Pretty Bird Woman House

In 2001, Ivy Archambault was kidnapped, raped, and murdered by a 15-year old boy who broke into her house while she was sleeping. Despite eyewitnesses, the boy has never been charged with the murder. He was eventually conviced in 2003.

In 2004, with the help of a grant from the South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Archambault's sister, Jackie Brown Otter (pictured at left), founded Pretty Bird Woman House in her sister's (Lakota) name on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.

According to Amnesty International,

High levels of sexual violence on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation take place in a context of high rates of poverty and crime. South Dakota has the highest poverty rate for Native American women in the USA with 45.3 per cent living in poverty. The unemployment rate on the Reservation is 71 per cent. Crime rates on the Reservation often exceed those of its surrounding areas. According to FBI figures, in 2005 South Dakota had the fourth highest rate of "forcible rapes" of women of any US state.

In 2006, a blog-led fund drive raised $27,500 to help support the shelter; that money constituted PBWH's operating funds for five months in 2007, at which time the shelter was given a federal grant to keep it going.

That money is now endangered, because Pretty Bird Woman House's very small shelter was burned down by unknown arsonists, and federal money requires that the organization actually have a space to shelter women.

There is a house available, across from a police station, for $60,000. You can see pictures of it here; PBWH will need an additional $10,000 for a security system and fence.

At the time of writing, Prety Bird Woman House has raised almost $50,000 towards the $70,000 they need to purchase that house. That's 70% of the total cost.

If you can help donate even a few dollars to help keep the women of Standing Rock safe, please do. I know it's an expensive time of year for everyone, but even $5-10 would help. You can donate by going to the Pretty Bird Woman House Blog, to the Pretty Bird Woman House Chipin page (get it? Chip in = Chipin?), or simply by clicking the widget below.


And thank you.