PHOTO: (left to right) Speaker Crystalyne Curley, FBI Director Kash Patel, COLT Treasurer Lisa White Pipe, and COLT Chairman J. Garret Renville in Washington D.C. on July 16, 2025.
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Speaker Curley urges FBI Director to increase federal support for missing and murdered persons cases
WASHINGTON, D.C. — During a high-level roundtable discussion with FBI Director Kash Patel on Wednesday, Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley called for stronger federal action to address the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous persons (MMIP), particularly across the Navajo Nation and other tribal communities disproportionately affected by violence, trafficking, and organized crime.
Speaker Curley joined tribal leaders from the Coalition of Large Tribes (COLT) as they advocated for increased collaboration to increase missing persons data sharing, law enforcement presence, and more funding for DNA testing to help identify individuals may have gone missing.
“The Navajo Nation Council’s Missing and Murdered Diné Relatives Task Force has prioritized missing persons cases as an emergency in every situation. The Navajo Police Department reported that we had a total of 66 missing persons as of July 3, and every one of them deserves justice,” said Speaker Curley.
COLT leaders also commended the FBI’s and U.S. DOJ’s “Operation Not Forgotten,” which was launched earlier this year and deployed more FBI personnel to field offices across the country to focus on missing persons cases in tribal communities.
“Efforts like Operation Not Forgotten remind us that grassroots action and advocacy from families and communities are very powerful, but we also need the federal government to match that urgency with more resources and coordination,” she added.
In a previous meeting with the FBI Director in May, Speaker Curley worked with Council Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty to identify key federal policies needing stronger enforcement and investment, including the Not Invisible Act, which mandated a federal commission to address MMIP and human trafficking.
Speaker Curley continued to emphasize the need for federal partners to fully implement the Act and include the voices and recommendations of tribal nations—particularly those from large, rural, and under served areas.
The Coalition of Large Tribes continues to highlight how gaps in federal law enforcement coverage leave tribal members more vulnerable to exploitation, violence, and trafficking, especially by organized criminal networks.
COLT leaders stated that their tribes are seeing growing evidence that drug cartels are targeting tribal communities due to jurisdictional loopholes and the lack of law enforcement presence on their lands.
Speaker Curley called on both the FBI and the Administration to dedicate more personnel and funding, particularly for DNA testing, forensic support, criminal investigators, and the creation of rapid response teams to aid families in the critical early hours after a disappearance.
COLT leaders extended an invitation to the FBI Director to visit tribal communities to learn more about the geographical and daily challenges faced by law enforcement officers such as remote landscapes, limited officers, and underfunded facilities and equipment.