MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — The issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people has gained more attention in recent years, but many who have lost their own say it’s not enough. A new state office that's the first of its kind in the country is working to change that.

Janice Hannigan, Roma L. Jim and Mary Johnson are just a few of the missing Indigenous people in the U.S.

Nicole Matthews, the executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, says most people don't know about the missing Indigenous people.

“Why hasn’t Sheila St. Claire from Duluth, who’s been missing for six years, why isn’t her story isn’t out there? Why don’t we know her name? How come we don’t know about Jojo Boswell, who's been missing for decades, and was 19 when she went missing," Matthews said.

Advocates say a lack of communication, combined with jurisdictional issues between state, local, federal and tribal law enforcement, makes it difficult to start the investigative process.

“Our relationship to the federal government is much different than other racial and ethnic groups. This is our land, everybody that is in this country is standing on Indian land," Matthews said. “So if a non-Native person comes onto our land and rapes a Native woman, our tribes have no recourse. So, if the states or the feds who do have jurisdiction in those cases decline prosecution, that person walks.”

It’s why Matthews was the Vice-Chair of the Missing and Murdered Women’s Task Force in Minnesota and that has led to the country's first State Office for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives.

Sen. Mary Kunesh spearheaded this effort in the Minnesota Senate.

“I’m still floored that we were able to do this good legislative in kind of a short amount of time," Kunesh said. “They were able to use funding’s through the governor’s office to initially create this but it will also be supported through public safety dollars.”

The office now has permanent funding, which means it’s not going anywhere. One of their main efforts is building a data base that will track those names and cases.

“We need to be able to have that liaison there that’s going to be able to go walk between and work between all these different agencies," Kunesh said.

Having no database has made gathering information tough. However, the task force was able to pinpoint some jarring statistics.

“In our task force work, we learned in a ten-year period, in any given month, there were anywhere from 27 to 54 Native women that were missing," Matthews said. “Native women represent about 1% here in Minnesota, but we represent about 8 or 9% of the murdered women in Minnesota. So that is a huge disproportionate impact on our communities.”

Marisa Cummings, the CEO of the Minnesota Women’s Resource Center says there is distrust in government from some tribal members, especially women. 

“I’m thinking about the lack of trust our people have with systems in this country. Systems that have been designed to exterminate us," Cummings said.

Now there is an opportunity to create trust through this office and its partnerships.

“I think the office can be a starting point if the office is staffed with native women that the community trusts," Cummings said. “All of these implicit biases, manifest in ways of oppression. So a lot of times our families, when they go to report someone missing, they are not believed, a lot of times a woman reporting a sexual assault, they are not believed, or deaths are considered explosion. She got really drunk and she just died somewhere and not acknowledging the psychical violence she experienced that left her in a field in the freezing cold.”

These women say Gabby Petito's case is not only a reminder of why this office is so crucial in Minnesota, but also how it can be adopted in every other state.

“The response that Gabby Petitio received is the response that all of us deserve," Matthews said.

“But I think we’re entering a time now where we’re demanding that there is some accountability and some equity in the way that these systems work in our country. Systems that we designed to eliminate us as the original people of this land," Cummings said.

“Minnesota has obviously made this a priority and recognizes this is an investment in our communities now but like we say in the Native communities, investment in the next seven generations to come," Kunesh said.

Working from home has transformed how people make a living. It has also led to some pretty extravagant home office setups.

Research from the company CouponFollow shows the average American spent $572 on their home office set up during the pandemic, with 36 percent of those people buying technology like webcams and computer software to support their work.

“So, the old [computer] I had previously was just literally this laptop here,” said Chad Sullivan, a 27-year-old worker in the oil and gas field.

Since March 2020, Sullivan has been working exclusively from home. He started working on his laptop on the kitchen table and has since graduated to a home office filled with a desk that can elevate to a standing desk with the push of a button, as well as a 54-inch rounded computer monitor.

