Oklahoma Tribal Leaders Praise Biden Administration For Reauthorizing 'Violence Against Women Act'

Oklahoma tribal leaders are praising Congress and the Biden administration for reauthorizing VAWA, the Violence Against Women Act, saying it closes a jurisdictional gap that has made Native women and children in Indian Country more vulnerable to domestic violence and sex crimes. 

VAWA’s reauthorization, a product of months of bipartisan negotiations, was part of the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill Congress passed last week and the president signed into law Tuesday. Biden wrote and championed the original VAWA legislation as a U.S. Senator in 1994, shepherded it through several subsequent updates and required reauthorizations, and opened his remarks at a ceremonial bill signing at the White House Wednesday by lamenting that it was allowed to expire in 2017 under his predecessor. 

“The idea that this took five years to reauthorize...” the president said, pausing in mock exasperation, “I was out of office those years!” 

One reason lawmakers worked hard to reach a compromise and renew VAWA, which generally provides added support and protection for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, is that cases of domestic violence increased during the pandemic. 

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., who along with Cherokee Nation Delegate to Congress Kim Teehee attended Wednesday's event in the East Room, says the tribe is doing things internally to address domestic violence, “but the significance of VAWA’s reauthorization is now we have additional tools to put into action.” 

Most significantly, the legislation expands the Cherokee Nation’s (and other tribes’) authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit crimes against Natives in Indian Country, authority that was first provided with the 2013 VAWA reauthorization. 

Teehee, then senior policy advisor for Native American affairs in the Obama White House, played a major role in inserting that authority in the 2013 legislation, what she now says was a small, but critically important first step in closing a serious jurisdictional gap. 

“In 2013 it was groundbreaking because it absolutely addressed a jurisdictional gap, a real jurisdictional gap,” Teehee said in an interview following Wednesday’s ceremony, “that was plaguing Indian Country, which did not have the legal tools to prosecute non-Indians who commit domestic violence against women.” 

In addition to allowing tribes to continue exercising special tribal criminal jurisdiction over non-Natives who commit dating violence, domestic violence and violations of civil protection orders on tribal land, expanded provisions in this VAWA reauthorization give Native courts the authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit child sex crimes and cause harm to tribal justice personnel. 

“We knew over time, once we set this foundation,” Teehee said, “refinements would occur and that authority would grow overtime, and that’s what’s happening now.” 

And it's happening with the support of both Democrats and Republicans, which Chief Hoskin says it so important. 

"This country can fail Indian Country but it also can meet the needs that we have," said Hoskin, "it can help champion issues and policies that help us. This is an example of, on a bipartisan basis, Indian Country getting a real win."