Minnesota's director of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office fired

MINNEAPOLIS - The woman overseeing Minnesota's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office said she was fired Wednesday, a day after she led a statewide ceremony to honor families still searching for loved ones and those lost to violence.

Guadalupe Lopez, an enrolled member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, was appointed director of the office in July 2025 after more than 25 years of experience advocating for women, particularly Indigenous women.

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, or MMIR, that's housed within the Minnesota Department of Public Safety is the first of its kind in the nation. It was created in response to the disproportionate rate of violence facing American Indian communities.

"When I was let go, I said to the (DPS) commissioner that it is hard to be a Native American in the state system already, but this position was never set up for success, and neither is this office, and they have a responsibility as a state to actually do our people better service and justice than this," Lopez said.

DPS Commissioner Bob Jacobson said in a statement that DPS "cannot comment on reasons for any employment separation." But he confirmed Wednesday was "Lopez's last day of employment with the Department of Public Safety."

Kim Babine, the executive director for DPS' Office of Justice Programs, will lead the MMIR office in the interim with support from DPS Tribal Relations Director Juliet Rudie, the foremost MMIR office director, Jacobson said.

Hours after the firing, Lopez told The Minnesota Star Tribune that she was shocked, especially with the termination coming the day after Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Awareness Day, which is recognized across the country.

On Tuesday, Lopez led the annual Remembrance Ceremony at the American Indian Center in Minneapolis with hundreds in attendance.

She said the reason given for the firing was "insufficient progress in demonstrating leadership and professional judgment despite training and coaching."

Lopez said Jacobson and Babine pulled her into a meeting to inform her she was fired Wednesday. She was let go from the MMIR office without a six-month performance review, she said.

Lopez worked 17 years for the Minnesota Indian Women's Sexual Assault Coalition. In 2021, she became executive director of Violence Free Minnesota, a statewide nonprofit coalition.

Lopez was the third woman appointed to lead the MMIR office since it opened in 2021. Lopez said the turnover rate in the office is concerning but more troubling is the lack of funding and "no teeth."

"It's a glorified printing agency," she said. "The only thing that we could really, truly offer families is billboards and flyers."

The office has faced criticism in recent years. Some have accused it of being performative, and others questioned why it took two years for it to roll out a tip reward fund for information. Lawmakers allocated $250,000 in the 2022-2023 legislative session to initiate the tip fund that sat untouched until 2025.

Lopez said the MMIR office has no operating budget for prevention. The office budget of $774,000 mostly goes toward salaries and IT services, she said. She described a hostile work environment with low staff morale.

"I said (to Jacobson) I have family on those posters, and you need to do better by the Native community. And all he said was, thank you for the feedback," she said.

State Rep. Mary Kunesh, DFL-New Brighton, the first Indigenous woman to serve in the state Senate, said in an email that she didn't have details on the firing.

"I am confident that the office will continue to do the work of addressing this historic trauma and support families and communities in real time," Kunesh wrote.

Others blasted DPS for the firing.

"It is absolutely outrageous for this department to fire somebody who has been proven in our community," said Jana Williams, an outspoken Indigenous advocate who called on the Minneapolis Police Department to investigate her niece's death, ultimately leading to the police chief apologizing to her family for any and all shortcomings of the agency.

"It's really, truly unfortunate that it happened the day after. What does that say to the rest of the American Indian community?"

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This story was originally published May 6, 2026 at 8:15 PM.