YAKAMA NATION, Wash.- $1.028 million in federal funding will be helping limit drug usage within the Yakama Nation.
U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) says the funds will start the Yakama Nation Drug and Fentanyl Task Force. According to Cantwell, the Nation has already began preparations for this team to cover 1,130,000 acres of the reservation.
“In visits with tribal leaders all across the State of Washington over the past year, one thing became abundantly clear: Tribal law enforcement agencies need more boots on the ground to address the growing fentanyl crisis,” says Cantwell. “This funding will help the Yakama Nation implement their new fentanyl task force – recruiting and training nine law enforcement officers to help keep fentanyl off their streets and keep the public safer.”
The Yakama Nation has started the recruitment process for the task force and will send nine members of the Yakama Nation Police Department to training by the end of the fiscal year.
YNPD will track success through the Incident Total of Reported Offenses and the work done with regional and federal law enforcement to seize and stop the transport of drugs through the reservation.
“The fentanyl crisis is a flood of poison entering Indian Country and communities, and it is not a crisis that our Tribes can face alone,” said Senator Cantwell in December. “We’ve heard [from] tribal leaders and their law enforcement agencies how they’re chronically understaffed and under-resourced.”
