Yurok Tribe Regional Project to Address Indigenous Missing and Murdered Women

The Department of Justice developed a comprehensive and coordinated approach for tribal governments to apply for funding to reduce and prevent crime and victimization. Through this process, the Department's existing tribal government-specific programs are included in and available through a single Coordinated Tribal Assistance Solicitation (CTAS). Through this solicitation, only one application was accepted from each federally recognized tribe to encourage comprehensive assessments of need and planning. Each tribe could apply for funding under up to ten purpose areas, which included funding from the Office of Community Oriented Policing (COPS), Office of Justice Programs (including the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office for Victims of Crime, and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention), and Office on Violence Against Women. The tribe had the flexibility to select the purpose areas whose funding addressed the needs of the tribe as outlined in its tribal and community profile. There were ten purpose areas in total, and Purpose Area 10 was dedicated to the Addressing Violent Crime in Tribal Communities Program.

The Addressing Violent Crime in Tribal Communities Program provides funding to address violent crime, specifically precipitous increases in violent or other serious crime. This includes combatting, addressing, or otherwise responding to precipitous or extraordinary increases in crime or in a type of crime at the tribal level, especially violent crime, with strategies that enhance capacity to track, identify, and quickly respond to these crime issues.

The Yurok Tribe plans to address the problem and the impact of a lack of comprehensive data on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) within the Yurok service area by: collecting comprehensive data on MMIWG and trafficking of Native women and girls within Humboldt and Del Norte Counties and the surrounding region; designing and implementing a data sharing and consultation protocol among relevant agencies, tribal/state/federal governments, tribal/state/federal courts, and tribal/state/federal service providers regarding MMIWG and trafficking cases; designing and establishing an inter-agency alert system that facilitates information sharing and cross-jurisdictional assistance in investigation and prosecution of MMIWG and trafficking cases; identifying gaps in tribal/state court and relevant agencies' capacity to investigate and prosecute MMIWG and trafficking cases, and designing and implementing interventions to fill these gap; providing training for law enforcement, courts, service providers, employees at high-risk areas, and other relevant agencies on MMIWG and trafficking; providing outreach on MMIWG and trafficking for community members; and designing and implementing inter-agency standards and protocols for assisting Native trafficking victims and families of MMIWG.

CA/NCF