FBI raises reward to $25,000 for dozens of unsolved cases in Indian Country

The FBI has announced a minimum reward of $25,000 for information leading to resolution in more than 50 unsolved homicides and missing-person cases in Indian Country. The move is part of a broader push to address the high rates of violence affecting Native American communities.

Most of the cases are less than a decade old, but about a dozen have remained unresolved for over 20 years. The FBI investigates federal crimes on nearly 200 reservations alongside the Bureau of Indian Affairs. At the end of 2025, the FBI’s National Crime Information Center listed just under 1,500 active missing-person cases involving Native Americans, though not all become federal cases.

Among the cases highlighted are 8-year-old Maleeka Boone, who was likely struck by a vehicle on the Navajo Nation, and Emily Pike, a San Carlos Apache teenager whose body was found after she disappeared from an Arizona group home.

Families and advocates have mixed feelings about the increased reward. Some say it may encourage people to come forward, but many remain doubtful due to deep-seated distrust of federal authorities and fear of retribution in tight-knit communities.

“Everybody’s scared in Oglala,” said Lisa Carlow, whose father Patrick Carlow Sr. was found dead on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 2023. She questioned what authorities might know but are not saying. Her sister JoDee added that fear is “deep-rooted within our people” and exists on every reservation.

Mary Kathryn Nagle, a Cherokee Nation attorney who advocates for families of missing Native Americans, said investigators often “parachute in” to communities where witnesses may stay silent. Still, she believes larger rewards could provide an incentive and show families their cases are taken seriously.

Luana Ross, Bitterroot Salish and co-director of the Native Voices program at the University of Washington, noted that cash rewards often go unpaid and that people would be reluctant to turn in friends or relatives to a system that hasn’t served them well.

Lisa Foster, whose friend Mona Renee Vallo was killed in a suspected hit-and-run in Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico, in 2022, hopes the higher reward will renew interest. “Someone knows something there,” she said.

The reward in Carlow’s case was raised from $10,000 to $25,000 in July, and the family says more calls have come in, but no resolution has been reached. The FBI declined to provide an update.

In another case, the reward for information in the deaths of Matthew and Philip Reagan, two brothers from Ohio killed on the Navajo Nation, has also been raised to $25,000. Their SUV got stuck in mud after GPS sent them off course, and they were shot while walking for help. Matthew’s wife, Faye Wurstner-Reagan, doubts the money will persuade anyone to talk. “You would have to promise someone, like, actual protection,” she said, urging the FBI to invest more in law enforcement and family liaisons.

FBI spokesperson Brooke Brennan in Phoenix said investigations in Indian Country are often complex due to remoteness, limited resources, and heavy workloads.

Wurstner-Reagan expressed fear that families are being forgotten. “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.