USET member Tribes have been significantly impacted by natural disasters, namely hurricanes and flooding events in recent years. In these times of need, the USET Tribes have provided one another with emergency response resources and assistance.  In order to better coordinate these informal efforts, the USET Tribal Emergency Services and Tribal Justice Committees have taken the lead in requesting the development of Tribal Emergency Mutual Aid Compacts (TEMAC) between Tribes. The purpose of the current TEMAC project is to facilitate the efficient and effective sharing of emergency response resources between USET member Tribes in a completely voluntary way.

The entire TEMAC project is anticipated to occur over a 3 year time span. USET has divided the project into 3 phases, each 1 year in duration.

• Phase one consists of developing formal mutual aid agreements between the USET Tribes. This entails meeting with Tribes to collect their thoughts and input as to what would work best for the USET Tribes. Each Tribe is unique in how they manage emergency and natural disaster situations and all of the Tribal and cultural aspects plays a significant role in the development of the compacts. This phase will also incorporate the establishment of an Advisory Council comprised of first responders, police officers, emergency management personnel from the Tribes, USET personnel and various federal personnel as needed.  The Council assisted in the drafting and review of the mutual aid agreements and in creating a database of available Tribal resources. Phase I completed December, 2008.
• Phase two consists of taking the mutual aid compacts that have been developed between Tribes and creating a system that best utilizes these agreements and resources. This requires collaboration from multiple federal and state agencies working alongside the Tribes to create a system of response that provides for quick and full responses to whatever the level of emergency. Phase II is currently in progress.
• During phase three, USET envisions this project as being duplicated across the country to both Tribes and local and state governments working in close proximity with Tribes. USET plans to make presentations to national and regional Tribal groups, as well as promoting the project to individual Tribes across the country. USET will provide technical assistance to these Tribes, as needed, throughout their creative and implementation phase of project development and will act as a general resource to them as they create their response systems. Phase III is planned for FY 2010.

Click here to visit the TEMAC SharePoint site.

Members of the TEMAC Advisory Council can click here to log in.