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Domestic and Sexual Violence Advocates Manual
In order to end domestic violence in all its forms, we must understand why it exists in Native communities today, and assess our current challenges in addressing the issue. When we examine the reasons behind the presence of domestic violence in Native communities, we must first consider its historical origins.
Domestic violence in Native society came about over the course of centuries of change. Examining the history of oppression that laid the groundwork for the rise of violence against Native women shows us that efforts to end the domestic violence across Indian Country are past their infancy and have evolved, tightly woven between the past and 2023.
“You must be able to see where you have been,
before you can possibly know where you want to go.”
~ Muscogee Creek
The Principles of Advocacy: A Guide for Sexual Assault Advocates
As Native women and advocates, we know that in Native women’s support groups or talking circles our discussions inevitably move to sexual assault. From the earliest stages of childhood to the later years of life as an elder, Native women experience-in epidemic proportions-sexual assault, sexual abuse, molestation, incest, rape, as well as other forms of sexual violence. As we consider the issue of sexual assault against American Indian and Alaskan Native Women, a critical thinking analysis directs us to ask, within the context of the scope of the problem, what are the common denominators for Native women that put us at the highest risk of sexual violence? In which direction must we travel to find solutions to this epidemic?
This discussion focuses specifically on sexual assault against American Indian and Alaskan Native women because it is the single most critical issue facing Native women not being adequately addressed by the criminal justice system, tribal governments, or society as a whole. This approach acknowledges that the complexity of sovereignty and jurisdictional barriers deserves an intense analysis, much more than can be discussed in this brief overview; however the prosecution of sexual assaults against adult Native women is vital to evaluating the scope of the problem. In spite of the fact that research , state and tribal agencies to provide adequate protection to Native women, law enforcement resources in Native communities lag far behind such resources in other communities. Underlying these statistics is the vital question, “Who is responsible for the safety of Native women?”
Tracking and Monitoring: Building a CCR in Native Communities
This manual was created to specifically outline the process of building a Coordinated Community Response (CCR) in Native communities. A CCR, simply stated, is a monitoring and tracking system that establishes women’s safety by focusing on batterers and their activity. This is done through a multi-agency collaboration with individuals dedicated to developing a response to domestic violence by implementing policies and practices to ensure batterer accountability. Each agency develops a role within this collaboration, ensuring a consistent response from law enforcement, prosecutors, judges and probation officers.
This manual separates the creation of building a Coordinated Community Response into a framework for general use, suggesting ways to customize this practice to suit the needs of diverse communities. Each process is thoroughly explained and examples of programs that have created innovative strategies to suit the individual dynamics of their given community are provided. This manual also functions as a resource for revisiting the intent of your current coordinated community response. Ultimately, a Coordinated Community Response must be tailored to fit the needs of the community it is serving; otherwise, it will fail in its purpose of holding offenders accountable and keeping women safe.
Returning Men to Honor: Developing Intervention & Education Programs
Men’s violence against women is based on a belief system rooted in the dynamics of power & control. The use of violence against an intimate partner is a choice; battering is a pattern of abuse that has an intent and purpose—to establish and maintain control over an intimate partner. Battering is supported by social norms, gender roles/expectations, hierarchical family structure and social systems that promote dominance of one group/individual over another, and the acculturated beliefs in our communities. The impact of this abuse is fear, subordination, and dehumanization.
This guide is intended as a resource tool for Native communities wishing to design an intervention program built upon tribal values, perspective, and life ways that helps men understand and address their use of violence against an intimate partner. Our goal is to provide a practical resource guide that assists the reader in developing a men’s program that has at its heart women’s safety and offender accountability, as well as the structural vision to create community change.
The work of a Men’s Program must be two-fold: On both a community change and an individual change level. As one element of a Coordinated Community Response, a Men’s Program must work to change the community’s awareness, perception, and tolerance of violence against women (this also includes system change); while providing space and tools for Native men who batter to change their beliefs and their behavior. Without this two-level change effort in Tribal communities, women will continue to be battered—a BIP will function only as a stopgap to the violence.
The Men’s Program must work to hold men accountable for their use of violence while providing them with a space and a framework for change. Native Men’s Programs assume a role in the social change response that stresses personal responsibility for changing values and beliefs in a way that restores safety and respect for American Indian and Alaska Native women.
Batterer Intervention Program Development Workbook
This project was supported by grant 2007-TA-AX-KO45 awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women. The opinions and views expressed in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Office on Violence Against Women or the U.S. Department of Justice
This guide will assist with the process of developing policies and procedures that reflect the values of your community utilizing the steps from MSH’s “Program Development Worksheet.” The steps are: Visioning, Describing, Developing, Implementing, and Reflecting. These steps have been specifically honed to the process of developing a men’s program that encompasses BIP, community organizing, and engaging other men in the community.
The core values you identify become the concepts that frame your work and how your program implemented. When designing your program’s operational structure build around your core indigenous values. In the example, the identified values of Respect, Honor, Compassion, and Balance are the concepts that are the basis for successfully achieving the vision of “[having] strong healthy families to carry on [the] culture and traditions” as they set the parameters that guide you to reaching your vision.
In our example, the vision “to have strong, healthy families to carry on our culture and traditions” is grand enough for long range planning, and when it comes to policy development, it becomes a concept that guides your work. The core values provide the framework in which your program will operate.
Safety & Accountability Audit: Building a CCR
Mending the Sacred Hoop (MSH) and the Program for Aid to Victims of Sexual Assault (PAVSA) began a Safety and Accountability Audit, a collaborative process of examining the system’s response to reported rapes of Native women. An audit team was formed that included Native women from the community, advocates, the head of the criminal division from the St. Louis County Attorney’s office, the Deputy Chief of Police from the City of Duluth, and the Supervising Deputy Sheriff from St. Louis County.
A Safety and Accountability Audit is a self-assessment tool developed by Praxis International by which communities can critically examine their collective institutional response to violence against women. The examination is conducted by a team comprised of community members and advocates who can keep the lived experience of Native women “present” throughout the process, and a selection of interagency representatives from agencies charged with intervening in cases of sexual assault. This Audit team does the work of collecting and analyzing the data, identifying problem areas, and articulating a series of recommendations for improvement.
The data gathered throughout this process assists auditors in identifying whether a woman’s safety is increased or decreased throughout the systemic response to her assault, and whether or not the offender is held accountable. If the audit team discovers a way in which a woman’s safety is compromised, or ways in which offenders can escape accountability, they identify those problematic areas as “gaps.” These identified gaps can therefore be directly addressed by the agencies involved as they envision, implement, and sustain their response to address, in our case, sexual violence against Indian women.
Nanda Gikendan: Community Education and Engagement Project
The Nanda Gikendan project was a local effort to increase awareness of violence against Native women in our community and to organize community members to address the issue. Mending the Sacred Hoop established a series of 10 monthly community forums to educate community members and service providers on violence against Native women issues. We centered each community forum on a traditional cultural teaching and examined how this teaching could be used to address violence against women. Each forum was also used to raise awareness of local services and to collect ideas for creating public awareness campaigns on domestic and sexual violence. The Nanda Gikendan Final Report summarizes the themes and activities of each monthly forum and highlights findings from our community survey.
