 Good evening. My name is Ned Blackhawk. I'm Western Shoshone and a professor of history and American Studies here and it's extremely my great fortune to stand before you this evening. And before I begin the introductory portions of tonight's event I'd like to start by recognizing the Quinnipiac and Algonquian speaking Indian communities upon whose ancestral lands we are gathered here this evening. Starting back in September at the UN's World Conference on Indigenous Peoples the Yale group for the study of Native America a graduate student working group here that I coordinate began an uncommon partnership with the Native American Law Student Association that stretched not only across our extended campus community but also with the cast creators and director of this incredible production sliver of a full moon. I cannot thank enough all of the various individuals who have made this event possible but want to begin by recognizing in particular NALSA President Katie Jones, sliver, sliver playwright Mary Catherine Nagel and director Madeline Sayit. I have so much appreciation for the partnerships that we developed and remain so exceedingly proud of our broader Native Campus community which has been so supportive and involved in this organization. It is also my honor tonight to welcome a longtime supporter of our center community Chief Lynn Malera by the Mohegan Indian tribe of Connecticut. Chief Malera Malera is lifetime chief of the Mohegan the 18th to hold this office and the first woman to do so. She also has deep and long-standing commitments to Indian welfare and health concerns and will formally introduce tonight's gathering. Please join me in welcoming again Chief Lynn Malera. Thank you Ned. It is just truly an honor to be here tonight and I would say a quiet week woman, Wachie Kosky-Dompak, Queen of Tuckett. Greetings and welcome to our long tidal river Connecticut from all of our Native people in Connecticut. Joining me tonight are some very strong women from Mohegan and I'd like to introduce them first, noner and former tribal counselor Jane Fawcett, elder Marie Pino, tribal counselor Cheryl Todd and our medicine woman and tribal historian and proud mother of Madeleine Sayet, Melissa Zobal, Tantacligean. We also have someone very special in the audience and that would be the director's sister Rachel Zobal, Rachel Sayet. So tonight I wear red and Mohegan red is the color of strong women and I think that we all know what this event is about and it's about strong women. There is a phrase in Mohegan that I use lovingly all the time and it is attributed to our ladies sewing society and it is squawk, it's a wool talk and it means listen to the women and listen to the women tonight we will. I am so appreciative to be here and I know that it's a big collaboration between the arts, the law school and so many organizations that support the work of all of us as we think about what is fair and what is just for Native American people and for our communities. It is not a native value to abuse women and yet we know that the crisis that Native women have faced in recent times due to unequal protection under the laws of this country. It is a native tradition to use our voices and tell our stories to honor the past and to preserve our future. You will hear such an oral history tonight told in the voices of women who have shown so much courage not only in sharing their voices but in their relentless pursuit of justice for all Native women. I stand in awe of them as I'm reminded of all of the gains that we have made in Indian country there is still so much to be done. The efforts of these women truly have changed hearts minds and legislation and that's not something that's easy to get done in this country. Their effort improves the lives of all young Native women throughout this land and let us be thankful for their shining presence among our midst tonight because they truly are an inspiration to all. So I've written a blessing for this evening and I would ask everyone to stand who is able to stand and to bow their heads. Great spirit. We thank you for this beautiful day and all the days to follow. We ask you to bless our women, those who walk in the spirit world, those who walk among us and those we have yet to meet. Their wisdom, strong voices, and friendship nurture our families. We ask you to bless the men who stand with them and believe in them. As we follow on the path of our ancestors, may we always hear their voices and honor them. And may we leave footprints on the path for those yet to come so that they may find their way easily. And may we all stand in love for our people. Thank you. Thank you, Chief Malerva, for your beautiful words and opening this event in a good way. My name is Katie Jones. I'm a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and this year's chair of the Native American Law Students Association. Thank you all so much for joining us tonight to hear the stories of some of Indian country's strongest Native women and the movement to restore tribal sovereignty. We are honored to have with us a very special guest, Judge William A. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. A former Rhodes scholar, Judge Fletcher graduated from Yale Law School in 1975 and clerked for Justice William Brennan of the U.S. Supreme Court. He joined Berkeley Law School's faculty in 1977. President Clinton nominated Judge Fletcher to the Ninth Circuit in 1998. He is a member of the American Law Institute and serves as an advisor for the restatement on the law of American Indians. Please join me in warmly welcoming Judge Fletcher back to YLS. Thank you very much, Katie, for that introduction and thank all of you for the invitation to speak very briefly to you tonight. I do not want to delay getting to this wonderful reading of the play that I've now had an opportunity to read. What I can give you is the briefest of legal backgrounds against which this play is set. In 1978, the United States Supreme Court, in a case called Oliphant v. Suquamish Tribe, held that Indian tribal courts do not have jurisdiction over any defendant who are not themselves Indians. That was a shock to many Indian tribal courts, some of them already very sophisticated. This play is about part of the damage caused by Oliphant because in the wake of Oliphant, it proved virtually impossible to protect native women against domestic violence by their husbands, by their, in the words of the statute, someone with whom they were in a dating relationship, and by outsider, stranger sexual assault. And this is a story of adding native women to the Violence Against Women Act such that tribal courts now do have jurisdiction over sexual assaults and other domestic violence committed against them by their husbands or by their significant other or people with whom they are in a dating relationship, even if those are non-Indians. It is, in the words of the play, but the sliver of a full moon because, for example, because this is added to the Violence Against Women Act, which addresses domestic violence, there's nothing in it that allows tribal courts to have jurisdiction over stranger assaults on the reservation, which is also a problem. There's also nothing in the statute that allows Indian tribal courts to have jurisdiction over crimes on reservations or against Indians. So it is but a sliver, but a fabulously important sliver. So welcome. I remember what I was thinking. I was so nervous. All I could do was pray. Everything depends on this. What if we lose? Texted me. I just started texting. I was crying so hard. I had to scream. I scared my neighbors. I did a victory dance. It just seemed unreal. It felt like a dream. It was amazing. What about Alaska? Why were we left out? They told us. Everyone says Alaska is different. All I see is land, the land of my ancestors, my country, and Indians. Isn't that Indian country? My name is Lenora. That's my English name. I am Yupik Eskimo from the native village of Ammonic. When I look around me, I know that my ancestors sat on these rocks. The rocks are here today. My ancestors hunted the same seal. They camped along the same rivers. They made their campfires when our fires burned today. My people have been here for thousands of years from the time of the glaciers until now. And then one day the Russians came. Our men gave them fur. And in exchange, they gave us alcohol. And then they took our women. This one. We had no choice. Just one night. Is my story. My story. The story of my sister. My daughter. The story of my mother. And her mother. And her mother's mother. My grandmother. My granddaughter. This is the story of my life. Of my past. Of my people. This is my story. At first it was hard to share it. I had to keep it a secret. I was too ashamed. Too embarrassed. Too afraid. Scared. Forgotten. I was silenced. Thought I'd be judged. For something I never did. But then we came together. We stopped the silence. If I wasn't native, my story would be different. If I didn't live on my reservation, my story would be different. If I wasn't a citizen of a sovereign Indian nation, my story would be different. I live in Alaska. When it comes to justice, that shouldn't make my story different. This is my story. And I'm here to share it. One sunny afternoon in May, I was returning my daughters to their father per our agreement. I dropped them off and made sure he was home and they were in the house before leaving. But he followed me out and stood beside my car. I stayed in the car with the door locked, but the windows were down. He was agreeable enough at first. Then he became angry because I didn't wish him a happy anniversary. I quietly stated that it didn't seem appropriate under the circumstances. He suddenly lunged in the car window and snatched my bag for moving a small address book. He flipped through it and became angry. Suddenly he lunged in again and snatched my car keys. He walked away. He was going to throw the keys. We live in the mountains of western North Carolina. There are trees, woods, things like that all around, pretty much everywhere. That was the only car key I had. And I thought, if he throws that key, if I don't have a way to get out of here, I don't know what I'll do. And so I was trying to get the key. And he turned and finally said, okay, you can have your keys. And he threw them on the ground. So when I leaned down to get my keys, he kicked me and I rolled down a little hill. At the time, my youngest daughter was standing beside my car at the bottom of the hill. I didn't know she was outside. I thought she was in the house. When I rolled down the hill, I rolled into her and she fell. And he grabbed her. I was trying to hold her, trying to comfort her. And he grabbed her hands and pulled so hard. I was sliding across the ground. So I let go. He went immediately to the police station and he caught them before I could. Can I help you? Yes, I need to get a protective order. Sorry, we don't have jurisdiction over non natives. My wife's enrolled. Oh, the danger to her children. Build this out and we'll process it. He got a protective order against me, but I could never get one against him. It was so humiliating for me to be sitting at the police department with leaves and grass in my hair. My clothes were torn. And on my side, within the next stair to a bruise form that was shaped almost perfectly like the bottom of my husband's foot where he had kicked me. There must be something you can do. He's not enrolled. He has my children and a protective order against you. So whatever you do, don't go near him. He had my children. And all I had was a bruise shaped like his foot. Maybe you've never heard a native woman tell her story of survival before. Maybe because you've seen movies like dances with wolves and Peter Pan, you think native women are a fantasy like a unicorn. Or maybe you think that we simply cease to exist. But we are still here. Some of us live on reservations. Some of us live in suburbs. We even live in Washington, DC. Hello. I'm Terry. Terry Henry. Is this the DOJ office on violence against women? You're looking at it. Is that a problem? No, I just thought because today's your first day, we'd roll out the red carpet. No, I just thought there would be carpet. Yes. Work for the federal government. Now you'll learn to do without. Here is everything you'll need to start with. I want you to draft the RFPs that we send to the tribes. VAWA provides for a significant chunk of change. VAWA, you know what that is? Oh, yes. Violence Against Women Act. Right. We work to stop violence. We don't promote it. I get it. Oh, and our reports to Congress. You'll be responsible