“This at least helps me put a couple of different avenues of referencing, typing, and reviewing all at once,” he said.

Total, the investment was around $600, Sullivan said.

Nationally, research suggests the investment in a home office has helped productivity, as well. According to the Pew Research Center, 71 percent of Americans exclusively work from home because of the pandemic, and, on average, log 22 million hours of extra work each day because of it.

“I prefer to stay at home. I’m more productive at home. I create more,” said Frank Adelson, an editor for a local news station in Miami.

Adelson has not gone into his office for more than a year. He has invested in three computer monitors next to one another, with a television mounted to the wall above them.

“It allows me to watch the news and what is going on while working on projects,” he said.

According to CouponFollow, 81 percent of people who responded to their survey said they were satisfied with the effectiveness of their work from stations, 80 percent responded by saying they were satisfied with how it amplified their focus, and 84 percent said they were satisfied with how it increased their productivity.

It's been 15 long months since millions of workers left their offices and set up makeshift desks at home.

But as COVID-19 cases decline and more Americans get vaccinated, companies are beginning to establish protocols about how, and whether, office life will resume.

For Wall Street banks, the growing consensus is that everyone ought to be back at their desks by Labor Day — though Citibank said it's embracing more of a hybrid model. Meanwhile, tech companies are taking a far more flexible approach.

As for workers themselves, more than half of those surveyed in a recent Pew Research Center survey said that, given the choice, they would want to keep working from home even after the pandemic subsides.

Here's how some of the biggest names in tech and finance are handling the return to office life.

Apple

Apple expects employees to return to their offices three days a week come September, CEO Tim Cook wrote in an email to employees earlier this month, according to The Verge.

"For all that we've been able to achieve while many of us have been separated, the truth is that there has been something essential missing from this past year: each other," Cook said in the email. "Video conference calling has narrowed the distance between us, to be sure, but there are things it simply cannot replicate."

Employees are expected to be in the office Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, but those with roles that allow for remote work will have the option to work from home Wednesdays and Fridays. The company is also offering up to two weeks of remote work annually and encouraging, but not requiring, vaccination.

Facebook

Facebook announced earlier this month that employees can apply for remote work if their role allows. Any worker who wants to return to the office may do so on a flexible basis but is encouraged to spend at least half of their time in the office. Employees will also be granted 20 days each year to work from a remote location.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees in a memo that he plans to continue working remotely for at least half of the next year, a company spokesperson confirmed to CNN Business.

Google

Until September, Google workers around the world can continue to work remotely before deciding between coming back to their office, working out of a different Google office or applying for full-time remote work.

"The future of work is flexibility," CEO Sundar Pichai wrote in a May memo to employees.

Pichai said he expects about 60% of employees to return to their pre-pandemic offices while 20% move to a different office and 20% work from home.

Twitter

Twitter has yet to set an exact start date for welcoming employees back to the office, but it plans to start with a 20% capacity limit.

Early in the pandemic, the company said it plans to let some of its workforce continue working remotely "forever" if they choose.

"If our employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they want to continue to do so forever, we will make that happen," said Twitter's vice president of people, Jennifer Christie, in a statement to CNN Business. "If not, our offices will be their warm and welcoming selves, with some additional precautions, when we feel it's safe to return."

The company has stressed that it wants employees to have the choice to return to the office, but it anticipates that most workers will opt for a hybrid model, spending some time in the office and some time at home.

Uber

Uber will shift to a hybrid model in September, according to an April blog post from Nikki Krishnamurthy, the company's chief people officer.

Employees at the ride-hailing company are expected in the office three days a week, but they will have the option to work remotely the other two days.

"We feel that this combination of in-person and remote work will give people the freedom to do their best work while staying connected to their colleagues," Krishnamurthy said in the blog post.

Bank of America

Bank of America is encouraging, and expecting, all vaccinated employees to return to the office after Labor Day, CEO Brian Moynihan said this week.

