Community Outreach Raises Awareness for Missing, Murdered Indigenous People

On Thursday, September 18, Comanche Nation Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) held a community outreach event in Apache, Oklahoma.

MMIP Coordinator Roxe Large said important information was shared.

“So, some of the content that we went over was vital information for missing person cases and on the inter-jurisdictional cooperation between law enforcement and stakeholder agencies,” she said. “And how procedures should go about within [a] missing persons report.”

Large said those who attend can learn about various topics.

“Procedures for missing persons, such as what type of alerts go out and how law enforcement collaborates with other law enforcement agencies, and what are the protocols when they initially take that missing persons case,” she said. “Such as entering it into NCIC or entering it into NamUs and learning about the different alerts, such as amber alert, silver alert or the MEP alert, and just learning about the different aspects of exactly what our program provides and then what the other agencies provide.”

Comanche Nation Police and BIA Victim Services were in attendance.

“We want the community and especially tribal members or even if you're not a community tribal member for any person in the state of Oklahoma if it's under law enforcement investigation or they have a history of being victimized or it's known as a human trafficking or sex trafficking case or they are a victim of a homicide to reach out to our program because we're able to provide emergency services under our OVC grant,” Large said.

Their next outreach event will be in November.

For more information or if someone needs advocacy help, call 580-492-3501.