Tribes working to combat sex assaults
By Travis Coleman Journal staff writer | Posted: Sunday, May 20, 2007
Before she turned 21, Michaelene DeCora had been raped twice and molested as a child.
But DeCora, now 43, didn't report the incidents and the men were never arrested because she didn't think anything would happen to them. She said tribal police officers didn't have the capability to handle a report of sexual assault and there were no other victim's services on the reservation of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska where she lived.
Twenty years later, not much has changed. There still aren't any services and local advocacy groups in Winnebago and on the nearby reservation of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska are struggling to get programs off the ground. And American Indian women continue to be raped or sexually assaulted.
According to a recent study by Amnesty International, 34 percent of American Indian women -- or one out of three -- have been victims of a sexual assault. For all other women in the U.S., it's one out of every five.
But that number should be higher because a lot of rapes and sexual assaults aren't reported, said DeCora, who now works as a volunteer at Winnebago Domestic Violence Intervention and Family Preservation.
In Winnebago, DeCora said that nine out of 10 women have been sexually assaulted in some way but don't talk about it out of shame.
The April Amnesty report was titled "Maze of Injustice" and attributed that high rate of sexual assaults to limited government funding and confusion in tribal and county jurisdictions on reservations. But now, the Winnebago and Omaha tribes have stopped waiting for help and are working to fight the problem.
"They say our women are sacred. So treat us like that," DeCora said.
Winnebago domestic violence program director Elizabeth White applied for a U.S. Department of Justice grant in February to help fund a shelter for sexual assault victims along with educational programs for the community.
Currently, victims on the Winnebago and Omaha reservations aren't offered services such as trauma counseling or a change of clothes. Because of a lack of funding, nurses at Winnebago Indian Hospital aren't certified to perform rape kit exams, White said.
And if they're caught, perpetrators aren't held accountable for their crimes to the fullest extent because there isn't a jail in Winnebago.
Recently, tribal police couldn't arrest a man accused of beating up a woman in Winnebago because he left the reservation. White said she believes the woman was raped but the man was never prosecuted. There have been a few other incidents of sexual assault in Winnebago this year but White said, "I know it's happening more often than that."
According to the report, none of the three justice systems found on reservations -- federal, state and tribal -- are helping victims get justice from non-Indian perpetrators, particularly those who commit 86 percent of the reported sexual assaults on American Indian women, according to the report.
"The U.S. government has interfered with the ability of tribal justice systems to respond to crimes of sexual violence by under funding tribal justice systems, prohibiting tribal courts from trying non-Indian suspects and limiting the custodial sentences which tribal courts can impose for any one offense," the report states.
This type of reaction is what victims fear, White said. They're also embarrassed because in the small communities, stories spread quickly among friends and relatives.
There are services available at the Council on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence in Sioux City but victims don't want to leave the reservation, White said, because they fear the perpetrator may vandalize her home.
"I would rather pretend it didn't happen," White said.
But she can't and neither can the members of the nonprofit Omaha Nation Community Response Team in Walthill, Neb. Like on the Winnebago reservation, the Omaha Tribe has had trouble addressing the high number of sexual assaults, both reported and unreported.
In 2005 and 2006, 439 people were arrested for sexual assault crimes on the Omaha reservation, a considerable amount for the reservation's population of about 5,000, said Gwen Porter, Rainmaker project director.
"It's getting to the point where our people are believing it's a norm," Porter said. "It's just been overlooked."
The reservation doesn't have enough police officers to combat the problem, Porter said. In that absence, the team is focused on educating the reservation community.
"Our community is in a healing mode. We're starting a journey here that's going to help us," said Gloria Grant-Gone, team member. "We need to get our community educated so we can help ourselves ... so that we can better our future, which happens to be our children."
This week, the team's offices in Walthill will be hosting a free sexual assault training session open to the community.
The team is also having meetings to plan for future victim services. By July, the team hopes to have a grant to help fund a shelter. They're also working with the Omaha Tribal Council and the tribal law enforcement to update the tribal laws on sexual assaults.
DeCora is on the front lines of this battle in Winnebago, taking part in talking circles with victims. These sessions are another part of the community education the two organizations are working toward.
If these victims are able to talk about their experiences, they can start healing themselves and, like DeCora, start to help others.
"When you're sexually abused it affects you your whole life as an adult," DeCora said. "If you hold that inside, it makes you sick. If they can start to talk about that's a huge step. I want them to know they can heal from it."
