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Native women’s advocates, tribal leaders, Native American members of the Biden administration and members of Congress were among those at the White House Wednesday celebrating the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
The reauthorization of VAWA includes tribal provisions to increase resources, strengthen sovereignty and safety across Indian Country. President Biden, in his remarks at the event, mentioned tribes twice when talking about jurisdiction issues: “Restoring jurisdiction to tribal courts over non-Native domestic violence offenders who abuse women in Indian Country.”
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. was at the VAWA event: “It’s a great day for the country in the national interests of the United States to have VAWA reauthorized, but it’s certainly important to Indian Country because of the provisions VAWA already contained and the new provisions.”
Hoskin says what the new provisions will do is allow tribes to have fewer restraints, which he says has kept tribes from protecting the most vulnerable and will help hold more non-Indian offenders accountable for breaking the law.
“Tribes across the country have been constrained in terms of addressing sex trafficking, other types of violence that unfortunately more often than not occur with women as their victim even outside of a romantic relationship. Those were just outside the reach of tribes, but no more because VAWA allows us to do what we need to do,” said Hoskin.
The reauthorization restores tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians for certain crimes involving children, sexual violence, stalking, sex trafficking, obstruction of justice, and assaults against law enforcement and corrections personnel.
Photo: Spring Creek Country Club
State officials are determining what to do with a golf course they’re acquiring near a state park. A tribal research group wants the land converted to a natural area, as Richard Two Bulls reports.
The Spring Creek Golf Course sits at the southern border of Good Earth State Park, a few miles southeast of Sioux Falls in Lincoln County. A foundation acquired the land and will transfer it to the Department of Game Fish and Parks by 2025. The land may be incorporated into Good Earth, which already spans 1,200 acres and includes the Blood Run National Historic Landmark. Blood Run is one of the oldest sites of long-term human habitation in the United States. It was inhabited by Native Americans between 1300 and 1700 AD.
The Omaha Tribal Historical Research Project is proposing the golf course be converted back to its natural condition. The state says there are several options under consideration. Al Nedved is the deputy state parks director.
“We developed great relationships with the Omaha tribes and the other tribes and, yes, they were involved in our very first meeting on this Spring Creek issue. And we would look forward to further discussions with them,” said Nedved.
The Omaha Tribal Historical Research Project says existing development on the land may have inadvertently violated the Federal 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Nedved says the state wants to know what resources may still exist there.
“We realize the importance of having a good, solid understanding of what’s present on the site and a good understanding of what some of the potential options as a state park operation might look like there,” he added.
According to Friends of Blood Run, prior to development, there were 270 visible burial mounds on the site that were reduced to 70 due to construction and farming.
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