By Paula S. Julian, Senior Policy Specialist

Domestic and gender-based violence is not a part of tribal cultures. This truth is reflected in tribal languages and teachings.  The Lakota teachings of White Buffalo Calf Woman that women are sacred, which is at the root of respectful thoughts about women as well as respectful behaviors towards and with women.  This current crisis of violence against Native women is reflected throughout U.S. history and dealings between tribal governments and the federal government, for which the U.S. apologized, in 1993 to Native Hawaiians, and in 2009 to Native Peoples. 

 Over the past 35 years, through the unparalleled leadership of the FVPSA Office, funding for Indian tribes has supported the development of services for domestic violence victims rooted in tribal laws and cultures.  The development and provision of life-saving tribal-specific shelter and supportive services have been foundational to the cultural changes that survivors, advocates, and tribes have made since 1984.  While much work remains, the recognition within FVPSA that domestic violence is unacceptable behavior and victims have a right to shelter and supportive services is a cultural shift in the history of the United States.

Shelter and supportive services for tribes have served as beacons of hope and centers for organizing amongst victims and advocates providing space for emergency shelter, peer support and tribal specific advocacy to counter non-Indian beliefs sanctioning domestic violence.  White Buffalo Calf Women’s Society on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation (SD) and the Emmonak Women’s Shelter in the Village of Emmonak (AK) are 2 of the oldest Native women’s shelters in the country. Both shelters opened their doors in the late ‘70s, receiving FVPSA funds over the years, serve as examples of tribal-specific life-affirming services.  

Tillie Black Bear (Sicangu Lakota), Wa Wokiye Win (Woman Who Helps Everyone), former Director of the White Buffalo Calf Women’s Society shelter and grandmother of the national battered women’s movement testified in January 1978, at the Consultation titled “Battered Women: Issues of Public Policy” sponsored by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which among other historic events lead to the passage of FVPSA in 1984.

FVPSA funds have also supported tribal technical assistance for tribes and tribal organizations, developing local responses to domestic violence over several decades. In 1998 FVPSA  supported the development of Sacred Circle, in 2011 the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC), and in 2017, the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center. In the past twenty-one years, this technical assistance has helped to inform, unify, give national voice, and provide leadership from and to tribal survivors, tribal governments and the country at large that the solution to ending domestic violence against Indian people lies in restoring tribal governments’ capacities to respond to domestic violence. For more information, please see www.niwrc.org, including NIWRC’s Restoration Magazine (https://www.niwrc.org/restoration-magazine) and Safety for Native Women: VAWA and American Indian Tribes https://www.amazon.com/Safety-Native-Women-American-Indian/dp/1500918512.

The following is taken from a long-time advocate from a tribe in Michigan about NIWRC:

“We have relied on the expertise and information shared to help us build tribal services that does indeed help women who are victims of domestic violence….We have with the help of Sacred Circle and other Native TA providers been able to provide accurate, current information directly to victims, fashioned codes, response protocols and agency policies and procedures that better meet the needs of our women and families. Without the assistance or resource centers and the expertise of the staff, we would not be where we are at today.  Without hesitation, I can look at the passion, expertise and work experience of NIWRC’s Board of Directors and staff having confidence that they can take a good initiative which was Sacred Circle and make it a better program which will be the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. It is amazing that this Board and staff have a century or more of work experience and expertise in fighting for the sacredness of Indian women and the right they have to be respected, honored, cherished and SAFE. They have collectively saved the lives of domestic violence victims that they will never meet, they will get thanked and they have already dedicated themselves to continue this work.”  

By Brenda Hill, Director, Technical Assistance and Training Division

The first national Native-specific domestic violence resource center, Sacred Circle, National Resource Center to End Violence Against Native Women came into existence in 1998 as a result of three things: FVPSA, sisterhood and Native advocates. FVPSA provided the financial means and supported the necessity. Allies at the original four FVPSA funded domestic violence resource centers, Futures Without Violence (formerly the Family Violence Prevention Fund),  the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, the Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody and the National Clearinghouse for Defense of Battered Women/Battered Women’s Justice Project had developed relationships with Native advocates through their collaborations on national legislation and policy work. Allies included Anne Menard, Ellen Pence, Susan Kelly-Dreiss, Sue Osthoff, Esta Soler, Merry Hofford and others. Recognizing that cultural, historical and jurisdictional issues in Indian Country left them unable to adequately meet the needs of Native women who were victims of domestic violence they held themselves accountable, and in a testament to sisterhood, gave up agreed to share some of their funding to support the establishment of a Native specific resource center in its first year.

At that time, the specter of violence against Native women was invisible at the national level. Native advocates rarely had a voice at the national table or the resources to be at that table. The creation of Sacred Circle changed that reality forever. It must be noted that as staff for  FVPSA funded state coalitions, Eileen Hudon, White Earth Ojibwe, Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women, and Karen Artichoker, Oglala Lakota/Ho Chunk, South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault were in a rare and unique position to advocate for tribes and Native women’s seats at the table through the development of a Native specific, FVPSA funded resource center.

In the 12 plus years before transitioning to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Sacred Circle, National Resource Center to End Violence Against Native Women holds a special place in the history of Native women and Tribal nations’ struggles to end violence against women. The ability to develop culturally specific materials that reflect and up lift the voices, images, realities and experiences of Indigenous women and communities was inspirational, validating and hope-filled. The creation of posters, bumper stickers, public education materials, program development and coordinated community response initiatives, all from a Native perspective, in the voice of Native women was a special blessing – though challenging in attempting to be responsive to 560 plus tribal nations! Perhaps, in addition to technical assistance and consultation, one of the most important aspects of the work was the ability FVPSA funding provided to create space for Native advocates and allies to come together, make relationships, share information, struggles and support at workshops, conferences and other gatherings. Sacred Circle’s five-day Institutes, Workshop on Wheels (where participants visited other tribal lands and programs) and co-sponsorship of the Women Are Sacred conference are highlights of Sacred Circle’s work that lives on in the movement.

The ability to relate violence against Native women to colonization and genocide as the root cause, directedthe work to end violence against Native women to be centered on reclamation of Indigenous cultures, which was tied directly to tribal sovereignty. The concepts of “sovereign women strengthen sovereign nations” and “women are sacred” are cultural teachings that became foundational to Sacred Circle’s and the work of tribes across the country. These teachings supported the accountability of men and sacredness of women.These connections led to the creation of the Restoration magazine (which NIWRC carries on) and Sacred Circle guiding NCAI’s development of their Task Force Against Violence Against Women, strengthening the role of tribal governments and leadership in ending violence against women and their children. It is commonly said in Indian Country that we are all related. That is a cultural teaching that is reflected in the work to strengthen relationships as relatives and connections between all community members, agencies, programs and institutions in reclaiming the status of Native women as sacred, which is key to ending all domestic violence.