Gender-Based Violence and American Indian and Alaska Native Communities

This event hosted by the National Institute of Justice and the NIJ Violence Against Women Research Consortium features three presentations:

Presentation 1 – Dr. Emily M. Wright, Dr. Tara N. Richards, and Sheena Gilbert: This NIJ-funded project, used a mixed methods research design to understand the scope and context of missing Native American person cases in Nebraska. This presentation will describe the goals of the project, the methodology, and the quantitative results of the study. The scope and profile of missing Native American missing person cases in 2020 in Nebraska will be described.

Presentation 2 – Dr. Catherine McKinley: Inequities are prevalent for women and non-binary peoples across all ethnic identities but are persistently and disproportionately worse for Indigenous peoples. Gender and racial based inequities span from the home life to Indigenous women’s wellness—including physical, mental, and social health. The conundrum of how and why Indigenous women –many of whom historically held respected and even held sacred status in many matrilineal and female-centered communities – now experience the highest rates of gendered based violence is focal to this work. Unlike Western European and colonial contexts, Indigenous societies tended to be organized in fundamentally distinct ways that were woman-centered and where gender roles and values were reportedly more egalitarian, fluid, flexible, inclusive, complementary, and harmonious. Using the Indigenist framework of historical oppression, resilience, and transcendence (FHORT) this presentation takes a research-based approach linking historical oppression, gender-based inequities, and violence against Indigenous women and understanding of how patriarchal colonialism undermines all genders.

Presentation 3 – Dr. Andre B. Rosay: This presentation provides estimates from a national large-scale survey of violence against women and men who identified themselves as American Indian or Alaska Native. The survey was conducted in 2010 and used detailed behaviorally specific questions on psychological aggression, coercive control and entrapment, physical violence, stalking, and sexual violence. The results raised our awareness and understanding of violence experienced by American Indian and Alaska Native people

The objectives for this event are:

• To understand the scope and profile of missing Native American persons in Nebraska
• Understand How Settler Colonial Historical Oppression Has Imposed and Perpetuated Structural
• Violence Against Indigenous Peoples
• Identify Culturally Relevant Promotive and Protective Factors
• Provide an Example of Indigenist Research That is Promotive Against Historical Oppression
• Understand How All Are Accountable for Dismantling the Internalized Colonial Mindset
• Prevent Complicity is Perpetuating Settler Colonial Historical Oppression Institutionally,
• Interpersonally, and Internally
• Describe the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey
• Interpret estimates of violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women and men
• Identify implications for policy and practice

REGISTER