Sharing Our Stories of Survival: Native Women Surviving Violence (62 page)

Customary law:
A law based on custom or tradition.

Declarant:
The person making a statement.

Dependency proceeding:
A formal court proceeding to determine if a child’s welfare requires a state or tribe to intervene. Other names: child protection proceeding or child abuse and neglect proceeding.

Domicile:
A person’s legal home.

Due process:
Refers to certain safeguards that assure fundamental fairness.

Egalitarian:
Promoting equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all people.

Emulate:
To imitate another.

Enumerate:
To name a number of things on a list.

Eroded:
Caused to diminish or deteriorate.

Escalate:
To increase in intensity or extent.

Eunuch:
A man whose sexual organs have been removed.

Ex parte order:
Refers to an order where only one side has presented their case. Often used for emergency proceedings.

Exclusive:
Sole; excludes all others.

Fee lands:
Land that is owned free and clear without any trusts or restrictions.

Felony:
A crime carrying a minimum term of one year or more in state prison.

Flashback:
A recurring, intensely vivid mental image of a past traumatic experience.

Foreign protection order:
Refers to a protection order from another jurisdiction (not a foreign country).

Futility:
Lack of usefulness or effectiveness.

Garnishment:
A legal taking of the property or wages of another.

Gay:
A term for someone who forms physical and emotional relationships with a person of the same gender. Gay can be used to talk about both men and women, but commonly refers to men.

Genocide:
The systematic killing or attempted killing of all people from a national, ethnic, or religious group.

Government-to-government:
A relationship between equal or near-equal nations that prevents one having control over the individuals in another.

Hearsay:
Second-hand evidence in which the witness is not telling what he or she knows personally, but what others have said to him or her.

Heterosexism:
The assumption that everyone is, or should be, heterosexual and that heterosexuality is the only normal, natural expression of sexuality. It implies that heterosexuality is superior and, therefore, preferable.

Holistic:
Refers to a method of healing that focuses on the whole person (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects), not just one aspect.

Homo/Bi/Trans/Queer-phobia:
Fear and hatred of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and the transgender and queer community. The fear and hatred usually comes in forms of prejudice, discrimination, harassment, threats, and acts of violence.

Illegitimate:
Born to parents who are not married to each other.

Illicit:
Unlawful.

Immemorial:
Reaching beyond the limits of memory, tradition, or recorded history.

Imminent:
About to happen, near at hand.

Indenturing:
Binding one person to work for another.

Infiltrate:
To penetrate, especially with hostile intent.

Infraction:
The failure to obey or fulfill a law or agreement.

Ingenuity:
Inventive skill or imagination; cleverness.

Inherent authority:
An authority possessed without its being derived from another.

Inherent rights:
Refers here to the rights that a tribe or government has because it is a tribe or government. Rights are not given by another.

Injunction:
A court order prohibiting a party from a specific course of action.

IUD:
Intrauterine device—a form of birth control.

Jurisdiction:
The area in which a government has the right and power to make decisions.

Lesbian:
A woman who is gay; loving other women.

Lethality:
The quality of being deadly.

LGBTTQQ:
Acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirited, queer, and “questioning” folks.

Mandatory reporters:
People who are required by law to report any suspicion of child abuse or neglect to authorities.

Mediation:
The intervention by a third party between two sides in a dispute in an attempt to help them reach an agreement.

Misdemeanor:
A lesser crime punishable by a fine and/or county jail time for up to one year.

Mother’s right:
The right of a mother to her children.

Oblivious:
Lacking conscious awareness.

Oppression:
The act of subjecting a person or a people to a harsh or cruel form of domination.

Out:
To “out” someone, to tell others about their sexual minority status—to bring that information out into the world without the individual wanting it known. Although “coming out” usually involves voluntarily doing so, “outing” someone is generally not done in a positive way.

Parole:
A period after incarceration during which the offender is required to meet certain conditions, such as good behavior, regular reporting, and so forth.

Paternalistic:
Like a father; benevolent but intrusive.

Paternity:
The legal determination of a man’s status as a father.

Per capita:
“By heads”; by the number of individual persons.

Perpetrator:
The person responsible for a crime.

Petition:
A formal request to a court or other authority asking for some kind of action; as in a petition for a protection order.

Petitioner:
One who presents a petition to a court or other authority.

