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barriers to living violence free

Like other communities of women of color, there is tremendous within-group diversity in the Native American culture. Native American women have different languages, traditions, and spiritual beliefs. There are 550 federally-recognized Native American tribes with 200 distinct languages in the United States. Further complicating the issue of heterogeneity is the continuous migration between reservations and urban areas. A battered Native American woman may have a different framework based on whether she grew up in an urban setting or on a reservation.
There are also political and economical differences that must be considered.

The Historical Context of Domestic Violence

Within Varying rates and patterns of abuse exist among different tribes. It is important to note, however, that domestic violence is a relatively new phenomenon in the Native American culture. Abuse of both Native American women and children by Native American men can be traced to the introduction of alcohol, Christianity, and the European hierarchical family structure. Women from the Sacred Shawl Women's Society on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota report that while domestic violence existed in pre-reservation society, it was both rare and severely reprobated.
Many traditional Native American histories indicate that when domestic violence did occur, the community responded. The batterer would be banished or ostracized, or retaliation was left to the male relatives of the victim. Such traditional methods of addressing domestic violence were eliminated or limited with the advent of a Western European criminal justice process.

Societal Oppression

Several factors have accompanied the increase in domestic violence in Native American communities. These include the removal of Native Americans from their ancestral lands, suppressed religious and cultural practices, forced removal of Native American children into foster homes and boarding schools, a disruption of traditional living patterns compounded by the poverty of reservation life, and a 90% reduction of the Native American population from the time of European contact to the establishment of reservations. These dramatic changes in social, spiritual, and economic structure have drastically undermined traditional ways of life.

The Family

The Native American family is an extended one that includes aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, as well as adopted relatives. The nuclear family of mother, father, and children is considered a household within the family.
Native American families are very close. If domestic violence occurs, the family is expected to take care of the problem. If a Native American woman goes outside the family for help, she is ostracized by her family and the batterer's family.

The Reservation

Some Native American women have resided on the same reservation for their entire lives. If a battered woman leaved her home to go to a shelter, she is forced to leave both familiar surroundings and her support system.
Many women residing on reservations live in such poverty that they do not have access to telephones, transportation, or child care. In many cases, the remote areas in which they live do not even have telephone lines or a transportation system. Some battered Native American women do not speak English. All these factors severely impact women's help-seeking behavior.
There are, now, as many Native Americans living in urban areas as there are on reservations, and according to the latest Bureau of Justice Statistics report on "Native Americans and Crime" most Indian women are assaulted by non-Indian perpetrators (both on and off the reservations) so the jurisdictional and legal issues are just as viable as to battering itself.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality is a major issue in small communities. Sanctions within tribal or clan groups or other subgroups are often more severe in relation to an informant than to an abuser. Although the community may view the behavior of the batterer as undesirable, the decision to contact the external legal system or to reveal details of intimate family life is often viewed as disloyal. In addition, due to various group and subgroup relationships, outside intervention is often viewed by battered women as undesirable.

Spirituality

Native American spirituality can be a source of profound support, comfort, and healing for many battered women. According to Karen Artichoker, co-author of Domestic Violence Is Not Lakota/Dakota Tradition, it can also serve to keep them in abusive relationships. The idea of connectedness to the earth and to each other is frequently used by the batterer and other family members as a reason for the woman to remain in a violent relationship.

Trust

Many Native American women have a high level of mistrust for white agencies and helpers. This lack of trust is not difficult to understand given the historically oppressive way that white society has treated Native Americans. This mistrust may keep the battered woman from reaching out for help. In many cases, when battered Native American women do reach out, they are confronted with helpers who are insensitive to their unique lifeways and culture.

Did you write this article? or do u know where I can find the author? I would like to use it in some training I am doing. I would also like to share it with the members of Oklahoma Native American Domestic Violence Coalition and the Oklahoma State Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Coalition.

I would also like to share this. I work for a DV agency in Wisconsin and we had 2 Native American speakers at our staff meeting today. This would be a wonderful follow-up to some of the things we discussed.

We have 'equal opportunity violence' in Indian Country."

That’s according to Gyda Swaney, PhD, a tribal member and a member of the clinical psychology faculty at the University of Montana, who gave the keynote address at last week’s 2007 Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (MCADSV) annual conference.

