Sharing Our Stories of Survival: Native Women Surviving Violence (64 page)

About the Contributors

Jacqueline Agtuca
is director of Public Policy of Clan Star, Inc, a nonprofit incorporated under the laws of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, dedicated to increasing the safety of Native women; former USDOJ deputy director for the Office of Tribal Justice (1999—2001) and senior policy advisor for the Office on Violence Against Women (1995—1999); Family Violence Prevention Fund Director Criminal Justice (1988—1995); Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago staff attorney (1986—1988).

Anonymous
, Apsáalooke, Crow Tribe.

Judi Brannan Armbruster
, Karuk Tribe of California, direct descendant. Judi was raised in a blue-collar suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. Not wanting to get caught up in the cycle of pain, prejudice, anger, and abuse led her on a search for the roots of her Native ancestry. Ten years ago she “came home” to the Karuk ancestral lands (the very top of California), where she was able to reignite her poetic voice and find healing. Her contributions to several anthologies and her strong online presence as a poet are indeed a “testament” to that process. Judi is a fifty-eight-year-old retired registered nurse, married with one daughter.

Diane E. Benson
, Lxeis’, Tlingit, (enrolled Sitka Tribe of Alaska), owner of Tleix Yeil’ Drama & Commentary, provides consultation, historical research, and writing services for film or other performance or educational programs, particularly involving issues of diversity or politics. Diane is a published writer of poetry and nonfiction, and she holds a Master of Fine Arts degree and is completing a Master’s in public policy. She often speaks publicly on social and recovery issues and is a facilitator of the “Finding Your Voice” workshop. She lives in Chugiak, Alaska, with her dog-team.

Mary BlackBonnet,
Sicangu Lakota, received her B.A. in creative writing from the University of South Dakota. She believes writing is a powerful way to deal with all the challenges life can throw you, stating: “You can either sit down and mope, or you can pick up your pen and take back your power.” She hopes to give writing workshops to women and teenagers on the empowerment of writing. Her work has been published in
Nagi Ho Journal, Tribal College Journal, Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, Potomac Review, and Genocide of the Mind, Eating Fire, and Tasting Blood.

Frances M. Blackburn
, Northern Arapaho Tribe, is the proud single mother of six beautiful children and resides on her home reservation in Wyoming. She no longer considers herself a victim, but a “work in progress” of becoming a survivor. She now dedicates her life to helping victims of violence among her Native people.

Sally Brunk
, Ojibwa/Lac du Flambeau, states, “I was born and raised on the Keweenaw Bay Reservation, but belong to the Lac du Flambeau band. I have been writing for about twenty years and use my family for the basis of my writing. I have written short stories also, but poetry is what drives me.”

Lea Krmpotich Carr
, White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, states, “I am a half-century old woman, working in the American Indian Learning Resource Center, as an advisor/counselor, at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. I am currently tackling my master’s of education degree in a Tribal Cohort program. I started to write poetry as a teenager to cope with problems that I couldn’t talk about. I am a domestic abuse survivor, and ‘Run’ is a representation of my leaving my ex-husband.”

Rose L. Clark
, Navajo, is a member of the Navajo Nation and was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She received her B.A. in psychology with a minor in alcohol and drug studies from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, and her Ph.D. in clinical psychology with an emphasis in multicultural community clinical issues from the California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles in June 1998. She is a licensed psychologist and the behavioral health consultant for the California Area Indian Health Service. Clark sits on numerous boards advocating on behalf of American Indian issues, including the Indian Health Service National Suicide Prevention Committee, the Indian Health Service Youth Regional Treatment Center Network Task Force (YRTC), the California Rural Indian Health Board Access to Recovery Steering Committee, and the Steering Committee for the American Indian/Alaska Native National Resource Center for Substance Abuse Services. She was the recipient of the American Psychological Association Early Career Award in the Public Interest in 2006.

Amanda D. Faircloth
, Lumbee, is a native of Lumberton, North Carolina, where she resides with her mother and sister. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College with a B.A. in English. She currently works as the Administration and Public Relations manager for Lumbee Regional Development Association, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that provides a variety of community services to the Lumbee tribal members. She was also recently selected to serve on the Lumbee Tribal Youth Council to represent her tribal district.

Lisa Frank,
Neets‘aii Gwich’in Athabascan, states, “I am the youngest board member for the Alaska Native Women’s Coalition. I am interested in helping other Native brothers and sisters to face the violence we all deal with. I hope to continue to help others out there.”

Joy Harjo
, Mvskoke (Creek), a member of the Mvskoke Nation, is an award-winning poet, musician, and performer. Her most recent works include
How We Became Human, New and Selected Poems
and “Native Joy for Real”—a CD of original music. She also co-wrote the NMAI Signature Film,
A Thousand Roads
. She is an endowed professor of creative writing at the University of New Mexico and lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Brenda Hill,
Siksika Blackfeet, is education coordinator for Sacred Circle in Rapid City, South Dakota. Brenda assists in the creation of Sacred Circle’s annual training schedule, coordinates the Workshop Partnership and On-Site Programs, facilitates workshops, specializes in provision of advocacy and shelter development, and provides technical assistance to tribal groups. She also is responsible for the development of information packets and other Sacred Circle materials. Brenda is the founding mother and former director of the Women’s Circle Advocacy Program on the Lake Traverse Reservation. She has been actively involved in the South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault since 1990. Though she holds a BA and an MA degree, she attributes her expertise to the grassroots women who have honored her with their stories, her personal experience of being battered, and the South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Regardless of title, Brenda is an advocate for women who have been battered. She has two children and six beautiful grandchildren.

