Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has asked Congress to reduce jurisdictional barriers that he says slow cooperation among tribal, federal, state and local agencies responding to missing and murdered Indigenous person cases.
Knudsen made the request Tuesday before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance during a hearing on public safety in tribal communities. In a September 15 statement and testimony links, his office said state agents generally cannot act on tribal land unless a federal agency requests assistance. He argued that the resulting handoffs can cost time and resources during investigations.
The practical issue is more complicated than a single chain of command. Federal law gives the U.S. Justice Department primary jurisdiction over most serious felonies in Indian Country, while tribal agencies handle many other offenses and exercise their own sovereign authority. Which government can investigate a particular case can depend on the location, the alleged offense and the identities of the victim and suspect. Cross-deputation and partnership agreements can expand cooperation in some places, but they do not create one uniform statewide system.
A disproportionate share of missing-person reports
The hearing comes after Montana's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Advisory Council reported that Indigenous people represented 31.5% of all missing-person entries in 2025 while making up about 6.2% of the state's population. The council's July 2026 report counted 618 Indigenous people among 1,957 people reported missing during the year.
Those annual entries are not the same as an active-case total or a homicide count. The report says 1,947 of the 1,957 people reported missing in 2025 were located, a 99.5% clearance rate. It also shows that 60% of Indigenous missing-person entries were female, 40% male, and most missing people were found quickly. Separate reporting from KULR on the hearing said Montana listed 41 Indigenous people as missing on September 15.
What Montana can do now
Montana has already built a statewide structure for coordination. The MMIP Advisory Council includes representatives from each of the state's eight federally recognized tribes, state justice and education officials, a homicide investigator and federal partners. Its duties include identifying jurisdictional barriers, improving interagency communication and making recommendations to tribal and federal authorities.
The Legislature extended the council for 10 years in 2023 and broadened its membership and mission in 2025. Its latest report says the council held 22 meetings from August 2024 through June 2026 and tracks missing-person data, family needs and prevention strategies.
Congress did not enact a policy change at Tuesday's hearing. For Montana, the immediate outcome is a renewed federal request rather than new investigative authority. Any durable change to criminal jurisdiction in Indian Country would need to respect tribal sovereignty and specify how federal, tribal and state agencies share responsibility. Until then, response speed will continue to depend heavily on existing relationships, case-by-case authority and formal cooperation agreements.
