‘Not our ways’: Haskell president reacts to alleged rape in campus dorm

Venida Chenault

The Haskell Indian Nations University campus entrance is pictured in this file photo from September 2010.

This has been a difficult week at Haskell Indian Nations University.

Emotions are running high on the small campus after two male students were arrested and charged with raping a female student last weekend in a residence hall.

Haskell cannot brush this under the rug, said university President Venida Chenault, who reacted to the assault in an interview this week with the Journal-World. She called it an example of why the university and Indian Country as a whole must keep pushing for awareness and education to combat violence against women.

“Healing begins when we start talking honestly about the truth,” Chenault said. “We have to confront it and own it, and we have to work to create change. It’s a really tough issue.”

‘Not our ways’

Violence against indigenous women is Chenault’s academic area of expertise. She wrote her doctoral dissertation on the subject and published a book in 2010, “Weaving Strength, Weaving Power: Violence and Abuse against Indigenous Women.”

Chenault’s interest in the topic started while she was teaching social work in the 1990s and early 2000s at Haskell, where she heard stories from young women who had been victims of violence. Her later research indicated that 86 percent of young Indian women had experienced at least one form of violence in their lives — including emotional abuse, physical and sexual violence, or stalking — and many had experienced it throughout their lives.

According to current national statistics, more American Indian and Alaska Native women have been raped than any other specific race.

“These are not our ways,” Chenault said.

Tribal creation stories consider women powerful, beautiful and sacred, she said. Their traditional roles may differ, but women are considered equal to men.

“Certainly tribes that have lost touch with their traditional teachings may not be socializing their sons and daughters into really valuing the other,” Chenault said.

Reaction to assault

Haskell deployed its recently refined campus sexual assault procedures this weekend, Chenault said.

The victim reported the incident the day it happened, and a Haskell counselor was with her when she went to the hospital, Chenault said.

She said other students in the dorm were alerted that an incident of a “sensitive nature” had occurred and that the school was taking steps to ensure campus safety.

Chenault would not say what the school has done to discipline the two alleged perpetrators, citing student confidentiality rules. However, she said, policy allows for Haskell to take immediate action regarding student status while giving them a window of opportunity to appeal.

In this case, law enforcement was quickly involved, too.

Lawrence police responded about 4:45 a.m. Saturday to Haskell, where a woman reported she was forcibly raped by two men she knew.

Two suspects were taken into custody later Saturday and formally charged Monday. One, age 20, was charged with three counts of rape by force or fear and one count of sodomy of the same victim on the same night. The other, 19, was charged with two counts of rape and one count of sodomy of the same victim on the same night.

The 20-year-old student was released from the Douglas County Jail Thursday evening after posting a $75,000 bond. His co-defendant — listed as a freshman player on the 2014 Haskell football team roster — remains in jail.

Education, change

Students’ reactions to the incident have included denial, anger, sadness and confusion, Chenault said.

Haskell offered its first counseling sessions to students on Sunday and has continued to make counselors available, Chenault said. A question-and-answer session about school and law enforcement procedures in such a situation is planned.

“This is a small campus, and students know one another,” Chenault said. “We don’t want this to be a polarizing experience.”

Just last month Haskell played host to a daylong End the Violence Symposium, the third year for the event. Roughly 50 students attended a midday session featuring a skit and speakers explaining what sexual assault is and what happens when one is reported on campus.

Since this weekend’s incident, Chenault said, Haskell administrators already are talking about what they can do better and a number of students have said they want to do something to help — though they’re not yet sure what.

Chenault said her goal is that no student would ever have to go through something like this.

“We know that one symposium wasn’t going to magically change everything. We know this is going to be an ongoing process of creating change,” Chenault said.

“It’s been a tough situation to deal with. We know this isn’t going to be solved overnight.”

— Reporter Caitlin Doornbos contributed to this report.