Justice Department officials say the Curyung Tribal Council of Dillingham and the Native Village of Unalakleet have approved their Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Tribal Community Response Plans, a first for Alaska.
A Tribal Community Response Plan is a guide for how a tribal community will build response capacity, collaborate with law enforcement and provide other support in response to a report of a new missing or murdered person. Each TCRP is tailored to the needs of specific communities.
Both TCRPs are comprehensive and include instructions on how and when to submit a missing person report, what will happen during a response and who will lead the investigation. The plan also establishes a clear response structure and outlines training opportunities as well as victim support services.
In February, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that three Alaska tribal communities volunteered to participate as Alaska pilot project sites creating TCRPs. The sites include the tribal communities of Curyung Tribal Council of Dillingham, Native Village of Unalakleet and Koyukuk Native Village. The next step is for model TCRPs to be created based on the work by the Pilot Project sites. The models will be shared with tribal communities across the state who can then tailor them to the specific needs, resources and culture of their communities.
Alaska is among the first of six pilot-program states developing community response plans in accordance with the U.S. Attorney General’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative and the President’s Operation Lady Justice Task Force. The other states are Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Oklahoma and Oregon.
