Indian women describe violence
By Charles S. Johnson - June 24, 2009

HELENA - Speaking through tears at times Wednesday, some American Indian women
from Montana reservations told about the domestic and sexual violence they
suffered for years before seeking help and putting a stop to it.

The keynote speaker at the conference exploring ways to stop violence against
Montana Indian women, Eileen Hudon of the Minnesota Coalition for Battered
Women, said talking about domestic and sexual abuse is an important first step.
"The silence is broken at the kitchen table," she said.

State Public Health and Human Services Director Anna Whiting Sorrell said she
was a victim of domestic violence before she married a wonderful husband.

"I know what those bruises are like," she said. "I am one of you."

Then, before a hushed audience of about 80 people in the House chambers, some
other Montana victims of domestic and sexual violence shared their stories,
often in graphic detail.

Evelyn Hernandez of the Confederated and Salish tribes said she became involved
with and later married a white man. Both were alcoholics.

"I remember the first Sunday he hit me," she said. "He slapped me so hard he
knocked me on the floor. From there the beatings got worse."

She was then about 5 feet tall and weighed 95 pounds, while he stood 6 feet, 4
inches and weighed 220 pounds. "Alcohol helped me self-medicate," she said.

Hernandez, who had become sober, recalled he beat her the last time at home on
the porch of her trailer in Missoula. She wound up unconscious with two black
eyes, a broken nose and teeth knocked out.

She went to a battered women's shelter, while her husband was arrested,
convicted of attempted murder and sent ! to the state prison in Deer Lodge. Even
then, Hernandez said she went to visit him.

He grabbed her by the hair and smashed her head against a table in the prison's
visiting room, she said, while the guard did nothing to stop him. She told the
man who tried to murder her: "You're never going to hit me again because I'm
going to kill you."

"It was then I took my power back," Hernandez said. "One of the first things I
did was stay sober. I started to work on myself and self-esteem."

She got her first job and returned to the reservation and obtained two
associate's degrees and two bachelor's degrees. She attributed her success to
the women at the battered women's shelter in Missoula who never gave up on her
and were available to talk any hour of the day or night. They urged her to leave
her abusive husband.

"There's hurt, there's shame, there's anger," Hernandez said. "We battered
women, we need to be treated gently. They need that love. They need a ! lot of
patience. Please don't give up on them. When you give u! p, that might be the
death of that woman."

Hernandez concluded by saying: "I think it's harder getting sober than to get
out of that relationship."

Marcella Green of Browning told how she was sexually abused at age 5, date raped
as a teenager and dropped out of school at 14 to be with the 20-year-old man she
later married.

"I was raped throughout my relationship with my first husband," she said. "He
did terrible things to me, like being grabbed in your private area and having
some of your skin ripped off."

When she was eight months pregnant, she went out one night and returned home
intoxicated. Her husband accused her of having sex with another man. "He pushed
me out of the house," she said. "He held a .357 Magnum gun to my head and said
he was going to kill me. I was saying in my mind, 'Just do it.' "

The man held her down on the stairs, tore off her pants and raped her. When she
awoke, there was blood everywhere, Green said.

While! she was taken to the hospital, the tribal police called in the FBI to
help investigate because the crime was "so terrible," she said. Green pressed
charges against him.

The doctor said if Green hadn't had so much alcohol in her system, she probably
wouldn't have survived the beating.

Sober now for 24 years, Green said she obtained her General Equivalency Degree
at age 40 and got a two-year college degree in human services. She works as a
counselor at a chemical dependency program in Browning.

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2009/06/25/news/state/46-violence.txt

-----


Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women: www.mcbw.org. (Visit site for further
information)
590 Park Street, Suite 410, St. Paul, MN 55103
Voice: (651) 646-6177 or (800) 289-6177
Fax: (651) 646-1527

SAFETY ALERT:
Your abuser can monitor your use of your computer and the Internet.
If you are in danger, please use a safer computer, call 911 or the Minnesota
Domestic Violence Crisis Line at 1-866-223-1111.

If you are not in Minnesota, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline:
1-800-799-SAFE (7233).



National Coalition Against Domestic Violence: www.ncadv.org.
NCADV's Main Office
1120 Lincoln Street, Suite #1603
Denver, CO 80203
Phone: (303) 839-1852
TTY: (303) 839-8459
Fax: (303) 831-9251
Email: mainoffice@....

NCADV's Public Policy Office
1633 Q Street NW, Suite #210
Washington, DC 20009
Phone: (202) 745-1211
TTY: (202) 745-2042
Fax: (202) 745-0088
Email: publicpolicy@....

Save the Date!
NCADV's 14th National Conference on Domestic Violence: Changing Faces of the
Movement


August 1st-4th, 2010 The Hilton Anaheim
Anaheim, California

More information coming soon! (Visit NCADV for further information:
www.ncadv.org.)



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]