Pojoaque Pueblo hosts Justice Department event on violence against women

Nov. 19—Tribal officials from across the nation gathered Tuesday in Pojoaque Pueblo to speak about their efforts to address violence against women as part of a three-day event hosted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The session drew hundreds of people — perhaps the largest crowd ever for the annual Government-to-Government Violence Against Women Tribal Consultation.

In the traditional way, women were the keepers of the teepee, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Ryman LeBeau said during his testimony at the Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder. If a dispute arose between a man and woman, she would simply take his stuff and put it outside.

"He would move on, there was no question," LeBeau said. "To do that today is more difficult."

Today, tribal leaders told officials from the Justice Department, they need funding to create and sustain their own law enforcement and criminal justice systems and legislation to ensure they have the authority to treat perpetrators and victims in ways that are in keeping with their customs.

"As a tribal leader I must make sure that our tribal courts and law enforcement are receiving the funds they need to protect our Native women," Pojoaque Pueblo Gov. Jenelle Roybal said.

Pojoaque Pueblo has developed its own police force and tribal courts, she said, but needs resources to provide behavioral health services to victims and perpetrators.

"In our tribal communities there is a shortage of counselors that need to be culturally appropriate for our children," she added.

"Why isn't there dedicated and supportive funding to expand those services to our most vulnerable population? These services are needed, but they are costly," Roybal said. "Funding barriers do not allow us to utilize these funds for healing and care infrastructure. When are the barriers going to stop? Native people can build sacred spaces that bring healing to our people."

Roybal who also co-chairs New Mexico's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Task Force, said "healing to wellness" — not punishment — "is the best way for us to solve our sins against our own community."

Isleta Pueblo Lt. Gov. Juan Rey Abeita spoke Tuesday of the historical trauma that comes with hundreds of years of colonization and the modern-day frustration for tribes of being jurisdictionally limited to enforce their laws on their own land.

"What if a federal government or someone that is considering you their ward comes and tells you you can't protect your own people," he said, "that you can't protect your own family? That if any perpetrator that's non-Native American that comes on your reservation can commit a crime, and we can't do nothing to protect ourselves except call the FBI or the BIA to come in and respond?"

Abeita said, "That takes away from us having that confidence and being able to protect ourselves and our communities. ... It's undermining us."

The event, now in its 19th year, is required by law to address the federal administration of tribal funds and programs established under the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 and subsequent reauthorizations, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Albuquerque said in a news release.

The statement said, "Tribal government leaders will provide recommendations on administering grant programs; enhancing the safety of American Indian and Alaska Native women from domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and sex trafficking; strengthening federal responses to these crimes; and improving access to local, regional, state, and federal crime information databases and criminal justice information systems."

The Justice Department said in a news release the Tribal Affairs Division within its Office on Violence Against Women awarded about $86 million this year to tribal communities to support survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking and other crimes.

Pojoaque Pueblo received an $800,000 grant, according to the department, while Sexual Assault Services of Northwest New Mexico received about $610,000, and the Hopi-Tewa Women's Coalition to End Abuse and Southwest Indigenous Women's Coalition received grants of about $414,000 each.

At least 50 tribal leaders — including speakers from the Navajo Nation, Choctaw Nation of Indians and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe — were scheduled to give testimony at the event.

More than 500 people attended Tuesday's session in person and about 150 more registered to observe the tribal leaders' testimony virtually, Justice Department spokesperson Maya Vizvary wrote in an email.

"This is the most we've ever had," Vizvary wrote.