I may be a bit of a dummy here, so bear with me. I just bought this wonderful vehicle from a dealership less then a week ago, and found out today that my parking brake not only doesn't work, but it also will not engage the indicator light. I bought it "As Is" so the dealership won't fix this, correct? I already fixed the air bag problem yesterday, thanks to the help of the awesome people of this site. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Oryan GW Baker

 

You don't really need it unless you plan to sell the car. Mine is busted too, but was working. I would like to fix it but don't want to spend on that just yet.

 

I have not worked on a Tribute but I fixed the parking brake on my '98 Protege. Assuming you have a drum brake in the back my description should come close enough.
the light and the brake function may be unrelated. There should be a switch that closes as you move the lever. That switch may be faulty.
Brake function: check the cable first. Put the car's rear on jackstands and remove one wheel. Locate the brake cable and have a helper apply the brake look and feel if the inner cable moves and pulls the lever that come out of the backing plate of the rear brake. If it does not move most likely the cable is broken and needs to be replaced.
If you find the cable is o.k. then you have to take off the brake drums and clean them with brake cleaner. This guy does a good job showing the process on a Mazda Protege: Yours should be similar, jsut make sure to make everything move freely.

 

Start with the simple adjustment. The adjustment is at the handle u just need to peel back the boot and there is a 10mm nut on the end of the cable tighten that and see if it works.