A lot of change happened at once. After becoming a mother to her first child, she decided to quit med school and transfer to a school of technology to learn a trade. She was well aware of her abuser’s abilities and took many precautions to ensure her safety.
“I worked and studied hard while my children were in daycare and school, spent the evenings cooking & cleaning, and studied again once the children were in bed. After two years of classes, months of clinical rotations, and becoming alumni at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN, I graduated as a Surgical Technologist and began working full-time,” She is still able to recall.
“It took a couple of years for my nerves to fully relax, but they finally did. It was so amazing to me how empowering it was to advocate for myself, I never stopped.”
In 2015, she returned to the reservation to work in the health care system and be with her family.
“Within my first week of being home, I noticed so much violence that I once thought was normal behavior,” She said. “One morning, I got a phone call notifying me that my childhood friend was beaten and left for dead by her children’s father; she was flown out to the nearest ICU and taken in for surgery for a hematoma in her skull.”
“I knew something had to be done about this.”
Domestic abuse is a major problem on Shanda’s reservations. More than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women and men have experienced violence in their lifetime, and more than one in three experienced violence in the past year.
She talked to several members of the community about the violence she saw, and they all blamed the victim. That’s when it occurred to her: “What if I started a self-defense class for Native women?” Shanda says. She called her former instructor and found a group to teach her another class. They started their own chapter.
“IMPACT is being used all over the world, yet has never been available to Indigenous communities until now,” She said. “Currently, our team consists of four core members; two suit instructors and two female lead instructors, all Indigenous members of our Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewas. All members are active in empowering our community in many ways.”
“During the closing circles in our workshops, we all get to see the strength and transformation these women worked so hard for. We get to see them take their power back from those who hurt them.”
And that is why Shanda is being named one of Tory Burch’s “Empowered Women” this year. The donation of $5000 will go to IMPACT, which will help bring IMPACT into more Native communities in the country. It will also help further their mission to empower Native women to recognize and protect themselves against physical violence.
“Empowering women should be as common as knowing how to perform CPR,” Shanda says.
“Truth is, I know what it feels like to be on both sides of empowerment. I know the fear, pain, and humiliation that comes with domestic violence, sexual assault, trauma, and PTSD and I recognize it in my students,” She continues.
“I also know what it feels like to step out of that proverbial cage. To be able to breathe freely. To speak freely. To walk the earth in a good and healthy way. I wish this freedom and empowerment for every person on earth.”