FBI: Warm Springs Reservation Tribal Member Missing

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Currents. Discussion »

WARM SPRINGS, OREGON – The FBI office, based in Portland, Oregon, issued the following press release late Thursday afternoon:

Mysterious Deaths

The FBI and Warm Springs Police Department are investigating the disappearance of Faron Kalama, age 30, from her residence on the Reservation of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. Kalama is a tribal member. She was last seen several days ago. Anyone with information as to her whereabouts is asked to call the Warm Springs Police Department or the FBI.

“The family is very worried, no one has heard from her in four or five days,”

a cousin, who wished to remain anonymous told the Native News Network on Thursday evening.

“We have had several mysterious deaths on the reservation recently, which is what makes us more fearful,”

said the unnamed cousin.

The cousin describes Kalama as a member of a large family who is unemployed due to the high rate of unemployment on the reservation which is about 60 percent.

On Wednesday, the Oregon State Medical Examiner confirmed the identity of the body discovered on the Warm Springs Reservation Sunday, September 30. The Medical Examiner identified Jonas Andrew Miller, age 33 and a resident of Warm Springs who was a tribal citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, as the victim of a homicide.

No further information - including specifics on how Miller died - will be released at this time for investigative reasons. The joint investigation by the FBI and the Warm Springs Police Department continues at this time.

The FBI and Warm Springs Police Department stated there is no known connection between Kalama's disappearance and the death of Jonas Andrew Miller.

Warm Springs, Oregon on the Reservation of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs is located approximately 105 miles southeast of Portland, Oregon.

posted October 5, 2012 6:50 am edt