(no subject)
rayemars posted about Pretty Bird Woman House, a women's shelter located on the South Dakota side of the Standing Rock Reservation. It is very, very important that you read her post as well as this very informative post by Andy T at Daily Kos. I am indebted to both for much of this post.
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On January 5th, 2006, after years of effort on the parts of Jackie Brown Otter, Georgia Little Shield, and the women who supported them, Pretty Bird Woman House opened. The shelter is understaffed and poorly funded, but in the nearly two years that it has existed, it has not once closed.
In recent weeks the shelter has suffered a number of damaging and potentially final setbacks. The phone lines were cut, then eventually repaired. A group of unknown men vandalized and raided the shelter, walking out with clothing, toiletries, computers, anything they could carry with them. After a second break-in the staff deemed the house temporarily unsafe. They relocated to unheated, donated office space.
The day after they moved, arsonists set fire to Pretty Bird Woman House.
PBWH is dependent on a number of grants, some of which require that they provide shelter to battered women and their children. If Pretty Bird Woman House cannot provide this shelter, they will lose the money they need to continue helping the women of Standing Rock Reservation.
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Standing Rock Reservation is not a terribly safe place for women. An Amnesty International report has this to say:
The reservation's night patrol consists of two police officers responsible for 2.3 million acres, and the legal environment is nothing short of a nightmare:
What this means is that many, many cases of rape and sexual assault will be lost, forgotten, or never addressed as the police agencies fight over whose responsibility it is to investigate the crime. Even worse, this negligence has contributed to something known as rape tourism, in which "non-Native perpetrators ... seek out a reservation place because they know they can inflict violence without much happening to them" (Andrea Smith, Assistant Professor of Native Studies, University of Michigan).
These women are the women Pretty Bird Woman House exists to help.
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Andy T at Daily Kos writes:
If you cannot donate money, please consider donating material goods such as clothing, toiletries, and other non-perishable items. Goods (and checks if you would rather make a financial donation off-line) can be shipped to the following addresses:
USPS ships to:
Please.
*
On January 5th, 2006, after years of effort on the parts of Jackie Brown Otter, Georgia Little Shield, and the women who supported them, Pretty Bird Woman House opened. The shelter is understaffed and poorly funded, but in the nearly two years that it has existed, it has not once closed.
In recent weeks the shelter has suffered a number of damaging and potentially final setbacks. The phone lines were cut, then eventually repaired. A group of unknown men vandalized and raided the shelter, walking out with clothing, toiletries, computers, anything they could carry with them. After a second break-in the staff deemed the house temporarily unsafe. They relocated to unheated, donated office space.
The day after they moved, arsonists set fire to Pretty Bird Woman House.
PBWH is dependent on a number of grants, some of which require that they provide shelter to battered women and their children. If Pretty Bird Woman House cannot provide this shelter, they will lose the money they need to continue helping the women of Standing Rock Reservation.
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Standing Rock Reservation is not a terribly safe place for women. An Amnesty International report has this to say:
- High levels of sexual violence on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation take place in a context of high rates of poverty and crime. South Dakota has the highest poverty rate for Native American women in the USA with 45.3 per cent living in poverty. The unemployment rate on the Reservation is 71 per cent. Crime rates on the Reservation often exceed those of its surrounding areas. According to FBI figures, in 2005 South Dakota had the fourth highest rate of "forcible rapes" of women of any US state.
Amnesty International was told of five rapes which took place over one week in September 2005. Many survivors reported that they had experienced sexual violence several times in their lives and by different perpetrators. There were also several reports of gang rapes. One survivor and activist told Amnesty International that people have become desensitized to acts of sexual violence. A common response to such crimes is blame, but directed at the survivor rather than the perpetrator.
The reservation's night patrol consists of two police officers responsible for 2.3 million acres, and the legal environment is nothing short of a nightmare:
- Tribal and federal authorities have concurrent jurisdiction on all Standing Rock Sioux Reservation lands over crimes where the suspected perpetrator is American Indian. In instances in which the suspected perpetrator is non-Indian, federal officials have exclusive jurisdiction. Neither North nor South Dakota state police have jurisdiction over sexual violence against Native American women on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. State police do, however, have jurisdiction over crimes of sexual violence committed on tribal land in instances where the victim and the perpetrator are both non-Indian.
What this means is that many, many cases of rape and sexual assault will be lost, forgotten, or never addressed as the police agencies fight over whose responsibility it is to investigate the crime. Even worse, this negligence has contributed to something known as rape tourism, in which "non-Native perpetrators ... seek out a reservation place because they know they can inflict violence without much happening to them" (Andrea Smith, Assistant Professor of Native Studies, University of Michigan).
These women are the women Pretty Bird Woman House exists to help.
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Andy T at Daily Kos writes:
- Pretty Bird Woman House already has two potential replacement houses in mind. Both offer significantly more space than the previous building. Georgia described how they both had full basements, storage room and would house more than double the families and women than their previous building. Both buildings have yards which means possible playgrounds for children.
- Pretty Bird Woman House cannot serve the women who need help now - if neighboring shelters are full battered women and rape victims needing a place to go have nowhere at all.
- the lack of a shelter disqualifies Pretty Bird Woman House from many grants.
- the situation requires Pretty Bird Woman House to stretch its resources to the breaking point - it cannot be sustained.
One house has a major advantage in location - a police station across the street.
Because of difficulties obtaining loans (banks are allergic to both Native Americans and poverty) the best solution lies in purchasing the house outright. The Tribal Council could hold the mortgage but coming up with the mortgage payments every month creates an ongoing problem. Since both houses are on the market, they could be gone anytime. Depressed property values on Standing Rock mean that $60,000 gets the house. An additional $10,000 is required to make them secure, with proper fencing, video cameras, reinforced doors and other measures. Neither house is in great shape, but both offer shelter and that remains the bottom line for the survival of Pretty Bird Woman House.
This is urgent for many reasons:
If you cannot donate money, please consider donating material goods such as clothing, toiletries, and other non-perishable items. Goods (and checks if you would rather make a financial donation off-line) can be shipped to the following addresses:
USPS ships to:
- Pretty Bird Woman House
P.O. Box 596
McLaughlin, SD 57642
- Pretty Bird Woman House
302 Sale Barn Rd.
McLaughlin SD 57642
Please.