WARNING: This story contains mentions of rape, sexual assault, sex trafficking and domestic violence. If you need help, reach out to law enforcement, or you can call the National Domestic Violence Helpline at 1-800-799-7233 or the Stronghearts Native Helpline at 844-762-8483.
Pauly Denetclaw
ICT
Abigail Echo-Hawk was sitting before five U.S. House members during an oversight hearing before the Indian and Insular Affair Subcommittee. She sternly said, “My rape was not partisan.”
Echo-Hawk, Pawnee, had traveled to Washington, D.C., to share the findings of an Urban Indian Health Institute report on how federal funding cuts are devastating domestic violence programs that serve Indigenous people and communities.
During a July 14 hearing on the use of technology and initiatives to address missing and murdered Indigenous people, she was struck by the partisan language being used in the room.
“I didn’t plan on saying that, but as I was sitting there, I heard in the introductions by members of Congress partisan rhetoric. I thought about it within my own life, and my own healing, and my own family, that the safety of our communities, and the safety of our loved ones, and the safety of our children isn’t partisan,” Echo-Hawk, the executive director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, said. “It’s just the basic dignity that we deserve, and I expect them to uphold that.”
Many issues knot together to create the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people. Jurisdictional loopholes, lack of police officers, limited resources for survivors, high rates of physical and sexual violence, and inadequate housing, just to name a few. It’s also a health care issue. All of it compounded by lack of federal funding — which the federal government is obligated to pay because of treaty rights.
“These are prepaid benefits that are included in our treaties and our agreements with the United States government that were paid with by our blood and our land,” said Echo-Hawk.
Since January 2025, 64 percent of Indigenous violence-related programs and services have been substantially harmed by federal funding cuts, according to a recent report by the Urban Indian Health Institute. Of the organizations surveyed that provide health care, up to 45 percent of the services have been or will be reduced due to the federal funding cuts, leaving already overwhelmed, underfunded organizations to fend for themselves – and the Indigenous communities they serve. Already organizations have had to turn survivors away or direct them toward another organization because they were at capacity, which is why full funding by the federal government is essential, said Echo-Hawk.
“We know as a direct result of the colonialism that impacted our relatives there is an, unfortunately, unique vulnerability to violence that exists within our communities,” Echo-Hawk told ICT. “The maze of jurisdictions, we know exists, creates the ability for predators to use this maze of jurisdiction to harm our people. An understanding of that is something that doesn’t exist in the general public, about not only the high rates of violence, but the way that predators target Native women and Native people.”
The institute’s report surveyed 201 organizations from 29 states. The majority of these organizations – 84 percent – rely on federal funds for over half of their budget. This indicates a reliance on federal funds to provide program services and sustain the organizations.
“When we have the full resources and funding, we see things in Indian Country change,” Echo-Hawk said.
Despite inadequate funding, 25,000 American Indian and Alaska Native survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault or those impacted by the MMIP crisis were provided services nationally by the 201 organizations surveyed.
“We provide those services with love, but I would also like to provide those services with the appropriate resources,” she said.
However, there were over 1,000 unmet requests for housing and other supportive services — 23 percent were for children.
Indigenous-led nonprofits and tribally-run programs provide services that can’t be accessed anywhere else. These organizations are uniquely qualified to address the physical, spiritual and mental health needs of the communities they serve.
“Our organizations that specifically serve tribal people … know that despite that violence, our people and our survivors still continue to thrive,” she said. “The way that they do that is grounded in our culture, our traditions, our land and our ways of knowledge.”
As a survivor of sexual assault, Echo-Hawk turned to the lands she was raised on in Alaska and the culture she grew up with to heal from her trauma. This was vital, she said.
“Our traditional ways are what healed me. Our traditional ways are why I’m standing in front of you today. Our traditional ways are the reason that we can move forward and have change within our communities,” she said.
During the hearing, Echo-Hawk talked about how harvesting blueberries in rural Alaska made her realize that she’s a blueberry too. The blueberry shrubs endure harsh and traumatic winters, the temperature goes well into the negative degrees, and yet every summer the resilient shrub grows tender, sweet blueberries.
In her testimony to the House subcommittee, Echo-Hawk said she told this story years ago to a group of Indigenous women who had been sex trafficked.
“I shared with them, when I go and gather the blueberry, when I stand on our land, I know that I can survive the worst, in order to ensure the best,” Echo-Hawk said.
She told them that their cultures, traditional ways of knowing and the land itself were where they too would find healing. A few years later, an Indigenous woman ran up to Echo-Hawk with tears streaming down her face. She too had found healing.
“I’m a blueberry too,” she told Echo-Hawk.