But DeCora, now 43, didn't report the incidents and the men were never arrested because she didn't think anything would happen to them. She said tribal police officers didn't have the capability to handle a report of sexual assault and there were no other victim's services on the reservation of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska where she lived.
Twenty years later, not much has changed. There still aren't any services and local advocacy groups in Winnebago and on the nearby reservation of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska are struggling to get programs off the ground. And American Indian women continue to be raped or sexually assaulted.
According to a recent study by Amnesty International, 34 percent of American Indian women -- or one out of three -- have been victims of a sexual assault. For all other women in the U.S., it's one out of every five.
But that number should be higher because a lot of rapes and sexual assaults aren't reported, said DeCora, who now works as a volunteer at Winnebago Domestic Violence Intervention and Family Preservation.
In Winnebago, DeCora said that nine out of 10 women have been sexually assaulted in some way but don't talk about it out of shame.
The April Amnesty report was titled "Maze of Injustice" and attributed that high rate of sexual assaults to limited government funding and confusion in tribal and county jurisdictions on reservations. But now, the Winnebago and Omaha tribes have stopped waiting for help and are working to fight the problem.
"They say our women are sacred. So treat us like that," DeCora said.
Winnebago domestic violence program director Elizabeth White applied for a U.S. Department of Justice grant in February to help fund a shelter for sexual assault victims along with educational programs for the community.
Currently, victims on the Winnebago and Omaha reservations aren't offered services such as trauma counseling or a change of clothes. Because of a lack of funding, nurses at Winnebago Indian Hospital aren't certified to perform rape kit exams, White said.
And if they're caught, perpetrators aren't held accountable for their crimes to the fullest extent because there isn't a jail in Winnebago.
Recently, tribal police couldn't arrest a man accused of beating up a woman in Winnebago because he left the reservation. White said she believes the woman was raped but the man was never prosecuted. There have been a few other incidents of sexual assault in Winnebago this year but White said, "I know it's happening more often than that."
According to the report, none of the three justice systems found on reservations -- federal, state and tribal -- are helping victims get justice from non-Indian perpetrators, particularly those who commit 86 percent of the reported sexual assaults on American Indian women, according to the report.
"The U.S. government has interfered with the ability of tribal justice systems to respond to crimes of sexual violence by under funding tribal justice systems, prohibiting tribal courts from trying non-Indian suspects and limiting the custodial sentences which tribal courts can impose for any one offense," the report states.
This type of reaction is what victims fear, White said. They're also embarrassed because in the small communities, stories spread quickly among friends and relatives.
There are services available at the Council on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence in Sioux City but victims don't want to leave the reservation, White said, because they fear the perpetrator may vandalize her home.
"I would rather pretend it didn't happen," White said.
But she can't and neither can the members of the nonprofit Omaha Nation Community Response Team in Walthill, Neb. Like on the Winnebago reservation, the Omaha Tribe has had trouble addressing the high number of sexual assaults, both reported and unreported.
In 2005 and 2006, 439 people were arrested for sexual assault crimes on the Omaha reservation, a considerable amount for the reservation's population of about 5,000, said Gwen Porter, Rainmaker project director.
"It's getting to the point where our people are believing it's a norm," Porter said. "It's just been overlooked."
The reservation doesn't have enough police officers to combat the problem, Porter said. In that absence, the team is focused on educating the reservation community.
"Our community is in a healing mode. We're starting a journey here that's going to help us," said Gloria Grant-Gone, team member. "We need to get our community educated so we can help ourselves ... so that we can better our future, which happens to be our children."
This week, the team's offices in Walthill will be hosting a free sexual assault training session open to the community.
The team is also having meetings to plan for future victim services. By July, the team hopes to have a grant to help fund a shelter. They're also working with the Omaha Tribal Council and the tribal law enforcement to update the tribal laws on sexual assaults.
DeCora is on the front lines of this battle in Winnebago, taking part in talking circles with victims. These sessions are another part of the community education the two organizations are working toward.
If these victims are able to talk about their experiences, they can start healing themselves and, like DeCora, start to help others.
"When you're sexually abused it affects you your whole life as an adult," DeCora said. "If you hold that inside, it makes you sick. If they can start to talk about that's a huge step. I want them to know they can heal from it."
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Proud Native wrote on May 25, 2007 8:34 AM:
E.White wrote on May 23, 2007 4:28 PM:
MizKeely wrote on May 23, 2007 12:06 AM:
mizkeely wrote on May 23, 2007 12:05 AM:
HAWK wrote on May 21, 2007 3:46 PM: