FBI sets $25,000 minimum reward for dozens of unsolved Indian Country
cases
[August 26, 2026]
By SARAH RAZA
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — 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, OK, 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. There isn't a minimum reward that applies across
all FBI 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.
Higher rewards could stir new interest
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.
Cecil Jackson, 43, said he'd been aware of the Missing and Murdered
Indigenous Persons movement, but never thought he'd be affected. Then
his mother, Mona Renee Vallo, was found dead after a suspected
hit-and-run along historic Route 66 in Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico, in
2022.
Vallo was a member of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama
Nation. Jackson remembers participating in cultural activities with her
and going picking for cherries and apricots.
He hopes the higher reward money will renew interest in the
investigation. It's been a while since his family received an update
from the FBI.
“Someone knows something there,” said Vallo's friend, Lisa Foster. “They
have to. I mean, it's weird that she went to work and then all of a
sudden this happened to her.”
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Tize W. Clark, right and his son, Zion Clark, participate in a walk
to honor Native American and Indigenous relatives who have gone
missing or have been killed as Missing and Murdered Indigenous
Persons Awareness Day is marked in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on May
5, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan,File)
Frustration mounts as families seek answers
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.”
Relatives don't want cases to be forgotten
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.
___
Associated Press writers Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, and
Savannah Peters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed to this
report.
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