The Montana Attorney General’s Office announced a new missing persons database this week.
State Attorney General Austin Knudsen, along with the Montana Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force, unveiled an online database to make keeping track of missing people in the state easier to do. The Missing Persons Database is for public use and contains up-to-date information and searchable records of pending missing person cases.
Knudsen’s office says the database will make it easier for law enforcement to update the status of missing persons throughout the state.
The Sovereign Bodies Institute, an Indigenous nonprofit based in Billings, also maintains a Missing Murdered and Indigenous Women and Girls database that collects information on not just missing Indigenous people in Montana but all over the country.
Currently in Montana, there are 217 missing people, including 81 children and 56 Indigenous people.
Taylar Stagner is Yellowstone Public Radio's Report for America Indigenous Affairs reporter.
