Episode four of the second season of the Podcast on Crimes Against Women welcomes Victoria Ybanez, Executive Director of Red Wind Consulting, Inc., who is a survivor of domestic violence with 30 years of experience serving Indigenous women. In this fourth episode of the addressing barriers series, we explore the alarming rate of domestic violence and sexual assault committed against Indigenous women, the role of historical trauma within their experiences, and how Red Wind and similar organizations are creating culturally specific curriculums and programs that both advance anti-violence movements and benefit Indigenous women in both rural and urban communities.
Episode four of the second season of the Podcast on Crimes Against Women welcomes Victoria Ybanez, Executive Director of Red Wind Consulting, Inc., who is a survivor of domestic violence with 30 years of experience serving Indigenous women. In this fourth episode of the addressing barriers series, we explore the alarming rate of domestic violence and sexual assault committed against Indigenous women, the role of historical trauma within their experiences, and how Red Wind and similar organizations are creating culturally specific curriculums and programs that both advance anti-violence movements and benefit Indigenous women in both rural and urban communities.
Maria MacMullin: The subject matter of this podcast will address difficult topics, multiple forms of violence, and identity-based discrimination and harassment. We acknowledge that this content may be difficult and have listed specific content warnings in each episode description to help create a positive safe experience for all listeners.
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Victoria Ybanez: In this country, 31 million crimes, 31 million crimes are reported every year. That is one every second. Out of that, every 24 minutes, there is a murder. Every 5 minutes, there is a rape. Every 2-5 minutes, there is a sexual assault. Every 9 seconds in this country, a woman is assaulted by someone who told her that he loved her, by someone who told her it was her fault, by someone who tries to tell the rest of us, "It's none of our business." And I am proud to stand here today with each of you to call that perpetrator—a liar.
Maria: Welcome to the Podcast on Crimes Against Women. I'm Maria MacMullin. We continue our series on addressing barriers with a conversation focused on indigenous communities experiencing some of the highest rates of violence against women in North America. Indigenous women in the United States are also subject to significant barriers to service and a lack of resources to meet their needs. In response to these circumstances, specialized agencies have formed across the country determined to bring awareness and solutions to their unique situation. Red Wind Consulting, a Colorado-based agency, is committed to working with tribal and Native-specific programs to ensure that indigenous solutions are incorporated into the thinking and response to end violence against indigenous women. Victoria Ybanez has been working to end violence against American Indian-Alaskan Native women for 35 years. She developed and is the Executive Director of Red Wind Consulting. Victoria also developed Red Wind's National Tribal Advocate Center, providing 40-hour domestic violence training institutes and 40-hour sexual assault training institutes—a curriculum that she developed and leads. Victoria, welcome to the show.
Victoria: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.
Maria: Your website describes your work as indigenous solutions. Tell us what that means.
Victoria: So, in our work, we are engaged in anti-violence work. We work with survivors' programs that are serving survivors of domestic and sexual violence as well as stocking into end dating violence. And a key part of that work is that we center it in a culturally specific way. We work with programs so that they are developing responses that are indigenous-based and culturally specific, and create strengthened holistic responses for survivors.
Maria: Are indigenous solutions a better response to the unique barriers tribal women experience?
Victoria: Absolutely. So, through our experience, I've been working in the field for about 36 years now. And over the years, what we have really seen is that in order to be the most effective in working with survivors in the aftermath of violence, we need to be culturally specific. And as we look for our indigenous solutions, we are drawing from the many different cultures across our different tribes. So, we find that our responses to victims and survivors are, in fact, more effective in the way we work with them because we're indigenous-centered.
Maria: That makes perfect sense. Let's talk about the barriers for a minute. When it comes to the barriers for tribal women, what might they experience that other populations do not typically encounter?
