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Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory: The FBI has jurisdiction to investigate the most significant and violent crimes—like homicides, kidnappings, and drug trafficking—that occur on about 200 Native American reservations across the country.

Twenty-two of those are in the state of Arizona.

For the Bureau’s Phoenix Division, much of the work falls on five remote satellite offices, or resident agencies, that focus primarily on Native American lands—what the federal government calls Indian country.

Agents in these resident agencies say it’s often difficult work in austere conditions—responding to call-outs in the middle of the night and driving for hours to crime scenes and interviews. For many, the rugged environment and heavy caseloads are what actually drew them to the FBI’s most distant outposts.

Sam Davenport has been in the Phoenix Division’s Pinetop-Lakeside office for 16 years, leading a small team of agents and working alongside local and tribal law enforcement and the Bureau of Indian Affairs on nearby reservations.

For Davenport, who grew up nearby, it all comes down to solving crimes and giving families justice. It’s a tenet central to the FBI’s mission, but hits close to home when many of the cases involve violent crimes, children, and marginalized communities.

On this My Mission episode of Inside the FBI, Davenport—who is retiring later this year after 25 years in the Bureau—shared some of his thoughts about the importance of strong relationships and carrying out the mission.

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Special Agent Sam Davenport: Ninety-five percent of our work is Indian country,

We couldn't effectively do our job without our partners.

It’s a big asset to have tribal PD [police department] and [the] BIA, Bureau of Indian Affairs, working with us.

There’s a lot of things on the reservation that, as a non-tribal member—somebody that didn't grow up there—you don't know. There’s a lot of locations that we just aren't aware of. A lot of times, there’s no addresses. A lot of times, it’s remote locations. So to have people there that either know specific areas or they've been there long enough that they know family members, it’s very helpful for us.

There’s no stepping on toes. The size of the badge, the shape of the badge—it doesn't matter. We're here for a common purpose, and that’s to make the communities better, make the communities safer. And we're going to work together to accomplish that goal.

I truly think that there’s no community out there that shouldn't have the same benefits that everybody else does. Why should the reservations be overlooked simply because they're a reservation or they don't have all the amenities that Chicago or L.A. [Los Angeles] has? They're still people and they still deserve the same justice that everybody else does.

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Fifty to 60% of our cases are child sexual assault cases, meaning any assaults on a child that has not yet reached the age of 12 years old.

One of the biggest cases that we had, we were able to get 19 victims to come forward and talk about this. And it was a serial rapist that had been raping women for 30 years, and we were able to put together a case, and it started with one girl.

We built trust with her. She started talking to us. She identified somebody else, and it seemed like there was safety in numbers. So, when other girls found out that, you know, hey, there’s two or three girls that are talking about this and what happened to them, they felt safe and they would come forward.

He got 14 life sentences plus 197 years in custody.

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It can wear on you—seeing the dead bodies, seeing the crying and the distraught families, seeing the little kids that are terrified because of things that have happened to them, seeing the poverty on the res. It can mentally wear on you.

I don't know really how I've done it for 16 years. I like to think that I have a little switch or a little box in my head that all these traumatic events go into and, somehow, I'm able to seal that off. Maybe it’s just the fact that I love working Indian country. I like catching bad guys. I like the chase. I like helping people. I get to at least try and solve a crime and give justice to the family. And if I can do that, it’s always what’s kept me going.

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The reservation is going to be what it is, but you get to make a difference in at least somebody’s life— whether it’s the 12-year-old girl that was sexually assaulted and nobody believed her, and you come in and you start your investigation, and you're the only one that’s ever been on her side, and you end up putting away a subject for what he did to this girl and how he traumatized her. And, then, to see her go on and see the positive changes in her life that just that little investigation made—you changed somebody’s life. You made a difference. And I don't care if it’s one person or a thousand people: Making that difference to one person, for me, that was the greatest reward of anything.

Oprihory: You can visit fbi.gov/indiancountry to learn more about our efforts to investigate crimes and support victims on Tribal lands.

And you can visit fbi.gov/mymission to hear the stories of more FBI employees and what inspires them to protect the American people and uphold the U.S. Constitution.

This has been another production of Inside the FBI. You can follow us on your favorite podcast player, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. You can also subscribe to email alerts about new episodes at fbi.gov/podcasts.

I’m Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory from the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs. Thanks for listening.

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