From Maureen - Thanks
Where do they turn?
Tribal jurisdiction issues often prevent victims from coming forward, report
shows.

By Judy Gibbs Robinson
Staff Writer
http://www.newsok.com/article/3045142/

Oklahoma's tangle of law enforcement agencies and jurisdictions keeps many
American Indian women from getting justice in sexual assault cases, according to
a national report released Tuesday.
The patchwork of Indian and non-Indian land can create so much confusion no one
intervenes, leaving sexual violence victims without legal protection, Amnesty
International said in the report, "Maze of Injustice.”
"When an emergency call comes in, the sheriff will say ‘but this is Indian
land.' Tribal police will show up and say the reverse,” Juskwa Burnett of Ponca
City told Amnesty International.
Burnett ran a rape prevention program for the Kaw Nation until it closed for
lack of funding.
She was among scores of survivors, activists, law enforcement officials and
support providers Amnesty International interviewed in Oklahoma, Alaska and the
Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in the Dakotas.
The report
•Began in 2005, after federal crime statistics showed Indian women nationally
are victims of sexual violence at 2.5 times the rate of other U.S. women — and
those are just cases reported to law enforcement authorities.
•One Oklahoma support worker told investigators only three of 77 Indian women
she was currently working with had filed a police report.
•Time is critical in sexual assault cases in order to collect usable evidence
from the woman's body.
•But if the crime occurs in rural Oklahoma, "it may take weeks or months to
determine if it's Indian land or not,” an assistant U.S. attorney is quoted as
saying. He or she is not named in the report. The U.S. attorney's office in
Oklahoma City declined to comment on the report. A spokesman, Robert Troester,
said he was traveling Tuesday and had not read the report.
•As a result of the delays, many Indian women consider it useless to report
sexual violence, the report said.
•"All too often reporting a crime is a grievous insult added to a grievous
injury,” Larry Cox, director of Amnesty International USA, said in a conference
call with reporters.
•The report also criticized the Indian Health Service for having no sexual
assault nurse examiners in Oklahoma. Those are registered nurses with advanced
training in forensic examination of victims of sexual violence.
No one was available to comment on the report Tuesday at the Indian Health
Service, said Diane Dawson, a public affairs specialist in Washington.

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