U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan visited YWCA Cass Clay to meet with Native American women receiving services at the YWCA emergency shelter and transitional housing programs.
Of the 66 women and children served at the YWCA Emergency Shelter, 23 percent are Native American, according to a news release from YWCA Cass Clay. Over the past three years, Native American women and children residing in the shelter comprised 25 percent of the total population served; 54 percent of those seeking services did so because of domestic violence.
Fifteen percent of the women and children currently served in the YWCA Transitional Housing programs are Native American.
Native American residents in Fargo, Moorhead, Cass and Clay counties comprise between 1.1 and 1.9 percent of the entire population, according to the demographic information available from the city of Fargo, city of Moorhead and Cass and Clay counties, the release stated.
YWCA officials told Dorgan, D-N.D., about their concerns over the disparity in the number of Native American women and children being served by the agency compared to the population of Native American citizens in the Cass-Clay community.
