You Can Help Native American Women

taken from the latest V-DAY email for organisers...important to share...This issue is important to me as I spent time on Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.

According to the Department of Justice Statistics, rape in American Indian and Alaska Native communities is 3.5 times higher than among all other racial groups. V-Day first brought this staggering statistic into the public consciousness in 2003 with the Indian Country Project and Spotlight on Native and First Nations Women.

Four years later, V-Day has helped open two safe houses in South Dakota and exposed millions of women and men all over the world to these injustices. Despite these groundbreaking accomplishments, this statistic has yet to change, due in large part to the lack of resources and education among Indian Health Services (I.H.S.) emergency room and sexual assault practitioners.

The Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center, a grassroots women's health institute on the Yankton Dakota Reservation in South Dakota is working to remedy this situation by calling on the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to bring sufficient training and resources to the I.H.S. emergency response workers.

The project will demand that I.H.S. have standardized sexual assault policies and protocols for their emergency rooms in place with trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners.

By ensuring that admissible evidence is gathered correctly, repeat rapists will be prosecuted and taken off of the streets, thereby reducing the amount of rapes within the Native communities.

YOU CAN HELP! Please read the below appeal from Charon Asetoyer, Executive Director Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center to learn more!

Letter From Charon Asetoyer, Executive Director Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center
Dear Sisters and Allies,

We are asking for your help in addressing the health care needs of Indigenous women who suffer from sexual violence: Indigenous women of North American experience more violence than any other group of people in this country. More than 1 in 3 will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime.

The Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center, located in Lake Andes, SD among the Ihanktowan Dakota Nation (Yankton Sioux Tribe), has been working for over four years to have Indian Health Service adopt and implement standardized policies and protocols for sexual assault at Indian Health Service (I.H.S.) emergency rooms, direct health care facilities and contract health care. The I.H.S. emergency room, for women that live on reservations, is usually the first place they go for services after a sexual assault. An essential part of our proposed protocols is that every I.H.S. emergency room, direct care health facility and contract health care facility have a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner on staff.

A vital need for Indigenous women's well being is the proper care after a rape: Our biggest health care barrier is that many Indian Health Service (I.H.S.) nurses and doctors are not properly trained in the use of a police rape kit, thus evidence of the crime is inadmissible for prosecution of the perpetrator(s). SANE/Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners are trained to administer the rape kit correctly so forensic evidence is collected properly and to ensure the rape kit is done in the most humane and respectful way for the victim. (The Indian Health Service is a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provides health care to Indigenous Nations and tribes of North America. Health care is an obligation of the U.S. government through legally binding treaties.)

The needs of Indigenous women who have been raped have been ignored or minimally addressed by Indian Health Service, even as the assaults have increased. We have endured sexual brutalization historically to this very day. Virginia Davis, associate counsel for the National Congress of American Indians said, "It's jaw dropping...We've been talking about this for years. I think this is an incredibly complicated problem. Most Americans can live their daily lives and never think about it." (From the Amnesty International report "Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA") Larry Cox, Amnesty International Executive Director said, "It is disgraceful that such abuse exists today. Without immediate action, an already abysmal and outrageous situation for women could spiral even further out of control."

With your help in flooding Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt¹s office with emails or letters demanding that standardized sexual assault policies and protocols within Indian Health Service emergency rooms be immediately addressed we could realize substantial progress in this effort. You may email to: ml.05@hhs.gov and cc denise.schwarz@hhs.gov (his secretary) or write to:

Secretary Mike Leavitt

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

200 Independence Avenue, Room S.W., Room 615F

Washington, DC 20201

And request that Indian Health Service adopts and implement standardized Sexual Assault Policies and Protocols for I.H.S. Emergency. This health care crisis must be addressed with great urgency for the well being of Indigenous women.

For more information on the policies and protocols you can google YouTube, and type in NCAI in the search box, this will take you to the DVD we produced on the Sexual Assault Policies and Protocols for Indian Health Service Emergency Rooms.

Findings from a Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center report produced in 2005 of Indian Health Service Emergency Rooms include:

-30% of the Service Units surveyed do not have Sexual Assault Protocols in place.

-Although 70% do protocols, the percentage of Service Units with a protocol posted and accessible to staff members is only 56%. The statistics reflect a discrepancy between policy and practice.

-44% of the Indian Health Service facilities surveyed lack trained personnel to perform emergency services in the event of a rape. This means that there are no SANE/Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners in place to do a rape kit.

-With out a police rape kit there is no forensic evidence collected which means no convictions. The perpetrator is free to perpetrate again, and does.

-Travel distance for women to Indian Health Service Units to get a rape kit done are vast. In the Albuquerque area the average distance a woman has to travel to get a rape kit done after a rape is 150 miles. In Alaska the distance is unbelievable. This means that women often cannot even get a rape kit done.

Should Indian Health Service adopt and implement standardized sexual assault policies and protocols for their Emergency Rooms with trained SANE Examiners in place we would see a reduction in the number of repeated rapes within our communities by having the evidence to get some of these perpetrators prosecuted. It all starts with the proper collection of evidence.

The policies and protocols would also insure that Native women could access the same standard of service that other women receive in the general population. Such as routine STD screening, Pep, EC if wanted, etc. This is currently not happening.

Nina Wopida Tanka (great thanks) for your help in ending sexual violence against Indigenous women of North America.

Respectfully,

Charon Asetoyer, Executive Director
Native American Women's
Health Education Resource Center
PO Box 572
Lake Andes, SD 57356
605.487.7072
charon[at]charles-mix.com