Restoration Magazine

“The experiences of women who have survived or lost their lives to domestic violence and sexual assault, the work of women’s shelters nationwide like the Emmonak Women’s Shelter (EWS) and White Buffalo Calf Women’s Society (WBCWS), and volunteer safe homes have been the lifeblood of the grassroots movement for change over the past 40 years. While we’ve seen changes in laws, policies, and social norms, there remain so many outstanding changes that women and their children need. Shelters are uniquely positioned to inform changes that restore Tribal sovereignty and women’s safety. Join us in thanking the volunteers, staff, and board of EWS and WBCWS and other shelters nationwide and around the world for this strong-hearted work,” said Lucy Simpson, Executive Director, NIWRC.

Survivors, advocates, and shelters have been at the forefront, bravely providing advocacy, emergency shelter, and safe housing for women and their children many times from their own homes and advocating for social and system changes locally, statewide, and nationally. For American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian women, the availability of shelters designed and managed by Native advocates is underwhelming, given the disproportionate statistics of domestic violence, sexual assault, and sex trafficking of Native victims. We have less than 60 Tribal shelters (no Native Hawaiian shelters) and less than 300 Tribal domestic violence and sexual assault programs, and too often, these shelters operate whether or not they have funding. Many, if not all, of these Native shelters and programs operate from the perspective of providing for each other as relatives, which has sustained them through challenging times.

“In the early years, women opened their homes to other women in need and the children that came with their mothers. In the seventies, we did this as women helping other women, sisters helping sisters, as relatives.”—Tillie Black Bear, Sicangu Lakota.

Many, if not all, of these Native shelters and advocacy programs are invaluable community resources for help on many issues, not just domestic violence. The lack of available safe housing for Native peoples also contributes to the increase in houselessness/ homelessness among victims of domestic violence, including those headed by female single-parent households.

Too often, shelters (including volunteer safe homes) and advocacy programs are all that women have to keep them from being houseless, going missing, and being murdered, especially in light of how common law enforcement is not available or the justice system fails to hold those accountable who cause harm, including when justice officials commit acts of domestic violence or sexual assault. We must do better to support existing Native women’s shelters, as well as the development of new Native advocacy programs and shelters.

• Please join us and sign on with our campaigns at niwrc.quorum.us.
• Learn more about our STTARS Indigenous Safe Housing Center at niwrc.org/housing/about.

In the following pages, we honor and thank advocates, the EWS and the WBCWS, as the two oldest nonprofit Native women’s shelters in the United States. In upcoming editions, we will continue to honor Native women’s shelters and thank them for their strong-hearted love, advocacy, and support for the women and children of their Tribes and communities.