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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — <\/span>The Federal Bureau of Investigation has established a minimum reward of $25,000 in cases where people went missing or were killed in Indian Country, part of a broader effort to address high rates of violence affecting Native American communities.<\/p>\n The new minimum applies to more than 50 unsolved homicides and missing-person cases in tribal communities. Most of the cases are less than 10 years old, though a dozen have been unsolved for more than two decades, an AP analysis found.<\/p>\n Victims\u2019 families and experts are unsure the higher amounts will be enough to get tipsters to come forward, citing people’s fears and distrust of the federal government.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u2019s scared in Oglala,\u201d said Lisa Carlow, whose father Patrick Carlow Sr. was found dead in his Pine Ridge Reservation home in 2023. \u201cSo to me it\u2019s like, okay, what do you guys know that you\u2019re not saying?\u201d <\/p>\n The FBI investigates federal crimes on nearly 200 Native American reservations, along with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. At the end of 2025, the FBI\u2019s National Crime Information Center recorded just under 1,500 active cases<\/a> involving missing Native Americans, though not all become federal cases. <\/p>\n The FBI cited several cases in its recent announcement, including that of 8-year-old Maleeka Boone<\/a>, who it said was likely struck by a vehicle on the Navajo Nation, and San Carlos Apache teenager Emily Pike<\/a>, whose body was found after she disappeared from an Arizona group home.<\/p>\n Mary Kathryn Nagle, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and an attorney who advocates for families of missing Native Americans, said federal investigators often \u201cparachute in\u201d to investigate crimes in tight-knit communities where witnesses may stay silent because of distrust and fear of retribution. <\/p>\n Still, she said, larger rewards could provide an incentive for people to talk, and show families their loved ones\u2019 cases are being taken seriously.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have people in Indian Country who know what happened to our relatives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Luana Ross, who is Bitterroot Salish and a co-director of the Native Voices program at the University of Washington, said cash rewards could boost interest but often aren’t paid out.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is my opinion that in reservation communities, people would be extremely reluctant to turn a friend or relative into a criminal justice system that hasn\u2019t served them well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Lisa Foster’s longtime friend Mona Renee Vallo was found dead after a suspected hit-and-run along historic Route 66 in Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico, in 2022. Foster hopes the higher reward money will renew interest in the investigation.<\/p>\n Foster described Vallo as a positive, bubbly friend who could have fun no matter what. She was a member of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.<\/p>\n \u201cSomeone knows something there,\u201d Foster said. \u201cThey have to. I mean, it’s weird that she went to work and then all of a sudden this happened to her.\u201d<\/p>\n The reward in Carlow’s case was increased to $25,000 in July, up from $10,000.<\/p>\n Carlow’s family says the 73-year-old rancher was respected in the Oglala community. He mowed the grass for others and spent time with his grandchildren. The family said more calls started coming in after the reward was increased, but the wait for answers continues. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, the FBI declined to provide The Associated Press an update on the case.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so hard to get your hopes up like that and think, \u2018This is it, we finally got dad\u2019s killer.\u2019 And then nothing comes of it,\u201d Lisa Carlow said.<\/p>\n She said fear keeps community members who may have information from contacting authorities.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that\u2019s like deep-rooted within our people,\u201d said her sister, JoDee Carlow. \u201cIt’s not just on Pine Ridge. It’s on every reservation.\u201d<\/p>\n