Victoria: There are so many barriers. And I think that as I talk about barriers, I think it's critical for us to understand the prevalence of violence that our indigenous survivors live with. So, through a National Institute of Justice report back in 2016, they presented that our American Indian and Alaska Native survivors or population as a whole are experiencing about 84% violence in their lifetime. So, as we look at a survivor, actually a room of indigenous people that we're talking about, 84% of that room has experienced some form of violence.
Maria: Is that 84%of women or as a whole?
Victoria: As women. So, thinking about it as gender-based violence. We primarily talk about it as, us, indigenous women. And so, in that room, with the collection of women in there, we have such a significant number. And so, as we look at the multiple barriers that people experience, as indigenous people, we experience high rates of poverty, disproportionately high rates of poverty as well as some of the effects of trauma experienced through historical and multi-generational trauma. We also have a lot of health disparities. And so, you bring all of that together, and as you look at gender-based violence responses within our advocacy programs, our crisis response programs, and different resources that we have, we really have to come from a holistic approach because otherwise, we're putting multiple band-aids on. If we really want to make a difference in people's lives, we have to move through multiple barriers. So, adding to that what I've already described because we are a racial and ethnic population, then there are layers of discrimination and racism that play out in terms of access to services and receiving the treatment that is afforded their non-Native counterparts so that there are more effective responses and not having to weave through bias and discrimination in the process.
Maria: Tell me a little bit more about what you mean by "layers of discrimination."
Victoria: So, for me, when I think about layers, it's about how you feel it, how you experience it, and where it comes from. So, as a survivor reaches out to a program for a response, they may experience discrimination as a part of the personnel that's in place. But beyond the personnel, there may be systemic problems as well that are barriers. So, we see advocate programs that they don't understand the unique legal relationships that tribes have with the federal government and the unique legal status that indigenous peoples carry. And so, as a result of that, while you've got the personnel, who may have their own bias that they're operating from, then the system itself hasn't addressed those unique issues that an indigenous person may carry as a result of being a citizen of another nation, from a domestic sovereign nation and as a result of not building in that systemic response, there's this other layer of discrimination. And then, the other institutions that those programs are connected to, there are historical experiences that are also problematic. So, for instance, thinking about healthcare back in the 1970s, there was a period where 40% of the indigenous population— childbearing age—were sterilized. So, through that decade that happened in 40% of indigenous women that were of childbearing age were sterilized. And then, as you see in the current day times, you have that history in those memories that carry forward. And as a part of seeking services and response to violence, one of the systems that is connected in there is the healthcare institution. The organization that's connecting that survivor to it, if they don't understand that context, then there's this other barrier of "Am I going to be safe going in there? Are they going to hear me? Are they going to see my complex needs?" My fears come from this historical experience that either happened to me directly or my older relatives, which is another layer of institutional racism that has played out over time.
Maria: Okay, that's really helpful to kind of break that down. Thank you. And before we talk about historical trauma a little bit more, I wanted to just go back to the 84% of women that you mentioned. Why are those rates of violence against women so high?
Victoria: I don't know that anybody's really come up with any concrete research to say. This is exactly why I have my thoughts about it. And as we look at our tribal communities, one of the challenges that we have is that we have a system that is fairly complex and while the practitioners working in those systems understand them directly, there are multiple barriers. So, when I talk about that, I'm talking about the jurisdictional mazes that are occurring on tribal lands, where you may have a tribe that as a domestic sovereign nation can exercise its jurisdictional authority to prosecute, misdemeanor domestic violence offenses. But if it rises to the level of a major crime, it falls under federal jurisdiction. And then because of the challenges over the multiple years of the passages of different laws, it could also fall under state jurisdiction. So, here you've got 3 sovereigns now on the same piece of land. And as a result of it, some of the decisions that brought in those different sovereigns have come with some tensions. So, particularly in states that are Public Law 280 states, where the federal government transferred its authority to the states. It was an unfunded mandate and, in those instances, some departments still resist responding to tribal land. So, then the tribe itself, in effect, has its hands tied to some degree to hold offenders accountable for committing crimes against their citizens. And yet, those that have the authority in some cases are resistant to respond. So, that to me is the biggest factor in terms of those issues. So, for instance, a few years ago, I was out visiting a tribe and I was working with them on helping them to develop a Sexual Assault Response Team. And we started our work by talking about who is the victim of sexual violence on tribal land here. We did some brainstorming about it and through that process, what became clear was the majority of perpetrators were non-Native offenders coming onto their tribal land and sexually assaulting vulnerable young women from their tribe. And it was falling under the federal jurisdiction and in that particular area, the response was incredibly limited. And so, when we have Indian within our Indian Country within our tribal lands, when we have not everybody who is responsible to hold offenders accountable when we have those practitioners not being as responsive and as fully engaged as they should be, we, in effect, end up with land that is somewhat lawless. So, it makes our indigenous survivors of violence easy targets because there's little to no accountability.
