\n<\/p>\n
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — <\/span>Across the country, Indigenous people are gathering this week to honor loved ones who are missing or have been killed and to call for better data collection, law enforcement response and reforms to make their communities safer.<\/p>\n From U.S. state capitols and tribal community spaces to the streets of major cities, hundreds of marches, rallies, talking circles, self-defense classes and candlelight vigils are planned for the week of May 5, which is observed as a national day of awareness for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement. <\/p>\n The day reflects both the collective grief and the resilience of Indigenous communities, where the federal government has a legal responsibility to ensure public safety. All too often, resources to prevent and respond to violence are in short supply. <\/p>\n Many events call for participants to wear red, a color that has become synonymous with honoring Indigenous victims of violence in the U.S. and Canada.<\/p>\n Native Americans face disproportionate rates of violence in the U.S., a crisis that advocates say is rooted in the systematic removal of Native people from their land and the federal government’s efforts to rid them of their cultures.<\/p>\n According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Native Americans and Alaska Natives are more than twice as likely than the general population to be victims of a violent crime, and Native women are twice as likely to be victims of homicide. At the end of 2025, the FBI\u2019s National Crime Information Center recorded just under 1,500 active federal cases involving missing Native Americans. <\/p>\n Experts say that’s likely an undercount because of jurisdictional confusion, racial misclassification and inconsistent data collection. <\/p>\n Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, said that there’s been progress in accounting for the true scope of the crisis but that law enforcement resources have been slow to follow.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t look at the numbers and feel sorry for us,\u201d Echo-Hawk said, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. \u201cLook at the numbers and say, \u2018How do we ensure that this doesn\u2019t continue?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n In 2020, President Donald Trump signed Savanna\u2019s Act<\/a> and the Not Invisible Act into law, both aimed at solving and preventing cases of violent crime in Indian Country with improved data collection and law enforcement reforms. <\/p>\n But implementation of those laws has been slow and erratic. Under the Biden administration in 2022, a federal commission to study the crisis<\/a> convened two years behind schedule. Its extensive recommendations \u2014 ranging from expanding authority for tribal law enforcement to improving communication with the victims\u2019 families \u2014 were made public in 2023. <\/p>\n The recommendations were removed from government websites last year amid the Trump administration’s purge of initiatives it associates with diversity, equity and inclusion. <\/p>\n Federally recognized tribes are sovereign nations within the U.S.<\/p>\n