Community Gathers to Learn About Comanche Nation MMIP
On Thursday, August 29, Comanche Nation Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) held a community gathering at Watchetaker Hall.
Director Roxe Large said the event was to reach out to the community.
“It's important just to make that connection with the community and kind of have an introduction of the program to the public and to also inform them of our services,” she said.
One of those events will be held during the Comanche Nation Fair, which will be in late September.
“We're going to be hosting the Red Regalia exhibition, so that'll be for men and women for adults 18 and up, and that's just to do like a memorabilia for the families,” Large said.
The meeting was an invitation for families of MMIP and those curious about the program; however, she said showing up is one way the Comanche people can become more involved.
“And then for future events like we'll post that on the websites and then the text messaging and then just staying up to date with just MMIP issues in general,” Large said. “Not just with Comanche Nation but other MMIW-like chapters out there, and then I would say I like staying up to date on federal laws and state laws in relation to MMIP.”
She said research could be done by looking up Savanna’s Act and Ida’s Law, which, according to Large, could lead to a snowball effect.
“And it'll lead you to different websites and organizations out there because, with MMIP-like issues right now, it's on the front line as far as having…the new grants and all the changes, you know, within legislation,” she said.
Large said the changes in legislation are good ones.
“As far as getting back up…from federal and legislation, and then that trickles down to support of state laws,” she said. “For instance, in Oklahoma, you have Ida's Law, and then also they had created the Casey Alerts, which is an alert for missing Indigenous people.”
Large said her goal before the end of 2024 is to finalize the Comanche Missing Persons list and hire a victim advocate and interns through a grant the department recently received.
She said the list could take time.
“Pretty much getting confirmation from the families to confirm you know, is this person still missing and then getting up with important databases like NamUs and just kind of like confirming with law enforcement agencies, you know, like up-to-date status,” Large said. “And then after that, once you gather all the information then maybe it could be a finalized list.”
She said she’ll continue getting out into the community to motivate people on the issues.
