Amid calls to better highlight and investigate missing Alaska Natives and American Indian people, a report dubbed a first-of-its-kind has been released by law enforcement.
The Anchorage Daily News detailed the release of the report last week, noting that it includes names of 280 people who have vanished and includes, dates of their last contact, and how police handled their disappearance.
The Missing Indigenous Persons Report comes from the Alaska Department of Public Safety, according to the outlet.
The report is also considered a point-in-time snapshot, as the most recent missing person on the report went missing as of July 14.
The report has four classifications each missing person could fall into, including environmental, non-suspicious, suspicious, or unknown.
Almost three-quarters of the cases were put into the environmental category, meaning that they are believed to have died or disappeared in the wilderness after having some type of accident, like a boat sinking or plane crash, and their remains have not been found.
The next leading category was not suspicious, with 30 cases, followed by suspicious, with 18, and then unknown, with 17.
According to a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, Austin McDaniel, some of the missing people may have since been found, and that law enforcement was never notified.
Some of the cases date back to the 1960s, and even though some have been declared legally dead, McDaniel told the Associated Press they are considered missing until law enforcement can lay their “eyes on them.”
According to the Anchorage Daily News, the report does not represent every missing Alaska Native and American Indian person in the state, but only those investigated by the Anchorage Police Department or the Alaska State Troopers.
McDaniel shared that the hope is other departments will start to contribute to the date every quarter, providing new updates on the missing persons cases.
But beyond those who are strictly missing, there is also a crisis going on with those who are abducted.
The Office of Indian Affairs in the U.S. Department of the Interior noted, “Community advocates describe the crisis as a legacy of generations of government policies of forced removal, land seizures and violence inflicted on Native peoples.”
“For decades, Native American and Alaska Native communities have struggled with high rates of” abduction, the office shared, most notably in women.
Alaska’s Missing Indigenous Persons Report is a first step in the office and community’s call for action to help decrease the number of missing person cases that go unsolved.
Related
Related
DOWNLOAD the Audacy App
SIGN UP and follow KCBS Radio