Post by blackcrowheart on Jan 11, 2008 13:51:46 GMT -5
Struggling shelter copes with problems on reservation
Herseth Sandlin supports facility, eyes McLaughlin council vote
By Kevin Woster, Journal staff Tuesday, January 08, 2008
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The struggle to maintain a domestic-violence shelter on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation provides a glimpse of the hard times facing Native American women in isolated areas on tribal lands where law-enforcement is stretched thin and legal protection limited.
Organizers of the Pretty Bird Woman House and the women it serves are waiting for a Monday night vote by the McLaughlin City Council that could determine the immediate future of the shelter -- the only safe haven for domestic-abuse victims on the reservation.
And, without trying to dictate to the city council, Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., nonetheless has made it clear that her heart is with the shelter as it searches for a permanent home.
"I'm not going to get involved in that (council vote)," Herseth Sandlin said earlier this week. "But I do hope that our efforts in making greater resources available to those isolated reservations will be a factor in the decision making -- to know that a member of their congressional delegation is paying particular attention and wanting to be partners in their effort to have a safer community."
The Pretty Bird Woman House is currently without a home after the staff was forced to give up an apartment in McLaughlin that was repeatedly vandalized and eventually set on fire. The shelter was opened three years ago and named in memory of a victim of rape and murder, Ivy Archambault, whose Lakota name means Pretty Bird Woman.
Herseth Sandlin visited the Pretty Bird Woman House twice last year and supported Congressional bills with additional financial resources for law-enforcement and domestic-violence programs on reservations.
The shelter and related programs operate on federal grants, periodic private donations and limited assistance from the Bear Soldier District on the Standing Rock reservation. But during the past two months, supporters have raised about $80,000 through a successful Internet drive to establish a new shelter.
Center director Georgia Little Shield hopes to buy a house in a safer part of McLaughlin, about a block from the police station and city hall. That would house the center staff and provide emergency lodging for abuse victims.
But the city council has authority to approve or reject that proposal in a meeting set for 7 p.m. Monday in McLaughlin. Mayor Ron Dumdei said this week that he and council members appreciate the value of the shelter but also must consider the concerns of members of the community. Some citizens worry that the shelter could again be victimized by vandals and pose other potential threats to the community in its new location.
"I understand their need for a shelter, but I also have to be sensitive to the other community folks who have concerns about it," Dumdei said. "We'll do what we can to make things right."
Herseth Sandlin said she has been doing what she could to help the shelter and others like it in similar areas since her visits to McLaughlin and the Pretty Bird Woman House last year. Her roundtable discussion in August included representatives of the Standing Rock Tribe leadership, the Bear Solider District and domestic-violence victims' advocates.
At that time, Herseth Sandlin noted the limitations of the existing shelter, an often-vandalized apartment in a high-crime area of McLaughlin where security problems were magnified for women and children seeking refuge.
In October, Herseth Sandlin returned to McLaughlin with Rep. Norm dicks, D-Wash., Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, as well as congressional staffers. They stopped by the shelter apartment, which had by then been abandoned, and met with federal and local law-enforcement officials, shelter representatives and Dumdei.
After the visit, dicks inserted language into an omnibus appropriations bill expressing his concern that "methamphetamine use, violence against women and other serious crimes have reached epidemic levels in certain areas of Indian Country," and directing the Bureau of Indian Affairs to increase the level of law enforcement and criminal prosecution in such areas.
That doesn't provide more money specifically for Standing Rock but directs BIA to focus more resources on isolated areas where law officers are scarce. Herseth Sandlin said the October Congressional stop was part of the inspiration for adding that language into the spending bill. It also helped raise awareness in Congress about the issues of domestic violence and inadequate law enforcement on isolated reservations, she said.
"I think it has been very important to keep raising awareness about the epidemic of various crimes, especially domestic violence, and the inadequate staffing levels of BIA officers," she said.
Little Shield said that limited staffing is a big part of the problem facing victims of domestic violence on the Standing Rock reservation, where the tribe doesn't have its own police force. The patrol shifts for the Bureau of Indian Affairs officers are regularly limited to one on-duty officer for the entire 2.3-million-acre reservation, Little Shield said.
Little Shield said the police force is expected to add more officers soon. Meanwhile, she said, the problem isn't with the officers themselves, who are being asked to cover too much territory with too few resources.
"I don't blame them. They're just stretched too thin," Little Shield said. "We've been trying and trying to get more police officers."
Jurisdiction issues between the tribe, federal agencies and state and local law enforcement officers create problems as well, Dumdei said. Non-Native officers who apprehend tribal lawbreakers may only hold them until they can be picked up by the federal officers, Dumdei said.
The jurisdictional issues make it difficult for nontribal law enforcement to be effective, he said.
"It creates some problems here. But we're trying to work it out," Dumdei said. "What we want to do is provide a safe community. It's a complicated issue, but we're going to do the best with what we've got."
While those long-standing issues wait to be addressed, it's important that abused women have a safe shelter on the reservation, Little Shield said. Currently, abused women must be referred to shelters off the reservation.
Little Shield said shortages in funding for operational grants and law enforcement have complicated the situation.
Herseth Sandlin said an approved spending measure for the upcoming year includes $24 million more over last year for tribal law enforcement and up to $18 million more for programs to fight violence against Native women.
Finding support for specific legislation to direct dollars to individual projects, a controversial process known as earmarking, such as the Pretty Bird Woman House is increasingly difficult, Herseth said.
Right now, it's local government approval rather than federal funds that Georgia Little Shield is worried about. A better shelter in a safer part of town would add to community security, she said.
