A Tribal Court Domestic Violence Case Study

1947 Words8 Pages

Laws, throughout the years have changed tremendously. Laws are words on a piece of paper that help to govern society. Laws are obligatory and are enforceable by authorities such as law enforcement agencies. It can have much effect, or little to no effect on people. The truth is some people will do whatever it is they want to do. They will either try their hardest to follow the laws or to defying them.
June 4, 1999, marked the last moments Jessica Gonzales would be able to be with her children. She was going through a rough divorce with her husband Simon, who had been abusing her. Simon had also tried to commit suicide on several occasions. With the fear for her life and the need for the safety of her children’s life, she decided to …show more content…

Domestic violence against American Indian women is an outbreak within their community. They are victimized at more than twice the national rate. More than one in three American Indian women will be raped or sexually assaulted during their lifetime, according to the United States Department of Justice statistics. Crimes against American Indian women is 2.4 the rate of women nationally, while Alaska Native women were 4.5 times more likely to be killed by an intimate partner most of which were non-Indian. Stacy Leeds writes about herself becoming a law professor and serving as a Tribal Judge to help out in her community. As she describes her experience she remembers her colleagues advising her to limit her outsides commitment and service obligations. They told her that, “learning to “say no” to these multiple requests would be important to my survival in the promotion and tenure process [456].” There are approximately 11,000 law professors in the United States. Only 1% of the 11,000 lawyers self-identify as an American Indian or Alaskan Native. Simply saying “no” to her community was hard to do. Leeds would rather lend a hand to her community, and have so serving as a judge for seven tribal nations throughout her career. “I have become accustomed to saying yes: to service on tribal courts, to assisting communities and organization in their growth, to the law student that needs fifteen minutes of my time when I am walking out of the office at the end of the day, in addition to the usual demands faced by law professors [P.458],” explained Leeds. One of Leeds’, case involved a domestic abused victim named Donna. Donna was a middle-aged American Indian woman who was abused by her on and off boyfriend. He verbally and physically abused her as well