Operation boosts FBI resources in Minnesota for unsolved violent crimes in Indian Country

Republican leaders held a press conference Monday to highlight Operation Not Forgotten, which they say renews efforts made during President Donald Trump’s first term. In 2019, Trump signed an executive order establishing The Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives, also known as Operation Lady Justice Task Force. 

In July of 2020, an office dedicated to investigating cold cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous people opened in Bloomington. Later, Minnesota’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office opened what is said to be the first state office of its kind in the United States in 2022. 

Donna Bergstrom is the state’s Republican Party deputy chair and a member of the Red Lake Nation. Bergstrom says in Native American communities, tragedy strikes at rates greater than in the general population.  

“It’s time for us to shine a spotlight on that, to bring attention to it, to let people know here in Minnesota, these are Minnesotans. They deserve protection. They deserve to have law and order applied to them and to their perpetrators,” she said. 

Operation Not Forgotten was established in 2023 and addresses high crime rates in Indigenous communities across the United States with a focus on cases involving violence against women and children.  

Sixty FBI personnel will be deployed to Minneapolis and nine other field offices across Indian Country. Last year, there were closer to 50.  

Ana Negrete has affiliation with Otomi from central Mexico and is the MMIR Office’s interim director. She says the office currently has 21 active cases, several of which have been ongoing for more than a year. 

She also says the administration has yet to contact the office.  

“There’s plenty of work to be done. So, I’m hopeful, to be honest, I’m hopeful that we get some extra resources and support,” Negrete said. “We’re hearing about new developments and technology and DNA science and maybe they bring that. And so, fingers crossed, that makes a difference for some of these cases.”  

Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, a descendant of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, helped to establish the MMIR Office. While FBI personnel will be in Minneapolis, she hopes work will reach tribal communities in greater Minnesota.  

“I really hope that this Operation Not Forgotten will work very closely with the tribal communities, both in the urban core of Minnesota, but also in greater Minnesota,” she said. “It’s very different. The kind of violence and the ways people go missing are similar, but different.”  

Bergstrom says this is the longest and most intense national deployment of FBI resources in Indian Country to date.  

“The federal government is there to help them, to back them, and to work with the state and tribal communities to help bring resolution to so many of these cases, these investigations, and just bring justice to our communities and healing and hope to our families,” Bergstrom said. 

FBI personnel will be assisted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit and will be deployed on 90-day rotations over six months.  

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