Domestic violence is a prevalent issue dating back to the early 1900s on the Navajo Nation. Domestic violence is defined not only as violence but also any form of abuse in a domestic setting. Incidence on the Navajo Reservation though possibly under-reported is on a steady incline. There are many sociological tendencies of Navajo Reservation Natives surrounding domestic violence on the reservation. Domestic violence is correlated to substance abuse, social network, childhood abuse, governmental assimilation efforts and risk factors in adults. Influence on sociological tendency comes from both internal and external forces. Internally the viscosity of Navajo culture largely influences the behavioral patterns involving domestic violence.
Externally the US government influence is considered historically and contemporaneously; spanning from early government cultural assimilation programs to the existing relationship between the federal government and the Navajo Nation. Geographic influence is another contributing factor; including the lack of accessibility to the police and the large distances between the reservation and possible outside aid. Effective efforts against domestic violence are more recent as traditions have changed and become less effective in prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence.
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Influencing factors
External federal and societal influence Federal and societal influences should be considered separately when looking at historical factors of current-day domestic violence. Societal influences refer to non-governmental actions, while federal influences generally refer to legislation enacted that directly impacted Native American populations.
Assimilation Societal influence on Navajo culture was largely focused on the assimilation of the Navajo into what was viewed as more mainstream American culture. Past efforts to aid or force assimilation societally include the use of American Indian boarding schools, which were used to force children to use English instead of Navajo, attend Christian church services, forgo traditional religious and cultural coming-of-age ceremonies, and generally move away from being 'Navajo' and towards being more 'American'. Another prominent coordinated effort to promote Navajo youth assimilation was the Indian Placement Program, operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints from 1947 to 1996.
Research on the effect of forced assimilation has shown some correlation to rates of domestic abuse on Navajo reservations, although causation has not been sufficiently shown.
Legislation The federal government of the United States has, in the past and to varying degrees, passed many bills and adjudicated many cases that involve the sovereignty of Native American tribes. Some of the intended results of previous bills have been to move Native American tribes to reservations and to define the limits of Native American land ownership, religious practices, and citizenship. The cases adjudicated generally involved sovereignty of Native American criminal prosecutions, the levying of taxes on reservations, and questions of property rights. In the late 1800s the American government urged Navajo's to appoint male leaders, directly opposing the Navajo matriarchy.
Paternalism was the primary political attitude when dealing with Native American tribes. In particular, the effects of forced movement from traditional tribal lands to reservations, the removal of native children from homes, and federal action that prevented tribal sovereignty when attempting to deal with criminal cases were some of the biggest sources of conflict with Native American tribes. The relationship between paternalism and increasing rates of domestic abuse, poverty, alcoholism, and many other additional variables has been studied for decades, with mixed results.
Geographic and economic influence
The physical isolation and high levels of poverty on many reservations could be contributors to the high levels of domestic abuse on Navajo reservations. Additionally, the act of leaving a reservation, whether to seek help for abuse, find employment, or other reasons, can carry a stigma in some Native American cultures.
Poverty on the reservation Extreme poverty has endured on most Native American reservations for decades. The high levels of economic instability could contribute to the low rate of seeking help off of the reservation. There have also been correlations shown between the level of poverty on reservations and increased levels of single motherhood and divorce, both of which have been shown to correlate to increased risk of domestic violence.
Geography
Federal boarding schools were seen by federal programs as easier paths to education and assimilation because of the geographic distance between villages on the reservation. Modern geographic influence relies on the colonialist influence that resulted in families splitting off and allowing more distance between communities. Distance between communities factors into the rates at which abused children are relocated and access to the criminal justice system and other aid provided on the reservation. The town Kayenta for example, though a population of above 15,000, has just 5 police officers patrolling all of its 4100 square miles; the nearest shelter to a rural family is over 100 miles away, and is currently full.
Viscous internal cultural influence Traditional Navajo culture has experienced decline in the 20th and 21st centuries; as federal influence increased, the traditional practices of Navajo culture declined. Domestic violence in the Navajo culture was observed rarely and dealt with immediately. In the case of wife battery the woman's family would reclaim her to her home and blacklist the husband until he changed his behavior. Such blacklisting was effective up to the 20th century because the Diné tribe was matrilocal. The matriarchal base of Navajo culture faced such great opposition by the American patriarchy that values were compromised. Generational differences of the Navajo culture have great influence on modern domestic violence.
