Violence Against Native American Women

Written by Ethan Martin



(Lorie Shaull, Flickr)

A little-known fact in this country is the degree to which Native American Women and youth face violence throughout their life, and the injustice of how their cases are often mishandled, disregarded, or not acknowledged at all. A fact that is absolutely astounding is that according to a report that was released in 2016 by the Seattle Indian Health Board as well as federal institutions such as the United States Department of Justice, “The National Crime Information Center reports that, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls”(UIHI, 2016). This number itself may not seem as alarming to the average reader as one might think that “many people go missing every year”. However, out of this large number of missing women and children, only 116 of these cases have been recognized and reported by the US Department of Justice. That means, upon doing a quick calculation, that about two percent of recorded cases are officially reported by the federal government. These figures, by many estimates, are probably worse that currently suggested, meaning that many more girls go undetected when they are murdered or disappear. This large number contributes to the fact that amongst Native American and Alaskan Natives, according the Centers for Disease Control or the “CDC”, the causes of death that takes the number three spot is homicide for young females.  Other causes of death for teenage girls and young women are THROUGH THE ROOF for suicide, according to the CDC, for girls 15-20 years old, the suicide rate as the cause of death is at 39.4 percent. Suicide is often a side effect of the trauma that they suffer from acts of violence and physical abuse suffered at the hand of a family member and very often attackers who are never brought to justice for certain determinable reasons, but we will get to that next. 

So now, I would like to get into some of the factors and details of why these women and girls must live with this constant struggle. The marginalization of indigenous groups across the Americas and particularly in the United States has pushed these communities often to the edges of society where they lack access to help. This can manifest in many ways. Whether it be physically locating reservations away from urban centers and law enforcement, where they are unable to take advantage of resources other citizens of cities are privy to, or the isolation of those living in urban areas and not having a community in which they feel safe enough to report instances of violence.

Perhaps the most important factor for the high rates of violence against women is the fact that it is institutionally determined to be ok. Not that the government comes out and says that way, but in their policy decisions. Supreme Court rulings of Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe in 1978 have set forward precedents which result in open admission that they will not allow for native tribes to have jurisdiction of cases of violence against them. Even though a crime may occur in native territory such as a reservation, a tribe council has not the right to bring forth justice by themselves. They must rely on a system set up and operated by a government who has a history of tossing the needs of native peoples in the garbage bin.  Due to the lack of jurisdiction over crimes committed against them, the least powerful in the native communities, as in any society, are the first to fall prey. Women and children are often victimized my members outside of the community and they have no power to fight back as the coordination between tribes and law enforcement officials is messy and less than enthusiastic when government entities even bother at all.

This lack in management of cases has led to the inaccurate documenting of cases and poor to no investigation. Steps in recent years have been taken try to fix this problem. In 2017 a bill was introduced by the North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp that was meant to ask the Department of Justice to standardize a rigid set of protocols that are to be followed in cases of investigation. These protocols were supposed to be established between law enforcement data bases and the native populations to better provide a manner to pursue cases. The bill titled “S. 1942” and was nicknamed “Savanna’s Act” after a young native woman named Savanna Greywind. Savanna was savagely murdered, having her baby cut out of her and stolen, and her body was found by kayakers after it was dumped in a river wrapped in plastic. Although it passed the Senate, it was struck down in the house by Republican Representative Bob Goodlatte as one of his last acts in congress before stepping down. The future is looking a little brighter, however, because there is an active attempt to draw up a new version of the bill that is expected to pass and will help native communities all over the country.

 

Bibliography

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