Warm Springs Police officers and FBI agents converged on the area around the Warm Springs Indian Health Services building on Kot-Num Road this weekend after a report of possible human remains, and by the time the search ended, both agencies confirmed they had found and processed a body at the scene. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs said the remains were located on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, with authorities offering no details about the circumstances surrounding the discovery.
According to The Oregonian/OregonLive, officers and agents responded to the area near 1270 Kot-Num Road at approximately 10:53 a.m. on Saturday, September 19, after receiving the report. The outlet noted that the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs did not immediately respond to a request for additional information, and the FBI declined to comment. A separate account from the Barney's Bend Bugle similarly described responding officers and FBI agents locating and processing the remains after searching the area near the health facility.
The site sits beside a facility that serves as a central hub for reservation residents. Per Health Resources and Services Administration records updated in June, the Warm Springs Health and Wellness Center operates as an Indian Health Service outpatient clinic.
The FBI's Role in the Investigation
The FBI and Warm Springs Police investigated the discovery.
Past cases on the reservation have also involved multi-agency forensic work. The Bend Bulletin reported in February 2021 that human remains discovered along Tenino Road on the reservation the previous month were identified through forensic testing by tribal police and FBI teams as 58-year-old tribal member Tina Vel Spino, who was reported missing on August 8. That identification underscores how multi-agency forensic work has previously resolved missing-person cases tied to remains found on tribal land, though no such identification has been announced in this new case.
A Reservation Confronting a Painful Statistical Backdrop
The discovery lands amid a broader reckoning over missing and murdered Indigenous people in Oregon. A U.S. Department of Justice report published in February 2021 found that Oregon ranked 13th nationwide in missing Indigenous cases, identifying eight missing and 11 murdered Indigenous people connected to the state, as detailed by Willamette Week.
The Warm Springs Reservation itself is vast and rural, established by the Middle Oregon Treaty of 1855 and spanning roughly 644,000 acres in north-central Oregon along the Deschutes River, according to the Oregon Secretary of State. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, made up of the Wasco, Warm Springs, and Northern Paiute peoples, is governed by an 11-member Tribal Council under a constitution dating to 1938, per the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. The unincorporated community of Warm Springs, the reservation's administrative hub, had an estimated population of about 2,435 in 2020, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures compiled by Data USA.
As of now, authorities have released no details about the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the remains, and neither the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs nor the FBI has provided further comment. Hoodline will continue following the investigation as more information becomes available.