Maria: Yes, but the word that comes to mind, for me, was vulnerable when you were talking about the loopholes of committing crimes and actually being held accountable for them. So, women, really all people on tribal lands are more vulnerable to those types of offenses.
Victoria: Absolutely.
Maria: Yes. So, let's go back and talk about historical trauma because you brought it up a couple of times in just the past couple of minutes and it's really important that we understand that a little bit better. So, let's dive into that and talk about the complexities that historical trauma can create for women who experience violence.
Victoria: I always talk in layers. So, historical trauma is one of those things that has layers to it as well. So, when we think about historical trauma, we have to remember that we look back. I often think about the work that we do that we must look back as we move to the future. We have to remember the experiences of the past, and as a result of that, we have centuries-long violence perpetrated against our indigenous populations. And we can actually even look at the United Nations' definition of genocide. And as a part of it, it talks about the percentage of the population that has to be destroyed in order for there to be genocide. And when we think about our indigenous populations, and what we know at the onset of colonization on this land, multiple people have some disagreements about the exact populations, but it ranges between 20 million people to 80 million people that were on this land known as the United States today. As we turn to the century from the 1800s to the 1900s, we had an estimated 200,000 population existing after that. And through the UN, the United Nations' definition of genocide, I believe they're talking about 10% of the population. So, again, I cannot stress enough that we had at the low end of the estimate. The estimation was 20 million people upward to 80 million people, and at turn-of-the-century moving into the 1900s, we had 200,000. So, well extremely past the level of what we would define as genocide. So, with that level of violence perpetrated across multiple generations, the span of time that that took, we have those that are remaining carrying the trauma from that violence. And what we have learned in the last decade, or so, is that the experience of trauma and repeated traumas actually imprint on our DNA. So, we have multiple generations who have lived with this depth of trauma and it has become imprinted on our DNA, and we still haven't reconciled society in such a way to provide the kind of support and resources that we need to really engage in the holistic healing that we need to undo the harm that was done through those multiple generations that live through that trauma.
Maria: So, how does that play out today specifically for women who are experiencing violence at such high rates within a population that already has experienced a significant amount of trauma?
Victoria: So, when we think about the violence, for me, it's about thinking more about current traumas and the residual effects of historical and multi-generational trauma. And so, what I talked about before was some of the barriers and challenges that our indigenous populations face. We have high rates of poverty and high rates of health impacts, such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and things like that. And with that, we also have within our tribal communities. We have high rates of homelessness and very limited access to culturally specific responses that are the most effective in responding to trauma. So, when we move that into the gender-based response, you know, programs that are responding to gender-based violence, what we find is that many of the programs that are available don't understand the reality of our indigenous populations, and, in fact, one program I talked to which this is really representative of what I come across through multiple non-Native programs, as I was talking to this one program about the outreach to the indigenous population, she says, "Well, I know we have some Native people around but I really don't know how to find them." So, they haven't. They hadn't done anything. And she had thought about it off and on for about 10 years, and they really didn't know and didn't know where to ask. She literally was so completely not in her personal world. So, she didn't know how to reach out beyond that. And so, our programs that are serving indigenous populations often make assumptions about the needs. And then, with that, there's an assumption that Native American is the group as opposed to recognizing the unique indigenous identities across the multiple tribes that we have in the United States because they create and connect to one indigenous person to guide them. They think that's going to be enough without recognizing the intertribal responses that we need.