"Our view is all the vaccinated teammates will be back," Moynihan said in a Bloomberg Television interview this week. "We'll be able to operate fairly normally and will then start to make provisions for the other teammates as we move through the fall."

The bank is not mandating employees to report their vaccination status, but it is expecting them to input their status in the company portal.

Citibank

Citi said in March that it recognized how people have benefited from aspects of working remotely, and that it would embrace some flexibility in the return-to-office process.

The bank said it expects up to 30% of U.S. staff to return to the office in July. The majority of Citi workers globally will be designated as "hybrid," working in the office at least three days a week and from home up to two days per week.

Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs welcomed employees back to the office on Monday. The company is expecting 5,400 newly hired interns, analysts and associates in the office in addition to its returning employees.

"We are focused on progressing on our journey to gradually bring our people back together again, where it is safe to do so, and are now in a position to activate the next steps in our return to office strategy," the bank's leadership wrote in a May staff memo.

Leading up to the return to in-person work, Goldman Sachs also mandated that its employees report their vaccination status. While vaccination is not required, the company is encouraging all staff to get vaccinated if possible.

JPMorgan Chase

Last month, JPMorgan opened all of its U.S. offices to employees with a 50% occupancy cap. Executives at the bank informed staff that it expects all U.S.-based employees back in the office by early July on a consistent rotational schedule, subject to the same 50% cap.

"We firmly believe that working together in person is important for our culture, clients, businesses and teams," JPMorgan executives said.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman took a hard line earlier this week, saying he expects the bank's New York employees back in the office by Labor Day.

"If you can go to a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office. And we want you in the office," Gorman said at an investing conference.

The company has not mandated vaccination, but Gorman noted that "well over 90%" of employees had already received their COVID-19 vaccination. That number is expected to hit 98% to 99%, according to Gorman.

The bank will continue to consider returning to the office on a case-by-case basis, Gorman said, recognizing that some employees may not be able to be vaccinated, or may be in a different situation if their office is outside of New York.

CHICAGO — If you're stressing about having to return back to the office, you’re not alone.

Recent studies show a large percentage of people don’t want to return to the office full time.

"I've got two young kids and pets, and I'm able to kind of take more time with them in the morning,” said Stephanie Bossmeyer, a human resources director who has been working from home the past year. "I can't believe the amount of time that I spent going to and from work."

Bossmeyer is fortunate. Her company is not pressuring employees to return to the workplace in the near future.

“It's been pretty successful, to be honest, and I think a lot of people feel that way,” said Bossmeyer.

As more people get vaccinated, the prospect of life returning to normal is exciting. While some employers are starting to consider having staff move back into the office, it’s something many teleworkers may be dreading.

“Any belief that we're returning back to normal is probably misplaced,” said Shelly Rauvola, an associate professor of organizational psychology at DePaul University in Chicago.

Rauvola specializes in health and well-being in the workplace.

“I think there's the argument to be made that individuals might be more productive in a place where they're really comfortable," explained Rauvola. "They might be more productive if they get to work different work hours."

Whether it’s the stress and cost of commuting or the loss of flexibility, more Americans are finding their stride in working from home.

“I often feel more productive,” said Bossmeyer. “Sometimes, I think you forget to kind of log out and kind of go home. But I do appreciate the flexibility.”

Late last year, more than half of the workers surveyed said they would want to work from home even after the coronavirus outbreak ended. Now, that number has grown.

A recent Harvard Business School survey of remote workers found 81% of workers prefer a hybrid schedule post-pandemic or not going back at all. Just 18% said they would want to go back to the office full time. Meanwhile, worried about company culture, some 70% of employers say they want people back in the workplace.

What the ideal post-pandemic work-life will look like is still uncertain, but experts agree flexibility may be the key.

“I think that there should be a push to try to adapt work to fit the worker because ultimately, that's what's going to make for sustainable employability,” said Rauvola. "That's what's going to make for a happier, healthier, and more productive society.”