Tribal survivors of rape gather to ‘lift our sisters up’

Courageously she stood, a blanket around her shoulders. Roxanne Chinook wasn’t alone in the Tulalip Tribes’ Hibulb Cultural Center Longhouse.

More than 50 women and girls, elders to middle schoolers, crowded together on plank seats. For their ancestors, a longhouse was a place to hear stories. At Wednesday’s gathering, called “Lifting Our Sisters Up,” they listened and shared.

“The blankets are to cover you for protection,” said Deborah Parker, vice chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes.

Then Chinook told her harrowing story, an account of being raped — by a non-Indian — on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Oregon.

“I am a survivor of 13 rapes,” said Chinook, who works for the Tulalips’ Legacy of Healing, a victims’ advocacy program. Years ago, she tried hiding her pain in a fog of substance abuse. “Why did I make myself so vulnerable? Many women you see in Indian country who are hard-drinking, those are women carrying that kind of pain,” Chinook said.

It was a piercing, personal memory. And a camera was rolling.

A French film crew was in the longhouse Wednesday working on a documentary that will air on the Canal Plus network. “It’s like the HBO of France,” said Sabrina Van Tassel, the filmmaker visiting Tulalip with camerman Cyril Thomas. Van Tassel said the short film will air on a French show called “Butterfly Effect,” which examines issues in other countries.

The film’s subject is the Violence Against Women Act, which U.S. senators voted Tuesday to reauthorize. It’s legislation first passed in 1994. The law includes money for prosecution of violent crimes against women.

Last year, House Republicans did not support its renewal. One big reason the House rejected the measure was a new provision that would allow tribal police and courts to pursue and try non-Indians who attack women on tribal land. Federal law enforcement has jurisdiction in such cases, but access is limited at the very least by distance.

Legislation passed Tuesday by the Senate includes the tribal provisions. The House is now expected to take up the Violence Against Women Act, and Parker is pushing for equal treatment of crimes that happen on Indian reservations.

Last April, the Tulalips’ vice chairwoman was in Washington, D.C., where she spoke at a press conference with U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in support of the law, which died in 2012 without a House vote. Interviewed in December by Herald writer Rikki King, Murray said Parker has become “the voice and face” of the issue. “I know it’s taken a lot of courage on her part, and I know it’s making a difference,” Murray said.

As she did in the nation’s capital, Parker shared her own nightmarish stories in the longhouse Wednesday.

“My aunt was being abused when I was baby-sitting her children. She was brutally raped,” Parker said. All she could do, she said, was protect the children by hiding with them in a closet. Parker also remembers being raped as a small child. “I was the size of a couch cushion,” she said. “I was choked and I was raped. I tell my story so that others can receive healing,” she said.

Parker stood beside her teenage daughter, Kayah George, and said “I can place one more woman beside me, and one of us will be raped.”

Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., quoted by The New York Times on Sunday, cited statistics showing that tribal women are two and a half times more likely than other American women to be raped, with 1 in 3 Indian women becoming victims of sexual assault.

The French film crew has also done interviews on the Rosebud and Yankton Sioux reservations in South Dakota. “A lot of people ask why, why would French people want to know about this?” said Van Tassel. “Why wouldn’t they?”

Among four honored witnesses to Wednesday’s gathering, which included traditional songs and prayers, was the Tulalip Tribal Court’s Chief Judge Theresa Pouley. The court is part of the Northwest Intertribal Court System, established in 1979.

Pouley is a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. “Let tribal court judges take care of crime on reservations. This isn’t about tribal court judges. This is about protecting our women,” Pouley said.

“I’m a Washington State Bar Association member. I should have to prove I’m competent or capable? Really? It’s time to stop having that conversation,” the judge said. “I never want to say to my granddaughter, ‘There’s a 1 in 3 chance you’ll be raped, sweetie.’”

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Everett police searching for missing child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive. The child was missing under “suspicious circumstances.”

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.