Restoration Magazine

Change comes slowly, but over the last 30 years the advocates and tribal leaders of Alaska have witnessed changes many said would never happen. For Alaska Native women, the most recent step toward changes needed to create safety is the appropriation of $1 million in the FY 2017 omnibus budget to establish an Alaska Native Tribal Resource Center on Domestic Violence per the Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees. The appropriation is recognition that violence against Alaska Native women is a national policy issue.

Many Alaska Native peoples have lived on their traditional lands for thousands of years governing themselves according to their lifeways and traditions in which women were respected. Today, Alaska Native women are subjected to the highest rates of sexual assault, at least 7 times the non-Native rate, reporting domestic violence rates 10 times higher and physical assault rates up to 12 times higher. Alaska Native women are over-represented in the domestic violence victim population by 250%, and while Alaska Natives represent 19% of the Alaska state population, they are 47% of reported rape victims. Many say the current crisis in the everyday safety of Alaska Native women came with the arrival of “outsiders.”

“It is long overdue that Alaska tribal governments have the resources we need to help develop local, village-based responses to domestic violence and related injustices,” said Mike Williams, respected tribal leader from the Akiak Native community.

$1 Million FY 2017 Appropriations

The organizing efforts and systems advocacy over the past 30 years by Alaska tribes and advocates were based on the foundation that solutions to end the violence, and many other problems, rest in the beliefs of their peoples and villages, not western criminal justice. The recent appropriations are the result of alliance building with other tribes nationally, many tribal and allied organizations, and federal lawmakers and agencies. Senator Lisa Murkowski has strongly 

supported the concerns and recommendations
of advocates and villages and monitored the final inclusion of the $1 million FY 2017 appropriation under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families budget to support an Alaska Native Tribal Resource Center on Domestic Violence to address such disparities. Tami Truett Jerue, Executive Director of the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center (AKNWRC), said, “We appreciate Senator Murkowski’s partnership, leadership, and advocacy in securing the $1 million included in the FY 2017 appropriations for an Alaska Native Tribal Resource Center to reduce the disparities in Alaska.”

State tribal resource centers were originally authorized in 2010 as part of the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act reauthorization (FVPSA 42 U.S.C. 10410 or Sec. 310). Congress included the following description for state resource centers “to reduce disparities in domestic violence in states with high proportions of Indian (including Alaska Native) or Native Hawaiian populations,” and such centers “shall provide statewide information, training, and technical assistance to Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and local domestic violence service organizations serving Indians (including Alaska Natives) or Native Hawaiians, in a culturally sensitive and relevant manner.”

“The authorizing language for these resource centers came at a time of increased awareness of the high rates of violence against Alaska Native women,” said Truett Jerue. “The Indian Law and Order Commission dedicated a chapter to addressing law enforcement issues in Alaska not as a state issue but as a national issue of federal concern. The specific $1 million appropriation designated for an Alaska Native Tribal Resource Center helps to ensure our issues are of national concern.”

“Continuing to exempt the state from national policy change is wrong. It sets Alaska apart from the progress that has become possible in the rest of Indian country. The public safety issues in Alaska—and the law and policy at the root of those problems—beg to be addressed. These are no longer just Alaska’s issues. They are national issues.”

—Indian Law and Order Commission’s November 2013 Report to Congress, https://www.aisc.ucla.edu/iloc/report/

What the Future Holds: Support for Alaska Indigenous Solutions

Since 2013, and in partnership with the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC), the Alaska Native Women’s Resource Center has worked with advocates and four villages to create a grassroots indigenous training curriculum based on three core components of teachings, language, and voices of Alaska Native peoples. “These core components are the foundations to our work. While the lower 48 has spent decades and billions of dollars on training efforts, so much of the material is not relevant to the 229 villages of Alaska. We have found the terms used do not exist in our Yup’ik language or other Alaska Native languages. And many of the concepts such as reliance on arrest and prison system do not apply. We are all relatives and responsible for one another,” said Lynn Hootch, Board member, AKNWRC.

“We are excited for the opportunity to apply for and continue our partnership with the NIWRC, the FVPSA- funded national Indian resource center, to potentially serve as the Alaska Native Tribal Resource Center,” said Truett Jerue. “What is on the horizon with this appropriation is the culmination of years of unending advocacy and dedication of survivors, our families, tribal governments, and everyone’s support to change the status quo.” 

One of three statutory requirements for the new state resource center is to coordinate all projects and activities with NIWRC, the FVPSA-funded national Indian resource center. As Lucy Simpson, Executive Director of NIWRC, said more than three years ago when the AKNWRC formed, “Working closely with you, we will begin to lay the groundwork necessary to remove barriers to Native women’s safety in Alaska Native villages and ensure victim safety and offender accountability. We look forward to supporting you in continuing to make life- saving changes for your women, families, and villages, and are excited about how you will inspire your sister tribes and indigenous peoples in the lower 48, as well as internationally.”

The appropriation for an Alaska Native Tribal Resource Center opens a door for not only Alaska Natives but for the nation to learn indigenous-based approaches that may also assist in their organizational efforts. “We are so excited for this opportunity for the new resource center to build capacity and engage Alaska tribal village governments in developing village-based responses to domestic violence and support networking and coalition building between village-based advocates,” said Truett Jerue. “For tribes across Alaska, it also opens the door to build relations with indigenous peoples across the country.”

“Alaska Native tribes face unique challenges and require additional training and technical assistance to enhance statewide capacity to respond to domestic violence affecting tribal and Alaska Native populations. The $1 million increase to establish an Alaska Native Tribal Resource Center on Domestic Violence would build capacity to engage villages in developing local responses to domestic violence and support critical networking and coalition building between village-based advocates and tribes across the state.”

—FY 2017 Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Justification of Estimates for Appropriations Committees