This project is an Oklahoma Summit on Violent Crime in Indian Country. The Journey to Justice project convened tribal and state leadership to discuss and confront the issues and barriers facing Native American victims of interpersonal violence in Oklahoma. This conference created an action plan by the stakeholders to move forward to improve outcomes for Native American victims of interpersonal violence.

The Summit served as a venue to encourage participants to speak about the challenges facing tribal and state entities involved with and serving Native American victims of interpersonal violence. Summit participants worked together to identify specific problems, generate solutions, and select action steps. A comprehensive report of the Summit will be created and disseminated to all participants soon and a copy will be made available for download. A video highlighting issues for the summit, a video message from BIA Deputy Director Larry Echohawk, and a television interview with INJ Director Pam Moore are also available for viewing.

Background
Many studies have been conducted over the last ten years to determine the rate of violence against Native Americans, especially women. A 2008 National Institute of Justice report states that even the most conservative estimates indicate that violence is an extremely serious problem in many American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Research tells us that Native women are 2.5 times more likely to be physically assaulted, raped, and/or stalked than any other ethnic or racial group. Oklahoma is fourth in the nation for domestic violence related homicides and has a high rate of domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking, and dating violence as well.

It is because of these frightening statistics that the Tribal Desk of the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice, has chosen Oklahoma to be the site of a summit to explore the violence perpetrated against Native American women.

Oklahoma presents many challenges due to the checkerboard jurisdiction, which leaves Native women (who are victims of these crimes) without the ability to seek justice. These legal loopholes and gaps in the criminal justice system result in a lack of offender accountability.

Domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, and dating violence are interpersonal violence crimes that destroy families, communities, and the lives of the victims. This will be a historic summit that will present the problems, showcase effective tribal strategies from Oklahoma tribes, and seek solutions.