Databases Explored:

SDC: South Dakota Missing Persons Clearinghouse 

NamUS: National Missing and Unidentified Persons System

BIA: Bureau of Indian Affairs within the Department of Interior

23.52% of the missing persons logged in South Dakota by NamUS are Native American, yet Native Americans only make up 8.57% of the total population.

As shown in the visualizations above, figure #1 shows that the local state-wide database of South Dakota Clearinghouse (SDC) has 86 missing persons cases logged--more than the NamUS and BIA databases combined. When exploring the overlap in figure #2 it is evident that the 6 cases the BIA has logged are all seen in the NamUS database, but there were 2 cases listed in the BIA that SD Clearinghouse did not have. However, SD Clearinghouse has significantly more cases logged than both the BIA and NamUS, so there is a large amount of cases that neither NamUS or the BIA has logged but SD Clearinghouse has. 

These visualizations highlight the gap in coordination between crime database organizations. Additionally, this confirms that state-wide databases do a more accurate job of recording who is missing from their state than National databases. Some of the gap between NamUS and SD Clearinghouse may come from the fact that NamUS is a relatively new database (2007) and is still in the process of uploading old cases. The 6 cases on the BIA website is likely that small because they are focusing on the most current missing people. Although I did find a few cases that seem pretty pressing in my opinion that the BIA fails to mention, for instance an eight and six year old pair of sisters that went missing in 2022 from Rosebud, SD (Alsa and Alaycious Left Hand Bull) are not noted on the BIA website, but a 49 year old man, Neil Little Eagle who went missing 5 years earlier in 2017 is. I believe every missing Indigenous person deserves a platform, but it seems interesting to me that a 49 year old man from 2017 gets more media than two sisters under the age of 10 from 2022.