Violence Against Native Women is Not Traditional

Violence Against Women is not a Native tradition. It was not tolerated and in native women the rare event that it occurred, it was taken seriously. Abuse wasn’t considered a “private family matter.” Now we must deal with the reality that we are hurting each other. We must begin to responsibly address these issues as native peoples. It is not our fault that we are where we are today. To blame each other is not productive – that would be acting out the internalized oppression that we experience as a People. One way that many Tribes are attempting to deal with how we are hurting each other is through domestic violence, violence against women, family violence or spouse abuse laws. In the tradition of our ancestors, and to ensure that our Nations survive, we are saying that abusive behavior will not be tolerated. Every individual was, and now again, is expected to be responsible for their own behavior