Nola Levings | April 28, 2025 | Q&A
Miss Haskell 2024-25 Kansas Clifford-Braveboy (Oglala/Sicangu Lakota) hosted professor and lawyer Sarah Deer for a presentation and discussion about violence against Native peoples on Wednesday, April 9 at the Haskell Auditorium. Deer shared with the audience a presentation featuring research from her 2015 book “The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America,” which details the knowledge learned from years of working alongside survivors and criminal justice personnel.
The discussion was held to bring light to the history of violence with Native communities and offer the audience ways to begin healing. “I thought it was just important for the community to speak for themselves and bring people who would navigate and lead the conversation in a positive and beneficial way,” said Clifford-Braveboy.
Throughout history as the United States of America, Native women have been victims of crime in large, disproportionate numbers in comparison to white women. According to the “Violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women and men” study conducted by Andre B. Rosay, 84.3% of the women surveyed admitted to “any lifetime violence,” which covers sexual violence, physical violence, stalking or psychological aggression. Along with research, Deer explained how Native nations had their own ways of dealing with abuse within communities and giving nations the opportunity to govern themselves could aid in healing.
Deer’s presentation concluded with opening the floor to questions or offering advice for the audience. “If we try to just start with healing first, there’s still gonna be a lot of people who [want] to talk about the harm that has been done to them and maybe get that off their chest and share that with the community,” said Clifford-Braveboy. The following is from interviews conducted after the event:
Q&A
Sarah Deer (Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma), a University of Kansas professor and chief justice for the Prairie Island Indian Community Court of Appeals, and Miss Haskell 2024-25 Kansas Clifford-Braveboy (Oglala/Sicangu Lakota) spoke April 9 at Haskell Indian Nations University about violence against Native communities and paths toward healing.
Sarah Deer
Q: Regarding your speech, was it the message you hope people take from it?
A: I hope people were able to see how Native women have been able to fight in the system and how they have been able to make big changes in the law despite people telling them that there wasn’t any hope. So I hope that is a message that people take away as inspiration for their own work.
Q: How do you hope your speech will influence the conversation moving forward?
A: I hope this is just a beginning of the conversations. I hope that my speech isn’t the end. I think that people here are already having really important, difficult conversations about this issue. I hope that my contribution just added to that ongoing conversation.
Kansas Clifford-Braveboy
Q: Can you explain why you had the discussion?
A: I thought it was just important for the community to speak for themselves and bring people who, I thought, would kind of navigate and lead the conversation in a positive and beneficial way. I had gone to a law symposium where I saw Deer talk and I remember really coming away with a lot of knowledge and different outlooks on things, especially on violence against Native women. So, I wanted to extend that to other people here on campus and if they wanted to learn more about violence against Indigenous women and methods for healing. I really just wanted to offer the opportunity.
Q: What do you hope people take away from this discussion?
A: Really just to acknowledge the systems that are in place, and reduce harm against Indigenous women and Indigenous peoples. I think that it is important to first acknowledge the harm that has been done and move the topic or discussion towards healing. If we try to just start with healing first, there’s still gonna be a lot of people who still wanna talk about the harm that has been done to them and maybe get that off their chest and share that with the community. We’re giving that opportunity for people to address that upfront then also take the narrative and turn it into something positive.
Q: What is the importance of restoring justice to our community?
A: I think we’re in a unique situation here at Haskell. There’s a lot of harm that lives within the land here that has been done to Indigenous people. There’s unmarked graves and the whole history of boarding school, so we have to acknowledge that and we have to confront that. I think we especially as a community need topics and discussions like this where we can come together and get stuff off of our chest and off of our minds and learn different strategies for healing. And also taking back that power from systems who only aim to harm us and calling them out and saying we’re not going to play into that anymore. We’re going to use your systems against you to fight for our own sovereignty.
