Murdered and Missing Indigenous Still a Problem

Leaders in Alaska have promised action, time and time again, to address the state’s consistent failure to solve the murders and disappearances of Indigenous people. Federal legislation, backed by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, called for improving data collection and information sharing among law enforcement and tribes. Governor Mike Dunleavy, repeatedly said that the state government would work with Alaska Natives to solve the unsolved.

Sadly, little has been done since I did a podcast on the topic a few years ago. When an Alaska Native group recently asked state law enforcement officials for something as simple as a list of murders investigated by state police (an average of 22 per year), the state denied them. That’s when Charlene Aqpik Apok, trying to collect the names of those missing or murdered to read at a rally, discovered that while the missing get listed, those who are murdered, do not.

This past June, she started a nonprofit which filed two public records requests with the Alaska Department of Public Safety concerning investigated homicide cases since 2022. The group asked for victims of all races, and then for those identified as Alaska Native. Simple enough one would think.

However, the state rejected the requests a week later, claiming time restraints and a lame state regulation allowing denial if providing information would require employees to “compile or summarize” existing public records. In other words, four years after creating a council on murdered and missing Indigenous people, Alaska cannot readily identify murder cases involving Indigenous victims.

The department also claims it receives thousands of records requests each year, is a leader in data transparency, and that “to imply that we are not invested in this work due to the denial of one records request from an advocacy group is absurd.” It also cited examples of transparency in their requests for federal grants.

My own research shows Alaska generally has between 50-70 total murders per year. How hard can it be to compile five dozen records into a list? That sounds like a project a high-school student could accomplish given the data to do so.

In 2021, Data for Indigenous Justice published its first report on the crisis in Alaska. A council, appointed by the Governor, even relied on Apok’s findings which concluded that little data is available. So the only question that remains is, “Why?”

There can only be one answer. The authorities simply don’t care. I’m not stating that murders aren’t looked into, I’m sure they are. However, when the state can’t come up with something as simple as a list, the optics would imply that investigations seem to not be a priority. In addition, without a list, how would they even know if a serial killer was on the loose?

For families of the victims, this isn’t just sad, it’s appalling. Till things improve, Apok said her group will continue making public records requests while also building its own database through community connections. Good for her! At least one person cares.

Sources used: Pro Publica and Alaska Daily News