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***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***
Indian Law Resource Center receives grant from the Wildhorse Foundation for Safe Women, Strong Nations
October 3, 2025
Helena, Montana – The Indian Law Resource Center strives to end violence against Native women and children through the Safe Women, Strong Nations project with the help of an $8,000 grant from the Wildhorse Foundation. In Indian country and Alaska Native villages, a reported four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women face violence, with roughly half experiencing sexual violence. Alaska Native women suffer sexual assault and domestic violence at rates of up to ten times the U.S. average.
The Indian Law Resource Center partners with Native Women’s organizations and Indian and Alaska Native nations to use domestic and international advocacy to raise awareness for strong federal action to end this violence. The Safe Women, Strong Nations project will use advocacy work as a training opportunity for national partners, building their capacity and skills to drive policy change. This project will provide legal advice to Native women’s organizations to help increase their capacity to prevent violence and to hold perpetrators of violence on their lands accountable. Caroline LaPorte, J.D., immediate descendent of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, leads the Safe Women, Strong Nations project. She states, “The support from the Wildhorse Foundation will help to strengthen our collaborations, raise awareness, and create long lasting impact to end violence against Indigenous women."
This grant will help Safe Women, Strong Nations by supporting collaboration with other Native women’s organizations, assisting with law and policy analysis, and contributing to their efforts to respond to and prevent violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women. Each year, the Wildhorse Foundation makes grants to eligible nonprofit, government, and Tribal organizations within the homeland area of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla people. Also eligible for funding are Tribal government agencies or Native American charitable organizations with their base of operations within Oregon, as well as national or regional Indian organizations.
The Wildhorse Foundation has awarded a total of over $19 million in grant funding since its establishment in 2001. Grants are awarded on a quarterly basis with the deadlines being January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1. For more information, visit the Foundation’s website at www.thewildhorsefoundation.com.
The Indian Law Resource Center is an Indigenous-founded and Indigenous-led nonprofit law and advocacy organization that provides free legal assistance to American Indian, Alaska Native and other Indigenous communities throughout the Americas. Our mission is to combat racism and injustice, protect their lands and environments, achieve sustainable Indigenous economic development and genuine self-governance, and to protect and advance their human rights. We work to overcome the grave problems that threaten Native peoples by advancing the rule of law, establishing national and international legal standards that preserve their human rights and dignity, and continually challenging governments to accord them justice before the law. Other projects of the Indian Law Resource Center include the Indigenous Lands Initiative and addressing Indigenous-related policy reforms with Multilateral Development Banks.
About the Wildhorse Foundation: The fund reflects the commitment of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to take a proactive, positive role in the well-being of the community. Funds, derived from a percentage of revenues from Wildhorse Resort & Casino, are managed and distributed by a Board of Directors comprised of community leaders and representatives of the CTUIR.
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For more information, contact:
Jenny Eck, [email protected], +1 406 461 1754