Maria: So, it's more than just one response. Again, layers, right?
Victoria: Right.
Maria: There are layers of responses. Considering the historical trauma and annihilation of indigenous people and the history across this country, what's the relationship between the indigenous people and law enforcement government and other forms of authority? Is there a level of trust, or is it mixed? Does it have layers as you've suggested?
Victoria: It does have layers. And the reality is it depends on people's individual perceptions and experiences. So, we have that deep historical experience that brings forward an experience of historical mistrust. And then, individuals, as they approach different agencies and responders may end up with different experiences. But, by far, we have a larger proportion of our population that has not had positive experiences. And with that, as we look at the institution that is designed to hold offenders accountable, the criminal justice system, oftentimes, what we see is the disparity of the treatment of the offenders in the system. So, then we are challenged as we have of a survivor who knows that, and then, that's the institution that is designed to protect her. So, her challenge is to make a decision. "Do I opt for the side of protection knowing that this person is going to have a harsher consequence through their experience in the system?" So, there is that that happens. And then we also hear a lot of stories from our indigenous survivors who talked about their own personal treatment: that they felt like they were treated harshly as a part of trying to make a report; that they weren't completely believed as a part of what happened. And then, if they themselves have some of their own issues they're bringing into that experience that they're needing help on them, that also adds another layer of challenges in there. And so, under that situation, I'm talking about considering if the survivor has an alcohol or drug problem and if they are using at the time of the incident, then, it's almost kind of a "throw this case away" because this person is not believable. And while I know that happens to non-Native survivors as well, it disproportionately appears to have a larger impact and a higher likelihood of being tossed out as a Native survivor.
Maria: So, is the higher likelihood because there are fewer indigenous solutions or responses, or is it something else?
Victoria: I think it's a mixture. So, I do think it's because we have fewer indigenous solutions. As we look at our advocacy programs, we are less likely to have culturally specific advocacy responses that are designed within a holistic indigenous model as well as the systems themselves. We have many more non-native responders in the different institutions, who really haven't had the time and space to really be educated. And the framing, the way workers are organized is not structured in a way that factors out racial inequity. And as we look at coordinated community responses, sexual assault response teams, and different MDTs, most of those teams are not doing their work at looking at the disparities of treatment of both the offender and the survivor in the process.
Maria: What about initiatives to encourage native responders? In other words, encourage people in the indigenous community to become social workers, become responders, healthcare professionals, and otherwise.
Victoria: Yes. What we can see—and this will vary from location to location—is that we see some facilities may have really, really solid responses. And I have actually seen where we have the law enforcement may be made up of tribal members and bringing in their ways, and so their communication styles, their engagement comes from a different place, but we could still turn around and go to another tribe and see a replication of a mainstream model by our indigenous responders. And then, we see similarly within the healthcare system as well. I used to provide tribal technical assistance through the Indian Health Service facilities, working on their domestic violence and sexual violence responses. And I would see similarly across those different institutions as well, where you would see the indigenous values and beliefs were guiding the way the healthcare providers, the nurses, and the different staff within the facility were operating out of that. And then you could go to another place and it was a complete replication of a mainstream model.
Maria: So, you've been working in this field for 35 years and your company, Red Wind Consulting, focuses more on an urban audience of indigenous people. Let's talk about that urban population.
