10/12/2026
This isn't the post I originally planned. The other one was a poke at Christopher Columbus and helped us process that we live in a country where many people prefer to celebrate a man who really didn't do anything remarkable, but fits a narrative that the US accepted- and continues to accept- for so long.
And then this weekend happened.
A man shot down eight members of his family and a friend of the family in the same neighborhood where our AniFugee Usdi- the refugee children we support- live.
So, my family and I spent the weekend coordinating with our community partners so we are available to provide support to those children who already escaped hate, violence, and the unknown to come to a country where they are now experiencing the same thing all over again.
This weekend has been very tough.
The sad part is that this violence, while more extreme than usual, isn't unusual. We see domestic violence in Indian Country every day, just like we're seeing it here in Erie, Pennsylvania. While investigators are still trying to piece together exactly what happened this past Friday, many of us who work with families know the particular details don't matter:
At the end of the day, ten people are dead and domestic violence is real.
This Indigenous Peoples Day, I urge people to take accountability for their actions. Domestic violence is rife in Native spaces. It stems from a lot of trauma, irresponsible choices, enabling, and turning a blind eye when people know something is wrong but take no actions to hold people accountable.
Native American and Alaska Native women face murder rates about ten times the national average, with thousands of cases unsolved, and children are disproportionately affected in sexual violence and missing persons cases.
The Office of Justice Programs reports "domestic violence and related forms of violence are alarmingly high among Native American populations. More than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women (84.3%) have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime, including sexual violence (56.1%), physical violence by an intimate partner (55.5%), stalking (48.8%), and psychological aggression (66.4%) by an intimate partner."
And just like the devastating situation we're facing here in our family's community, high rates of domestic violence in Native communities are linked to historical trauma, systemic neglect, economic hardship, and social stressors.
While all of those factors obviously are a huge part of these acts of violence, at the end of the day, a lot of us grew up in these circumstances and aren't out killing people or participating in the violence.
At the end of the day, we are responsible for our own actions. If you feel like you are going to be violent, remove yourself from others.
Nine innocent people died at the hands of a man who decided he controlled who lived and who died.
If we are going to celebrate Indigenous peoples today, we need to be sure to hold ourselves accountable that we are not part of the cycle that is killing so many.
Now our family heads out to help the community process this unthinkable loss through our traditional Cherokee ways.
We've got to do better.
