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The
Dakota Roundtable was part of the Native American Women’s Leadership
Development Program initiated by Native American Women's Health
Education Resource Center. In May of 1993, twenty-eight representatives
from Lakota, Dakota, Omaha, and other nations in the states of South
Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska met to discuss the unrealized
health needs within their communities. The committee’s goals were to
identify and develop recommendations for the existing issues in their
communities and improve partnerships and policy-making strategies; they
also intended to promote political activism, creative problem solving,
and leadership roles among young women. To better identify specific
needs of the community, the group divided into three sections defined
by children’s developmental stages. The first group encompassed age 0-5
yrs. and discussed matters such as a mother’s ability to access health
care resources, substance abuse and its consequences, parenting skills,
teen pregnancies and family planning programs, and the presence of
violence in the household. The next group battled, through debate,
concerns such as domestic violence, physical health basics, child-care
and parenting, the definition of health as put forth by indigenous
people, and the lasting effects of colonialism. The final group
discussed the health of children from age 13-21 and the pressures of
their lives, such as pregnancies, drug abuse, violence, and suicide.
The recommendations made by each assembly are recorded at the end of
the report.
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The
Dakota Roundtable II was held in Sioux Falls in September of 1994, and
was intended as a forum, a safe environment, in which participants
could openly share their experiences as Native American women. The
meeting also provided an opportunity for organizations to build
partnerships, develop strategies to maneuver the issues discussed into
the policy-making domain, and to advance leadership roles for women in
the community. The assembly divided into three sections to discuss
Health Issues Facing a Native American Woman, the Traditional Ways of
Being a Native American Woman, and Violence and Abuse Issues. The first
topic included concerns such as the state of existing health and
medical programs, diseases such as diabetes that are prevalent in the
race, and other health issues such as reproductive rights, menopause,
and domestic violence. This group also included a brief section on
medical attitudes and unethical research practiced on Native American
women. The second section recorded their thoughts in a unique memoir
style, as accounts told by participants. The women attempted to define
the meaning of “traditional Indian,” and spoke of the role of and
importance of language, culture, and historical names and labels. They
further discussed elitism and class-ism, and the place of tradition
within this imposed structure. Spurred by the statistic that although
Native Americans only make up 6.9% of the population in South Dakota,
nearly 50% of all domestic abuse reports come from Native American
households, the final group focused on spousal violence and
“formalized, institutionalized abuse” by the community. In addition,
they wrote of the lack of recognition for a woman’s work, lack of
leadership roles for women, discrimination in public schools, and a
variety of issues at the workplace.
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The
third in its series, the Dakota Roundtable III was held in Sioux Falls
in April, 1996. Organized a bit differently from the previous ones,
this one featured a forum for sixteen girls, age 12-19, from the tribes
of Crow Creek, Lower Brule, Rosebud, Santee, Sisseton, Wahpeton, and
Yankton. Before splitting into smaller groups, the girls spoke in an
open dialogue of the difficulties they have perceived in their daily
lives. While the younger girls listed issues such as prejudice,
ignorance among their peers about their culture, and smoking and drugs,
the older girls went on to mention the complexities of being a single
parent with little financial or emotional support from a spouse, and
the pressure to succeed put forth by one’s family as opposed to the
stereotyped roles imposed on them by society. One group discussed the
affects of drugs and alcohol on female teens, including her
relationships with drinking parents and friends, her personal views and
experiences with drinking, tragedies, violence, and their reasons for
indulging in the drug. A second group spoke of issues faced by teen
mothers, such as personal and familial responses to the event, drugs
taken during pregnancy, financial instability, housing, and childcare.
The final topics discussed incorporated the issues of racism and
prejudice. The report related points of racism experienced by the team
itself while stationed in Sioux Falls for the conference as well as the
anecdotes told by the participating girls. They noted the effects of
relationships within their families on their own personal outlook, the
attitudes on interracial dating, and power interplay between the races
prior to the introduction of violence into any situation. A 1994 survey
on Native American sexual health revealed startling results that are
discernible in this study as well. For example, a massive 92% of
sexually active girls report being forced into sexual intercourse on a
date, and 67% have been pregnant by the end of their senior year in
high school. Within the age group 15-19, 50.6 out 100 girls have one or
more children.
price $10.
00
The SisterSong collective is made up of four ethnic groups, African American, Asian American, Latina Americana, and Native American, with four further subgroups within each of those categories. This roundtable report was developed by the Native American women’s branch. It begins with a section of thoughts and comments as quoted by the participants at the event. Following this are recommendations for “implementing Native American women’s right to knowledge, education, and policy development on reproductive Health and rights” at the individual, family, social, and policy level. Also included are recommendations concerning a woman’s ability and right to access reproductive health education, prevention programs, and reliable health services. The report is formatted by subject topic with relevant quotes by participants underneath.