Sacred Hoop Coalition

Tribal Domestic Violence Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women

The Sacred Hoop Coalition is a statewide Tribal Domestic Violence Coalition serving all 11 tribal communities as well as urban programs in the state of Minnesota. The purpose of our coalition is to build the capacity of survivors, advocates, Native women’s organizations and victim service providers to end violence against Native women.

We believe that community organizing and dialogue at the local level increases the opportunity to develop strong, cooperative working relationships with one another in the work to end violence against women in our communities. The challenge for our communities is to reclaim traditional views of women, developing culturally-based responses to intimate partner violence that ensure the safety of Native women and hold those who batter accountable for their use of violence.

The Sacred Hoop Coalition provides training, technical assistance, and resources to tribal communities in Minnesota organizing to address domestic violence. It is our goal to build community-based responses that address violence against Indian women; keeping their voices at the forefront of our work.

Sacred Hoop Coalition Staff

Alyxis Feltus

Grand Portage Ojibwe (Sacred Hoop Tribal Coalition Director). Alyxis is committed to ending all forms of violence against Native women and children. She has been a member of the Sacred Hoop Coalition since 2010, while working as the Native women’s resource advocate for the Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs (DAIP) in Duluth, MN. As the Native women’s advocate, Alyxis provided direct services to domestic violence victims and facilitated the women’s education group for domestic violence survivors. She also coordinated and facilitated DAIP’s Women’s Non-Violence Program (a group for women arrested for use of force against an intimate partner), and the Council on Non-Violence, a coordinated community response to domestic violence between Carlton County and the Fond du Lac Reservation in northeastern MN. Alyxis is a graduate of Praxis International’s Advocacy Institute and is currently in the Blandin Foundation’s Reservation Community Leadership Program. She coordinated the Greater Northern Minnesota Human Trafficking Task Force sub-committee on the trafficking of Native women in northeastern MN and is a founding member of the Native Sisters Society, which focuses on the impact of sex trafficking of Native women within Duluth, MN and the surrounding areas. Alyxis has a bachelor’s degree in American Indian studies, with a minor in natural history from the University of Minnesota Duluth. During her internship with the Fond du Lac Cultural Museum, Alyxis helped in gathering the natural resources to build a birch bark canoe and learned about birch bark baskets, quill work, beading, moccasin making, and plant uses. To keep balanced, Alyxis follows Ojibwe traditions and spiritual practices.

Rachel Goodsky – Noodiinikwi (Windwoman)

Anishinaabe – Marten Clan, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe (Sacred Hoop Coalition Membership Outreach Coordinator). Rachel grew up moving between the South Minneapolis Phillips neighborhood and the Leech Lake Reservation in Northern Minnesota. She has been working to address domestic violence and sexual assault since 2003, most recently as a DV advocate for the Dabinoo’Igan Shelter and as a case manager for the Giiwe Mobil Team at the American Indian Housing Organization in Duluth, MN. Rachel is a graduate of the Sacred Hoop Coalition’s Aboriginal Focus-Oriented Complex Trauma (AFOT) Training. She loves helping people and she relates to everyone, so this work is second nature. Rachel and her family are traditional; she loves beading, sewing, and the summer pow wows. She has three young children who dance and she’ll be dancing too.

• Native Women’s Advisory Board