Modern assimilation
Current assimilation practices have caused generational differences between Native American youth and people from their grandparents' generation. Original assimilation efforts in the United States included legislative efforts, forced separation of families, and mass relocation of indigenous tribes. Modern-day efforts towards effective assimilation are more focused on easing the transition between cultures in such areas as education styles, parenting methods, and job requirements.
Due to the differences in assimilation tactics, Native American youth are somewhat more likely to attempt to assimilate, which is seen by some from the older generation as leaving behind their Navajo culture. The vast differences in both the method of assimilation, and the attitude towards assimilation on behalf of the Navajo, could contribute to differences in how domestic abuse is viewed, and thus how it is treated.
Incidence of domestic violence on the reservation Domestic violence reported and recorded since the early 1940s has increased. The most common domestic violence recorded and researched is child abuse. The most common form of child abuse on the reservation is child neglect. Physical or sexual abuse of children makes up 10-15% of child abuse on the reservation which is commonly perpetrated by grandparents and young, new parents.
The demographic where child abuse is most common, experience high rates of unemployment, divorce and substance abuse. Children suffering abuse or neglect were found in large, socially incomplete families. Of maltreated children in 1981, 52.3% of them had married parents. In 1997, sexual abuse perpetrated against children by family members accounted for 78% of child sexual abuse. 78% of sexually abusive relationships involving a child, were of a male sexually abusing a female child.
In 1998, domestic violence between spouses was attributed to most injuries of women ages 15–44 on the reservation. Numbers of abuse perpetrated by wife against husband are not reported or recorded at this time, though 52.2% of women eligible for asking by a healthcare provider reported experiences of domestic violence in their lifetimes.
Sociological tendencies A lack of social network on the reservation is studied as the largest correlation to domestic violence. This lack of social network is due to geographical distances and social factors such as generational abuse and disconnect from or appropriation of historical traditions. Navajos who suffer domestic violence early on in life are at risk for adult behavioral problems, PTSD, and other psychiatric disease. Sociological tendencies have shifted from cultural toward individual, less attachment to society as a whole has led Navajos on the reservation to act selfishly instead of as a community.
Reorganization of the home and family The Navajo way of life and property contrasts greatly with that of patriarchal societies. Before 1883, marriage meant that the spouses became one another's property and that the two were equal. Property was passed down by mothers and a woman could divorce her husband by removing his things from the house. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs created the Court of Indian Offenses with laws against traditional marriages, inheritance and divorce in 1883; by law, women did not control any of their birthrights. The male figure in white America also introduced a power struggle within the Navajo's previous matriarchal society. Men in the eyes of America should have control over their home, and wife beating became a normal way to exercise that control in the Navajo world.
The Navajo reservation by law abandoned their traditions and reorganized the family with male leaders who came without experience or knowledge, only the white male to observe. These men who did not understand how to lead were offered cultural solutions, but because these solutions came from the Navajo women, they were met with violence in an attempt to maintain control. The family was reorganized with a male head which diminished social networks established by matriarchs.
Substance abuse correlation Substance abuse is heavily correlated to domestic violence on the Navajo reservation because the reformation of the home crumbled matriarchal social networks. Alcoholism and other substance abuse acts on the reservation in place of fulfilling relationships. Though the numbers of substance abuse indicate a risk of domestic violence perpetrated by the substance abuser the abuse of alcohol is a tendency adapted for the same reasons domestic violence is perpetrated. There is no association between substance abuse and domestic abuse, only correlation of risk.
Post-assimilation tendency The traditional Navajo culture in which the matriarchal figure guided was and is very open to assimilating with the culture of the United States. Soldiers were blessed when they went off to war and children were sent off to boarding schools, returning to the reservation detached from their born cultural identity.
WWII veterans
In World War II, the Navajo men did not hold resentment toward military service as did their Zuni counterparts. Navajo men went through ritual the Blessing way before serving in World War II and in service these men did not internalize responsibility to observe rituals or contact home consistently. These men coming home were welcomed with three rituals, the Blessing way, the Enemy way and sweat bathing. These blessings were acted to keep the veterans safe, but not to welcome these men home. Reservation natives who never left the reservation were somewhat resentful, encouraging the veterans upon returning to go learn more of white American culture rather than lead the people on the reservation.