for writing those. Basically, you'll be doing all of the policy work for the implementation of VAWA grants in Indian country. Any questions? Yes, quite a few. Good and welcome. We do so much work with the tribes. It's nice to finally have an Indian in the office. My mother. She's a very beautiful Indian woman. Am I stepfather? Well, he was a nonnative, a white man. He was very abusive, ungodly. The earliest that I remember is being four years old. We were in this trailer house and my mom was screaming. I'm under the table. I'm screaming. The lights are off. The lights coming from the post. And the door is here. The couch is here. The TV is here and the gun rack is there. And the table is right under here. And I'm under the table. My mom is screaming. No, David, no. And I see him grab the gun. And he starts beating my mother over the head with the butt of the shotgun until the only screams that could be heard remind coming from under the table. And I think he beats her to death. Put the gun back on the rack. And he calls her a bitch walks into the bedroom. He shuts the door and he sits down on the squeaky bed. And then I hear the thud thud of his cowboy boots as they hit the floor. Then he lays back down on the squeaky bed. And he went to sleep. So I crawled over to my mom. I'm crying so hard. Because I think she's dead. I put my face down to her mouth to see if I could feel her breath. And I can't feel it. So then I start crying again. Then I'm only four. And I make myself stop crying again. And I put my head down on her chest to see if I could still feel it rising. And it was. I grabbed the blanket out from the couch and I covered her up. And I sat by her all night. And if I fell asleep, I would get mad at myself because hurry up and have the check to see if she's still breathing. It's not that I could have saved her life. It's just that I didn't want her to die alone. This is an actress. Lisa's a survivor. I'm a survivor. We're all survivors. Other times we would be he would be chasing us. And then there is this field. And I would grab her and I say mama get down. The moon was full. And we would crawl across this field until we got to the woods. And I would take her to the hiding place where we would listen to him. To his screams and the echoes about how he was gonna kill us when he found us. And she would lay down and she would go to sleep. And if I thought I heard him come in, I would wake her and I would take her deeper into the woods. Because he had been in Vietnam. He was afraid of the woods. He was afraid of the night in the woods in the night we were safe. The moon was our sanctuary. If we could make it. I found a rat this morning. A rat underneath my desk and it ripped open a bag of chips. Can we talk about rats? No, no. About the grants we're given to tribes. What about them? I'm not sure that they're making much of a difference. So send them to different tribes. That's not the issue. What's the issue? Our women are raped. They go missing. They're murdered. And our office gives tribes the money they need to deal with that. But after the fact. Fact of what? Becoming after the violence has already occurred by the time the women walk in the front door of one of our programs, they're already a victim. Right, you're not a victim unless something has happened to you. We're just doing triage. We need to be doing something more. Listen here, Pocahontas, it's a miracle we can give the tribes any funding at all. In 94, when we were getting VAWA passed, we didn't have to ask for funding for Tribal DV programs. But we did. You should be thankful for what you have. It's always sad to move, to leave a place. To me, this place is home. We've had this shelter for 27 years now. When we opened this place, our women, they had nowhere to go. You'd find them hiding in a smokehouse, in a steam house, or in boats. They needed a place that was safe. So we opened the first Native women's shelter in the state of Alaska. I've seen a lot of women come in and out of the store. But it's okay. We'll keep going. We'll adapt. We always do. I remember the first time we had to move. I was just a little girl. I didn't understand. My family lived in the fish camp before we moved to Imonic. For as long as my parents could remember their parents and their parents before them and their parents before them, we'd always lived in our camp. But then BIA came and they told us we had to move. They were building a school in Imonic. And if we didn't move to the village, if my parents didn't put us in their school, they would take us away and put my parents in prison. So we moved. At the time I was angry. I was mad at my father. How could he make me leave my beloved home? The only home I had ever knew. I ever knew but now that I'm an adult, I understand. I know. I wouldn't have wanted my father to go to jail. State color funding. I heard. Only shelter in the whole state of Alaska that serves Native women and they refuse to fund us. So all we can do now is pack. What's this? Enough to keep you open. Harry. It's not from me. It's from the DOJ, their grandfather. I just put three mothers out on the street. Now you can tell them to come back. One of the women I moved out, she has nowhere to go. Her husband tried to kill her. Can we help her get a protection order? She has one. The tribe issued it last week. Good. But Alaska refuses to enforce it. How can they refuse to enforce a protection order? They say we don't have jurisdiction. You asked to take time off. No. A report to Congress is due at the end of the month and I'm going to need you to do it. I'm not coming back. What? I'm going home to Cherokee. Grats were just too much. I'm just done applying band-aids. Our band-aids make a difference. They provide your people with funding. We don't need your funding. Fibes do. They want to provide shelter and food and counseling. You have to do more than just give women counseling. Oh, you're right. Please just stand back and let me wave my magic wand and make all the violence go away. You don't need your magic wand. We need jurisdiction. My people, the Southern Ute, we're the only tribe in Colorado. I've lived here my whole life on our reservation. Our jurisdiction comes from the land. We've been here since creation. Creator placed us here. So I never really understood how someone could tell us that we didn't have jurisdiction. The stripping of our jurisdiction is an injustice. And it almost cost me my life. When I was 26 years old, I started dating a non-Indian, a white man. I was in love and life was wonderful. After the bliss of dating six months, we were married to my shock. And just days after our marriage, he assaulted me. I left and returned over 20 times. After a year of abuse and more than a hundred incidents of being slapped, kicked, punched and living in horrific terror, I left for good. During that year of marriage, I lived in constant fear of attack. I called many times for help, but no one could help me. Am I reporting the violence? Only made it worse. You're so upset. Why don't you make one of your calls? It's okay, baby. I'll make the call for you. Bible police, is this an emergency? Well, not exactly. Can I help you? I just wanted to apologize because, you see, I got a little carried away earlier and I hit my wife. Are you enrolled? I'm white. So you're not enrolled? Is that a problem? You've called before. Yeah, well, I'm just... Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. If you're not enrolled, we don't have jurisdiction. Says he doesn't have jurisdiction. You want to talk to him? Thanks for the help, officer. When will you finally get it? They can't touch me. He could do whatever he wanted. I picked up the phone. I made a call. I asked for help. But no one responded. I must have called a hundred times. Please, can't you do something? The answer was always the same. I can't. He's not enrolled. He's not Indian. We don't have jurisdiction. But I kept calling. I called the police. Please help. Every time. 911. 911. I need your help. But every time I called. No one showed up. They would just write a report. They always let him go. I remember looking at those police reports in eight-point font. Years later, my mom asked me to be her advocate. So I pulled all of my stepfather's police records. And there were pages. All those 911 calls were in eight-point font. Individual calls. There would have been at least seven to eight, nine pages. That's how many 911 calls were made for help. And he was never, ever once, ever convicted for what he did to my mother. It wasn't always like this. There was a time before the... Before 1978. A time when we had jurisdiction. Before all of them. I remember when I read all of them. I couldn't believe it. My dad called. Public council convened an emergency meeting. But you better read this. The Supreme Court issued a decision. It's going to change our lives. 1978. The Supreme Court said we can't prosecute non-natives. Non-Indians. Anyone that's not enrolled. The Court said we can't prosecute them. If they come onto our lands and commit crimes. 1978. My stepfather. My husband. He's non-native. Not enrolled. And after all the font. He began to realize. After all the font. He figured it out. After all the font. He knew. It didn't matter if I had bruises. Or cuts. Or bleeding. Or even a broken bone. Because of all the font. You could kill me. And it wouldn't matter. As soon as the Supreme Court issued its decisions. Our sisters from every corner of Turtle Island went into action. Our sisters in South Dakota opened the White Buffalo Cavalry Shelter. The first shelter for Native women in the country. The fight to restore our jurisdiction continued for several decades. And in 2003. I was honored to be the first. To be at the first meeting of our tribal coalitions. In San Diego. When we created the NCI Task Force and Violence Against Women. We come a long way. Since that meeting back in 2003. But I know we wouldn't be where we are now. If we. As Indian women. Hadn't stood up. If we hadn't demanded that our tribal leaders listen to us. Many of our tribal leaders took our message back home. To their own governments. And we watched. As Native women. Gave birth. To our national movement. Oseo. And thank you for having me here to present. Shio. Sorry. This is Eastern Van. We don't say Oseo. Not in Oklahoma anymore. How long will this take? With what I'm prepared to present. Not more than 40 minutes. So I mean the campaign. How long will it take to get this bill passed. You know. The Tribal jurisdiction provision. This Congress. Who knows. It could take quite a while. Quite a while. Months. Years. Nothing's guaranteed. We've been working on this for years. I'm well aware. We sponsored the wiping of tears ceremony when Senator Biden prepared the Trafford vial at 2005. I remember that. And you think the time is now. We need them to act now. You need them to act now. This isn't about me. Terry. Terry is the co-chair of the NCAI Task Force for Violence Against Women. We're proud of her appointment. This whole vial thing. What's your point? I know Terry is passionate about it. But I don't see why we should be the ones to foot the bill for everyone. Because we need jurisdiction. If I may interject. I know it's a lot to ask. But you won't be the only ones. You will be. The other side of Jackie Chan, is you're still the guy saying, Sandy Manwell stepped up and chief Anderson promised to support a the Choctaw. But Muscogee Creek. Are they helping? They may be helping out, but... They should be. We have to stop thinking about this as my tribe and their tribe. Dividing Conquer is how the other side has been the other side's philosophy since 1492. in this now what's the chance we'll actually walk away with jurisdiction gonna be very difficult but not impossible we couldn't get the dams to put the put it in the law and order act just last year wasn't a campaign if we can't win the dams will never reach the Republicans different I'm being honest with you Terry councilwoman Henry to you mr. Whitehawk and let me tell you something about our tribal council our tribal council doesn't do things because they're possible we do what we do because it's our responsibility it's our job to protect every man woman every child in our community because if we protect a woman in her home then we protect her children and that protects her house and the house next to her and the house next to that and really it's the entire community we need to protect yes but can we just isn't about what we can do this is about what we should do and what we should do is fight for this Congress to recognize the inherent sovereignty we have as a tribal government to protect our people all in favor all opposed mr. Whitehawk you're authorized to lobby on behalf of the Eastern Band of Cherokees for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act specifically to advocate for the passage of the proposed tribal jurisdiction provision meeting adjourned we'll send you the contract thank you you'll get nothing less very difficult this will be difficult you know what's difficult listening to women who've been raped abused and battered asked you for help and there's having to tell them that there's nothing you can do because you don't have jurisdiction I know I'm sure you think you do I was tribal police before I went to law school I'd get a call and before I could help her I'd have to ask where is she is she on land that is tribal trust or land that's been sold fee land and you can't just ask where is she you have to ask who is he is he Indian is he enrolled not the police don't have jurisdiction makes you never want to answer the phone I'll get us two tickets to DC on Monday I need you to walk the hallways up there with me I think you're confused I hired you not the other way around I'll do the work but I need you to be the voice why me you're a tribal leader and a woman your counsel woman Henry call me Terry before this year's election of course the Republicans desperately need women votes we can capitalize on that a great old sponsor Mike Crapo Republican from Idaho you're gonna take this to a Republican Mike's good on Indian affairs trust me Terry no one's gonna listen to a Democrat from Vermont need him okay okay a lot of my staffer send you a draft of what we put together it's about this they're 100% with you with us not sure what you mean that's not how it works don't get cheeky with me Terry do you know who'll be the first one off the bill not immigrants not LGTBQ no it'll be our Indian women that won't happen this bill won't protect anyone if it doesn't protect everyone I promise we won't remove the tribal jurisdiction provision well we got the chair of the judiciary committee that's a good start all right well what's next we're scheduled to visit Murkowski what's wrong just got an email from her staffer she canceled our meeting I've made my position clear we know you intend to vote for it there's not a woman in the Senate who isn't the folks back in June oh your boss the AG thinks the tribal jurisdiction provision could use some editing the committee's agreed on the language what about a clarification I think the language is pretty clear tribal jurisdiction is only restored to tribes in Indian country you want me to reference Supreme Court's decision in Venetai what a great idea senator I wish I thought of that myself I told them to include Alaska I can't just tell the committee I changed my mind tell them Alaska's different you and I both know there's no Indian country left in Alaska I didn't learn to speak English until I was eight when I first started at the BIA school in Amanek I had no idea what English meant my first day the teacher told me you don't speak you pick don't speak your native tongue and they really meant it they'd say no you pick I knew what you pick meant in English it means the real people and so I thought okay no you pick so I never said anything at all I learned to remain silent because of what I saw when we spoke in you pick the teachers would slap our mouths or take out our hands and slap us with rulers our ears would get pulled or hairs would get pulled and at first I was shocked I never saw that in my home my parents never treated me that way the BIA school that was the first time I saw violence one day after I got my ear pulled I ran home to my mom and I told her I'm never going back they hit me when I speak and I don't ever want to go back she was silent for a long time then she said you have to if you don't they'll take you away I learned at a very young age that if I was quiet if I never said anything at all no one would hit me as a kid they taught me silence ensured my safety there can't meet with you so it'll be me today I'm sorry and you are Terry Henry I serve on Tribal Council for the Eastern Band of Cherokee she's the co-chair for the National Congress of American Indian Committees of Violence Against Women we're here to discuss Lehi Crapo if you had a chance to read the bill look I'm going to stop you right there and be honest with you we brought our pajamas I guess I forgot mine we're willing to stay as late as we need tonight to work this out what's on the table we'd like to propose some language you remove the jurisdiction we replaced it with federal delegation that won't work Congress can't recognize jurisdiction and Indian tribes why it's unconstitutional it's pre-constitutional we existed as sovereign nations before you even had this document known as the Constitution Terry the Supreme Court was clear and olive font tribes don't have jurisdiction I mean over non-natives you of course have jurisdiction over your own people just not on over your people if this is your attempt to charm the senator and voting for the bill you're failing we've got the votes we need in the Senate but not in the house I'm sorry does Senator Coran get a vote in the house look we're here to negotiate a deal with you and you want to negotiate with us so you don't have to negotiate with Cantor I'd rather talk to canner thank you for your time might pass the Senate but you'll never pass the House we got to work on tone we're asking people to give us something we want no we're asking them to give us something that should never have been taken I agree with that but it's 2012 not 1817 we have to take what we can get there was a time before now there was a time when we were safe when we didn't have this kind of violence not like we do now our men knew to view women in a sacred manner not to say that we lived in a perfect society as we didn't but we certainly didn't live in a society where women are treated like this it was never like this they introduced it when the soldiers came to round us up to send us on the trail of tears when they first put us on the reservations when they forced us to go to their schools we had to hide we had to go to the fort to get our food to get our rations you know our commodities from the soldiers and when we went to the fort to get our food what's this rations we're all out I have children I said we're all out I have to feed my children come in the back are you deaf I said come in the back room with me you don't get something for nothing you want to feed your children come in the back my grandmother my grandmother our grandmothers they were raped by the government agent for food you feed their children raped by the soldiers just because they could they had to run they had to hide they had no choice our grandmothers my grandmother their survivors survivors of war they weren't targeted because of the color of their skin aren't targeted because of the color of our skin we're targeted because of who we are as Indian women as Native American women Alaska Native women because we're citizens of sovereign nations because we're sovereign women it's been this way for 500 years since 1492 since 1959 since 1978 we're still sovereign I wish I could say the war has ended but we live in conflict every day it's time for change senator heller wants you to know jurisdiction provision at his boat thank you how about for a creeper set Dennis Whitehawk I represent the eastern band of Cherokee yes thank you jurisdiction is critical without it it's basically it thank you I just didn't expect him a lot wanted me to tell you no senator Rubio he can't vote for this you won't change my mind did he say why if you can't negotiate with Cornyn you can't negotiate with him let me get this great government and inefficiency the tribal jurisdiction provision restores jurisdiction at the local level sorry you're taking authority away from the state don't believe this giving it to the feds that's not at all the bill but Cain's voting for it I'm senator Lee not McCain wait does he understand senator to me yes I'd like to talk to you about VAWA he's not here the tribal jurisdiction provision is very important I've made up my mind he said we would discuss VAWA I discussed it with him he's against it oh I'm sorry I can't help you thank you for your time but he says they're voting this week do we have enough I don't know I'm worried we don't senator Murray I hear what you're saying you have a right to this water everyone says they have a right to the water yes but this water is ours we signed a treaty with you your government I'll see what I can do thank you Deborah one more thing VAWA okay I need to be honest with you Sean Sean you to tell Deborah everything you told me everything vote likely to happen in the next day or so that's great the tribal jurisdiction provision won't be in it what it's been taken out and the immigrant provision it's still in what about LGBTQ still in there you realize there are members of the LGBTQ community that are native sure but so they won't be protected without jurisdiction VAWA does nothing to protect our queer brothers and sisters living on tribal land we don't have the vote if we fight for tribal jurisdiction now we'll lose the whole thing we can't afford to lose the entire VAWA what about my citizens my relatives everyone that I represent we're so sorry we wrote letters we came here to speak it's been decided there must be something we can do I can hold a press conference you think that would make a difference if you agreed to speak me I'm not a policy analyst leader yes but you're in here telling me about your treaty rights isn't that what VAWA is all about it's really my honor to introduce to you Vice Councilwoman Deborah Parker very courageous in coming forward today to talk personally about why this is so very important to her and so many other Native American women thank you senator Murray senator boxer and senator club char good morning my name is Deborah Parker I am an enrolled member of the Tulalip tribes of the state of Washington I am currently serving as the vice chairwoman of the Tulalip tribes yesterday I shared with senator Murray the reasons why the violence against women act is so important to our Native American women I did not expect to be sharing my own story I am a Native American statistic I am a survivor of sexual and physical violence my story starts in the 70s as a toddler you may wonder how do I remember when this occurred I was the size of a couch cushion a red velvet approximately two and a half feet couch cushion one of the many girls violated and attacked by a man that had no boundaries or regards for a little child's life or my life the man responsible was never convicted in the early 80s at a young age I was asked to babysit my auntie's children during the late hours of the evening she arrived but was not alone instead of packing my things to go home my sense was to quickly grab the children the four or five men that followed my auntie home raped her I had to protect the children and hide I could not save her I only heard her cries today is the first time that I have ever shared this story she died at a young age the perpetrators were never prosecuted a majority of our girls have struggled with sexual and domestic violence not once but repeatedly my question for Congress was and always has been why won't you let my tribe protect me my auntie my mother my daughter me I am urging Congress to uphold the U.S. Constitution honor our treaty agreements recognize our sovereignty restore our jurisdiction thank you what do you need Deb have you had anything to eat I'm fine you've been at it for days now and I haven't seen you eat a thing I'm not hungry I brought you a sandwich what do you think of this sentence the tribal jurisdiction provision in the reauthorization of VAWA 2013 recognizes the rights of our native women to be free of violence and abuse as well as the inherent sovereign authority of tribes to protect their own citizens sounds good to me too many commas I think it's fine people stop listening when you use too many commas I don't think people hear commas I hear commas I hear commas all the time and they bother me your lawyer didn't you spend years studying where to place commas I was tribal police before I went to law school and we never use commas now my dad he was obsessed with commas whenever he wrote an opinion or an order he'd spend hours revising deleting commas adding commas he always said judicial orders must command respect there had to be a rhythm you know like a drumbeat he was a tribal judge I never got to sleep in on a Saturday morning because he would drag me out of bed and throw me in the car he made me go to court with him and on the way he'd make me read back then to have a legal case it was a printout of a book so we drive and sometimes it'd be several hours and he'd say okay read this to me and I'd read the case to him and he'd say what do you think that means he was teaching me at a very young age to respect the law I thought about going to law school don't you went had to your dad made you know in a minute I need to concentrate on me to convince you to come to DC and fight for this I didn't need any convincing really you had me at OCO they removed Alaska what did you read what they passed no I was just watching see Spanish has been carved out section 904 jurisdiction is limited to crimes committed in Indian country wait what does that mean it's a reference to Veneta Supreme Court case another one in 1998 the court said Indian country no longer exists in Alaska but there are 229 federally recognized tribes in less and now none of them have jurisdiction except met Lecatno one tribe the other 228 are out lay he told me they were in Murray said they wouldn't be left out someone lied to us Kowsky top to baggage unbelievable I have to call in growing up in Alaska after it became a state that wasn't easy I remember walking down the street and seeing signs in the windows no dogs or natives that was a pretty powerful message for a kid Alaska has a bit of a boom mentality first it was the Russians and fur than the Americans in gold now it's the oil as a teenager I left home to work on the pipeline one of the women I worked with she was native to she'd been down on a trail doing some kind of construction towards Valdez on the line and one day she came in and her face it was black and blue she was telling me that they'd been down there working I think it was Isabel pass very very remote and she was on a crew of six men and she had been raped out there on the crew while she was supposed to be working of course we didn't even think about going to the cops we knew there wouldn't be anything done literally the ratio of men to women was 500 to 1 where we were working we were pretty isolated in the camp she packed her gear that night and shipped out I ran into her a few years later she was homeless and living on the street and about five years later I learned she drank herself to death but the pipeline that's when they started trafficking and they're still doing it today they want our women but they really want our kids they want our Alaskan native kids they say our kids can look like they're Asian or native or Hawaiian you know they're more versatile first they took our land then the resources now they're taking us so yeah Alaska has a boom mentality and when there's an explosion Alaska natives we are the debris where Koski said it was a drafting error it's definitely an error then why didn't you take it out I couldn't you're on the committee look I tried to get it out but we didn't have agreement we I'm not the only senator from Alaska I'm not talking to the press I said no off the record it was a drafting error drafting error I didn't know was in there who put it in I'm not sure you know the bill contained a special carve-out for your state I tell you I told you I didn't know and then to fix it Alaska is not included it's not that simple not included carved you out why Alaska is different oh it's good to see you don't worry I still got my twang good to hear so how do we get Lehi Crapo through the house with the tribal jurisdiction in I'm not sure we can that's not what I want to hear well Baylor signed Cantor to Valhalla and he's opposed to sovereignty based on what I think the Constitution where in the Constitution does it say tribes no longer have jurisdiction you don't have to convince me you have to convince Cantor it's gonna what does he think it's gonna be difficult but he thinks we can do it congressman not a profit I'm one need sleep or a Red Bull okay we need to go where we're most powerful our survivors hard to tell a survivor she doesn't deserve justice our stories are powerful do you think they'd agree to come up here well Lisa Bruner would yes she stood up and spoke out in 2003 when the tribal leadership wanted to ignore this very issue what about Cheryl Giles Melissa Merrick Diane Millich her story is powerful they all are how do we get them here let me see what I can do at first I wasn't sure what would my family think of me why me maybe asking someone else and so when she asked me come to DC will you speak out I really had to think about if that was going to be right for me I was mainly thinking about protecting my three daughters especially my youngest one she had no idea that I'd ever had to live my life like that maybe she's seen those kinds of things on TV or movies but maybe she didn't know these things happen in real life to real people people that she knows I wanted to protect her she'll hurt I didn't want her to know but I can't shield her from everything she's already dating you could end up in a relationship with a young man who's not enrolled and on Indian would I be okay knowing that I didn't do whatever I could to help keep her safe no so I said yes I agreed to go to DC I agreed to share my story but I was diagnosed with lupus and I start chemotherapy in just a few days I'm not asking for sympathy I'm coming I have a serious illness but this is important I never told Terry this but I didn't agree to share my story for her or even for the other women I did this for my family I did this for our children I did this for my daughter my daughter was raped this past summer even though they wore bandanas my daughter recognized her white skin and blonde hair they were doing what I call hunting non-natives coming on to our lands to rape and abuses with impunity my daughter was just in a wrong place at the wrong time she didn't come and tell me right away she washed it and she hid it that summer we had a little girl who also was raped and nothing was done the state did nothing so she hung herself our suicide rate on our reservation is quite huge as it is in all of Indian country so my daughter hearing all of the stories about this little girl being raped and her death she finally broke and told me what happened to her and my daughter know better they don't go try and party we know the dangers of our environment and they know that and they know that we are walking bull's eyes we're not just targets we're walking bull's eyes and so she went out in the middle of the night to go find my niece she didn't want my knees to get in trouble for being out late because she would have and as my daughter walked down the road for white guys and a black SUV the tan leather interior were trying to get her into the vehicle and she said no she just kept walking and this is the only biggest town we have on a reservation population maybe a thousand as she was walking they were getting more persistent as she takes off running and they chased her down you guys they jumped out of the vehicle they drug her to it and so one was driving to hell they're down in a fourth one right turn and they had bad damage on over their faces but she's seen their white skin their blue eyes their blonde hair and when they were done they threw her out by the bridge and as a mom that more than knocked the wind down to me it's allowed me to the earth such ungodly speed and all the measures that I had to try to protect them didn't work I don't isn't an animal to be hunted she's a human being I was making me a popular man I've got Joe Biden beating down my door and every woman in the house wants to tell me what she thinks they're for it not all of them two committee chairman blocking the Senate jurisdiction I'll send it to the floor you and I both know that will never happen feel free to come back if he does federal delegation that won't work what if you drafted a bill your popular guy people take you seriously not on Indian issues folks will say well that's just another one of Tom Cole's disagree if I draft the bill it'll be dead in the water we don't have a lot of options here it's not like I can ask a Democrat to draft this ask Issa Darrell Issa well he's Lebanese not Chickasaw that's like a whole different tribe seriously why I said he's a strong supporter of the tribes and he's the chair of the oversight committee that committee has nothing to do with this exactly that committee exists purely to torture the president he's overseeing all including Benghazi so we got ourselves a respected Republican partisan if there's a bill folks will look at okay fine could you check with him first though see if he'd be willing to do it I already did he said yes have a nice Christmas hard to believe it's 2013 yeah home for the holidays stayed here and just work straight through I figure I'll go home and see my kids after we get this through the house there'll be plenty of time for family when we win Antor refused to put it to a vote he let the bill expire bill's dead but we'll reintroduce it in the Senate like he already has a draft going what good will that do if we can pass it before the end of January it'll be back in the house by the 1st of February but we just start over I know you're disappointed going home that bra I haven't seen my kids in three months this isn't defeat what do I tell my tribe I haven't been to a council meeting in months I'm gonna lose my reelection you tell them that Patty Murray says one month from now we'll have Vawa 2013 passed in the Senate and then what you have momentum don't stop now Murray and Leahy think they can have a vote by the end of January that's fast they have the vote and we don't we have momentum 90 miles per hour down a dead-end road gets you nowhere we just have to convince Cantor to put it to a vote he's convinced it's unconstitutional what's unconstitutional about recognizing a tribe's jurisdiction all the font are you kidding me have you read all the font a hundred times still makes sense how do you explain a sovereign existence a sovereign existence that predates the United States Constitution that all in 1978 tribal governments lost their I guess it just disappeared I used to watch my dad preside over tribal court my great-great-grandfather was clerk of our Chickasaw Supreme Court we prosecuted everyone Indian non-Indian black white French Chinese it didn't matter you committed a crime on the reservation the tribe could prosecute you when I was in college my sister Rachel she was working at our casino over in Red Rock and this guy when my sister finished her shift he followed her into the parking lot and he raped her and when he was done he got back in his car and drove away but she got his license plate Joseph Jefferson a 34-year-old white male chemical engineer living in Nichols Hills you should ask your sister to speak Congress needs to hear her story she killed herself over six months ago after the rape when she realized our tribe didn't have jurisdiction to prosecute him and he came back to the casino to stalk her I remember fighting with my dad so you're just gonna accept this what do you want me to do white we don't have jurisdiction read it I said read it we granted certiori I don't even know how to pronounce read the full sentence we granted certiori to decide whether Indian tribal courts have criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians we decided they do not it meant I had to go to law school did you read the entire opinion yeah my dad made me read the last sentence finally we are not unaware of the prevalence of non-Indian crime on today's reservations which tribes forcibly argue requires the ability to try non-Indians but these are considerations for Congress to weigh in deciding whether Indian tribes should be authorized to try non-Indians what do you think that means Congress has the constitutional power to recognize the inherent sovereignty in Indian tribes you go back and you tell that if she and like he can get through the Senate I'll do whatever the house like he's reintroducing the bill they'll have it passed by February 1st isn't that a bit fast she thinks we have momentum but we need buzz in the past and how do you suggest we do that I know a reporter at the times what do you be willing to write about VAWA she maybe you could ask her Bellich thank you for taking my call sure I'm with the Times the Aspen Times the New York Times oh Dennis White Hawk gave me your name he's been doing that a lot lately I'm writing an article about the tribal jurisdiction provision and the proposed reauthorization of VAWA would you be willing to share your story sure I was born on the Southern Ute reservation my mother was a southern Ute and my father was a first-generation Yugoslavian when I was 36 I married a white man believing he would treat me the same way my white father treated my mother he moved on to my reservation and lived with me but we weren't married for a very long before he became violent the brutality increased after I left and filed for a divorce and the order of protection at one day after the Southern Ute tribal court awarded my order of protection I was at work when I saw him pull up in our red pickup truck my ex-husband walked into the office and told me you promised until death do us part so death it shall be he was armed with a 9-millimeter gun if not for my very brave co-worker I would not be alive today my co-worker prevented my murder by pushing me out of harm's way he took the bullet in his shoulder the shooting took place at a federal bureau of land management land site where we both worked the jurisdictional issue was so complicated that after the shooting my southern Ute tribal police the Colorado State Patrol our county sheriffs the city police the federal agents all six agencies were standing there with measuring tapes and maps you kidding me take a look you're at least six inches away landed in federal the gun was fired from the state yeah but where's the body not in the state it took hours to decide just to had jurisdiction actually going to put resources into this look if you want to take it I don't need your leftovers for feds this is small potatoes southern Ute says they want to prosecute they don't have jurisdiction the district attorney decided that the sixth judicial district of Colorado would prosecute the case like to offer a plea agreement what's on the table attempted voluntary manslaughter how about aggravated driving under revocation for driving without a license he didn't have his license when he was arrested tried to kill someone he's a first-time offender he has a history of domestic violence on the reservation you and I both know that doesn't count the tribe never arrested him get him for aggravated driving under revocation and you can still look tough show you took a stand against someone who put the lives of your police force in danger and we can all go home happy no one asked me the victim what I needed to feel safe my tribe wanted to prosecute him but because of all the font they couldn't it was like his attempt to shoot me and the shooting of my co-worker didn't happen in the end he was right the law couldn't touch him he was above the law thank you for sharing your story we passed the Senate knew we would we got 78 10 more than last year 10 Republicans switched over that's amazing and story in the time it was powerful that's where those 10 votes came from okay so on to the house Lord help us I need some caffeine I got coffee oh great Terry doesn't need caffeine oh well you can have her oh Dennis doesn't drink coffee you don't drink coffee nah I stop kill you okay so we need to figure out the schedule for this week oh want to set up a meeting with the black caucus thank God for Gwen Moore and you said you'd meet with Pelosi I did yes we discussed this okay I'll be stalking Kathy McMorris Rogers what about Betty McCullough on my list I got McHenry and denim who's checking in with I said that's me don't forget cold I think he's got me well whatever you Oklahoma boys share it's special I'm sure who's got the press I thought that was you me and our women I'm with the Washington Post do you have a minute sir and Milch's story it's powerful I'd like to hear yours why are you here big out who share my story stop the silence why are you advocating for jurisdiction one out of three native women will be raped in her lifetime 60% of native women will be assaulted in their lifetime our women our children they're not safe we're not safe my husband tried to shoot me threatened to drown me co-worker took the bullet in his shoulder 67% of crime committed against native women are committed by non-native they come to our reservations because they know they can abuse us they know they are safe they're protected law did you call the police doesn't help can't do anything they don't have jurisdiction or reservation according to the Supreme Court because I'm a native woman living on my tribe's land the law won't protect me what kind of message does that send to our women I know what message it sent to me don't understand if the violence is so bad we aren't safe on your reservation if he lives in your home and why don't you leave the cause of the state protect you if you left your reservation by great great great great grandfather was why a Godoga or standing wolf during the time of the removal when the Cherokee were forced to walk the trail of tears when the soldiers came to take him and his family a man named George Hayes was living with them my grandfather asked Hayes what he could do to avoid going west and to be allowed to remain in his home Hayes advised him to save up all his food rations when he saw the opportunity break away but to be caught escaping meant severe punishment or even death one day several weeks later Hayes was out in his yard working when he saw a small group of people approaching on the horizon it was standing wolf his wife and several other Cherokees standing wolf's wife held a small newborn baby standing wolf told Hayes that this new son was named why a gentle or come back wolf because that was the only wish in their hearts was just to come back home so this is the story of why I my grandmothers and grandfathers before me came to be in the mountains of western North Carolina the Cherokee elders and wise ones say that we've always been here we will always be here it's believed that we were given our home in those mountains by the creator and since it was he who gave it to us only he can take it from us so did I ever think of leaving Cherokee no not once never this is my home I will never leave my home Cathy McMorris Rodgers I do for you I met with some of the women and I've heard their story very powerful how do we get this up to canter I mean how do we convince him to put jurisdiction to a vote well I've tried I stubborn as hell I'm sure it helped if he heard from you directly let me see what I can do let's discuss it I'm not putting it to a vote did you read the New York Times article are you kidding me I have standards I hate the press as much as you do the one quoting it this is about perception 53% of voters in the last election were women exit polls show that Obama held a 10-point gender gap over I read the numbers if you refuse to put Vawa to a vote now like you did last year there will be consequences all of us I'm here because I don't want to have this conversation over email we need a vote you think you can just pull the camel's nose under the tent no one's nose is going under any tank well they got your nose that's for sure what's that supposed to mean you're supposed to be our guy working with them I think there's been some misunderstanding I'm there working with you you see my great great great was one of the last to travel the Chickasaw Trail of tears he was 14 he walked 80 miles from 1837 federal government moved we lost everything except our sovereignty after we got our new home in Indian territory my great great grandfather served as the clerk of the Chickasaw Supreme Court and after him my great grandfather served as the last Chickasaw treasurer before the first Native American woman ever elected to the state Senate in Oklahoma I come from a long line of Chickasaw leaders men and women who have served not only their sovereign tribal government as I now serve mine but also the state of Oklahoma and now the United States I have a lot of respect for this government this sovereign government and how it works and it works we vote for our presidential elections and their state elections and here in the house we vote when a bill passes it passes when it doesn't have enough votes it fails but no one has to guess whether a majority of the citizens representatives were for or against a bill when there's a vote that's all we're at that's all we want please let us have the vote I remember where I was I remember what I was doing I remember what I was thinking and I will never forget on my reservation Cherokee Alaska Facebook watching the vote working for a couldn't breathe I was so nervous all I could do was pray we need to 18 my whole life everything depends on this text in me I had to scream I did a victory down it just seemed unreal it felt like a dream it was amazing what about Alaska why were we left out yes this is Diane I'm calling on behalf of President Obama I'm getting punked no he would like to invite you to attend the signing ceremony for VAWA when is it need you here by tomorrow I'll have to ask my doctor president Biden would like for you to introduce him to everyone at the ceremony the president and the vice president would like to invite you to share your story with the nation what should I wear hello and welcome thank you for joining us today for this very important event signing and reauthorization of the violence against women act you are first speaker of the afternoon she has traveled all the way here from her reservation in Colorado please welcome Diane Millich good afternoon I'm known as Indian girl with different face my English name is Diane Millich and I am a citizen of the southern Ute Indian tribe in Colorado my mother is bare woman she is known as Arlene weaver Millich and is a member of the southern Ute Indian tribe in Colorado the VAWA being signed into law today would have allowed my tribe to arrest and prosecute my abuser when this act is signed into law VAWA will finally reach native women like me and me and me and my daughter if the violence against women act tribal jurisdiction provisions had existed 15 years ago my story would be very different my story would be different my daughter's story will be different this act tribal jurisdiction provision it's a step in the right direction it's an enormous victory but it only covers domestic violence and protection orders it doesn't cover rape it doesn't cover murder it doesn't cover what happened to my daughter it protects me it protects me it protects me but it doesn't protect me it excludes 228 federally recognized tribes in Alaska why were we cut out I know sovereignty in Alaska it's a dirty word most people want to pretend we don't exist but the truth is we're still here when VAWA what passed in 2013 I was watching TV and I just I started to cry I felt that feeling again no dogs and no natives I read about your people before I met you I'd never known anyone who was Cherokee but I read about your trail of tears I read about how the federal government took your homes and and forced you to walk thousands of miles I read that many became sick and died everyone keeps saying sorry Lynn we can't include the tribes in Alaska in this bill sorry Lynn we'll protect Alaska native women next time sorry Lynn Alaska is different what makes us different because what happened to your people in 1839 didn't happen to us until 1959 because Congress passed the Dawes Act and gave all of your land to white settlers in 1887 but didn't give away our land until it passed ANCSA in 1971 because the Supreme Court took away your jurisdiction in 1978 but didn't take away ours until Venetai in 1998 you aren't different we're the same VAWA 2013 is a start but we have more work to do until this government recognizes our tribe sovereign authority to protect all of our native women until this government recognizes the rights of our Alaska native sisters but it's just the beginning it's just a sliver ask for an encore no I'm just kidding if you need to leave please feel free to leave and that's it's not at all rude you've been sitting for a very long time thank you so very much for joining us this evening I'm Mary Catherine egg on the playwright and it just really means a lot to have you all here tonight to witness these stories what we're going to do now after a short five-minute break to let the folks who want to leave leave is we're gonna have a very short 20-minute talk back session so it won't be very long I know we've all been here a long time tonight but we wanted to give you the audience the chance to speak with Billy Joe Rich from Eastern Band Cherokee and also Lisa Bruner who's right there right there who is Ojibwe from White Earth and we also are very honored to have here with us tonight the chairwoman of the Tribal Council for the Eastern Band of the real Terry Henry for those of you watching on our live stream you can tweet at hashtag howl around or hashtag sliver of a full moon and and if you ask good question I might just throw it out to the panel so if you want to take just a few minutes we will set up some chairs and and thank you for sticking around yeah we just need we just need for here I mean I won't everyone yes to everyone we're gonna do everyone up here because I think that's her team she said she wants to look at the 20 chairs it's only gonna be a quick two hours yeah thank you for being here Lisa Bruner thank you in the middle Miss Billy Joe Judge talk back until patient I'm a visiting scholar from China okay I'm talking American culture to my students yeah I just teach them about this yeah I really you can learn a lot I've seen more different about some of my paintings great talk and we're gonna get this talk tonight yeah and chat after that thank you good is it beautiful look at this that's the only way I know it is good right it's a good reason I'm honored name if you're still talking Dylan take your seat thank you can continue these conversations afterwards but I wanted to give this back to chief Malayaba real quick because we're very honored to have her here tonight and she has been so gracious to bring some special gifts from the tribe well thank you so much and if anyone knows me you know that I didn't make these because I'm the least crafty person ever so I'm still trying to find that gift of mine that Melissa tells me I need to have to donate to the museum but what our tribal cultural department made were little corn hostels with wampum hearts and so wampum you know is considered tribute and it's something very special to us and what I didn't say before is my name is chief many hearts because I specialized as a cardiology nurse back in my younger years so this is my on-core career and a doctor yes doctor chief Malayaba and so I've held many hearts in my hands in the past and so I hold all of you in my heart today in my hands so thank you for being so brave and sharing your stories and so this is really just a token of you know my gratitude for all the work that everyone's done because I know how hard it is to get anything through congress and it doesn't matter democrat or republican it's equally difficult so it's equal opportunity in terms of how hard you have to live to get there and so the next we're just politicalizing as we go Katie and Ned who also worked really hard on this we've already gave them two so I just wanted to take a second to say that but of course Billy Joe if you want to give one to Billy Joe take the one you have in your hand that's why I'm the director I stay on the other side I'll let you say the sure I'll say the names and then you'll this is a better system this is great if you want to give if you want to give Terry Henry who worked so hard on this Judge Fletcher for being here today as messy as politics um no but really um yeah thank you there are seven arms um did you untangle one hold hold yeah thank you um so uh thank you so much for for sticking around um I just you have a lot of the actors up here who are in the show I want to clarify I am not Diane Milich um usually Diane plays herself and um if you google her name in New York Times you can read her New York Times article that was very pivotal in February of 2013 she really moved the movement forward and you'll see that she did introduce Vice President Joe Biden at the signing ceremony in March 2013 she usually plays herself unfortunately she had some health issues and couldn't be here tonight so I jumped in at the last minute but this is the real Billy Joe Rich and this is the real Lisa Bruner and so we're very honored to have them up here with us and we have the real Terry Henry I just want to say okay I just want to say that um even though that part has my name to it there were a lot of people who had a lot of work and a lot of everything that was done it just kind of got my name on it so um so I just wanted to say that um in recognition of Jacqueline Actuca Wana Mahill Karen Artichoker, Tilly Black Bear there's a whole list of women Lisa and Billy Joe and um I see their faces in my mind they're just going so fast but there's just a lot of women who um contributed and brought us to the place where we could actually get the Violence Against Women Act passed and so I just want to make sure that everybody understands that even though in this play I get a lot of airtime there was a lot more people involved in the work so I just want to say that as I will say artistic choice you know the thing about writing a play sorry I'm trying to put this on is that you know you can't have 50 million characters well this play kind of did but you have to narrow the window somehow and there has to be the people who are the messengers of the story and so after doing all the research and talking to people I chose a few people to feature in the play but the reality is that this was a movement of thousands of people mostly a lot of native women but also tribal leaders and non-native allies and so you know for everyone featured up here there are like hundreds and thousands of people that weren't featured in the play so I want to open it up and just let these wonderful women say a few words and then open it up to questions from the audience so let's start with Billie Joe and just she's giving me the eye she's like why is Mary Catherine picking you I'm still at my mic oh and I'm not going to hand you this mic because you have your mic you had all these words that you have to share in the play is there anything that you just didn't say on stage tonight that you know isn't in the play that you feel like is important for everyone to take home when they leave here tonight or something that you haven't said yet that you really want to leave everyone with well first of all I just want to thank everyone for being here for taking time out of your day to come and be here and not only to to join us for the play but also stay and still have have us in your hearts and in your minds enough that you're going to stay in here and talk to us about things it shows that you really care about this issue it's important our voice is too small as native people I don't feel like we're heard so we really need allies we need people to join us so our voice can be heard when I first started with the play it took a little bit of convincing for me to come and do the play I'm a very private person it was very difficult to come and share something so painful and private in front of a room full of complete strangers but the more I started to do the play the more I began to feel that I wasn't up here sharing my story I wasn't speaking for Billy Joe I was speaking for all the women who had the same experiences I had for all the women who begged for help and were told sorry we can't do anything for all the women who have that spiritual connection with their ancestral lands that are not going to leave their homes that should not have to leave their homes so I I just really appreciate that Mary Catherine put me on the spot because I'm not much of a speaker but I really just want to thank you all and I just appreciate you being here because this is important it's not just a native women's issue it's a human issue it affects all of us so thank you and now I want to give the microphone or you already have your microphone I want to turn it over to Lisa Bruner to say a few words about what has been your experience in this play or what is not in the play that you want to bring up right now or share with the audience that they maybe otherwise what they just saw tonight I like Billy Joe thank you for being here thank you for all the students who worked really hard to raise the funds to bring this here so I really appreciate that and to our elders that are here and to our young people that are here I guess the work that we've been doing for so long we need help we need support we need people to stand holding senators and other congressional people accountable holding states accountable holding all federal agencies accountable to our safety and to our protection the Haudenosaunee's or the Anadagas the elders say that in every deliberation the 7th generation must be considered and that in every single drop of water there's a ripple effect and we're facing that ripple effect and it's so huge we have our suicide rates we have our children that are being victimized we have sex trafficking of our native people that's not even gauged yet but yet it's in the quotes of Sergeant Grant Snyder from the Minneapolis Police Department who states that that native communities are ground zero for sex trafficking and that means our children these laws don't even though Vella passed and it was with great success it doesn't cover the sexual assaults of stranger rapes or the acquaintance rapes it doesn't cover the sex trafficking of our women or our children it doesn't cover the fact that we're being stopped twice the national average of the United States it doesn't stop or cover the fact that we're being murdered 10 times higher than the national average of the United States of America it doesn't protect us from that we have a long ways to go and we don't have the privilege of time we just don't my tribe with the Minnesota Chippewa tribes there are seven tribes in Minneapolis in Minnesota and they did report called Wilder Foundation and what they found is that if our tribes do not decrease our blood quantum, thank you to eugenics of the United States, but if we do not decrease our blood quantum from one fourth to one eighth that in 84 years of time in the next in the next century in the next lifetime of my little grandson that I have one and a half in five and a half weeks old in their lifetime they're looking at extinction we cannot sustain this level of violence, we just can't we have for hundreds of years and it needs to stop but we need these laws to support the sovereignty of our tribal nations to defend us and to protect us as it should so with that, thank you now I'd really like to ask Chairwoman Henry to share some of the more recent news so this past, this bill Obama signed it into law March 7th, 2013 but something big happened on March 7th, 2015 and maybe talk a little just mention the three tribes that are now the pilot tribes and what happened on March 7th just so everyone here can know about that so when Violence Against Women Act was passed in 2013 there was a implementation period it didn't come into full effect until March 7th, 2015 and the reason was because there needed to be some time in order for tribes to get their judicial houses in order if you will and so the Justice Department opened up this pilot project that invited tribes that were interested in participating those that they were actually funding to participate and to come together and to put their heads together about issues that were required in the law so in the law there are constitutional based provisions in order for tribal court to be able to provide that jurisdiction there are constitutional provisions like jury trials public defender things like that and so what that period of time allowed was for the tribes to get those things in order so that any challenges to the law would be minimized by the procedures and policies that the tribe put in effect to do that and so on March 7th of this year the Violence Against Women Act on its own come into full effect and so technically tribes have the authority have that jurisdiction today as of March the 7th I think that most tribes speaking from my own perspective as a tribal leader I think it's incumbent upon us as tribal governments to move to walk very slowly make sure that we have those systems in place make sure that we're meeting the measure of the law and make sure that we are doing everything that we can to provide all of the rights that everybody that I as a United States citizen and I as an Eastern Bancherkey citizen are entitled to the arguments before I say that the three tribes that were engaged in the pilot project were the Tulalip tribe of Washington State which is Deborah Parker's tribe she's not here she called me today to tell me that they had an individual picked up who had been involved allegedly in some murders and some very very horrible sexual violence crimes against some of their women and that person got picked up today so she was very much engaged in what was going on out there and she said that it may go national so if you see anything from Washington State about this that you'll know that was happening at Tulalip today but so the Tulalip tribe the Pasquale Yaqui tribe and the Warm Springs tribe were the three pilot tribes that were actually working with to roll out the Violence Against Women Act there were 34 tribes that were engaged in the process as well and involved in the Intertribal Working Group to get all the legal minds together to make sure to talk through whatever issues individuals were having or individual tribes were having and I'll tell you that from Eastern Bans perspective one of the issues that we were that we were challenged by was the jury pools that we were going to come from we are a federally recognized tribe in the State of North Carolina the only federally recognized tribe and we are in the western part of the state there's not another federally recognized tribe around us for a couple of states and so we've got a lot of people moving through our reservation and they're mostly non-native people we do have a casino our reservation sits at the southern end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the southern corridor of the Blue Ridge Parkway so we probably have about the park well the park estimates through the national park there's 9 million visitors a year through our casino we probably have about 150,000 people a day that's in the high season that's when we've got a lot of events going on so I think we're considered a medium sized tribe we've got a lot going on so we have our reservation has a lot of probably about I'm guessing about 9,000 enrolled members we probably have a total population of about 12 to 15,000 depending on the time of year we have engaged in economic development since the 1950s actually since the park came in we have a lot of campgrounds we have a lot of motels we have a tourism based economy and our tribal government is the government of the jurisdiction there's not a county government there's not a city anywhere near we are the government providing the jurisdiction for the everything for the tribe so we do water and sewer we're engaged in we have a court system we have we're developing a social services program we've got Billy Joe works at one of our premier programs the Nuka Dua Language Academy and that's a language immersion program that we have back home and I'm very happy to say that we just supported the fourth grade so we're going into getting ready to hit middle school and so we've got a lot of things going on and we've got a lot of reason to protect our people and provide that safety to everyone because we've got a lot of people living there but I just wanted to say I'm just going to add this on one of the things that I was thinking of as I was sitting here watching this play and I've watched this probably about five times and it changes every time you watch it there's something different in it but I just wanted to say this I've never ever said this when the Violence Against Women Act was passed on the day that it was passed was my grandmother's birthday and she had deceased several years before and I was told a long time ago when I was a young woman that I would pick up her work and I would carry that on so it was incredibly poignant for me personally that the Congress passed the bill on February 28th or 14, whenever that was 13, right? So I was actually sitting in a tribal lands committee meeting and I had, we were doing the business of the committee and I had one headphone in my ear and I was listening to C-SPAN in the committee room and so whenever it happened I was like, wow, it passed so that's in the record but I just want to say these guys have done a tremendous job with this play and I just want everybody in this room and out there in TV land give these guys a hand because they are awesome and I want to recognize Ms. Director over here because I just want to say thank you to this community for everybody on the list and those who showed up thank you so much for coming out and supporting this work. Thank you. Questions from the audience? Yes, I'll bring you the mic. Hi. My name is Jordan Bryant. I'm a 2L here at YLS. First of all, I want to thank you guys for telling your story. It has to be difficult but I'm so inspired by your zest for change and you like fighting to make it a reality that's very inspirational and so kind of along that vein I guess I just wanted to talk about I'm very active in the Black Lives Matters movement and the push that's going on now in the African American community and as someone that definitely has Cherokee blood as a lot of Black people from the South do I kind of wondered not that I questioned the sentiment at all but there was this line in the play that stuck with me that said we are not targeted because of the color of our skin we are targeted because of our sovereignty and well I think that may be true I think it may be a bit of a it struck me it struck a slightly dissonant chord in the sense that racism is clearly a large part also of why Native women are targeted so I just wanted to hear I guess what you guys thought about the role that plays and also how you see African American Native American collaboration because that's I mean we are fighting for a lot of the same things in terms of protection under the law and being able to be safe being able not to be killed raped and murdered with impunity so I just wanted to ask about kind of that strain of things and how that's seen in Terry or Lisa? I'll start yes everybody else can Lisa you can talk first I guess the first place to start in my mind to respond to your question is that the reason that race isn't it isn't a race issue in our minds is because because of our political relationship that tribes have with the United States government so because of that when you start at that discussion that takes it into a whole other realm now I do realize that there are very much racial undertones to everything that has happened and so but I think that you have to start peeling this one back by starting with it's political because it's our political relationship with US government and the history if you look at the history of the United States and you just kind of chart it through you'll find that everything like even the law everything that has to do with Feral Indian law in my opinion is an exception to the normative laws that you see that are everywhere else for everybody else so if there was land to be taken if there were resources to be taken oh well that's an exception we have to apply that to the tribes because we're going to take that from them and so I think you have to really look at how this country was founded and you can't just look at it from one point in time it's the whole spectrum it's the whole spectrum of time because every time there's an era that passes over there's a new policy that comes in to play and so with those policies just layered upon layer upon layer of something that is taken from us and so I would start with that as a response and then I'm going to hand this over to Lisa to talk about her experience at White Earth and that was part of my interview talking about that we're not just targeted because of the color of our skin but we're targeted specifically for who we are as Indian women, as sovereign women and you think about the Terry was saying the historical context you have to look at what happened here it's verily ever taught especially in schools, what they teach in K through 12 is that we're past tense that we're not actually thriving, that we're still here, that we're still alive and that we do function and we do have intelligent people and we do have doctors we're part of society and so to me it just seems like it just perpetuates and I call it modern day cowboys versus Indian mentality of we have to go in and wipe out the Indians because if you look at the history the United States had federal laws and policies that enacted genocide, they specifically targeted Indian women because we are the women who give birth to our nations, it is through us, through our lineal descent that we give birth to our future generations and so part of the genocidal practices was the Indian health services they they forcibly sterilized Indian women you look at the massacres you look at stealing the children that you heard, it's first generation story with Lynn's story and it was to everything meets the international definition of what genocide is and this country has yet to recognize or take accountability or to even say that that happened and so when we have this continued perpetuation of this false imagery of Native people and all by all means let's call this red skins because they are honoring us and let's make us mascots and let's have models on runways wearing head feathers and what not that decimates us, we are human beings and yet we are being treated as if we are less than these laws perpetuate that we are less than so that's how that on the same line says Terry I'll let me just offer a little response to what you asked because I appreciate your question and I hear what you're saying you're saying look okay I'm not blind okay I live in this country I see that Native women are you know killed and murdered ten times higher the rate than anyone else and you're telling me there's no racism involved how is there no racism involved you're right it's yes so one of the biggest allies in the movement was Gwen Moore and the Black Caucus I mean they were I mean maybe you can say a few words about what Gwen Moore did but I mean she was right there the whole time I mean so there were there's a let me see if I can peel this back there's a big effort to get involved is like a strain moving down the tracks right there were there's two tracks of that we were involved on both sides of the tracks we were involved with the national task force that included over a hundred organizations across the United States that were in support of the Violence Against Women Act and who actually stood with us as allies and so there were all of the all the race groups were there there were faith based groups there were men's groups there was the whole shebang we also had to work with and our tribal leadership because a lot of the issues about women weren't really at the top of the list because a lot of the sovereignty efforts have been made really about land about treaty rights and one of the things that I did work at the DOJ and that rat thing was for true that one of the things that I just you know just being in a place I felt like I was inside the belly of the beast and it really helped me to kind of understand where I was in my place in that universe and so talking with tribal leadership and the efforts that they had made were really about things that I felt were really abstract sovereignty treaty rights that kind of stuff right when you talk about a woman a woman a human life and you can put that sovereignty I was when I got here tonight I was sitting here watching these guys up here preparing themselves and I thought to myself those women are exercising their personal sovereignty and that means a whole lot to us so we are personally sovereign in ourselves because we come from this land we are of this land and there's no other place we can be and so there were allies back to the question there were allies in this fight if you will and when we were on the hill doing the lobby work those women the LBGT communities and the immigration community they absolutely refused to waver they stood with us because we were the three those three groups were the three that were ripe for the picking to take out of the Violence Against Women Act and those three communities stood together and those two in particular stood with us and the whole of the allies the whole ally group stood with us and if we didn't have that we probably wouldn't have been successful but it took we that was a big lift and we carried a lot of water on that and I don't I want people to realize that for me personally I don't forget Alaska it's what we could the way that Congress works that that's that's that's that world for me as a person knowing who I know knowing the sisters that I have and the friendships that I have in Alaska that they're not forgotten and likewise one group that we don't really talk about because some of us don't know how to talk about it is the Restricted Settlement Act groups of tribes which are in the northeast and down the southern down in Florida so up in this area the Restricted Settlement Act group of tribes don't have VAWA protection either because their settlement acts don't allow that and so we've got to work through that as well and that's something that's there's two things on my list to get done so does anyone else have a question yes over here thank you hi my name is I'm actually a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and it warms my heart to see