The dress worn by Lisa Marie Iyotte, a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, to the signing of the Tribal Law and Order Act has been to the White House before, The Rapid City Journal reports.

The dress was made by Dorothy Crane Pretty Voice, the mother of Tillie Black Bear, who serves as executive director of the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, a domestic violence shelter.

Black Bear wrote the dress to the White House in 2000 when former president Bill Clinton presented her with an award for her efforts to address domestic violence in Indian Country.

The dress came full circle when Iyotte wore it to the signing for the new law on July 29. Iyotte received services from Black Bear and the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society after she was sexually assaulted in 1994.

“I just kept thinking: “This is how far my voice has come. I’m doing it for the women who don’t talk. Who can’t talk. My voice today is for them,” Iyotte told the Journal. “Helping other women was what was moving me so much.”

Get the Story:
Rosebud woman’s journey takes her from victim to advocate (The Rapid City Journal 8/5)

Indian Arts and Crafts Amendments Act:
H.R.725

Tribal Law and Order Act:
S.797 | H.R.1924

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