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An Oklahoma-based organization is working on a documentary and study to assist tribes and agencies in providing better responses to victims and perpetrators.

SKIATOOK, Okla. – T.K. Wolf, Inc., a 501(c)(3)Indian organization in Skiatook, OK, received a Tides Foundation Indigenous Peoples Fund Award for 2009-2010 to continue its Stalking Initiative. The grant proposal was prepared by Integrated Concepts, Inc.—an organization that has helped a number of Indian organizations receive grant funding.

As a counseling, education and research organization, working in the area of mental health and addictions for more than a decade, T.K. Wolf staff came to see the connections between a number of addictions. They noted that violence (e.g., battering, sexual assault and stalking) affects Indians in disproportionate numbers to any other race—violence that is mostly non-Indian against Indian. Recent research now demonstrates that stalking, shown to be the most violent of all crimes, is in itself an addiction.

T.K. Wolf began its Stalking Initiative several years ago when convinced by stalked clients that neither Indians (with double the stalking numbers of any group) nor other stalking victims were receiving appropriate assistance from agencies or law enforcement. Stalking is usually treated under the category of battering (“domestic violence”) where services are limited to “known intimates.” Yet Bureau of Justice statistics (2009) show that this group represents only 30.3% of stalking victims, while “known others” (co-workers, classmates, neighbors, etc.) comprise 45.1%, “strangers” comprise 9.7% and “unknowns” comprise 15%. Males comprise 27% of all stalking victims. Clearly there is a large gap in services required by stalking victims.

Also significant is that the recent numbers show that 3.4 million become stalking victims in the US every year—more than annual victims of heart attacks (2.1 million), strokes (700,000) and breast cancer (200,000) combined. We have also noted that Indian victims, both male and female, are very often our leaders—attorneys, tribal administrators, grass roots activists, and leaders in business. For the health and safety of our leaders and all our communities, it is critical that we have research-based responses to this crime.

The focus of our grant is the making of an educational documentary that tells the story of stalking in Indian Country. It will be used to assist tribes and agencies in providing better responses to victims and perpetrators. For this project we are fortunate to have a T.K. Wolf Lombard Fellow, Jiles Pourier (Lakota), a recent graduate of Dartmouth College, who majored in Native Studies, Women’s Studies and film making, to assist us in the project. Indian victims of stalking, representing the different categories of victims (known intimates, known others, strangers, and unknowns, male and female) are being interviewed in for the documentary. We are hoping to release it during the coming Stalking Awareness Month, January, 2010.

In addition to the documentary, we are providing an online survey for victims of stalking which can be completed anonymously and safely and will provide further information regarding the needs of Indian Country related to stalking. The survey is being provided online through Integrated Concepts, Inc. To answer the survey, go to: www.iconceptsinc.com, select Services, select Stalking Survey, enter Password: Tides_Foundation, take Survey, select Submit.

The results of the survey will be anonymously incorporated into the stalking documentary and provided to the public through Native American Times. For questions and more information on stalking, you may go to the T.K. Wolf website, www.tkwolf.com or contact Dr. Ann Dapice, 918-396-1467.