Plea bargain:
In criminal procedure, a negotiation between the defendant and his or her attorney on one side and the prosecutor on the other, in which the defendant agrees to plead “guilty” or “no contest” to some crimes in return for reduction of the severity of the charges, dismissal of some of the charges, the prosecutor’s willingness to recommend a particular sentence, or some other benefit to the defendant.

Pre-arraignment report:
Report provided to the court before the accused comes to court to respond to a criminal charge. Report used by the judge to help in setting bail and conditions of release pending trial.

Precedent:
An action or decision that can be used as an example for a similar decision or to justify a similar action.

Preponderance of the evidence:
A degree of proof that is more probable than not.

Preponderance:
The lower burden of proof in a civil case; more probably than not.

Pre-sentence report:
A report provided to the court after a guilty verdict or plea, used by the judge to determine the punishment for the crime.

Presumption:
An inference (something that is implied) in favor of a particular fact.

Proactive:
Taking the initiative by acting rather than reacting to events.

Probation:
The act of suspending the sentence of a person convicted of a criminal offense and granting that person provisional freedom on the promise of good behavior.

Pro se:
When someone represents him- or herself and appears in a legal proceeding without an attorney.

Prosecute:
In criminal law, to charge a person with a crime and thereafter pursue the case through trial on behalf of the government.

Proselytize:
To induce someone to convert to one’s own religious faith.

Protocol:
An accepted system of behavior or procedure.

Psyche:
Spirit or soul.

Punitive:
Inflicting or aiming to inflict punishment; punishing.

Queer:
“Umbrella term” for the social/political/intellectual movement that seeks to encompass a broad range of sexual identities, behaviors, and expressions.

Questioning:
Someone who is questioning his or her sexual orientation. This can often be an exciting and terrifying time because often we thought we were heterosexual and then we notice certain feelings have surfaced for another from the same gender, which sometimes causes confusion.

Recidivism:
The tendency to relapse into a previous undesirable behavior or crime.

Rehabilitate:
To restore someone to a useful place in society.

Relief:
Deliverance from oppression, wrong, or injustice.

Relocation:
Refers to the U.S. policy of moving large numbers of Natives from reservations to urban areas.

Respondent:
One who responds to a petition.

Restitution:
Compensation for a loss, damage, or injury.

Retaliation:
To pay back (an injury) in kind.

Rites:
A ceremonial act or series of acts.

Sentencing hearing:
The period in a criminal case devoted to determining the sanctions to be imposed on the defendant.

Sexual orientation:
How a person identifies sexually, physically, and emotionally in the way he or she is attracted to someone of the same gender, another gender, or both genders.

Shunning:
Avoiding somebody or something intentionally.

Skiff:
A flat-bottom open boat of shallow draft, having a pointed bow and a square stern.

Sojourn:
A short stay or visit.

Sovereign:
To act independently as a person or nation.

Stalking:
Behavior where an individual repeatedly engages in harassing, unwanted conduct directed at another. It could include phoning, following, e-mailing, threatening to harm an individual or his or her family members, or many other types of actions.

Stoic:
Seemingly indifferent to or unaffected by joy, grief, pleasure, or pain.

Subjugation:
The act of bringing under control; conquering.

Subpoena:
A written legal order summoning a witness or requiring evidence to be submitted to a court.

Sustenance:
Something, especially food, that sustains life or health.

Taboo:
A ban or an inhibition resulting from social custom or emotional aversion.

Transgender:
Self-identifying term for someone whose gender identity or expression differs from “traditional roles.”

Tribal code:
The laws of the tribe.

Trigger:
Something (smell, sight, action, noise) that causes a sexual assault victim to remember the experience.

Trust relationship:
A relationship in which the U.S. government has certain duties or obligations to look after and care for tribes. These fiduciary duties are defined by case law, statute, and treaty.

Two-spirited:
A term used to identify First Nations/Native Americans/Alaska Natives who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Before white European intrusion, many tribes treated two-spirited folks with respect. The term “two-spirit” evolved out of a Native American gay/lesbian international gathering in Minneapolis in 1988. Today, many LGBTTQQ First Nations/Native Americans /Alaska Natives use the term “two-spirited” to identify their sexuality/ gender.

Unwarranted:
Not justified or deserved.

Validating:
Confirming and strengthening.

Writ:
A written order issued by a court, commanding the party to whom it is addressed to perform or cease performing a specified act.

Index