Here. (pdf, 39 pgs). Additional press coverage here.
A few excerpts:
Sen. Akaka:
This bill’s tribal provisions address the epidemic rates of violence against Native women by enabling VAWA pro- grams to more directly and promptly respond to their concerns and needs. These tribal provisions are critical to the lives of Native women and doubly important to me as chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and a Native Hawaiian.
Native women are 21⁄2 times more likely than other U.S. women to be battered or raped. These are extremely disturbing statistics: 34 percent of Native women will be raped in their life- times and 39 percent will suffer domes- tic violence. That is more than one out of every three Native women. We must come together to put a stop to this.
Last summer I chaired an oversight hearing entitled ‘‘Native Women—Protecting, Shielding, and Safeguarding Our Sisters, Mothers, and Daughters.’’ I heard the heartbreaking stories that lie behind the grim and troubling statistics on violence against American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian women.
My committee heard from the chief of the Catawba Nation, who gave a moving account of his experience growing up with domestic violence and the impact it had on the women and children in his community. He also spoke of the importance of reauthorizing VAWA.
We heard from officials who described how existing laws are failing Native women. We heard, for example, that women in tribal communities live in a confusing and dangerous jurisdictional maze, in which the absence of clear lines of authority often leads to offenders, many of whom are non-Native men, escaping investigation and prosecution, to say nothing of punishment. This outrageous and unacceptable situation has led to repeated offenses against Native women that too often spiral into violence with tragic consequences for the women, their children, and their communities.
My committee also heard that Native women are being increasingly targeted by the sex-trafficking industry and that many have, according to police reports in tribal communities across the country, simply vanished into this terrible underworld. The draft bill to address violence against Native women was circulated to a wide range of stakeholders for feedback. This led to strengthened provisions in the draft bill which I introduced as S. 1763, the Stand Against Violence and Empower Native Women Act.
Turtle Talk 