Abstract

Excerpted From: Emily Knowlan, The Link Between Individual Domestic Violence and Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women: VAWA Is Not Enough, 20 University of Saint Thomas Law Journal 466 (2024) (132 Footnotes) (Full Document)

In 2019 and 2020, I worked as a domestic violence legal advocate with the Domestic Abuse Project in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was here I first worked with Native American individuals from the Minneapolis community who were experiencing or had experienced domestic violence and were seeking help. In working with members of the community, I saw firsthand how the cycle of domestic violence and acts of violence played out differently in the Native American community than with clients from broader Minneapolis. Generally, these clients had experienced higher rates of generational violence and trauma. Processing this trauma is necessary for healing from and ending the cycle of domestic violence, but this was not something I was equipped to help these individuals do.

Hearing the stories of American Indian clients opened my eyes to how they viewed aspects of domestic violence differently. When safety planning, women often found it difficult to identify safe places to go when there was an incident of domestic violence because often both the victim and the perpetrator had connections within the same community. Victims generally did not want to call the police because this would connect perpetrators to the criminal justice system. I supported the writing of orders for protection, but they were not filed as frequently with Native American populations as with other client populations.

I did not always have ways to help American Indian individuals experiencing domestic violence. I had not lived in their community; I was just a visitor. My experiences and education had not prepared me to step into the role of legal advocate for Native Americans experiencing domestic violence. I did not give up, but I recognized there was so much about their culture and history that I was not privy to and could never fully understand. This recognition needs to happen nationwide for there to be actual change with violence against Native American women.

This Note explores how the Violence Against Women Act and its subsequent reauthorizations have impacted Native American communities. As will be discussed, the Act has given jurisdiction back to tribes to prosecute specific violent crimes. But with the serious issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women, has the Act done enough? Arguably, no.

To combat the pervasive crisis of missing and murdered American Indian women and girls, individual acts of violence--with the focus of this Note being domestic violence, not sexual violence--need to be addressed. These communities experience numerous risk factors that must be dealt with before there can be any real change in combatting violence against American Indian women.

[. . .]

There is a direct link between domestic violence and the MMIW crisis. To even begin to adequately address the horror of missing and murdered American Indian women, the root of the problem--violence against women--needs to be addressed. Such violence is being addressed by the Violence Against Women Act, which has given participating tribes criminal jurisdiction. This still has not been enough. Data does not properly reflect the crisis, and without knowing what we are truly up against, current solutions are not sufficient.

Domestic violence, the individual acts of which are intertwined with MMIW, should be addressed through a public health approach. Doing so creates a process in which the problem is more accurately defined, protective and risk factors are defined, and then possible solutions are created, with the inclusion of Native American voices, and tested before implementation. Applying this four-step test shows there is not enough being done to address risk factors in Native American communities, risk factors that feed into domestic violence. Only by providing services to address risk factors, which combat against root causes of individual acts of violence, can we address the crisis of domestic violence American Indian women and girls are experiencing.

Emily Knowlan is a 2023 graduate of the University of St. Thomas School of Law. She also helped lead the University of St. Thomas Law Journal as the Digital Communications Editor for the 2022-2023 school year.