And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: http://www.indiancountry.com/NP25.HTML Sacred Circle responds to abuse Batterers learn that women are sacred By Jennifer Peterka Today staff Northern Plains Bureau RAPID CITY, S.D. - Unsettling statistics from the National Victim's Center show that more than 50 percent of women in America will be battered in their lifetimes, one out of three are battered repeatedly every year and every hour 78 women are forcibly raped in the United States. Working to disrupt the cycle of domestic violence are Sacred Circle, a Rapid City-based, national organization that provides training and technical assistance to tribes, and Mending the Sacred Hoop Technical Assistance Project from Duluth, Minn., Ojibwe Tribe. In a joint effort they sponsored the "Women are Sacred" conference, Nov. 15-19 in Rapid City. The conference was the second of two designed to provide tribal members from 18 states and 30 different tribes with advanced training to create coordinated community responses to stop violence against American Indian women. The first conference was in mid-September, in Rapid City. Funding for the conferences comes from the S.T.O.P (Services, Training, Officers and Prosecution) Violence Against Indian Women Discretionary Grant. Authorized by the Violence Against Women Act, the S.T.O.P. Indian program provides funding to strengthen tribal justice systems response to violent crimes against American Indian women, through conferences like this one. Since the inception of the S.T.O.P. in 1995, the U.S. Department of Justice has awarded South Dakota $1.4 million in S.T.O.P. Indian funds. Central theme of the conferences is the idea that domestic violence is not part of the traditional way of American Indian people. "We don't believe this is a traditional problem and while we promote some traditional solutions, we don't believe that purely traditional solutions will be effective," said Karen Artichoker, director of Sacred Circle. She has worked with domestic violence issues for the last 18 years. "Traditionally we did not have this kind of violence against women. When we look at trying to build a systems response on a large scale it's a lot more effective and efficient to combine traditional solutions with the western criminal justice system," said Artichoker. Unfortunately domestic violence is an increasing problem that plagues American Indian communities. "This problem of domestic violence is epidemic across the country. In South Dakota Native American women make up a small portion of the state population, yet they are 50 percent of domestic violence shelter population," Artichoker said. The College of Emergency Physicians reported that American Indian women are at particularly high risk for homicide, including domestic violence homicide. The department of justice found that American Indian women are also at a significantly higher risk for being stalked. Seventeen percent of American Indian women have been stalked compared to 8.1 percent of all women. <<END EXCERPT &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment ...http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit) Unenh onhwa' Awayaton http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ `"` `"` `"` `"` `"` `"`
