FBI surge in Indian country backed 548 investigations and led to 118 arrests, DOJ says

A six-month FBI personnel surge into Indian country supported 548 criminal investigations and produced 118 arrests, the Justice Department said Oct. 20, as it released results from the fourth year of Operation Not Forgotten.

The operation, which ran from April 1 through Sept. 30, sends FBI investigative, intelligence and support personnel on rotating temporary assignments to help investigate unresolved violent crimes on tribal lands, with priority on violence against women and children and on missing or murdered people, according to the department.

Results compared with 2025

The department said the 548 case investigations represented a 59 percent increase over last year. Arrests rose 123 percent, and the 41 people charged federally marked a 52 percent increase, the release said.

Surge personnel also identified or located 25 child victims, recovered 72 weapons, conducted 990 interviews and carried out 232 search operations, according to the department. Twelve FBI field offices took part: Albuquerque, Billings, Denver, Detroit, Jackson, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Phoenix, Portland and Salt Lake City.

The 2025 deployment involved 10 field offices and more than 330 investigations supported by FBI and Bureau of Indian Affairs personnel, the department said last November. The October release did not state the 2025 totals it used to calculate this year’s percentage increases.

“The Department of Justice will always work to deliver justice for the victims of violent crime in Indian country,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said in the Oct. 20 announcement.

FBI Director Kash Patel said, “This year’s Operation Not Forgotten continued this FBI’s largest commitment to Indian Country in the history of the Bureau.”

Cases filed during the surge

The release highlighted cases in several federal districts. In Wyoming, the surge on the Wind River Indian Reservation led to federal indictments of 18 people on violent and child abuse charges, including a first-degree murder count tied to an August 2025 shooting near Riverton, the department said.

In Nevada, prosecutors obtained a superseding indictment charging a man with the February 2022 killing of a Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe member on the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony. In Montana, a man was charged in the death of a person who went missing during a January 2024 cold snap; that case is pending trial. Prosecutors in Arizona charged at least four cases on the Navajo Nation, including the aggravated sexual abuse of a child under 12, and in Minnesota four cases were charged, among them child sexual abuse and domestic assault counts.

The people charged in these cases are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Part of a broader FBI push

The department described a broader FBI initiative, Operation Steadfast Promise, as building on Operation Not Forgotten. It said that since Steadfast Promise began in April, the FBI has opened more than 1,200 new Indian country investigations, charged 678 subjects, made more than 700 arrests, recovered 2,260 weapons and conducted 140 drug seizures.

The FBI has about 400 agents assigned to Indian country and 30 Safe Trails Task Forces, and carries more than 4,000 open Indian country investigations involving deaths, child abuse, domestic violence and adult sexual abuse, according to the release. In August, the bureau set a minimum $25,000 reward for publicized homicide, kidnapping and missing-person cases on tribal lands where it has assumed jurisdiction.

When the department announced this year’s deployment on April 2, it said earlier rounds of the operation had supported more than 700 cases. Its partners include U.S. attorneys’ offices, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and tribal police. The department asks anyone with information to contact a local FBI field office or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov.