Here. (pdf, 39 pgs). Additional press coverage here.
A few excerpts:
Sen. Akaka:
This bill’s tribal provisions address the epidemic rates of violence against Native women by enabling VAWA pro- grams to more directly and promptly respond to their concerns and needs. These tribal provisions are critical to the lives of Native women and doubly important to me as chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and a Native Hawaiian.
Native women are 21⁄2 times more likely than other U.S. women to be battered or raped. These are extremely disturbing statistics: 34 percent of Native women will be raped in their life- times and 39 percent will suffer domes- tic violence. That is more than one out of every three Native women. We must come together to put a stop to this.
Last summer I chaired an oversight hearing entitled ‘‘Native Women—Protecting, Shielding, and Safeguarding Our Sisters, Mothers, and Daughters.’’ I heard the heartbreaking stories that lie behind the grim and troubling statistics on violence against American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian women.
My committee heard from the chief of the Catawba Nation, who gave a moving account of his experience growing up with domestic violence and the impact it had on the women and children in his community. He also spoke of the importance of reauthorizing VAWA.
We heard from officials who described how existing laws are failing Native women. We heard, for example, that women in tribal communities live in a confusing and dangerous jurisdictional maze, in which the absence of clear lines of authority often leads to offenders, many of whom are non-Native men, escaping investigation and prosecution, to say nothing of punishment. This outrageous and unacceptable situation has led to repeated offenses against Native women that too often spiral into violence with tragic consequences for the women, their children, and their communities.
My committee also heard that Native women are being increasingly targeted by the sex-trafficking industry and that many have, according to police reports in tribal communities across the country, simply vanished into this terrible underworld. The draft bill to address violence against Native women was circulated to a wide range of stakeholders for feedback. This led to strengthened provisions in the draft bill which I introduced as S. 1763, the Stand Against Violence and Empower Native Women Act.
Sen. Murray:
Deborah is the Vice Chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribe in my home State of Washington.
Yesterday she joined Senators BOXER, KLOBUCHAR and me to tell her emotional story about the devastating effects violence can have on women— especially Native women.Deborah was repeatedly abused, starting at a very young age, by a non- tribal man who lived on her reservation. Not until after the abuse stopped around the 4th grade did Deborah realize she wasn’t the only child suffering at the hands of her assailant—at least a dozen other young girls had fallen victim to this man.
This is a man who was never arrested for these crimes; never brought to justice; and still walks free today. All because he committed these heinous acts on the reservation—and as someone who is not a member of a tribe,it is an unfortunate reality that he is unlikely to be held liable for his crimes.The debate we had over the provisions in this legislation was a matter of fairness.
Deborah’s experience—and the experience of the other victims of this man—does not represent an isolated incident.
In fact 34 percent of Native Women will be raped; 39 percent of Native Women will be subjected to domestic violence; and 56 percent of Native Women will marry a non-Indian who most likely would not be held liable for any violent crimes committed if these protections hadn’t been included in this legislation.
Where people live and who they marry should not determine whether or not perpetrators of domestic violence are brought to justice.With this bill today, we are taking a major step to uphold our government’s promise to protect its citizens.
Sen. Feinstein
The Chairman of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in Highland, CA recently wrote to me to emphasize the importance of closing the jurisdic- tional loophole. According to the chair- man, the rampant violence against Native women can in part be attributed to the absence of tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Indian perpetrators.
Crimes of domestic violence or dating violence that would typically lead to convictions and sentences of any- where between 6 months and 5 years in U.S. courts are too often falling through the cracks in the legal system when identical crimes occur in Indian Country.
Sen. Leahy:
The Republican proposal also fails to adequately protect Tribal victims. Domestic violence in tribal communities is an epidemic. Four out of five perpetrators of domestic or sexual violence on Tribal lands are non-Indian and currently cannot be prosecuted by tribal governments.
If you need more convincing of this problem, listen to the senior Senator from Washington and the Senators from New Mexico, Montana, Alaska and Hawaii who have spoken so compellingly to the Senate about these concerns and who strongly support the provisions in the bipartisan Leahy- Crapo bill.
The Republican proposal is no real alternative to fix the jurisdictional loophole that is allowing the domestic and sexual violence against Native women to go undeterred and unremedied. Its proposal offers a false hope, a provision that purports to allow a tribe to petition a Federal court for a protective order to exclude individuals from tribal land. It does not even allow the victim herself to request the order, and it does nothing to ensure that a violent offender is held accountable.
This is a false alternative. It is not what the Justice Department has suggested. It is not what the Indian Affairs Committee has supported. It will do next to nothing and is no answer to the epidemic of violence against Native women.
Turtle Talk 