Changing Winds
Advocacy Center
* Changing Winds Inc * PO Box 801 * Fairfield, CT * 06824 * 203-256-9720 *
A Native American Civil Rights and Education Agency
A 501 C3 nonprofit charitable organization

Weaving Dreams of Justice
Bringing Comfort to Native American Women Victims of Violence

Cathy Flinn has committed herself to bringing comfort to Native American women who have been victimized by non-Native men for reasons of ONGOING historical mistreatment. It is time to bring awareness of these most disturbing hate crimes. Changing Winds calls upon everyone to forward the statistics below, please circulate this far and wide!

BRING AWARENESS TO THIS SITUATION! Read statistics here.

Cathy is asking us to buy raffle tickets for $5.00 each to win one of her beautiful handmade scarves. Drawing will be held when we reach $750. Thats only 150 tickets!! ALL of the proceeds will go towards purchasing materials to make 25 shawls for Native American women who have been victims of violence. By forwarding this on to your friends, you raising awareness and doing your part. For $5 you can purchase a raffle ticket for Cathy's beautiful scarf!
Please visit Cathy's site to see her project: http://cathyweaves.com/ScarfRaffle.aspx

Last year, during our Winter Warmth Drive, someone sent a handmade afghan blanket that she's had her whole life, and had been made by her grandmother. As an adult, this anonymous donor decided to send it to the Family Violence Resource Center in Montana. As the women who worked there wondered what kind of amazing person who send such a cherished gift, they also wondered who they would give it to. Later that day, a 20 year old young woman came into the Center. She had been beaten beyond recognition and was emotionally broken. The ladies who worked there knew the blanket was for her, and as they wrapped the blanket around her, they all said they could feel that grandmother come into room, bringing so much comfort and love.

In early March of this year, Cathy Flinn approached Christine Rose and told her about her own health issues. Having suffered multiple debilitating heart attacks and strokes, there has been little she can do to help her feel productive. But she began having recurring dreams about weaving, and she called Changing Winds to find out if there was any way she could help. Cathy's story immediately reminded Christine of the comfort brought by the afghan blanket, and together they developed this new program.

Weaving and knitting are age old crafts, made with love. Woven gifts are made with beautiful intentions that become interwoven in the fabric of the gift. PLEASE BUY A RAFFLE TICKET OR IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE BY KNITTING OR WEAVING, PLEASE CONTACT CHANGING WINDS AND WE WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH ADDRESSES TO SEND YOUR GIFTS OF COMFORT.

Write to Christine Rose at CWAdvocacyCenter@aol.com or call 203-256-9720. Visit http://cathyweaves.com/ScarfRaffle.aspx to see the scarf to be raffled.

Purchase a $5.00 raffle ticket through Paypal, or send a check to Changing Winds, Weaving Dreams, PO Box 801, Fairfield, CT 06824.

Abridged from the Maze Of Injustice report,
© 2007 Amnesty International USA

Violent Abuse of Native American Women
Abridged from the Maze Of Injustice report,
© 2007 Amnesty International USA

As citizens of particular tribal nations, the welfare and safety of American Indian and Alaska Native women are directly linked to the authority and capacity of their nations to address such violence.

American Indian and Alaska Native women continue to experience high levels of sexual violence, a systemic failure to punish those responsible and official indifference to their rights to dignity, security and justice.

Over the past decade, federal government studies have consistently shown that American Indian and Alaska Native women experience much higher levels of sexual violence than other women in the USA.

Data gathered by the US Department of Justice indicates that Native American and Alaska Native women are more than 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women in the USA in general.

A US Department of Justice study on violence against women concluded that 34.1 per cent of American Indian and Alaska Native women – or more than one in three – will be raped during their lifetime; the comparable figure for the USA as a whole is less than one in five.

According to the US Department of Justice, in at least 86 per cent of reported cases of rape or sexual assault against American Indian and Alaska Native women, survivors report that the perpetrators are non-Native men. In contrast, in 2004, perpetrators in 65.1 per cent of rapes of white victims were white, and 89.8 per cent of perpetrators in rapes of African American victims were African American.

Indigenous women in the USA may be targeted for acts of violence and denied access to justice on the basis of their gender and Indigenous identity.

Indigenous women described to Amnesty International how they experience contemporary sexual violence as a legacy of impunity for past atrocities.

Rape is always an act of violence, but there is evidence to suggest that sexual violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women involves a higher level of additional physical violence. Fifty per cent of American Indian and Alaska Native women reported that they suffered physical injuries in addition to the rape; the comparable figure for women in general in the USA is 30 per cent.

More than one in three Native American or Alaska Native women will be raped at some point in their lives. Most do not seek justice because they know they will be met with inaction or indifference. As one support worker said, “Women don’t report because it doesn’t make a difference. Why report when you are just going to be revictimized?” Sexual violence against women is not only a criminal or social issue, it is a human rights abuse.

Chronic under-resourcing of law enforcement and health services, confusion over jurisdiction, erosion of tribal authority, discrimination in law and practice, and indifference – all these factors play a part.

In order to achieve justice, survivors of sexual violence frequently have to navigate a maze of tribal, state and federal law. The US federal government has created a complex interrelation between these three jurisdictions that undermines equality before the law and often allows perpetrators to evade justice. In some cases this has created areas of effective lawlessness which encourages violence. Sometimes the confusion and the length of time it takes to decide whether tribal, state or federal authorities have jurisdiction over a particular crime result in inadequate investigations or in a failure to respond at all.

For different reasons and in different ways none of the three justice systems – federal, state and tribal — are responding adequately to Indigenous survivors of sexual violence. The US government has interfered with the ability of tribal justice systems to respond to crimes of sexual violence by underfunding tribal justice systems, prohibiting tribal courts from trying non-Indian suspects and limiting the custodial sentences which tribal courts can impose for any one offense.

The extent to which cases involving American Indian women are dropped before they even reach a federal court is difficult to quantify as the US Attorney’s Office does not compile such statistics. However, the evidence gathered by Amnesty International suggests that in a considerable number of instances the authorities decide not to prosecute reported cases of sexual violence against Native women. When federal prosecutors decline to prosecute cases involving non-Native perpetrators, there is no further recourse for Indigenous survivors under criminal law within the USA.

At all levels, law enforcement and justice systems are failing to inform survivors about the progress of their cases and there is little accountability for failure to investigate or prosecute. For some survivors this can mean months or even years of fear and insecurity.

The long history of abuse cannot be erased, but Indigenous women all over the USA are working with determination and hope for a future where their right to dignity and security is respected. Drawing on their work and experience, this report concludes with a series of recommendations calling on the authorities to fulfil their obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for sexual violence and to promote the fundamental rights of Indigenous women.
Click here to read the full report. http://www.amnestyusa.org/women/maze/report.pdf

Changing Winds Advocacy Center
PO Box 801
Fairfield, CT 06824
203-256-9720
CWAdvocacyCenter@aol.com

© 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 - Changing Winds Advocacy Center