Watchlist ‘FBI announces new resources to solve cases of missing, murdered Indigenous people’

By Kamiah Koch

Social media/digital journalist

One of Portland’s local news channels, KPTV FOX 12, shared a segment reporting the FBI is boosting resources across the country to address unsolved crimes in Indian Country, including cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people.

“With these added resources, unsolved violent crimes in Native American communities will be getting much more attention,” FOX 12 reporter Mikhala Armstrong said. “For one sister, that could bring answers to a missing person’s case spanning nearly eight years.”

Armstrong interviews Kimberly Loring Heavyrunner, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe and sister to Ashley Loring Heavyrunner, who has been missing since 2017.

Armstrong states Heavyrunner’s disappearance is part of the ongoing crisis in Tribal communities with Indigenous people being murdered or missing at disproportionate rates.

“Throughout Indian Country if you tell a story of a loved one going missing, it’s the same template of all other stories,” Kimberly Heavyrunner said. “It’s as if you’re telling one story, you’re telling them all.”

Armstrong’s coverage provides a graph showing there are a total of 4,300 open investigations in Indian Country in 2025.

“To address this growing crisis, the FBI announced Tuesday (April 1) that it intends to surge additional resources, including temporary duty assignments that rotate over the next six months in several different areas nationwide, including Portland,” Armstrong said. “They call it ‘Operation Not Forgotten.’”

Many in the Tribal community are hopeful these additional resources will be “transformational” in the ongoing search for missing Native relatives.

Heavyrunner is hesitant to trust the FBI to solve her sister’s case.

Tribes all across the country have experienced generations of broken promises from the federal government. 

“I really hope they can find our missing,” Heavyrunner said. “I hope they can work hard to look for our missing people, but it’s really hard to find that hope with the FBI, it’s really hard.”

You can watch the entire FOX 12 segment on Operation Not Forgotten at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoxVVT_TzAk.