all the Cherokee women working on this this is this was a wonderful production so thank you guys for that my question is for you Cheryl and Henry so you talked a lot about tribes getting ready to implement this new part of VAWA and having the judicial systems in place and and all the logistics and money that you know must accompany that so how do you I guess my question is two parts do you think that smaller tribes in particular and you know tribes that even smaller than Easterman you know 100 200 500 members are going to be able to implement this kind of stuff and for larger tribes you know just speaking from my own experience the Cherokee Nation Government you know we have a lot of internal problems you know there's corruption there's our leaders aren't always the most amazing people on earth so do you ever worry that some tribes are are not going to be able to take advantage of these provisions or going to choose not to take advantage of these provisions for other reasons yes yes I do the the fact of the matter is is that the law is on the books a tribe will choose to follow the law and my hope is that they will follow the law the women in our communities are no less than anybody else we have to protect everyone for me as a tribal leader and I am very lucky to be from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians we you know it's my responsibility as a tribal leader to do whatever I can to ensure safety on my boundary and so when that's the standard that I function from so I don't really it's hard for me to see it any other way I realize that there are tribes that are smaller and that may not have the resources to be able to do to implement the Violence Against Women Act that doesn't prohibit them from reaching out to other tribes and doing consortium agreements with each other and actually trying to work things out that way there are actually tribes that do that I know that there's some Pueblo tribes the Northern Pueblos in New Mexico actually do consortium type of agreements for their justice systems there's ways if there's a will there's a way and tribes that have been engaged in putting down I want to refer this to this as nation building so those tribes because I kind of feel like we're in a new place you know with this with the passage of this act we're kind of in a new era of tribal government development and I feel like we're in this place of nation building all over again we were as Lisa said so acts of genocide were committed against us purposefully so that they could have access so that this society could have access to everything here well we're not gone and so the so they may have shredded some of the inherent values that we have they may have shredded some of the systems that were in place because our clan structure is functions where it doesn't but we're still here and now we're reimagining who we are and living from the blessings of our ancestors that they had the perseverance and they to exist and to move forward and that we are part of that and that blood runs through our veins and I'm not going anywhere I just wanted to make a quick comment about that we have to tread lightly in the implementation there are so many so many different things that could happen or not happen and so I just wanted to say quickly that we have to be very careful in implementing these changes because in the pursuit of our own rights we want to make sure that we don't violate anyone else's rights in that process I just want to add too that we hear your comment and also that I think a lot of people don't realize if you don't have an experience with the tribal government a lot of our tribal justices are some of the most highly qualified and intelligent people in this country I mean we have tribal justices who graduate from Yale and Columbia and Harvard and our citizens of nations and go and serve on other tribal courts from Cherokee Nation we have our own former Cherokee Nation Supreme Court Justice Stacy and she leads gosh Dean leads and she is now the first Native American woman to become a Dean of a United School so we have really highly competent tribal court judges and just like our state courts and unfortunately maybe a few federal judges here and there but more the exception more in the state courts there is corruption I know of state court judges and federal court judges that have unfortunately also made mistakes and have not obeyed the law so I think if you read Oliphant there is this subtext that tribal courts are less than and they're really not they were obliterated and so we have to reconstruct them now but they aren't inherently less than which I want to be clear okay yes question in the back here Hi my name is Michelle I'm a second year at the law school thank you so much for this powerful performance I have a question about the interaction of VALA reauthorization with the tribal law in order act of 2010 you know I'm somebody who is interested in criminal defense and public defense and and also is a strong feminist and I think you know hearing the stories that you've presented are so powerful and and I really I think that people who who I think that perpetrators needs to be brought to justice and I also believe that that perpetrators need strong public defense and you know I struggle myself with being a feminist and with being anti-violent and believing in a non-cursor system of justice while also I guess I'm not being very articulate but I I guess my question is so I attended a really powerful panel at our rebellious lawyer conference a few months ago and it was on native peacemaking and we had a Columbia professor who was native as well as several Connecticut tribal members of tribes from Connecticut visit and tell us about native peacemaking in their communities and it was really powerful and interesting experience for me because it allowed me to think about justice in a real way in an anti-cursor way and I'm curious as to if any of you have thoughts on that if you want the Tribal Law and Order Act to be reconceptualized so that you can impose greater penalties on perpetrators thank you I'll answer that the greater penalties do you know what our sentencing authority is? under the Intensive of Rights Act we are one year and over $5,000 fine for murder for rape now with the Tribal Law and Order Act passing in 2010 it increased our sentencing authority to three years and over $15,000 fine for the same crimes we can stack that up to nine years but no more so when you're talking about the sentencing authority being increased it doesn't match the states it doesn't match the feds in any way shape or form so it's really minimal when you think about the level of crime that's being done and the slap on the hand literally that they get so I don't pity them in that respect and it's not enough but we still have a lot of work to do and there are my tribe for instance on the Tribal Law and Order Act in the Public Law 280 state my tribe was the first in the country the only one in the country at the moment that did a re-assumption of concurrent jurisdiction back to the feds so now we're trying to figure out this balancing of what the feds can do it's only been one year since that re-assumption of concurrent jurisdiction occurred and what does that look like what can they come in and what is their role and what is our community's role depending on what that is so there's a lot of work when it comes to you know to Tulawa and the implementations of Tulawa yeah I just want to I think I heard you did mention peacemaking right so I guess to my response to that piece of your question is that you know I think that victims never get talked to the person who's been victimized is usually the last person and I would say that given the the level of violence the level of violence that are committed against native women peacemaking really isn't an option for domestic violence crimes and certainly peacemaking assumes that there is some cultural teachings involved with the individual person if you have a non-native person it's by definition not part of the culture and so I think that the one thing that the one point that I really want to make is that in every you know the law students that are here you're going to be going out into a world where the Violence Against Women Act is functional and what I would encourage you to do is to think about any cases that you may get victim victims hardly ever get the attention they need they hardly ever consulted and I think that we would do ourselves a lot of I think at least more equal balance of the law if we could actually get to some understanding of what a victim goes through okay one final question I'm sorry oh okay it's been mentioned over and over that Alaska is different what about Hawaii I know in 1974 the Native Programs Act granted them some but not all the benefits of Native American in the continent granted and they don't like they don't have any sort of equivalent of a tribal government to protect them so how does act like this reflect those Native peoples I think the short answer is it really doesn't unfortunately Mary Catherine you want to yeah you know it we hate the phrase Alaska is different or Hawaii is different right because it's the same colonial concept it's the same kind of genocide that deconstructs tribal sovereign governments and replaces it with a different system however you know Alaska and Hawaii happened at a different time period and so the way it was orchestrated was different so the legal reality today is that Hawaii does not have federally recognized tribes and it's an entirely different and so some of you might read in your 14th amendment class here in law school Rice v. Kate Siano does that sound right and so you will read that case and you will see that when Hawaii became a state enabling act we talk a lot about the trust doctrine between the federal government and sovereign Indian nations in the lower 48 and because our nation signed hundreds and hundreds of treaties with the federal government the federal government has trust responsibilities to our nations and so that's one of the sources of the constitutional power for the tribal jurisdiction provision and that's why that was the constitutional exercise of congress' authority everyone remember that after you graduate from law school and go clerk but it's a little different when you look at the native people in Hawaii because their tribal governments were completely obliterated and they haven't yet been allowed to have federal recognition like our tribes have so unfortunately there are actually several steps behind and that is like a whole other issue I mean when we, you know it's sad it's like as the playwright I thought about that and I thank you for asking that because where are our native Hawaiian brothers and sisters and actually why am I talking about this Haley so I'm Hawaiian yeah as you just said Hawaii is very very behind in this process since we don't have any kind of tribal recognition the sovereignty movement in Hawaii is like very very grassroots there's a really small native population so I guess right now if you're looking out for anything to help Hawaii come to this point and activism the step that needs to be taken next is like sovereignty activism to get Hawaiians recognized as something similar okay thank you that reminds me that on a final closing note I really want to pay tribute to all of our students here at Yale that got up with us and in the midst of a busy class we have Native women who have stood up in the movement I'm an attorney we have a lot of people who are professionals and I think it gives us so much hope in our hearts to see the next generation coming up with such strong voices and such strong convictions and I know that our 7th generation is in good hands as these people rise and graduate so very proud thank you so much for having us and there is a reception at the Native American Cultural Center this evening that's already starting there's also a lunch hour 90 minute discussion tomorrow at the law school for people wanting more sustained interrogations on these issues Judge Fletcher will be joining many of our panelists our survivors today and lastly we have a few gifts for our survivors and tribal leaders that will wanting to bestow upon our guests shortly we'll start our reception with that process so in case you didn't get it the reception is at the Native American Cultural Center which is 26 High Street so for those of you who would like to join us you're not obligated but you're invited to come to 26 High Street now and we have some food and we'll have some more gifts exchanged and we'll keep talking and good company