Welcome to Mending the Sacred Hoop Technical
Assistance Project. MSH-TA is a Native
American program that provides training and
technical assistance to our American Indian
and Alaskan Native relations in the effort
to eliminate violence in the lives of women
and their children. We work with villages,
reservations, rancherias and pueblos across
the United States to improve the justice
system, law enforcement, and service
provider response to the issues of domestic
violence, sexual assault and stalking in
Native communities.
Violence against Native women is not an
individual pathology. It is a manifestation
of colonization and a society structured to
maintain the privilege of certain groups of
people. This hierarchical structure supports
violence against all women and is preserved
through economic, social and political
institutions. We recognize gender
inequality is not the only form of
inequality that impacts the lives of women.
All forms of institutionalized oppression -
racism, classism, heterosexism and ageism
increase the vulnerability of women to both
individual and institutionalized acts of
violence.
To successfully address violence against
women we must also understand other forms of
oppression. In addition to violence against
women, the oppression of people of color,
the poor, those of alternative sexual
orientation, the elderly, children,
non-Christians and others who are
marginalized is supported by the same
dynamics that maintain the power of a
limited few over the majority. Ultimately,
working to end violence against Native women
is also working to end all forms of
oppression.
Power and leadership in the natural world of
indigenous peoples was based on age and
demonstrated character, knowledge and
wisdom. The hierarchy of post colonization
is based on an unnatural world view where
power and leadership emanates from social
and political status, institutional
structures and an academic education. Given
the societal context of violence against
Native women, it is a great challenge for us
as Native people and as a Native organization
to understand our individual and
organizational place and responsibility in
formulating responses to stop violence
against Native women.
Mending the Sacred Hoop Technical Assistance
Project is committed to working with
American Indian and Alaskan Native
communities to re-create a natural world
that supports the leadership, strategies, and
tangible responses of tribal communities in
their efforts to stop violence against
Native women. We recognize our
responsibility to live in a good way, help
our relatives, and support the sovereignty
of Native Nations and Native women while
modeling personal and organizational
alliances to effect social change and end
violence against Native women.
