RAPID CITY, S.D. — There was a time, not long ago, when elder American
Indian women were found sleeping in fields and abandoned cars just to
escape from violence against them. Now younger women are getting involved
at a growing rate with shelters and advocacy groups cropping up across the
country; but violence still occurs at an alarming rate across Indian
country.

Thanks to the 1994 Violence Against Women Act and some tribal government
laws, coupled with nonprofit advocacy and shelter organizations, American
Indian women have safe havens for them and their children. There are also
rehabilitation programs for men and prevention education for young people.

Congress has until the end of September to reauthorize VAWA, or all the
hard work done over the past decade will be in jeopardy. A new act that
expands the older versions has been written and awaits congressional
action. It contains more funding and contains a title specific to Indian
country.

That’s all the good news. But Hurricane Katrina, and hearings for a new
Supreme Court chief justice, may take up a lot of congressional time.

It may be a really hard month, according to Julie Koob, director of the
Sheila Wellstone Institute in St. Paul, Minn.

Two House versions and one Senate version have not been approved almost a
year into this session; and Oct. 1 is the expiration date for the old act,
which Koob said makes her a little nervous.

VAWA made it possible for improved coordination between law enforcement,
courts, social service agencies and advocacy groups, and established laws
that brought many violators to justice. A result of the act, according to
advocates, has been an improvement in the statistics of domestic violence.

Prior to VAWA, domestic violence advocacy organizations were limited to
protecting the victims and advocating for change. Few laws existed for the
mandatory arrest of perpetrators.

With only 30 shelters, however, Indian country has still to see a
significant decrease in domestic violence.

Department of Justice statistics show that 23.8 of 1,000 American Indian
women suffer the effects of violence. That is compared to eight out of
1,000 white women and 12 out of 1,000 for black women. One in three
American Indian women is raped.

South Dakota may be the leader in shelters and prevention programs. All
reservations (with the exception Lower Brule) have a shelter. Lower Brule
shares a facility with the Crow Creek Reservation and has a prevention
program.

“For Congress to … include some provisions to include us is very
validating,” said Karen Artichoker, director of Cangleska, a women’s
shelter on the Pine Ridge Reservation, and Sacred Circle, located in Rapid
City.

“The act deals a lot about resources, and that’s right on. We identified
resources as the issue area. The United States has an obligation to assist
tribes to respond to crimes.”

VAWA has worked to provide resources that allowed tribes and organizations
to deal with domestic violence. The new act would authorize $4 billion in
funding over five years.

Indian nations would receive additional authority to deal with violent
crimes so violators would be held more accountable. Title IX would
authorize sentencing of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine, permit American
Indian law enforcement agencies to obtain criminal information from federal
agencies, require a yearly government-to-government consultation process
with the Department of Justice and establish a national tribal sex offender
registry.

Cangleska and other American Indian shelters in the region are more than
half filled with American Indian women.

“I would tell councils and my other tribal relatives, we always talk about
disproportionate number of Native women in shelters. Ten years hasn’t given
us the time to have an impact,” Artichoker said.

Some programs in Indian country fall victim to federal granting procedures.
Sometimes the funding doesn’t get to the programs in time, so they close
temporarily. Tribal governments don’t have the funding resources to keep
the programs open, Artichoker said.

The new act would streamline the funding process so the American Indian
programs may not have to suffer the check to check problem.

Prevention programs in the schools need to be conducted, Artichoker said.
The Oglala Sioux tribal law criminalizes violence down to age 16. “We need
a lot of prevention dollars to provide information,” Artichoker said.

Links between domestic violence and poverty, lack of housing and
transportation have been made, but poverty does not cause violence,
Artichoker said.

The success of the anti-domestic violence movement will be in the way the
advocacy groups and the governments, federal, state and tribal work
together. Artichoker said it should not be the place of a tribal government
to operate a shelter, although some tribes do. She said the much better
structure is to have autonomous programs and interfaces with tribal
governments.

If there is a problem with VAWA, it is the assumption that there are some
basic services available in a community with functional courts and law
enforcement. For many tribes, that is not the case; therefore, the
reauthorization bill with Title IX will help the tribes to catch up.