ABSTRACT 

This white paper closely examines the integration of spirituality within domestic violence services in Indian Country, focusing on its role in supporting survivor healing, cultural continuity, and community restoration. While conventional domestic violence service programs often prioritize physical protection, legal recourse, and crisis intervention, this discussion explores how spiritually and traditionally grounded approaches, informed by community perspectives and lived experiences, can further strengthen survivor-centered services for American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. By centering Tribal perspectives, this paper illuminates how traditional teachings and spiritual practices continue to shape pathways to healing and deepen community belonging within domestic violence programs in Indian Country.

1. INTRODUCTION

Domestic violence (DV) is not an anomaly within Native communities, but rather a persistent and cyclical public health and safety concern that continues to adversely affect AI/AN people and families. With more than 84% of AI/AN women experiencing violence, and more than half (56%) experiencing physical violence by their intimate partner in their lifetime¹, this data underscores that the impact of violence extends beyond immediate physical violence, but disrupts survivors' emotional, mental, traditional, and spiritual health and well-being. Simultaneously, many AI/AN survivors are encountering limitations in accessing service programs that prioritize or even reflect their traditional values and lived experiences. These limitations are rooted in underfunding, geographic isolation, barriers in urban settings, mistrust in institutions, insufficient infrastructure, staff shortages, and jurisdictional complexity. This lack of access is reflected not only in the small number of Native-centered domestic violence programs and community-specific resources available throughout Indian Country, but also in broader gaps many AI/AN survivors face in accessing legal advocacy, Native Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) services, public transportation, safe housing or shelter, and health care facilities. 

Across the United States, more than 1,500 domestic violence shelters provide services to survivors, but fewer than 60 Native-led programs serve Tribal communities throughout Indian Country. These barriers are especially acute for Native survivors living in urban areas, where Native-centered domestic violence programs are even more limited and access to traditionally-grounded services is often scarce or nonexistent. For many urban Native survivors, physical distance from their homeland can create a painful disconnect from ceremonies, traditional healers, and kinship ties. In some instances, survivors cannot safely return to their communities for spiritual support because their abuser remains there, or returning would force them to confront the site of severe trauma. Consequently, the disruption caused by domestic violence is compounded by the loss of access to the very spiritual practices that many Native survivors identify as paramount to their healing journey. While conventional DV service programs prioritize crisis intervention, physical protection, and legal recourse, many Tribal programs often experience structural constraints, including policy restrictions, a shortage of traditional practitioners, insufficient funding, impacts of intergenerational trauma, and geographic isolation. These conditions make it difficult to integrate spiritual practices consistently into DV programs in Indian Country. 

For many AI/AN survivors, healing is described as “calling back one’s spirit.” It is understood as a holistic journey that delicately interconnects the healing and wellness of individuals, families, communities, and future generations, recognizing that harm and healing are rarely experienced in isolation. Spirituality is not merely a “service” but is understood as lived and relational, expressed through prayer, sweat lodges, smudging, creation storytelling, talking circles, regalia-making, traditional medicines, language, traditional crafts, seasonal ceremonies, songs, and land-based activities—each reinforcing identity, belonging, and interconnectedness.

For most Native survivors, the experiences of domestic violence are further complicated by longstanding economic, social, and historical factors that have disrupted familial structures and intergenerational transmission of Indigenous knowledge and support systems. Historical and ongoing challenges stemming from displacement and forced separation have contributed to the erosion of Indigenous spiritual practices, thereby limiting access to traditionally grounded systems of care and pathways that have long supported survivor wellness and the overall vitality of Tribal communities.

2. FVPSA & TRIBAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SERVICES 

The Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA), enacted in 1984, remains the only federal funding source exclusively dedicated to supporting emergency shelter and support services for survivors of family violence, domestic violence, or dating violence and their dependents². FVPSA provides critical support for a range of initiatives, including funding for state and Tribal shelter programs, state domestic violence coalitions, training and technical assistance providers, and the National Domestic Violence Hotline³. With FVPSA funding, many Tribal Nations have instituted and expanded domestic violence programs that deliver comprehensive, traditionally-responsive services. Through these programs, survivors have accessed a range of supportive services, including emergency shelter, safety planning, counseling, legal advocacy, childcare, life skills development, and assistance with essential needs such as food, clothing, and transportation.

FVPSA has supported a diverse network of service providers, like community-based, culturally specific, Tribal, and faith-based organizations. Through this framework, faith-based organizations have been able to provide shelter, advocacy, counseling, and other supportive services to survivors of domestic violence. While FVPSA funds may not be used to support inherently religious activities, the inclusion of faith-based organizations reflects a broader recognition that survivors often seek safety, healing, and support through trusted community institutions. This acknowledgment demonstrates an understanding that healing pathways are not always limited to conventional service systems and may be strengthened through spiritually or community-grounded approaches.

In 2024, FVPSA supported over 240 Tribal domestic violence programs, many of which are the only domestic violence service providers in their communities. Despite the high demand for services, all but 36 received core grants too small to fund even one full-time advocate. This funding gap underscores the urgent need for increased and sustained investment in Tribal domestic violence services, particularly as many programs seek to expand spiritually and tradition-based approaches that survivors identify as necessary. 

3. THE ROLE OF SPIRITUALITY IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVOR HEALING

In Indian Country, healing has never been confined to a singular service, intervention, or program. Rather, it is carried through ceremony, relationships, land-based activities, Tribal values, engagement with knowledge keepers, language, and collective responsibility that sustain kinship. Yet these forms of healing are often obscured by infrastructures that shape domestic violence services. Tribal-led domestic violence programs play an essential role in providing traditionally responsive, trauma-informed support to AI/AN survivors. These programs operate at the junction of public health, tradition preservation, and community safety, offering services that reflect the unique customs, values, and lived experiences of Native peoples. Knowing this, Tribal-led domestic violence programs are uniquely positioned to respond to the interconnected complexities of these challenges. 

