CTWS MMIP TCRP

In a first for the District of Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Tribal Council has unanimously adopted a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) Tribal Community Response Plan (TCRP).

The plan is a guide for how Tribal law enforcement and community members will respond when someone goes missing from a Tribal community. TCRPs are tailored to the needs, resources, and culture of individual Tribal communities.

The Warm Springs plan was created in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon as part of the U.S. Department of Justice national MMIP initiative. The District of Oregon is one of six pilot program districts working to develop community response plans in accordance with this initiative.

The Warm Springs TCRP establishes four different sets of guidelines relevant to MMIP: law enforcement, victim services, public and media communications, and community outreach.  Both KWSO and Spilyay Tymoo participated in interviews as part of the process in creating the Warm Springs Plan.

The overall goal of the TCRP is to recognize the critical need for an immediate and consistent response to missing persons reports from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, establish a formal process for responding to and investigating these reports, and outline the actions that will be taken by Tribal authorities.