Minnesota’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) Office is once again in turmoil after state officials abruptly fired director Guadalupe Lopez – just one day after she led a statewide ceremony honoring missing and murdered Indigenous relatives.
Lopez, a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and longtime advocate for Indigenous women, said she was “shocked” by the decision. She had served in the role for less than a year.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety confirmed her departure but refused to explain the reasons behind the firing.
The MMIR Office was created in 2021 as the first office of its kind in the United States, responding to the crisis of violence against Indigenous communities — especially Native women and girls who disappear or are murdered at disproportionately high rates.
But Lopez says the office has been deeply underfunded and structurally weak from the beginning.
“This position was never set up for success,” Lopez told reporters after being terminated. According to interviews, she criticized the office for lacking prevention funding, investigative power, and long-term support systems for affected families.
Her firing has sparked outrage among Indigenous advocates, many of whom say the timing immediately after Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Awareness Day – sends a devastating message to Native communities still searching for justice.
The office has now seen multiple leadership changes since opening in 2021, raising concerns about instability inside one of Minnesota’s most symbolically important justice initiatives.
For many Native families, the question now is bigger than one firing:
Can Minnesota truly confront the MMIR crisis if the very office created to fight it cannot find stability itself?