Eileen Hudon,
Anishinabe, White Earth, Crane Clan, has been an advocate to end violence against Native women since 1979. She began writing poetry at age nineteen to transcend violence. “Oppression in its many forms may mold aspects of my experience, however, when the day ends, and more importantly when it begins, I maintain control over my thoughts. May the Creator forever keep me as a
Songidee Bitmadazwin.
”

Carrie L. Johnson,
Dakota Sioux, received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology with an emphasis in multicultural and community psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, Los Angeles. Johnson is a licensed clinical psychologist and the director of United American Indian Involvement’s Seven Generation Child and Family Counseling Services, which provides services to American Indian children and families throughout Los Angeles County. Johnson also provides consultation, training, and workshops to American Indian programs and communities on an American Indian Community and Family Healing Model she has developed. She is involved in administration, program development, research, and direct services for the American Indian community.

B. J. Jones
is the chief judge for the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate and Prairie Island Indian Community tribal courts, as well as an associate and special judge for several other tribes in the Dakotas and Minnesota. He also serves as the legal consultant for Sacred Circle, the national support center to end domestic violence against Native women and, in that capacity, trains tribal court personnel nationwide on appropriate tribal justice responses to domestic violence. He formerly worked for an Indian legal services program where he represented thousands of victims of domestic violence in various legal matters and still represents victims on a pro bono basis. His recent cases include the South Dakota Supreme Court decision in
Medearis v. Whiting
in 2005 where the court declared it unconstitutional for a court to compel a rape victim to allow visitation with the perpetrator’s family against her wishes and,
Matter of Grand Jury Subpoena,
an 8th Circuit federal case regarding the right of the United States to compel the production of confidential records on victims of domestic violence. He is a 1984 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law.

Karlene
, Tlingit Indian from Southeast Alaska, has been involved in the antiviolence movement for twenty-two years, doing trainings on ending violence against women; sexual assault; child abuse/neglect; elder abuse; and on other forms of oppression such as racism, anti-Semitism, ageism, and hate crimes against people of color and GLBTTQQ folks. “My greatest joys are my family, friends, and nieces and nephews, and of course my connection to the Creator.”

Margaret “Augie” Kochuten
, Quinault and Chinook, states, “Unaware of my First Nation heritage until 1995, when my mother discovered her inherited land on the Quinault Reservation, my uncanny sense of home for fifteen years in the Aleut village of False Pass, first, largest and most beautiful Island of the Aleutian Chain, suddenly became very logical. My three lovely Aleut daughters and I left the little house on the big Island for a smaller Island with a larger community, Unalaska, in 1990. I currently work for the State of Alaska in the Office of Children’s Services and am finishing my B.S.W. I have six grandchildren. The womanly art of survival is passed invisibly through this poem, a tribute to all Telzan, Milne, McBride, Serebernikoff, Helmholz, Weber, and Kochuten women who each, in their own way, passed spiritual strength down through the generations in heeding kitchen table wisdom.”

Charlene Ann LaPointe
, Sicangu Lakota, was born December 13, 1948, on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. Charlene is the eldest daughter of Rev. La Verne LaPointe and Adeline (Broken Leg) LaPointe. She is the proud mother of one son (Marc) and has five grandchildren, six biological brothers, four adopted brothers, three sisters, numerous nieces, and nephews, and one great-granddaughter. Preservation of extended family history, relationships, and kinship teachings are important aspects of Charlene’s upbringing and ongoing work.

Jayci Malone
, Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans, is currently employed part-time and attending school full-time, where she is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She currently resides on the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation with her son Aweh’lapaew.

Sarah Michèle Martin
is the director of the Tohono O‘odham Nation’s Advocate Program, a tribally funded law office that represents tribal members in family, probate, consumer, and juvenile law matters and criminal defense cases. Prior to joining the Tohono O’odham Advocate Program in 1997, she taught law and criminology at Florida State University’s satellite campus in the Republic of Panama. She has also served as an assistant Arizona attorney general in the area of child abuse and neglect. She earned her M.S.W. degree, with an emphasis in family and child welfare, from Arizona State University in 1979, and her J.D. from the University of Arizona in 1983.

MariJo Moore
, Cherokee, is a writer/poet/essayist/editor/publisher/artist and the author of
The Diamond Doorknob, Red Woman with Backward Eyes and Other Stories, Spirit Voices of Bones
, and several other books, as well as editor of Genocide
of
the
Mind: New Native Writings.
Her website is
marijomoore.com
. She resides in the mountains of western North Carolina.

Tracie Jones Myrick Meyer,
widow of Timothy Meyer, is Kalapuya Indian and enrolled in the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon. Tracie devoted much of her life to social service with Indian People, until retiring due to health reasons. Her greatest joy comes from being mother to her three daughters, Angie, Jessica, and Shayla, and teaching “Things Indian” to her five grandchildren. She continues to write poetry and has started her first novel.