SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Peter Martin went missing two years ago from the Fond Du Lac reservation in Minnesota. His family hasn't stopped looking, but they say the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs investigation into Martin's disappearance has stalled since the agent assigned to the case left the role in early 2025.
“They’ve never had a person take his space for this region and yeah, we haven’t heard from them since,” said family friend Kayla Jackson.
The bureau's Missing and Murdered Unit was created in 2021 to address the crisis of violence against Native Americans and put new resources toward solving cold cases. But a recent federal audit by the Interior Department's internal watchdog found staffing issues have plagued the unit since its formation during President Joe Biden's administration, creating a backlog of cases and leaving families without required victim services.
Federal spending on the initiative grew from $12 to $17 million between 2021 and 2024. During the same period, the audit found that 39% of money for the Missing and Murdered Unit was redirected toward other Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement costs, including upgrading vehicles. Nearly half the unit's posts remained unfilled as of last year, even as the bureau overall has lost a third of its workforce due to staffing cuts under President Donald Trump.
The bureau says it has adopted many of the report's recommendations, from streamlining its case referral pipeline to training staff on victim services requirements. But federal auditors say weaknesses in its hiring process remain. And some families are still in the dark about their loved ones' cases.
“It is nothing but heartbreaking just to see how inadequate the response has already been for so many of these situations,” said David Adams, an Albuquerque-based attorney, former federal prosecutor and member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
The Missing and Murdered Unit had 83 open cases and nearly 400 pending referrals as of November 2024, according to the audit released Sept. 9 by Interior's Office of Inspector General. The unit did not have a timeframe for assessing referrals.
The audit also found agents had unmanageable caseloads, with some assigned administrative duties, like conducting research on referrals, on top of their active investigations.
Relatives of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places were hopeful when, in 2022, a Bureau of Indian Affairs agent was assigned to her still-unsolved case. Stops Pretty Places had just turned 18 when her body was found in a town bordering the Crow Reservation in 2019.
Her aunt, Grace Bulltail, said the agent was difficult to reach and provided few updates. Last year, Bulltail learned the agent never had full access to the files of local investigators before the agent was reassigned to other duties.
The Associated Press emailed bureau officials seeking comment about the case.
Sarah Deer, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Law, said delays and dysfunction among federal investigators are compounding families' grief.
“These are families who have often experienced institutional failure already,” she said. “A system designed as a response to that history cannot ask families to keep waiting.”
In 8 of 13 cases reviewed by the inspector general's office, the assigned agent did not contact bureau staff who specialize in helping victims' families. One staff member said they referred families to outside programs because the unit had only two victim specialists nationwide.
Martin was 31 years old when he was reported missing after a welfare check on the Fond Du Lac reservation in 2024. Relatives described him as an outgoing man who played sports with kids and took his nieces and nephews out trick-or-treating . Family members said they get periodic updates from the Fond Du Lac Police Department, but were never connected to BIA victim specialists.
The BIA website does not list a case agent in Martin’s case. The AP asked bureau officials for comment.
The Trump administration says it has been ramping up efforts to address high rates of violence against Native people. Last month, the FBI announced it would set a minimum reward of $25,000 for public information in dozens of cold cases on tribal land.
Bureau of Indian Affairs officials said in a statement they have taken steps under President Donald Trump to improve case processing and make sure families get support. They said most of the recommendations from the audit had been acted upon.
“The deficiencies identified in the OIG audit reflect operations under the previous administration that were inconsistent with the objectives outlined in Operation Lady Justice,” the statement said, referring to a presidential task force established by the first Trump administration in 2019 to address the crisis of missing and killed Indigenous persons.
In February, the Missing and Murdered Unit assisted in recovering and identifying two sets of remains on the Chickasaw Nation, closing a missing persons case that had run cold more than a decade before.
Deer said new federal and state task forces and specialized law enforcement initiatives have increased public awareness of the crisis.
“The government has stepped up in some ways to appropriate resources, but implementation matters,” she said.
Meanwhile tribal police departments, which are often the first to respond to cases involving Native people, remain under-resourced with limited capacity to investigate complex crimes, she said.
“What I always come back to is whether or not this money could be better utilized by tribes themselves,” Deer said.
FILE - Melissa Lonebear holds a banner with a picture of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places on it during a rally in support of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People movement at the Big Horn County Building on Aug. 29, 2023, in Hardin, Mont. (AP Photo/Mike Clark, File)
FILE - Family and friends of the missing and murdered march around the California State Capitol at the second annual Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Summit and Day of Action, Feb. 13, 2024, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Villegas, File)
The clock is ticking toward an unusual deadline in the NHL, and teams with players relevant to it are rushing to beat the final horn.
The new collective bargaining agreement goes into effect at midnight, at which time a seven-year contract will be the longest a player can re-sign with his own team — and six years in free agency. The final eight-year deals are getting done Tuesday.
