Bureau of Indian Affairs

New Mexico lawmakers have passed a bill to create an alert system for missing Indigenous people, a growing trend in the Mountain West region.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is making new efforts to help solve Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) cases. Now, the federal agency is using forensic technology to help reunite the remains of Native Americans with their families and tribal nations.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is spending $60 million to help tribal farmers in the Mountain West use less water amid drought – and still grow their crops.

The federal government has launched a new behavioral health call line for students and staff at tribal schools across the U.S., including dozens in the Mountain West.

A Nevada tribe received international attention at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues over water contamination concerns.

Read or listen to the morning news headlines for Friday, April 22, 2022.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs announced reforms to its criminal justice system Monday, including more training on how to perform death investigations. That follows a Mountain West News Bureau and NPR investigation into more than a dozen deaths in tribal jails. There are also ongoing questions about the firm hired to review the deaths for BIA. Some Congressmen have been critical of the BIA’s choice because the firm was led by a former agency official.

The Interior Department ordered a review of tribal jail deaths, but the man who got the contract is a former agency official who oversaw the jails when some of the deaths occurred.

After months of repeated written questions and public records requests from NPR and the Mountain West News Bureau, Interior Department officials said they now plan to contract with an outside agency to examine the troubles plaguing tribal detention centers.

The National Congress of American Indians has urged the federal government to place medical personnel in its tribal jails, arguing that the current situation "exacerbates the already challenging problem of health disparities for American Indians."