Victoria: So, actually through Red Wind, we have 5 different technical assistance projects and our newest is our Urban Responses which we're really excited about that. We actually have a lot of support from the Office on Violence Against Women, and it allows us to work with urban Native programs to help them develop or strengthen their response to Native survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking, and dating violence. And in that work, we are also able to work with the non-Native partners that they may work with to help them build collaborations and help to educate those partners so they could be stronger, more solid partners in their responses to the local Native populations. And what's so important about it is that, as we talk about our tribal communities, and we think about the tribal experiences and the resources and the needs of our tribal communities, we actually have between 70-78% of our indigenous population living in urban centers. So, we have many indigenous people that are living in an area where they don't have the benefit of really being supported and access to the kinds of responses that would be culturally specific and holistic to respond to the different forms of violence that they may experience.
Maria: And you've developed some curriculums for training and other programs to address exactly that. Can you tell us about your curriculum?
Victoria: Well, we have a few different tangents that we're working on with that. And so, we're developing materials that are geared toward the Urban Native Programs to help them understand the whole kind of range of different needs if they're going to provide responses to gender-based violence to urban populations, urban native populations. And in that, it's important to incorporate areas around safety, understanding the unique legal issues of indigenous survivors that may occur on urban land and off tribal land as well as how to build the kind of collaborations that would help and enhance their work. And then, the other tangent is working with the non-Native partners that the Native programs may be working with, to help them understand the whole range of how to work effectively and safely with a Native survivor of gender-based violence within their programmatic response. And so, as an example, one program we're working with is a resource center, an Indigenous Resource Center. They actually didn't see that they needed to really create a fuller response so that they could partner with different other advocacy programs in that urban area. And then, after we attacked them for a few months and they came back and said, "We have had some horrible experiences that have walked in our doors with experiences with violence." And as a result of that, those few survivors that just recently came in wanted nothing to do with the non-Native programs. They really wanted to stay in an indigenous-centered organization. And so, it became really clear to them that it's either turn this population away that doesn't want to work with the non-Native providers as their primary resource or create a stronger response that's going to enhance their safety and do it in a way that's culturally-centered and addresses the historical mistrust that we talked about previously, and build the connections to the other resources that they would need to put in place. So, it's a lot. So, we actually see ourselves working on this for multiple years, really developing the range of different resources that they need as well as providing customized training and different forms of national training.
Maria: So, do you do these trainings across the country? You know, either electronically or in person? And what types of places are you doing them? Are they hospitals or small nonprofit organizations? Just to get a flavor of where you actually work?
Victoria: Well, our Urban Native Project is national. So, we work across the United States, and as a part of that our project coordinator has engaged in a lot of research to look at where our indigenous populations are in the urban centers. Through that, we have started reaching out to different programs and just having conversations about the kind of work that we do. So, some of the organizations we are working with are small to mid-sized nonprofits that are Native-specific and focused on the social service type of response. And then we are also working with the Indian Health Service - Urban Indian Programs. And so, with that, those are healthcare facilities, they're primarily clinics that are serving populations in the urban centers. And so, we're working with nonprofits and then some clinics along the way.
Maria: Any trainings for law enforcement or the legal community or talking about, you know, being in court and how that impacts indigenous people—the court system?
Victoria: So, as a part of it, as we're helping some of the organizations we are working with, some of the non-Native providers that are established providing civil legal remedies as well as court accompaniment. And so, those indigenous-based social service programs really don't have that early capacity to be doing that kind of work. So, we're helping them connect to other organizations that do have that capacity. And as a part of that, we're working with them, helping them through providing them with basic training. And around the different unique issues that our indigenous populations experience, helping them to understand the impacts of historical trauma, multi-generational trauma as well as the historical mistrust, and then problem-solving, then, what else is it that you need to know as you're working through chord accompaniment, as you're working with helping assist with police reporting and things such as that?
Maria: Okay. So, I understand you're a writer.
Victoria: Yes, I am.
Maria: I was able to read a little bit of your work that I could find online before this program. It made me curious to wonder if the art of storytelling or the tradition of storytelling in indigenous populations contributes to or has a place in solutions or responses to trauma for women who experience violence.