Washington locked up Ryan Leonard for $84 million starting with the 2027-28 season. Making an average of $10.5 million a year through 2035, he will match new Capitals teammate Alex Tuch, who also got eight years in a sign-and-trade with Buffalo, for the highest-paid player on the team when Leonard's new deal kicks in.
“Ryan is a young and talented player who is still years away from entering his prime, and we believe he has tremendous potential to continue growing into an important player for our organization,” general manager Chris Patrick said in announcing Leonard's contract. “While reaching his full potential will take time, we have been impressed with his work ethic and the way he continues to develop his game. We are confident in Ryan’s ability to continue improving as a hockey player, and we believe this agreement provides him with the opportunity to grow and develop within our organization, while giving us the ability to keep a talented young player in our lineup for years to come.”
Leonard, a 21-year-old winger, is going into his second full NHL season after breaking in during the spring of 2025. This contract cements his place as part of the Capitals' young, post-Alex Ovechkin core, which is expected to also include brothers Ilya and Aliaksei Protas.
Washington forward Justin Sourdif also got an eight-year extension before the deadline: $50.8 million, for an annual cap hit of $6.35 million. Sourdif will be 25 when it goes into effect.
“Justin is a good young forward who has continued to develop steadily throughout his career,” Patrick said. “He is versatile and demonstrated his ability to play an important forward role for our team whenever the opportunity arose last season. ... We believe he has a bright future ahead of him and are confident that he will continue to make valuable contributions to our organization in the coming years.”
Ottawa signed Drake Batherson for $86 million, which is the most lucrative contract in Senators history. The previous record was Tim Stützle's eight-year, $66.8 million extension from September 2022.
Batherson will count $10.75 million against the salary cap starting in 2027, surpassing Stützle’s $8.35 million. He'll be 29 at that point.
“He was drafted and developed by our organization and has shown a commitment to wanting to be in Ottawa long term,” GM Steve Staios said of Batherson. “We view him as a key part of our core group.”
Batherson has set career highs in scoring each of the past seven seasons, topping out at 71 last year. He is just the second player in league history to do that seven times in a row, joining Vic Stasiuk from 1953-54 to '59-60 with Detroit.
Since the NHL and the NHL Players' Association came to an agreement on this CBA in late June 2025, 34 players have signed eight-year contracts. Thirteen of those have come in the past three months, including Colorado's Cale Makar setting the record for the most money at $163.2 million.
After being flat or nearly flat coming out of the pandemic, the salary cap is the middle of a series of record increases, now that revenues have caught up and are skyrocketing. The cap went from $95.5 million last season to $104 million this season and will be $113.5 million in 2027-28, when most of these new contracts will go into effect.
Philadelphia signing Anaheim’s Leo Carlsson to an offer sheet in July that made him the highest-paid player in the sport at $18 million a year — which the Ducks matched to keep him — led to a spike in salaries this summer.
Vegas center Jack Eichel, who is now making $13.5 million on his long-term contract signed last October, said agent Pat Brisson told him about what was coming and they had talks with NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh and others at the union and decided to go the full eight years anyway.
“It’s an incredible deal for me and my family, and we’re super grateful for the organization and the city believing in us,” Eichel said last week. “There’s no signer's remorse. Yeah, I'm a happy guy.”
Eichel led the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup in 2023. He and fellow standouts such as Makar, Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov, and Florida teammates Sam Bennett and Aaron Ekblad are proven commodities.
Many of the young players getting eight-year deals this offseason are team gambles of varying degrees.
As recently as Monday, Buffalo signed 22-year-old center Noah Ostlund for $52.8 million, banking on his potential. Ostlund has played in just 71 games in the league thus far.
Pittsburgh signed Ville Koivunen for $32 million over eight years in August. He has 14 points in 42 career games.
Beginning Wednesday, no contract can have more than 60% paid in signing bonuses. New Jersey and defending champion Carolina each got a deal done just in time.
The Hurricanes signed captain and Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP Jordan Staal to a one-year extension, while the Devils extended recently acquired forward Luke Evangelista for five years and $36.25 million. Staal's contract is worth $900,000 in salary, with a $4 million signing bonus and up to $5.1 million in additional performance incentives.
“Jordan is not only our captain, he’s the bedrock of the culture we’ve established in this organization,” GM Eric Tulsky said. “His leadership and on-ice performance throughout last season and especially in the playoffs was a primary factor in bringing the Stanley Cup back to Raleigh.”
See AP’s full NHL coverage here
FILE - Ottawa Senators' Drake Batherson (19) celebrates his goal against the Carolina Hurricanes with teammate Nick Cousins (21) during the second period of an NHL hockey playoff game in Ottawa, Ontario, April 23, 2026. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
FILE - Washington Capitals right wing Ryan Leonard (9) in action during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Utah Mammoth, March 3, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