The session, held in Polson, was entitled “Building on Native American Traditions and Values.�?

The U. S. Department of Justice reports that American Indians have a violent crime victimization rate twice the national rate. The department also reports that Indians were more likely to be victims of assault and rape/sexual assault committed by a stranger or acquaintance rather than an intimate partner or family member.

Almost 80 percent of Indian victims of rape/sexual assault described the offender as white, department officials say.

“Couple that with the courts�?inability to prosecute non-Indians in some jurisdictions,�?Gyda said, “and we have a very sorry state of affairs in Indian Country.�?

Also, in rural areas there can be special problems. For example, what if a victim’s brother-in-law is the police officer on duty when she needs help?

Another unique aspect of domestic violence in Indian country is that it’s what Gyda calls “systemic violence�?- in other words, the whole family system is violent, she said.

She refers to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among victims of violence “a normal response to an abnormal event.�?In other words, she said, she “pathologizes�?what happened to the victim, not the PTSD.

In her keynote powerpoint presentation, Gyda provided a very brief historical context for talking about domestic violence among Native Americans. Alcohol, Christianity, colonization, boarding schools, and relocation have all taken a heavy toll on native people, she pointed out.

The saddest impact of domestic violence is on children. According to Gyda, witnessing such violence may be as harmful as suffering actual physical abuse.

“In 60 percent of homes where a parent is maltreated, the child is a victim, too,�?she said. “A batterer is four times more likely to sexually abuse children or step-children. 10 million children are exposed to violence by one parent against the other.�?

The risk of domestic abuse may not diminish once the couple has separated, according to her. In fact, she pointed out, the risk of a victim being killed is actually higher upon separation.

The effects of domestic violence include authoritarian, neglectful, and verbally abusive parenting styles. Violent parents tend to belittle or treat their partner with contempt in front of the children, who learn that it is all right to be disrespectful and violent. Violent parents also tend to excessively criticize children, control the child’s outside social contacts, enforce strict economic control, are unwilling to hear children’s viewpoint on important issues, and give overly harsh punishment for misbehaviors.

Sometimes they use children to control their partners, and as weapons (for example, spying). They place children in the middle, causing the child tension. Children of such parents end up feeling responsible for the abuse.

Gyda referred to a study in which she was a partner, concluding that alcohol and drug use seriously compromises a person’s relationships with their partner, their children, and themselves.

In the course of that study, she and others learned that women return to abusive partners due to love, fear, lack of finances, pity for the batterer, blaming themselves, thinking they could fix him, and feeling that things would get better.

Native American domestic violence victims turned to family, spirituality, culture, Indian Center, and other women for strength, according to Gyda’s study.

The two-and-a-half-day conference offered workshops in: services available to American Indian violence survivors; traditional stories; tribal law, both past and present; the Indian Child Welfare Act; economic resources for women; and prevention programs.

Sexual Violence is defined as any sexual contact forced upon a person against his or her will or when a victim is unable to consent due to age, illness, disability, or the influence of alcohol or other drugs. Sexual violence perpetrators may be a stranger, friend, family member, or intimate partner, but most perpetrators know their victims.

Domestic Violence - also called intimate partner violence, battering, spouse abuse, and date rape - occurs when people use physical violence (or the threat of it), sexual violence, psychological or emotional abuse, stalking, and/or economic abuse to establish a pattern of coercive power and control over their intimate partner.

According to the coalition’s website, domestic violence knows no boundaries. It’s not isolated, and it can be found anywhere.

According to statistics collected by the National Institutes of Justice and the Bureau of Justice, women make up 90 to 95 percent of domestic violence victims while as many as 95 percent of domestic violence perpetrators are male.

The Centers for Disease Control call intimate partner violence the number one health threat facing women in the United States today.

Through one’s actions and reactions every day, it’s possible to spread the message that one supports survivors, holds batterers accountable for their violent and controlling behavior, and will not tolerate violence. One of the best ways to send that message is to model respectful behavior.

Incorporated in 1986, the Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence works to end domestic and sexual violence through advocacy, public education, public policy, and program development. Currently, MCADSV represents over 50 programs across Montana that provide direct services to victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence and their children.

The MCADSV office in Helena can be reached by mail at this address: P.O. Box 818, Helena MT 59624. Their phone number is (406) 443-7794 or

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