SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation has established a minimum reward of $25,000 in cases where people went missing or were killed in Indian Country, part of a broader effort to address high rates of violence affecting Native American communities.
The new minimum applies to more than 50 unsolved homicides and missing-person cases in tribal communities. Most of the cases are less than 10 years old, though a dozen have been unsolved for more than two decades, an AP analysis found.
Victims’ families and experts are unsure the higher amounts will be enough to get tipsters to come forward, citing people's fears and distrust of the federal government.
“Everybody’s scared in Oglala,” said Lisa Carlow, whose father Patrick Carlow Sr. was found dead in his Pine Ridge Reservation home in 2023. “So to me it’s like, okay, what do you guys know that you’re not saying?”
The FBI investigates federal crimes on nearly 200 Native American reservations, along with the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. At the end of 2025, the FBI’s National Crime Information Center recorded just under 1,500 active cases involving missing Native Americans, though not all become federal cases.
The FBI cited several cases in its recent announcement, including that of 8-year-old Maleeka Boone, who it said was likely struck by a vehicle on the Navajo Nation, and San Carlos Apache teenager Emily Pike, whose body was found after she disappeared from an Arizona group home.
Mary Kathryn Nagle, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and an attorney who advocates for families of missing Native Americans, said federal investigators often “parachute in” to investigate crimes in tight-knit communities where witnesses may stay silent because of distrust and fear of retribution.
Still, she said, larger rewards could provide an incentive for people to talk, and show families their loved ones’ cases are being taken seriously.
“We have people in Indian Country who know what happened to our relatives,” she said.
Luana Ross, who is Bitterroot Salish and a co-director of the Native Voices program at the University of Washington, said cash rewards could boost interest but often aren't paid out.
“It is my opinion that in reservation communities, people would be extremely reluctant to turn a friend or relative into a criminal justice system that hasn’t served them well,” she said.
Lisa Foster's longtime friend Mona Renee Vallo was found dead after a suspected hit-and-run along historic Route 66 in Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico, in 2022. Foster hopes the higher reward money will renew interest in the investigation.
Foster described Vallo as a positive, bubbly friend who could have fun no matter what. She was a member of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.
“Someone knows something there,” Foster said. “They have to. I mean, it's weird that she went to work and then all of a sudden this happened to her.”
The reward in Carlow's case was increased to $25,000 in July, up from $10,000.
Carlow's family says the 73-year-old rancher was respected in the Oglala community. He mowed the grass for others and spent time with his grandchildren. The family said more calls started coming in after the reward was increased, but the wait for answers continues.
Meanwhile, the FBI declined to provide The Associated Press an update on the case.
“It’s so hard to get your hopes up like that and think, ‘This is it, we finally got dad’s killer.’ And then nothing comes of it,” Lisa Carlow said.
She said fear keeps community members who may have information from contacting authorities.
“I think that’s like deep-rooted within our people,” said her sister, JoDee Carlow. “It's not just on Pine Ridge. It's on every reservation.”
The FBI initially offered $5,000 for information in the deaths of two brothers from Ohio, Matthew and Philip Reagan. The reward was later doubled and now will hit $25,000. Though not Native Americans, they were killed on the Navajo Nation and are featured on the FBI’s Indian Country cases website.
The brothers planned to visit Canyon de Chelly National Monument during a trip to California. Authorities believe their SUV got stuck in mud after GPS sent them off course near Sawmill. They were shot multiple times while walking to seek help, authorities said.
Matthew Reagan’s wife, Faye Wurstner-Reagan, said she doubts a $25,000 reward will persuade anyone in the small community to come forward.
“You would have to promise someone, like, actual protection,” she said. “I mean, they brutally murdered two men.”
She suggested the FBI instead put resources toward law enforcement to keep the cases from going cold and for liaisons to keep families informed.
FBI spokesperson Brooke Brennan in Phoenix said investigating crimes in Indian Country often is complex because of the remoteness, limited resources and extensive workload.
Wurstner-Reagan hopes that families united in pain and grief over missing loved ones and unsolved killings might one day see justice.
“We're just getting forgotten, like no one is remembering any of us, and we're just told it's an active investigation,” she said.
