THE WOODLANDS, Texas – A partnership between a forensic laboratory in The Woodlands and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs aims to help solve the mysteries surrounding missing or murdered Native Americans.
Othram, the laboratory, announced the partnership as part of the initiative known as “Operation Spirit Return.”
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The initiative is to help solve the cases surrounding missing or murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States.
“Answers are now possible for everyone, regardless of circumstances, historical origins, geography, or time period,” said David Mittelman, CEO of Othram. “We are honored to assist the Bureau of Indian Affairs in leveraging advanced forensic technology to resolve long-standing cases and deliver justice.”
Thursday’s initiative to identify human remains of Native Americans and return them to their tribal communities and solve the mysteries surrounding missing and murdered people was announced by Bryan Mercier, Director for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“The crisis of American Indians and Alaska Natives gone missing or who have been murdered, but whose cases remained unsolved, has been decades in the making, and we are committed to ending it,” Mercier said. “Thanks to the BIA Office of Justice Services’ Missing and Murdered Unit and its partners, our ‘Operation Spirit Return’ initiative will help return victims to their families, so that they can be comforted knowing their loved ones have come home.”
The project, launched by the BIA Office of Justice Services and handled by the BIA-OJS’s Missing and Murdered Unit will identify unknown human remains that have been located within or close to Indian country and that are believed to belong to either American Indian or Alaska Native persons. The Unit is actively investigating 15 unidentified persons cases from its regions, including Alaska.
BIA-OJS Deputy Bureau Director Richard “Glen” Melville noted that the focus of Operation Spirit Return is to identify the victims and send them home.
“With our partners in federal law enforcement and the genetic research community, we are striving to make a meaningful impact for the tribal families and communities who have been left for years with unanswered questions about those who went missing,” he said.
He noted that the Missing and Murdered Unit is collaborating with Othram and NamUs (the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) a national program that assists the criminal justice community with the investigation and resolution of missing, unidentified, and unclaimed persons cases across the United States and its territories.
The announcement comes days after Othram announced the solve of an unidentified Native American woman’s remains in South Dakota.