans across the state and the Navajo Nation. The list was last updated on October 21, when eight people were added and 11 were removed.
For more than two years, the FBI has been publishing its list of missing indigenous people, working to confirm solved cases and cross out the names of people who have been found. Since July 2022, Metzmeier said, 744 unique Native American names have appeared on his monthly lists, but about 75% of missing persons cases have been solved.
Researchers funded by the National Institute of Justice also presented their findings on missing indigenous people in New Mexico.
In monthly counts from May 2023 to April 2024, a study conducted by researchers at the University of Nebraska at Omaha combined lists of missing persons from sources such as the FBI, the Navajo Nation, the state’s Missing Persons Clearinghouse and open-source data such as postings on social media. media sites.
Dr. Emily Wright and Dr. Tara Richards said their research showed that on average, more than 90% of the names of missing Indigenous people they collected each month were on Metzmeier’s FBI lists. Richards said the actual percentage could be higher because the two teams did not conduct their counts on the same days each month.
There are several challenges to studying the numbers of missing Indigenous people, the researchers said, including racial misclassification, jurisdictional issues and the fact that it is not necessarily against the law for an adult to go missing.
“Measuring ‘hidden populations’ like missing persons, or the like, when we’re trying to count the number of homeless people in a given place, is inherently difficult,” Wright said. “There is no standard methodology by which we should collect data to accurately understand the number of missing persons in a given jurisdiction.”
According to Wright and Richards’ data, Native Americans in New Mexico were affected at more than double the state average — 9.1 people per 10,000.
The case resolution rate was also lower month-to-month for missing Native Americans, Richards said. While on average about 19.4% of cases were resolved, for Indigenous people this rate was 13.8%.
About 70% of missing Indigenous people are adults, she said. More Indian men are missing than women, but for children, she says, more girls are missing than boys.
Several tribal leaders spoke about the importance of federal agencies addressing the issues of missing and murdered indigenous people and domestic violence in their tribes, as well as allocating more funding and other resources to tribal law enforcement agencies.
Gov. J. Michael Chavarria of Santa Clara Pueblo gave testimony Wednesday — one of dozens to do so over the course of the days-long conference — asking the agency to lobby Congress for more funding for tribal nations’ public safety.
“We must address the lack of equity in building educational infrastructure in many tribal communities, and the high rates of substance abuse among our Native youth,” Chavarria said. “We must propose to highlight law enforcement and the rise of major crimes across Indian Country. Each of these issues influences the others and shapes the public safety landscape of our tribal communities.”
The researchers pointed to the disproportionate rates of homicide and domestic violence that Native Americans face, as well as historical trauma that informed their research into the issue.
“It’s not an FBI problem, it’s not a tribal problem, and it’s absolutely not a missing persons problem,” Metzmeier said. “It’s a problem.”
