On Tuesday, Rebecca Nagle, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, reported in the Guardian article, Trump issues order to create taskforce on violence against indigenous women:
Donald Trump has signed an executive order creating a White House taskforce on missing and murdered indigenous women.
The task force will be overseen by William Barr, the attorney general, and interior secretary David Bernhardt. It is tasked with developing protocols to apply to new and unsolved cases and creating a multi-jurisdictional team to review cold cases.
Trump on Tuesday called the scourge of violence facing Native American women and girls “sobering and heartbreaking”.
However, the move comes as Republicans in the Senate want to make it harder for tribes to put non-Native abusers behind bars.
The National Institute of Justice estimates that 1.5 million Native American women have experienced violence in their lifetime, including many who are victims of sexual violence. On some reservations, federal studies have shown women are killed at a rate over 10 times the national average.
For years, when Native women were abused on reservations by non-Indians, no legal action would be taken.
Deborah Parker’s nation, Tulalip Tribes, was prohibited under federal law from prosecuting or even arresting non-Native perpetrators and the US attorneys who had jurisdiction declined the majority of cases.
So in 2013, Parker, a board member of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center went to Washington DC, spoke with lawmakers, and helped pass legislation that finally meant non-Native abusers would face consequences on her reservation and across the US. . . .
But last week, Iowa senator Joni Ernst introduced Senate Republicans’ version of the Violence Against Women Act (Vawa) reauthorization bill. While the legislation includes provisions to address the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW), advocates say it rolls back gains made in 2013.
Ernst’s proposal, if adopted, would give non-Native abusers who don’t want to comply with tribal laws a way out. The law makes it easier for abusers facing prosecution in tribal court to skip the process and appeal to federal court. The bill also weakens sovereign immunity for tribes by allowing convicted abusers to sue if they feel their civil rights have been violated. . . .
At HuffPost, senior politics reporter Jennifer Bendery has more in Senate Republicans Unveil Violence Against Women Act That Hurts Tribes:
After months of delays, Senate Republicans finally unveiled their bill to renew the Violence Against Women Act, a vital 1994 law that lapsed this past February.
It’s landing with a thud. . . .
Most alarmingly, the GOP bill would leave Native women, who face appallingly high levels of violence, less protected from their abusers by weakening tribal courts and infringing on tribal sovereignty, according to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC).
Ernst’s bill would put restrictions on tribal courts that go beyond those imposed on federal and state courts, including unnecessary audits by the U.S. attorney general, NIWRC said. It would also eliminate gains made in the 2013 VAWA reauthorization that gave tribes badly needed jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by non-Native men who abuse Native women on tribal lands. Under Ernst’s bill, these non-Native abusers would no longer have to exhaust tribal court remedies before appealing their case to a federal court.
“Tribal courts prosecuting non-Indian defendants already provide the same ― if not more ― due process rights than state and federal courts,” said Mary Kathryn Nagle, a partner and counsel at NIWRC. “Placing paternalistic restrictions on tribal courts in the name of ‘due process’ is nothing more than a disguise for prejudice.”
The Republican bill would also waive tribes’ sovereign immunity by creating a civil rights cause of action against the tribe for any alleged rights violation. In other words, domestic violence offenders would have the opportunity to further strike out at their victims and tribal government officials by claiming their own civil rights had been violated.
“Given that no one has been able to articulate a specific instance or example where a VAWA 2013-implementing Tribe has violated a non-Indian defendant’s rights, this provision in particular seems aimed solely at creating unprecedented liability for Tribes implementing this restored jurisdiction, thus discouraging them to do so,” Nagle said.
Native women desperately need strong VAWA protections. Three out of five Native women have been assaulted in their lifetimes and 34% will be raped, according to the National Congress of American Indians. On some reservations, Native women are murdered at a rate more than 10 times the national average.
And tribal courts need jurisdiction to prosecute non-Native perpetrators of domestic violence. Some 59% of Native women were married to non-Native men as of 2010, and 59% of assaults against Native women take place at or near a private residence.
“As the chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes, one of the first tribes to exercise criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians for domestic violence-related crimes under the 2013 VAWA tribal provisions, we are deeply disappointed by the VAWA legislation introduced by Senator Ernst,” Teri Gobin said in a statement. “The provisions in Senator Ernst’s bill would prevent tribal courts and tribal governments from protecting the most vulnerable, our women and children.”
Perhaps aware that tribes wouldn’t be happy with some of these provisions, Ernst rolled separate legislation supported by tribes into her VAWA bill as a sweetener. Savanna’s Act, a broadly supported bill that addresses the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, is part of her legislation.
That move could backfire, though, if the sponsors of Savanna’s Act don’t want their bipartisan legislation tied up in a broader fight over VAWA. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a prominent voice on Native issues and lead sponsor of Savanna’s Act, took a moment during a Wednesday hearing on her bill and the related Not Invisible Act to press for a bipartisan VAWA bill that empowers tribal governments.
“We know where the sexual predators go. They are preying on Native women in numbers that are just offensive because they know that they can commit offenses with impunity,” Murkowski said in unexpectedly passionate remarks. “We are dealing with vulnerable women here. We are dealing with those who really feel that they have no voice. The last thing in the world they want to do is get caught up in our partisan politics.”
The senator also tweeted Thursday that she hopes Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act get passed quickly, at least indirectly suggesting that she doesn’t want them caught up in a partisan fight over VAWA. . . .
Read the whole article at HuffPost. The need to pass the VAWA was at the center of a conference the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota held in early October. As we reported at the time, the SWO at the Lake Traverse Reservation "is one of eighteen tribes that have exercised Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction (SDVCJ), according the National Congress of American Indians-published analysis of the of the impact of the SDVCJ provision of the VAWA." (The report is embedded in the post.)
In Friday's Flanagan: Task force on missing and murdered indigenous women an 'important first step,' Forum Communications capitol reporter Dana Ferguson didn't get into the devil in the details of reauthorization of VAWA, but it's clear that like many of her indigenous peers now serving in state legislatures and Congress, White Earth member Flanagan isn't going to settle for a federal task force:
President Donald Trump's move to address the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women is a good first step, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said, but more can be done to protect them.
The response came Wednesday, Nov. 27, days after Trump issued an executive order creating a task force to address the national crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls. States and local governing bodies have taken the step to launch their own studies ahead of the federal action.
But the move at the federal level is set to bring in multiple agencies to set clearer protocols for investigating unsolved cases and setting up a team to review cold cases.
"This task force is an important first step, but there are additional things that the president can do to ensure our women are seen, heard and valued and that Native people are respected and protected," Flanagan, the first indigenous woman to hold statewide office in Minnesota, told reporters.
She said Trump and the U.S. Senate should also support the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to approve the reauthorization but that measure hasn't yet come up in the Senate, as Republicans said they're working on a proposal that could pass there.
"We have the task force but we also need to make sure that Native women are seen, heard and valued by the United States Senate," Flanagan said. "Currently, the way that the Republicans have presented it, it still keeps Native women at risk."
Hobbling the power of tribal courts to exercise Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction (SDVCJ) would indeed put Native women at risk.
Photo: Minnesota's Democratic Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, of the White Earth Nation, addresses a crowd celebrating Indigenous People's Day in St. Paul on Monday, Oct. 14. Sarah Mearhoff / Forum News Service, via the Grand Forks Herald.
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