Protecting Native Women Today and Tomorrow
“Tribal governments have an inherent right to protect their people and all women have the right to live free from fear.” – President Barack Obama, signing the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, March 7, 2013.In 2013, we were part of a national movement that led to the biggest improvement in federal Indian law in a generation – the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA 2013). The Act includes historic provisions restoring the inherent sovereignty of Indian nations to prosecute certain non-Natives who commit domestic or dating violence against Native women in Indian Country or who violate protection orders. For over 30 years, Indian nations had been stripped of all authority to arrest, prosecute, and punish non-Native abusers of Native women on tribal lands. When President Barack Obama signed VAWA 2013, that changed.
Violence against Native women has become an epidemic in the United States. Native women are not safe. One in three Native women will be raped in her lifetime, and six in ten will be victims of physical assault – rates twice as high as any other population in the United States.
We worked to raise awareness domestically and internationally about violence against Native women, including educating the public and lawmakers about the links between the jurisdictional gaps in United States law and the high rates of violence in Indian Country and Alaska Native villages. Our videos were widely shared and viewed from Indian Country to Capitol Hill throughout the long debate over VAWA 2013.
In the international arena, we helped to ensure the issue of violence against Native women and girls will be addressed during the UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in 2014. We are pressing for adoption of three specific actions to protect indigenous women and children against all forms of violence and discrimination: the convening of a high-level conference to examine challenges to the safety and well-being of indigenous women and girls; to require that any UN mechanism or body established to promote and monitor the implementation of the UN Declaration pay particular attention at least annually to the rights and special needs of indigenous women and children; and to create a Special Rapporteur to focus exclusively on human rights issues of indigenous women and girls. We also released a handbook documenting advocacy within the Inter-American human rights system to combat violence against Native women in the U.S. We hope this resource can contribute to the work that remains to ensure all indigenous peoples fully enjoy their human rights.
Lastly, we completed a major report assessing the readiness and capacity of tribes to exercise enhanced sentencing authority under the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act and restored criminal authority under VAWA 2013. We will use this report to help tribes and Native women’s organizations and advocates understand the requirements and steps to implement these laws. We will also continue our work to help tribes and Native women’s organizations understand what they can do within present-day law to prevent and respond to violence against Native women and children. All of our resources are available at www.indianlaw.org/safewomen.
Preserving the Timbisha Shoshone Government
The Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, based in Death Valley, California, is among those Indian nations enduring an especially long and nasty fight with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) – a 165-year long battle. The latest conflict, for which we are providing legal counsel, involves the BIA’s installation of its own so-called government for the Tribe. This takeover of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe’s government ignores the Tribe’s fundamental right of self-government, the inherent right of the Tribe to decide who is a member of the tribe and how the Tribe will be governed.We filed a series of appeals in October, 2013, to stop a BIA ordered “Secretarial Election” for the purpose of voting on a proposed new constitution for the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe. The process would have permitted many non-tribal members to vote in the election. We succeeded in getting the election cancelled because of the BIA’s failure to meet a time deadline, however a new election has been scheduled for March, 2014. Thanks to the pro bono help from two major law firms, Dentons and Sheppard Mullin, and have again filed administrative appeals to stop the vote.
The BIA is again abusing its control over federal funds and Indian programs to take over and replace a federally recognized tribe. The BIA cannot be allowed to arbitrarily select or create the tribal government with which they will engage; the BIA must not be allowed to ignore and violate tribal constitutions; and they must not interfere with a tribe’s sovereign authority to decide for themselves who is, and who is not, a tribal citizen.
We will continue to fight alongside the Timbisha Shoshone tribal leaders as long as necessary.
Mohawk Nation Land Rights
Our work to reclaim lands for the Mohawk Nation is one example of our commitment to see that the courts accord Indian nations equality before the law.In a decade when courts routinely dismissed tribal land claim cases, we are proud to be a part of an important victory for the Mohawk Nation. In July, Judge Lawrence E. Kahn of the federal district court in Albany, New York, upheld the Mohawk claim to approximately 2,000 acres of land near Hogansburg, New York – land taken by the State of New York nearly 200 years ago in violation of the federal Trade and Intercourse Act. The court also upheld the Mohawk claim that, in 1948, Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation unlawfully acquired a right of way for a power line crossing the Akwesasne Mohawk Reservation. The Center represents the Mohawk Nation Council of Chiefs in the case.
Judge Kahn rejected arguments that the Mohawks waited too long to make these claims and that the claims disrupt the expectations of the non-Indian landowners. Although the decision will almost certainly be appealed, it brings the Mohawks one step closer to achieving a fair and just resolution of their land claims.
Rapa Nui Rights to Self-Determination
Similar to Timbisha Shoshone efforts to maintain sovereignty rights and the Mohawk Nation’s effort to reclaim territories in the United States, the Rapa Nui people – 32 indigenous clans on the island of Rapa Nui – have sought our legal advice to recover their lands, protect their sacred sites, and preserve their rights to self-determination.The Rapa Nui people have had a bitter colonial relationship with Chile, dating back to 1888, when the island and its inhabitants began to be treated as colony of Chile. Rapa Nui Island, often called Easter Island, is marketed by Chile as an international tourist destination, and each year it attracts tens of thousands of visitors who come to see the iconic stone figures that have made the island famous. Rather than harmonize development with the Native culture, Chilean policies disregard harm to the environment and ignore the rights of the Rapa Nui people. Some of the islands archeological sites, which have deep cultural and spiritual significance for the Rapa Nui, have been disrupted to make way for projects such as parking lots and restrooms.
We continue to provide legal support to the Rapa Nui people as the clan leaders seek an agreement on the best path forward.
