ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - A Minnesota lawyer who advocates for victims of domestic abuse is among the 21 winners of this year's MacArthur Foundation "genius grants."

Sarah Deer is a professor at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul. She's an advocate for Native American women living on reservations, who suffer higher-than-average rates of domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Deer, a Native American, says she worked with women who simply stopped reporting such attacks because their tribal governments had been stripped of the authority to investigate and because federal authorities were often unwilling to do so.

The foundation pointed to her instrumental role in reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act in 2013 that restored some of those abilities to tribes.

"Genius grant" recipients each receive $625,000 to spend as they wish.

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