"I think it would be a great thing for this city to have its own shelter," she said.
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com
Herseth Sandlin supports facility, eyes McLaughlin council vote
By Kevin Woster, Journal staff Tuesday, January 08, 2008
20 comment(s) Normal Size Increase font Size
The struggle to maintain a domestic-violence shelter on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation provides a glimpse of the hard times facing Native American women in isolated areas on tribal lands where law-enforcement is stretched thin and legal protection limited.
Organizers of the Pretty Bird Woman House and the women it serves are waiting for a Monday night vote by the McLaughlin City Council that could determine the immediate future of the shelter -- the only safe haven for domestic-abuse victims on the reservation.
And, without trying to dictate to the city council, Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., nonetheless has made it clear that her heart is with the shelter as it searches for a permanent home.
"I'm not going to get involved in that (council vote)," Herseth Sandlin said earlier this week. "But I do hope that our efforts in making greater resources available to those isolated reservations will be a factor in the decision making -- to know that a member of their congressional delegation is paying particular attention and wanting to be partners in their effort to have a safer community."
The Pretty Bird Woman House is currently without a home after the staff was forced to give up an apartment in McLaughlin that was repeatedly vandalized and eventually set on fire. The shelter was opened three years ago and named in memory of a victim of rape and murder, Ivy Archambault, whose Lakota name means Pretty Bird Woman.
Herseth Sandlin visited the Pretty Bird Woman House twice last year and supported Congressional bills with additional financial resources for law-enforcement and domestic-violence programs on reservations.
The shelter and related programs operate on federal grants, periodic private donations and limited assistance from the Bear Soldier District on the Standing Rock reservation. But during the past two months, supporters have raised about $80,000 through a successful Internet drive to establish a new shelter.
Center director Georgia Little Shield hopes to buy a house in a safer part of McLaughlin, about a block from the police station and city hall. That would house the center staff and provide emergency lodging for abuse victims.
But the city council has authority to approve or reject that proposal in a meeting set for 7 p.m. Monday in McLaughlin. Mayor Ron Dumdei said this week that he and council members appreciate the value of the shelter but also must consider the concerns of members of the community. Some citizens worry that the shelter could again be victimized by vandals and pose other potential threats to the community in its new location.
"I understand their need for a shelter, but I also have to be sensitive to the other community folks who have concerns about it," Dumdei said. "We'll do what we can to make things right."
Herseth Sandlin said she has been doing what she could to help the shelter and others like it in similar areas since her visits to McLaughlin and the Pretty Bird Woman House last year. Her roundtable discussion in August included representatives of the Standing Rock Tribe leadership, the Bear Solider District and domestic-violence victims' advocates.
At that time, Herseth Sandlin noted the limitations of the existing shelter, an often-vandalized apartment in a high-crime area of McLaughlin where security problems were magnified for women and children seeking refuge.
In October, Herseth Sandlin returned to McLaughlin with Rep. Norm dicks, D-Wash., Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, as well as congressional staffers. They stopped by the shelter apartment, which had by then been abandoned, and met with federal and local law-enforcement officials, shelter representatives and Dumdei.
After the visit, dicks inserted language into an omnibus appropriations bill expressing his concern that "methamphetamine use, violence against women and other serious crimes have reached epidemic levels in certain areas of Indian Country," and directing the Bureau of Indian Affairs to increase the level of law enforcement and criminal prosecution in such areas.
That doesn't provide more money specifically for Standing Rock but directs BIA to focus more resources on isolated areas where law officers are scarce. Herseth Sandlin said the October Congressional stop was part of the inspiration for adding that language into the spending bill. It also helped raise awareness in Congress about the issues of domestic violence and inadequate law enforcement on isolated reservations, she said.
"I think it has been very important to keep raising awareness about the epidemic of various crimes, especially domestic violence, and the inadequate staffing levels of BIA officers," she said.
Little Shield said that limited staffing is a big part of the problem facing victims of domestic violence on the Standing Rock reservation, where the tribe doesn't have its own police force. The patrol shifts for the Bureau of Indian Affairs officers are regularly limited to one on-duty officer for the entire 2.3-million-acre reservation, Little Shield said.
Little Shield said the police force is expected to add more officers soon. Meanwhile, she said, the problem isn't with the officers themselves, who are being asked to cover too much territory with too few resources.
"I don't blame them. They're just stretched too thin," Little Shield said. "We've been trying and trying to get more police officers."
Jurisdiction issues between the tribe, federal agencies and state and local law enforcement officers create problems as well, Dumdei said. Non-Native officers who apprehend tribal lawbreakers may only hold them until they can be picked up by the federal officers, Dumdei said.
The jurisdictional issues make it difficult for nontribal law enforcement to be effective, he said.
"It creates some problems here. But we're trying to work it out," Dumdei said. "What we want to do is provide a safe community. It's a complicated issue, but we're going to do the best with what we've got."
While those long-standing issues wait to be addressed, it's important that abused women have a safe shelter on the reservation, Little Shield said. Currently, abused women must be referred to shelters off the reservation.
Little Shield said shortages in funding for operational grants and law enforcement have complicated the situation.
Herseth Sandlin said an approved spending measure for the upcoming year includes $24 million more over last year for tribal law enforcement and up to $18 million more for programs to fight violence against Native women.
Finding support for specific legislation to direct dollars to individual projects, a controversial process known as earmarking, such as the Pretty Bird Woman House is increasingly difficult, Herseth said.
Right now, it's local government approval rather than federal funds that Georgia Little Shield is worried about. A better shelter in a safer part of town would add to community security, she said.
"I think it would be a great thing for this city to have its own shelter," she said.
Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com