The Indian Law Resource Center has launched a petition asking Congress to stand with Indian nations to stop the epidemic of violence against Native women. Join the petition and urge Congress to pass a better, stronger VAWA now that will protect Native women and ALL women!
The Indian Law Resource Center released a new short video this week urging lawmakers to reauthorize a stronger version of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) to protect Native women from violence.
In the video, Native women raise awareness about statistics that show one in three of them will be raped in their lifetime and six in ten will be physically assaulted. Even worse, on some reservations, the murder rate for Native women is ten times the national average.
“I want the rights afforded other women in this country. I want to be safe and when my safety is violated, I want justice,” says a young Native woman in the video.
Jana L. Walker is a Senior Staff Attorney and the Director of the Indian Law Resource Center’s Safe Women, Strong Nations project.
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples signals a new means to change federal law and policy to restore safety to Native women, to strengthen Indian nations and advance their jurisdiction over crimes within their territories, and to end the cycle of violence in Native communities.
The right to be safe and live free from violence is one of the most fundamental and important human rights recognized internationally. Continue reading →
by Robert T. Coulter*
Robert T. Coulter is Executive Director of the Indian Law Resource Center. He is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and has more than 30 years of experience in the field of Indian law.
It has been just a year since President Obama announced the Administration’s support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and promised action to implement at least some of those rights. Across the country, tribal governments are seizing the Declaration and using it creatively to protect their lands and resources, and especially their rights to cultural and sacred sites.
For example, the Navajo Nation has used the Declaration in its efforts to protect the San Francisco Peaks, and the Seneca Nation has pointed out Article 37 (“Indigenous peoples have the right to the recognition, observance and enforcement of treaties”) in its efforts to resolve a 60-year occupation of Seneca territory by the New York State Thruway that violates the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua. Continue reading →
Please visit our website at www.indianlaw.org and share our new video, “To the Indigenous Woman,” which is intended to raise awareness and help end violence against Native women. If you click on the Take Action button, you will also find our first video, “Three Little Indians,” released about two weeks ago, along with oither resources and live testimony from our recent thematic hearing on violence against Native women before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Ryan Red Corn (Osage), with the help of the 1491s, developed the videos for us.
As you may know, on Thursday, November 10, 2011, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a hearing on S. 1763, the SAVE Native Women Act, recently introduced by Chairman Akaka. The hearing will be viewable by live webcast at http://indian.senate.gov/hearings/.
The Indian Law Resource Center is a non‐profit legal advocacy organization dedicated to providing legal advice, assistance, and representation to Indian tribes and indigenous communities throughout the Americas. We are also
committed to developing new attorneys in the fields of Indian law and international human rights law.
To this end, we offer several fellowship and clerkship opportunities in both our Helena, Montana and Washington, D.C. offices.
The Indian Law Resource Center is a non-profit legal advocacy organization dedicated to providing legal advice, assistance, and representation to Indian tribes and indigenous communities throughout the Americas. We are also committed to developing new attorneys in the fields of Indian law and international human rights law.
To this end, we offer several fellowship and clerkship opportunities in both our Helena, Montana and Washington, D.C. offices. These fellowship and clerkship opportunities require a minimum eight week commitment and entail legal research and writing on major Indian rights issues related to current projects of the Indian Law Resource Center. The Lewis and Sidley Fellowships both offer a stipend of $3,000 for the term of the Fellowship. Applicants are welcome to supplement this stipend with additional financial support through their law school’s public interest programs or through other public interest scholarships.
. The John D.B. Lewis Fellowship is a competitive fellowship awarded each year to a law student who shows particular promise for a career in international indigenous human rights issues.
. The Terrance A. Sidley Fellowship is a competitive Fellowship awarded each year to a law student who shows particular promise for a career in federal Indian law and international indigenous human rights issues.
. A limited number of unpaid, competitive legal clerkships are also available. Applicants for these clerkships are encouraged to seek their own financial support through their law school’s public interest programs or through other public interest scholarships.
The Indian Law Resource Center, based in Helena, Mont., and Washington, D.C., is among three organizations to share the 2010 Gruber Justice Prize given to individuals and groups that, through the legal system, champion the rights of oppressed peoples.
Reactions to the November 5th White House Tribal Nations Conference
Rob Capriccioso/Indian Country Today photo
President Obama met with Indian leaders on November 5th, and promised the over 400 in attendance that he would make sure First Americans, along with all Americans, get the opportunities they deserve.
“The first step should be a commitment by the Administration to respect and promote our most fundamental rights as Indian nations and individuals – something that the United States has refused to do up to now by refusing to endorse the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” says Lucy Simpson, a senior staff attorney with the Center.
Listen to Lucy’s full reaction to the White House Tribal Nations Conference. Joe Kennedy, chairman of the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe of the Western Shoshone Nation, and Ben Shelly, vice president of the Navajo Nation, who both attended the meeting with the President also shares their thoughts. (More…)
The Indian Law Resource Center is a non‐profit legal advocacy organization dedicated to providing legal advice, assistance, and representation to Indian tribes and indigenous communities throughout the Americas. We are also
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