Victoria: I actually think it does have a place. I do think that it's critical for us to tell her stories in so many different ways. We tell our individual stories as part of the healing process that we engage in as well as we tell our stories to help people understand our communities, to understand our ways, and to support us in the processes that we engage in. And so, when I think about that practice of storytelling, we've actually been having several conversations about it through Red Wind, talking about how we tell those stories. Whether it's that we're talking about the outcomes of our programs and our projects that we talked about, it doesn't have to be just a conveyance of data and numbers. It really is a story of experiences that we're sharing. And I know from my own experience, I have worked as an advocate over the years, and in the work that I do through National Tribal Technical Assistance, I often think about my advocacy work being centered there. And what I know through the healing process is that it's the telling of our stories. So, whatever experience we have had has shaped the human being we've become. It's not something we can say that never happened to us and we won't ever revisit it. It's become a part of every fabric of our being. And so, when we think about that telling our stories processes, we want to make sure that we design work in ways that encourage advocates to engage in storytelling with survivors and to help bring that forward. So, just a little personal note about myself, I came into this work as a survivor. I had just recently left an abusive relationship. It was a very hard experience for me, and as a part of that process, it was sitting with other women who had had similar experiences and they're telling their stories that made sense about my story. And so, the more we share our experiences individually and collectively, we're actually engaged in community healing.
Maria: Yes, that makes perfect sense. Speaking of community healing and addressing trauma, what's happening right now to reduce violence against indigenous women to get that 84% down to zero, or a much more reasonable number?
Victoria: There's a lot that's going on. So, while our communities have a lot of a lot and a lot of work to do, we've had some phenomenal milestones that have happened in the last decade or so. And I'm really excited that I've been able to be a part of it. Back in 2013, through the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, we were able to get Special Criminal Jurisdiction in the prosecution of crimes of domestic violence which is huge. And there are lots of advocates across our tribal communities and across our urban communities working to bring that jurisdiction ability back into the prosecution of sexual assault crimes. It still hasn't happened yet, but people are working on it. We have the Department of Tribal Affairs and the Office on Violence Against Women, which brings a lot of resources to our tribal and most recently, our urban responses, and through the help of that, those different resources that are coming into our communities, they're really supporting and encouraging us to really think about what makes it indigenous in terms of their responses that we make. And then, the Office for Victims of Crime has brought resources in through some of the confiscation of properties and stuff through crimes. They've brought the resources that came from that and they did a huge release just a few years ago. One example is, I was talking with an advocate yesterday, who actually has a brand new $3 million project starting a shelter. So, she's beside herself with excitement as well as nervousness over having such a big project. So, we're seeing big steps. We still have miles to go but we're really solidly walking forward. And then, also, when we look at it from an advocacy side, we have many advocates who are really intentionally thinking about what are our indigenous solutions in this process. What are the tools that we have to draw from our own communities, our own cultural ways, and our own teachings? What are those and what does that look like as we shape and define our programs?
Maria: That certainly sounds very hopeful for our future. And speaking of hopeful, I'm wondering how you feel or what your response was to the appointment of Representative Deb Holland from New Mexico to lead the Department of Interior.
Victoria: Everybody's been dancing across the nation. We have been so excited about the possibilities of what that means to have her working in the Department of the Interior and bringing her experience, and her voice as well as knowing that she's really going to look at the tribes and how that's going to affect the tribes as a part of her work.
Maria: What do you think some of the possibilities are?
Victoria: Well, I think we've had, unfortunately, in the last few years, we've had some challenges where we've had a few tribes that have lost their federal recognition. We had one tribe where there was the removal and an attempt to remove their land from them. And in doing that, fortunately, it got stopped. But those kinds of things should have never happened. And I think, with her being in that role within the Department of Interior, she's really going to help make sure that the others that are in leadership and overseeing the work of that department are going to be intentional and thinking about how it can harm or help our tribal nations. And I know that's not going to be her entire focus, but I do believe that's going to be one lens that she solidly looks through in her work.
