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Policy Watchtower/Program change

BIA Missing and Murdered Unit sets deadlines for reviewing case referrals

Interior DepartmentJustice DepartmentProgram changeSep 1, 2026

Check: BIA's Missing and Murdered Unit (MMU) now has written deadlines for reviewing referrals, and the Interior Inspector General reports a backlog of 394 pending referrals that BIA says it is clearing.

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What it does

Tribal police and tribal governments that send missing-person, homicide, or trafficking referrals to MMU are affected. As of November 2024, MMU had 83 open cases and 394 pending referrals, 284 of them (72 percent) received between 2020 and 2023. BIA says its revised procedures require review of each cold case or murder referral within 72 hours, then a decision within ten business days to assign it to an agent or close it, then a case application from the agent within thirty days. BIA gave July 30, 2026 as the estimated date to assign or close all 2020–2024 referrals, and the Inspector General reports it has not yet received support showing this was done.

Why it matters for tribal funding

Directly tribal. The document is about tribes, tribal programs or Native organizations specifically.

Who it covers: Tribal governments, Native nonprofits.

What to do next

  1. Ask your MMU regional Agent in Charge for the status of any referrals your tribal police or program submitted between 2020 and 2024.
  2. Note the new review timeframes (72 hours, ten business days, thirty days) when sending new referrals and tracking their disposition.

Sources

Every signal is built from public records. The highlighted words appear in the source exactly as shown.

  • Department of the Interior OIG: reportsoig_reportSep 1, 2026

    The Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Missing and Murdered Unit Must Improve Its Case Intake Process and Victim Services

    • Quoted from the source: “According to MMU, it had 83 open cases and 394 open referrals as of November 2024.”
    • Quoted from the source: “Following this initial review, the [RAC] has ten business days to either assign a cold case/murder referral to an agent for further evaluation and potential case initiation or to formally close the referral”
    Read the originalU.S. government record, public domain.

Terms with a dotted underline open a plain-language definition. This is guidance, not legal advice: the official text always controls. A free public service from GrantsPath, a Native-owned business.