Not everyone knows it, but January was Stalker Awareness Month. T.K. Wolf Inc. wants to change that.
The organization only a few weeks ago held a Stalker Awareness Community Workshop at the Tri-County Technology Center in Bartlesville. All were welcome – law enforcement, attorneys, educators, elected officials, healthcare workers, and religious organizations.
After the conference, participants thanked T.K. Wolf members for the presentation. One nurse was deeply affected.
“She said she really never realized the severity of the problem. She felt badly that she didn’t but that she would take a much more active role in it,” said Sherry Hukill, development committee chair for T.K. Wolf.
What the nurse didn’t know before the conference are the statistics revealing that 17 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women will be stalked at some point in their lives. For white women, that number is 8.2 percent. African-American women are at 6.5 percent and Asian/Pacific Islanders are 4.5 percent.
T.K. Wolf addresses more issues than stalking, but with the problem continuing to rise, stalking has taken a central focus.
The Skiatook-based nonprofit group began in 1998 among a small cluster of concerned colleagues treating Indian people with addictions and mental health issues. Eventually, T.K. Wolf began treating people from indigenous backgrounds and communities and providing counseling for both Indian and non-Indians alike.
The group took its name from some stationery founder Ann Dapice, T.K. Wolf director of education and research, had at her home. The paper was adorned with wolves. As the organization progressed with new forms of therapy addressing spiritual needs as well as the behavioral disorder, they began to see that some problems were interrelated. Dapice – who received a doctorate in psychology, sociology and philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia – said they noticed the prevalence of domestic violence and stalking among their Native American clients – both women and men.
“Stalking is an addiction. Battering probably isn’t, but stalking is. They get high on their dopamine, and you would really think they’re on drugs when you see them. They’re like meth addicts. They’re so focused, they don’t stop,” said Dapice.
But rather than work with the stalker to treat that addiction as they might for someone with a drug addiction, T.K. Wolf uses its resources to help the victims of stalking. These victims are not flattered with the attention. They find themselves persecuted with endless phone calls, threats against loved ones and extreme acts such as kidnapped pets and home break-ins. In one case, a man crawled beneath his victim’s home and installed a sound system through which he would speak to make her believe God was talking to her. In another, a woman used a gun to abduct a man and took him to another state.
About a year ago, the organization received a Tides Foundation Indigenous Peoples Fund Award to further address stalking in the Indian community. The aid helped to make a documentary featuring several victims as well as admitted former stalkers telling their stories. That video, “Unheard Voices: Stalking in Indian Country,” was presented at last month’s conference in Bartlesville.
When T.K. Wolf and partner organizations received a Violence Against Women Rural Grant from the U.S. Department of Justice in November, it launched Operation Tri-County Triumph NOW, a project to provide awareness, prevention and education throughout Nowata, rural Osage and Washington counties. Partnered with Family Healthcare Clinic, Inc., and Families and Communities Empowered for Safety, Inc., T.K. Wolf is able to help individuals who find themselves marked. Operation Tri-County Triumph NOW also provides legal services and consultation.
Hukill’s Integrated Concepts wrote the grant application.
Again, T.K. Wolf’s main objective to end stalking is not to treat the offender, but to inform the public and those who serve it of what stalking is, what it does to the victim emotionally and the cloud it holds over the entire community. In this instance, stalking casts a dark shadow over Native people everywhere.
“It’s very easy for someone to stalk, but if the whole community knows that person is stalking, it’s much harder for him to get away with it. We’re just trying to raise the awareness and show the severity of it, and there are things each one of us can do to stop it,” Hukill said.
That goes the same for proxy stalkers, people who cover for offenders and further encourage the crime.
The mental and emotional effects can stay with a stalking victim for years and manifest as trauma, depression, anxiety and other issues T.K. Wolf encounters under its original mission to address addiction and mental health issues. The further stalking goes into indigenous communities, the more vulnerable they become.
Dapice said studies show that most violence against Native people is perpetrated by non-Indians, and it all has to do with perception of indigenous populations. Why are rates so high among the Native population? It gets more complicated.
Perhaps it has to do with perceptions that Indians are more introverted and less moved to aggression immediately, Dapice said. In the book she’s working on, Dapice is studying how such things as betrayal, revenge and even religion impact choices of violence.
“I think we have a kind of stereotype of the battered woman, you know, they’re codependent, don’t fight for themselves or leave the relationship, but I started hearing from tribal council women. I could name you the people I’ve been hearing from … You would probably know most of them. They are leaders of Indian Country,” Dapice said.
Activists, attorney and other vocal proponents of Indian issues, whether male or female, have found themselves a target, she added.
“I don’t know. Do you got to stalk them so you can claim them?” Dapice asked.
Hukill said the prevalence of social networking and Internet access makes it easier for stalkers to get into their victims’ lives.
“I don’t think the population at large sees the severity of it. Once someone has been stalked, they’re 200 times more likely to be a victim of homicide than someone who hasn’t,” Hukill said.
By making everyone more aware of what stalking is and how it threatens whole communities, T.K. Wolf hopes to curb the danger.
Members work not only to make people take notice of Stalker Awareness Month next year, but to make people think about preventing this crime all year long.
T.K. Wolf Inc. offers its presentation on stalking awareness and education at request. For more information, call 1-866- 476-1202.
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