Poitra teaching attendees how to defend themselves against someone who tries to sexually assault them while they're sleeping. She lies on her stomach on the floor and a man gets on top of her.

"I wait for his full body pressure to come on. Once his full body pressure is on me ..." Poitra says to the class, before pulling off what she calls "an explosive move."

While still on her stomach, Poitra lifts her right left toward her chest and leverages all of that accumulated weight. Then she heaves up.

"Knocking him off of me," she says. "It only works when all his weight is on me."

Not waiting

In November, President Trump signed an executive order called "Operation Lady Justice," which would create an interagency task force to look into whyso many Native women's lives are disrupted or ended because of trauma.

According to research funded by the Department of Justice, in some instances, Native women are killed at a rate 10 times higher than the national average.

But Poitra said she's not waiting on the government to save her people.

"Historically, the government hasn't been very good to Native people," she says. "So I think it's that we start empowering ourselves and start turning it around ourselves."

Enlarge this image toggle caption Robin Lubbock/WBUR Robin Lubbock/WBUR

Poitra is a survivor of domestic violence. She took a self-defense class and was able to get out of her situation. Now she wants to help other women from different tribes across the country.

Many who take the hours-long class — such as Kristen Wyman, who teared