Leader Named for State Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office

Juliet Rudie

A tribal member of the Lower Sioux Indian Community will be the leader of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s newly established Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office.

Juliet Rudie is a lifelong Minnesota resident and will head up the office, which is the first of its kind in the nation. Rudie’s career in public safety spans almost 28 years. She’ll begin her new duties as director of the MMIR office on February 28th.

The office will focus on missing and murdered Indigenous relatives and will work with the 11 sovereign tribal nations in Minnesota; federal, state, and local law enforcement; federal and state agencies; and community-based organizations and advocates.

The first-in-the-nation MMIR office was a recommendation of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Task Force, which found that while Native Americans make up 1% of Minnesota’s population, they account for approximately 9% of all murdered girls and women in the state during the last decade.