PortalWritten by Sponsored Projects Intern Justin Truong
The Western Community Policing Institute (WCPI) at Western Oregon University was recently awarded $400,000 by the Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (DOJ COPS office). The grant-funded project will assist in addressing cases involving missing and murdered indigenous people (MMIP), which mainly involves missing and murdered women and girls. The goal of this project is to provide training and technical assistance for tribal law enforcement agencies and their public safety partners to enhance their MMIP efforts in and around Indian Country.
MMIP is not a new problem; it’s been happening for centuries. Native American and Alaska Native rates of murder, rape, and violent crimes are all higher than the national average. Furthermore, tribes have also continued to face law enforcement operational challenges which end up preventing law enforcement from suitably advancing public safety efforts including investigating MMIP cases. According to a news release by Indian Country Today, Whitney Gravelle, President of Bay Mills Indian Community, MMIP has been a problem for many centuries. 84% of Native American women will end up experiencing violence in their life and Native American people make up 40% of sex trafficking issues. According to a survey of tribal agencies on human trafficking investigations released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), 27 out of the 132 tribal law enforcement agencies responded to the survey which involve investigations which regards human trafficking cases.
The project will also launch a collaboration between the WCPI and WOU’s newly established Western Restorative Justice and Reentry Center (WRJRC). Part of the project funds will be used to develop a survey for research by faculty in WOU’s Criminal Justice Division. The MMIP project also continues a long-term collaboration with the University of North Dakota Tribal Judicial Institute (TJI). WCPI Director Brian Kauffman will lead the project with a team of highly qualified subject matter experts. WCPI offers training and technical assistance to all law enforcement agencies and community representatives across the nation in police and homeland security topics. Having a long history of working with tribal law enforcement agencies, this MMIP project will identify and create innovate online and printed MMIP tools, resources, model processes and protocols, develop an online training library, and provide in-person visits to provide technical assistance to assist in tribal, state, county, and municipal public safety offices to develop partnerships and best practices when it comes to MMIP cases.
As I was developing this blog post and learning about MMIP issues, I was upset that I had only now learned about this unfortunate and pervasive issue. I feel that there should be more awareness, and that there should be more reporting about MMIP in the news. Media reports about MMIP are disproportionally underreported. More people should know about this dark topic. It has become a harsh and tragic reality for many tribes and families.
There are ways in which I also learned how to be proactive in spreading awareness for MMIP issues. For example, the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women is an excellent resource. It’s a community-based organization that raises awareness and addresses the lack of response to missing Native women and girls. The U.S. Department of the Interior is also working to address the missing and murdered Indigenous person crises (PDF). I believe that situations like this should be in the media more to spread awareness to people who, like me, are also unaware. This should be taught in schools more so that young people are more aware about this horrible issue.
I am grateful to Director Kauffman of the WCPI and to the WRJRC and the WOU Division of Criminal Justice. As a WOU student, I am comforted knowing that WOU is doing this important work.