Minnesota officials on Wednesday announced the launch of a new tip program for missing and murdered Indigenous relatives cases.
The Gaagige-Mikwendaagoziwag Reward Fund Tip Program — meaning “They will be remembered forever” in Ojibwe — will offer financial rewards of up to $10,000 for tips that significantly move investigations forward. The tip reward program is an extension of the state’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) Office within the Department of Public Safety.
Interim MMIR Director Ana Negrete announced the program’s launch Wednesday at a press conference in St. Paul alongside Commissioner of Public Safety Bob Jacobson; Sen. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton; Bemidji Police Chief Mike Mastin; and affected families.
“There are questions that have gone unanswered for far too long,” Negrete said. “These questions bring us here today. These questions need to be answered, and our families need and deserve justice.”
Currently, 16 active cases qualify for rewards under the program, she said. Tips may be submitted anonymously to local law enforcement or through third-party platforms such as Crime Stoppers. To be eligible for an award, the tip must pertain to an open case, provide “specific and actionable information” that helps move the investigation forward, and cannot come from a suspect or accomplice in the crime, Negrete said.
The rewards are set in three tiers: $1,000 to $2,500 for the identity of persons of interest, up to $5,000 for tips that lead to an arrest or significant progress, and up to $10,000 for locating remains or closing out long-term unsolved cases.
Kathy Mishow, mother of Kateri Mishow, who has been missing from Minneapolis since 2007, spoke at the program’s launch. She said she remembers waiting to see reports about her daughter on the evening news after she initially went missing.
“Instead, we saw a report about a dog that had run away from the scene of a car accident,” Mishow said. “I wondered when I would see the reports about our daughter, but never really did.”
Kathy Mishow said her family once received a tip that suggested Kateri might be by the Mississippi River — her husband walked along the banks of the river every day for a year following that tip.
“Please help us end this,” Kathy Mishow said.
Lisa Ortley, mother of Frank Joseph Ortley, Columbia Heights, who was murdered in October of 2022, said Wednesday that she needs justice, as her son’s case remains unsolved almost three years later.
“I just need people to talk,” she said. “I know there are people in our circle that know things and they’re not coming forward. I know people — that have known him all his life — know things that are not coming forward.”
The state’s tip program was inspired by a similar local effort in Duluth , Negrete said Wednesday.
Kunesh, who co-authored the 2023 legislation that established the program alongside Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth, said Wednesday that the program has a total base fund of $250,000 in one-time funding and has generated an additional $100,000 from the sales of 4,500 MMIR license plates across the state.
“Sometimes money loosens a tongue, sometimes it creates a discussion,” Kunesh said Wednesday. “At the end of the day, we have to remember that our Indigenous people, our American Indian people, have had such a long distrust of policing … of government, and that distrust has really added to … the barriers in finding out what has happened to our loved ones. And so … if there’s a way that we can create an opportunity to come forward to share that information, then I think this is … money, well spent.”
Mastin said Wednesday that his police department has investigated “thousands” of these cases and has two cases left: Jeremy Jourdain and Nevaeh Kingbird, both of whom went missing in Bemidji in 2016 and 2021, respectively.
“That information that you are hanging onto that’s tearing at you, it’s time to let it out, and this is an opportunity to do that,” he said. “I’m hopeful that through the creation of this … this is that final step … final encouragement that people need to share information, and we can bring all of our missing relatives home and bring closure to all of our families.”
According to the MMIR Office, 716 Indigenous people were reported missing in Minnesota in 2024. MMIR also reported that Indigenous women make up 1% of the state’s population but account for 10% of all missing women in the state reported in 2024.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the third leading cause of death among Indigenous women and girls is murder. Indigenous women experience a murder rate 10 times higher than the national average, according to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.
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