Tribal-led services are particularly vital given the complex and often inadequate infrastructure supporting AI/AN survivors. Geographic isolation, jurisdictional challenges, a shortage of law enforcement, scarce judicial systems, and historical trauma contribute to a landscape in which Native survivors often face significant challenges to safety and justice. In many cases, due to limited shelter capacity or a lack of available services, Tribal programs must refer survivors to off-reservation providers, disconnecting them from their traditions and community at a time when connection is most critical. 

Spiritually integrated services go beyond crisis response. They incorporate traditional practices such as talking circles, the use of spiritual medicines like cedar, sweetgrass, and sage, and the creation of healing spaces where survivors can speak, cleanse, and receive spiritual nourishment. Some programs integrate traditional art-making and seasonal ceremonial practices, including community healing gardens that provide plant medicines, support traditional healing, and offer opportunities to share intergenerational knowledge. These services reinforce Tribal values and foster a sense of belonging and dignity throughout the healing process.

Despite the indispensable role these programs play, they often face significant capacity constraints. Many communities lack sufficient numbers of traditional practitioners, program staff, elder liaisons, DV advocates, and outreach staff due to limited funding available for each Tribal Nation’s unique area(s) of need. As a result, existing staff are often required to manage multiple roles simultaneously, including crisis response, case management, shelter coordination, community outreach, and spiritual programming. This limits programs' ability to consistently ​​deliver trauma-informed care grounded in traditional knowledge and healing practices. Staffing shortages also reduce the time available for prevention work and follow-up care, creating gaps in service continuity and increasing reliance on already overextended personnel. In addition to staffing constraints, programs frequently lack sufficient funding, forcing Tribally-led programs to scale back or even discontinue activities that are central to survivor-centered services. In some cases, administrative processes and oversight structures led by non-Native intermediaries further complicate implementation, as traditionally rooted practices are sometimes misunderstood, undervalued, or treated as supplemental rather than essential service delivery. These limitations collectively constrain program flexibility and reinforce gaps between what AI/AN survivors identify as their needs and what programs can consistently provide.

4. RECOMMENDATIONS

Tribally-led programs frequently find themselves having to quantify traditional workshops, deeply spiritual ceremonial practices, and spiritual support as legitimate services despite their invaluable role in healing survivors. Although FVPSA remains the most critical federal funding source of support for Tribal domestic violence programs, only 10% of annual shelter and services appropriations are allocated directly to Tribal Nations and Tribal organizations. These awards vary significantly, ranging from approximately $55,000 to more than $2.29 million per recipient, depending on funding allocations. For many programs, these resources must stretch across staffing, advocacy, shelter operations, prevention activities, and survivor support services, often leaving limited capacity to develop, coordinate, and expand spiritually integrated programming. 

To strengthen domestic violence services in Indian Country, funding systems must explicitly integrate spirituality as core service delivery. Federal agencies, state administrators, and funding entities should provide Tribal domestic violence programs with the flexibility to develop and implement spiritually relevant curricula and resources. Funding should support the meaningful engagement and compensation of elders, spiritual leaders, program staff, Native practitioners, and knowledge keepers, whose spiritual expertise is heavily relied upon to support survivor healing. Programs should not be required to continually justify these contributions as ancillary to domestic violence services. Additional support is needed to actively build staff capacity within Tribal programs, giving them space to coordinate such programming while continuing to provide essential survivor services. 

 Increasing funding allocations and establishing permanent funding for key programs will help reduce service gaps and ensure that traditionally appropriate, life-saving services are accessible where they are most needed. Spirituality is not ancillary to Native survivor services, but an integral component of fostering long-term healing.  Native-led programs are best positioned to deliver trauma-informed care grounded in traditional knowledge and healing practices. Continued and expanded support for these programs is necessary to promote safety, healing, and long-term recovery in AI/AN communities.

5. CONCLUSION

AI/AN communities continue to be impacted by domestic violence in profound ways. The realities of violence on Tribal lands and in urban areas reflect not only individual experiences of harm but the broader institutional conditions of historical trauma, jurisdictional challenges, and limited access to essential services that impact how safety is understood, delivered, and sustained for the well-being of Native people. Healing, in relation to one’s ancestors and spiritual beliefs, is understood not solely as the absence of violence, but the restoration of connection to self, community, land, tradition, and spirit. These connections are not separate from DV survivor-centered healing services, but are fundamental to the healing process itself. As Tribal domestic violence programs continue to respond to the evolving needs of AI/AN survivors, spiritually and traditionally grounded approaches remain instrumental to honoring Tribal sovereignty in the response to domestic violence. Strengthening the capacity of Tribal programs to provide these services not only supports survivors' well-being but also reinforces the Indigenous knowledge, relationships, and community systems that have sustained Tribal Nations for generations. Recognizing and supporting these approaches is critical to ensuring that AI/AN survivors have access to services that reflect their values, honor their experiences, and support their full journey toward healing and living freely.

This publication was made possible by Grant Number 90-EV0533-05 from the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

1. Rosay, A. B. (2016). Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and Men: 2010 Findings from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice.
2. National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Family Violence Prevention and Services Fact Sheet, https://www.niwrc.org/sites/default/files/images/resource/FVPSA%20Factsheet.pdf
3. Id.