Maria: I look forward to seeing the outcomes of that appointment and the work that she does. What are the most important things you want people to know about the experiences of violence for indigenous women and their responses to their trauma?
Victoria: I think one of the most important things I want people to know is that quote that we have on our website, that we have indigenous solutions to our problems. And that our indigenous peoples should be shaping and defining our responses because we know that our traditional practices, our values, our beliefs, and our culture are the most effective resources that we have available for real deep impacts and healing that we need in our communities. And I think it's really critical that our non-Native relatives understand and support our indigenous organizations to do the work that we need to do to heal our communities.
Maria: How is Covid impacted your work?
Victoria: It's been challenging. So, we are a National TA Provider, and as a part of that, because of the multiple shutdowns that different tribes have had, we have had periods where we're working with somebody and then things go silent. Our communication goes silent. And we were just talking about when one tribe where we actually called multiple departments to try to reach in, and all of those departments were silent. And so, communication has been challenging it. We, also, as our organization, we're a small nonprofit. We have 12 staff and 10 of us are Native. Through that, we've had multiple staff who have had really severe losses in their lives as a result of it. So, there are a lot of personal heartaches that people have been faced with as well as challenges in accomplishing our work. And then having to work on figuring out new strategies for advocacy to happen that's socially distanced when safety is such a critical aspect and the communication one-to-one with survivors has even been challenging for those programs.
Maria: Yes, I can imagine. We're all still trying to respond and adapt as we move forward, but it sounds as if you are doing some amazing work, training, and progress. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Victoria: I think it's that quote, "We have indigenous solutions to our problems," and that quote actually comes from Wilma Mankiller, who was Chief of the Cherokee Nation at the time. That quote has stayed with me ever since it was shared with me by a friend from a friend and it plays through my head constantly.
Maria: It plays through my head, too, ever since I was on your own Red Wind website. I was drawn in by the idea of indigenous solutions. And for me, just to read that, it clicked. It made sense. I'm really glad that I think people should go to your website and read more about it, you know, just to get a better feel for what that means and how they could incorporate indigenous solutions into their own work. But then, finally, I have to ask you to describe your job in 3 words.
Victoria: Exciting, powerful, and strong.
Maria: Perfect. Where can people find you? What's your website? How can they get in touch with you if they want to get more information about your curriculum or learn about these indigenous solutions?
Victoria: Our website is www.red-wind.net and under our Contact Tab, you can find a web form to reach out to us. You can also send an email to info@red-wind.net and both of those come into the same place and get directed to the appropriate staff. And yes, please take a look at our website and reach out. We're here and it's our job to work with different programs.
Maria: Awesome. Victoria, thank you so much for spending time with me today. I enjoyed meeting you and learning more about indigenous solutions and I hope you will visit us again soon.
Victoria: Thank you so much. It's been an honor to be here.
Maria: Leaving you today with a poem from the 2007 Anthology, Sharing Our Stories of Survival: Native Women Surviving Violence by contributor Petra Solomon of the Laguna-Zuni Tribes. The following is her poem, Eagle's Wings:
Give me eagle wings, Great Spirit.
Take me away from this hurt.
Take me away from pain.
Pray for me
That I will survive another day,
That my child will not see,
That the bruises will heal,
That no one will ask questions,
That no one will hear,
Pray for me.
Give me eagle wings
To soar above and beyond my situation.
Give me strength.
Give me power.
Give me courage.
Help me heal.
Give me eagle wings.
Thanks so much for listening. Until next time, stay safe. Interested in learning more about the topics you've heard on this podcast? Visit www.conferencecaw.org for details about the 2021 virtual conference and other upcoming training opportunities and be sure to follow us on social media @NationalCCAW.
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