Safe Women, Strong Nations

One in three Native women is raped in her lifetime.  Six in ten experience domestic abuse. Sadly, the majority of these women never see their abusers or rapists brought to justice.  The complex jurisdictional scheme in Indian country leaves Native women without effective judicial recourse against their perpetrators.

The situation for Native women is bleak but I can see beyond the initial despair of these horrific statistics.  As Native women, we serve as the backbones of our communities, and many strong Native women have shown relentless dedication to ending the epidemic of violence in our communities.  The contributions of women like Tillie Black Gear, Cecelia Fire Thunder, Terri Henry, Karen Artichoker and so many others, inspire my hope for the future - that our daughters will face better odds, that our communities will heal, that the violence will cease.

I am honored that many of these women have collaborated with the Indian Law Resource Center in creating its Safe Women, Strong Nations program.  We value our work with them, which builds on their previous grassroots efforts.  We are supplementing their continuing efforts with a campaign to raise awareness of violence against women as an international human rights issue, and look forward to assisting them further in the fight to end violence against Native women. 

                                                                                                                  

Kirsten Matoy Carlson, of Cherokee descent from Oklahoma, is an attorney with the Indian Law Resource Center and the director of the Center's Safe Women / Strong Nations program.  

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 Honor Dance, Dale Auger

SAFE WOMEN / STRONG NATIONS

Native women face the highest rates of sexual violence and physical assault of any group in the United States. According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, one out of three Native women will be raped in her lifetime, and three out of four will be physically assaulted.  In the majority of the cases, the assailants are non-Indian.  These horrendous statistics document the disproportionate impact of violence on Native communities.

Through our Safe Women, Strong Nations project, the Center is responding by lending our legal skills to help Native women's organizations in their work to help tribes deal more effectively with this issue.  We are collaborating with Native women leaders who have been dealing with this issue for years, and have been working closely with the National Congress of American Indians Task Force on Violence Against Women, Clan Star, Inc., the Navajo Nation, and others to raise awareness of this issue internationally.

DENIAL OF EQUALITY UNDER THE LAW

The current criminal jurisdictional scheme created by the United States government impedes the ability of Indian nations to properly protect their citizens, and the federal government has drastically cut funding to law enforcement in Indian Country. This has resulted in the erosion of tribal jurisdictional authority and the denial of equality under the law to Indian nations and women.

Failure to effectively police and prosecute perpetrators negatively impacts not only victims of sexual violence but entire Indian nations as well.  Violence against women disrupts the stability and productivity of their families, their communities, and Indian nations.  As such, our project recognizes that protection for Native women must involve strengthening the ability of Indian nations to effectively police their lands and prosecute offenders.

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

With our help, a coalition of indigenous organizations brought these issues to the attention of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in December 2007.  The collaborative report we submitted to the Committee regarding the United States' obligations to indigenous peoples can be found here.

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The Committee responded to these issues by  condemning the United States for its failure to respond adequately to the epidemic of violence against Native women in its Concluding Observations and Recommendations. It urged the United States to increase it efforts to ensure that reports of sexual violence against Native women "are independently, promptly, and thoroughly investigated, and that perpetrators are prosecuted and appropriately punished."

The Center and its partners brought further international attention to the disparate impact of violence against Native women by meeting with the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism about this issue during his visit to the United States in May 2008. The Special Rapporteur expressed interest and concern about this issue, and promised to include it in his report to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

TRAINING OUR COMMUNITIES

To promote awareness of the problem of sexual violence against Native women, the Indian Law Resource Center conducted two workshops at the Women Empowering Women for Indian Nations (WEWIN) Fourth Annual Conference in Hinckley, MN July 29-31, 2008 and another at the Navajo Nation Social Services Conference in Ft. McDowell, AZ July 30, 2008.

At the WEWIN conference, the Center led a full-day training session on using the new United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to promote the protection of indigenous rights, and a second,

 
Attorneys Kirsten Matoy Carlson, Terri Henry and Lucy Simpson discuss legal protections for Native women at the WEWIN conference.  Henry is principal director of Clan Star, Inc.  Photo by Valerie Taliman
specialized training session on how international advocacy can be used to pressure the United States to fulfill its international obligations to ensure that Native women can enjoy the right to be free and safe from violence.

For more information, contact Kirsten Matoy Carlson at kcarlson@indianlaw.org or Lucy Simpson at lsimpson@indianlaw.org  They may also be reached at 406/449-2006.