Catawba Indians lose domestic violence grant funding, positions cut

The end of the year will also bring an end to a domestic violence grant serving members of the Catawba Indian Nation, ending one full-time position in the tribe’s social services department.

A three-year grant from the U.S. Justice Department funds services the nation provides to its members struggling with domestic violence and abuse. But that grant will run out at the end of the year.

“The tribe is subject to a competitive grant process,” said Catawba spokeswoman Elizabeth Harris. “This year, the DOJ had 150 applicants, and only 40 grants were awarded.”

A grant from the Tribal Governments Program of the federal Violence Against Women Office paid for three full-time staffers who offer legal assistance to Catawba Indians leaving abusive relationships, and supportive services if they need to set up a new home.

The program had $749,538 in funding over three years. Harris said the tribe hopes to provide the same level of services using a smaller grant for $422,393 from the justice department’s Comprehensive Tribal Victims Assistance program, a grant Harris says will allow them to serve victims of all variety of crime.

But with the smaller funding base, only two full-time positions will be paid for under the new grant. All three current positions will be eliminated, and current employees will have a chance to apply for the two new positions.

The tribe’s domestic violence shelter is funded separately and will continue operations as usual, although the Violence Against Women funds were accessed by the shelter if a victim needed to be placed in emergency housing elsewhere.

Statistics show Native Americans suffer some of the highest rates of domestic violence compared to other Americans. American Indian women residing on Indian reservations suffer domestic violence and physical assault at a rate as much as 50 percent higher than the next most victimized demographic, according to a 2004 Department of Justice report.

In a 2008 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, 39 percent of Native American women identified as victims of intimate partner violence, a rate higher than any other race or ethnicity surveyed. Seventeen percent of native women reported being stalked at least once, and 34 percent will be raped in their lifetime, a rate almost double that of women in general.

Justice Department statistics reveal at least 70 percent of violence against American Indians is committed by persons of a different race – a substantially higher rate of interracial violence than experienced by white or black victims. Such attacks pose a challenge to tribal law enforcement agencies that often lack jurisdiction over non-tribal members.

The program funding the Catawba reservation’s domestic violence services was added to the Violence Against Women Act only in 2005, after a campaign by tribal organizations around the country to address the issue. The added mandate sets aside 10 percent of grant funding for tribal programs.

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 10:06 PM with the headline "Catawba Indians lose domestic violence grant funding, positions cut."