Justice Failing Women

For decades, when a Native American woman has been assaulted or raped by a man who is non-Indian, she has had little or no recourse. Under long-standing law in Indian country, reservations are sovereign nations with their own police departments and courts in charge of prosecuting crimes on tribal land. But Indian police have lacked the legal authority to arrest non-Indian men who commit acts of domestic violence against native women on reservations, and tribal courts have lacked the authority to prosecute the men.

I am writing you today as a young woman concerning the lack of attention towards the violence against women in retrospect to the Native American population. The fear of being a victim of assault as a young women is prominent within the society in which we live today. However, there is some relief in the fact that there are resources available at my disposal if I was to experience assault. Yet, there is a large portion of women that do not have that reassurance, and the likelihood of them experiencing assault is even greater than my own. This portion of the women population is Native American women. I will admit that the severity of the issue in concerns with the native population is something that I just recently became aware of. et I have

Not only do Indigenous women face more frequent incidence of violence, the violence is also much more severe. A recent Statistics Canada report suggests that the national homicide rate for Indigenous women is at least seven times higher than for non-Indigenous women. British Columbia accounts for 160 of the cases Native Woman Association of Canada documented by March 2010, more than a quarter of the total, of which 63 percent are murder cases. With 49 percent of its murder cases unsolved, British Columbia has the highest percentage of unsolved murders of Aboriginal women and girls in Canada. (Golosky, 2013). As a result, there is a great deal of fear within the Aboriginal community. The problem haunts Aboriginal communities across the country because policy-makers have not made the changes necessary to deal with the epidemic of violence against Aboriginal women. In Saskatchewan alone, some 61 Aboriginal women and girls were counted as missing or murdered as of 2010. (Golosky, 2013) “For many Regina women, the murder of Pamela George in the late 1990s was a turning point in addressing racism and sexism. George, a 28-year-old mother of two, was sexually assaulted and beaten to death by two university students. During the trial, the judge referred to George as “only a prostitute.” (Leddy, L.2016).The two

Throughout history, women have continuously found themselves as the subjects of oppression. Although the treatment of women has drastically changed over time, women are still exposed to much of the violence that exists today. Per the National Organization for Women, “young women, low-income women and some minorities are disproportionately victims of domestic violence and rape” (National Organization for Women, 2016). Women-centered violence is highly prevalent and reoccurring all over the world, even in our local communities. Individuals may be hesitant to consider just how much violence against women affects their communities.

According to the author of an article entitled “Shattered Hearts,” violence and human trafficking against Native American women is deeply rooted from the colonial history of oppression. The U.S. Government’s extermination policies, religious persecution, resulted in the establishment of Native American reservations and the movement of Native children to boarding schools. These actions created an ongoing wave of new traumas in the lives of both native children and their families. Native Americans continue to carry

One of the reasons they are targeted so much is because of their culture. As natives their culture differs from the mainstream culture so they are seen as different compared the rest of us. Another major factor in why they are so highly targeted is because they are native; many racist ideals that used to be commonplace still stick with people and affect how people treat others today. Both the terrible transition and racist ideals come from a lack of education, "Racism arises not only from a lack of education and training of the general public, but also from the policies and legislation arising throughout Canada's history" (“Violence against Aboriginal Women”, 17). Also the reason this violence still exists is that people don’t see it as a huge problem and when they do see it they dismiss it as a private issue. The victims won’t report it for fear of the consequences from the abused, “"the rate of domestic violence is likely much higher than we know; 70% of spousal violence is not reported to the police." (“Facts Sheet: Moving Women out of Violence”, 3).These all lead to the violence being seen as a normal way of life, not the social injustice it is. To wrap up a lot of women don’t have any safe way to escape an abuser when there is not any recourses to help the victims of violence out of these

The violent crime victimization rate for Native Americans is more than twice the rate for the nation. (p. 103)

Even though there are differing data pertaining the varying needs of abused minority women, due to their cultures being complex, heterogeneous and even diverse there could be differing options rather than a whole single solution. Yet, with $5.8 billion cost of the nation’s economy being used for mental care, mental health care, and loss of productivity for abused victims, figuring out different solutions would be greatly needed. Viewing the results of the study and from the Violence against Women Source book, minority women, especially those who are in impoverished areas and are socially disadvantaged, are in need for financial and psychological help that will aid them. The real question now remains of how to incorporate better resources and programming specifically towards women of color to decrease the intimate partner violence

Firstly, how is law enforcement supposed to prosecute victims if the crimes are never reported? Secondly, the women who don’t report these crimes are only hurting themselves in the long run. There needs to be a campaign to ensure that these crimes are being reported, perhaps by offering a reward to the women who speak up.

Domestic violence and abuse can happen to anyone, yet the problem is overlooked, excused, or denied, like the case of Native American women. Until, March 2015, there is no loaw to help Native American women when their non-Native American husbands or boyfriends abuse them when the act takes place on the resveration and even when the law is passed there is still no law to stop non- Native Americans who are strangers from commiting these crimes on the reservation. What makes someone think that just because the law can't touch you when commiting such a crime against Native Americans that it's okay to hurt them on the reservation? It doesn't. These women are just as important as the rest of us, so it's time to stand up and stop abuse from happening to all of us, regardless of our gender, race, sexual orentation, or age. Abuse is abuse, let's team up and do something about it.

No one wants to hear stories about domestic violence and sexual assault, but it’s a big issue that needs to be heard out, especially for Native American women. It is estimated that over thirty percent of women in the general United States population have experienced domestic abuse and an even higher percentage for just sexual assault, many of which are based on women of color, which primarily consists of natives. This problem has been around for too long and there’s still limited resources for abuse victims, which needs to change. Too many women are put through abuse which could be prevented if more people knew and were educated on what is happening and sexual assault as a whole.

One native woman from the Native Women’s Association of Canada expresses “it is an exception rather than the rule to know of an Aboriginal woman who has not experienced some form of family violence throughout her life” (Canadian Council on Social Development and Native Women’s Association of Canada 1991, p. 25). According to the General Social Survey (2009) conducted in the ten provinces, Aboriginal women were nearly three times more likely to be a victim of a violent crime than non-Aboriginal women, this was true regardless of whether the violence was perpetrated by a stranger or by a spouse (Brennan, 2011). However, Aboriginal women not only face more recurrent incidences of family violence, but also wider social violences, which is also

A Native American woman is two point five times more likely to be a victim of sexual assault(amnesty,1). If that fact wasn’t bad enough in only 2008,39% of Native American women said they were victims of domestic violence (Futures Without Violence,2). Even though the numbers are that high, if someone were to ask everyday people in the mall “what racial community has the highest rape and abuse rates?” most of them would draw a blank. The problem with society is the U.S. places importance by the color of skin, so the order the reports will come out in will leave Native American women hanging because any reports made about the sexual assault and domestic violence are only cared about by few, and often those

Domestic violence often goes unreported because the victims are living in fear, and are to afraid to report the incidents. Women living in an abusive relationship are in constant fear of their abuser. Many women think reporting the abuse makes their abuser beat or even kill them if finding out. “Some women who have left an abusive partner have been followed and harassed for months or even years, and some have been killed” (Lloyd Ohlin and Michael Tonry, 207). In addition, the wives do not want the husband to be put in jail because she needs them to help to take care of their children, although she would like to have some protection. She is

The Violence against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994 marked a turning point in our national response to the problems of both sexual assault and domestic violence. For the first time it considered the ways in which sexual assault and domestic violence were similar: they are both crimes of violence against women, rooted in historical and cultural traditions and attitudes. VAWA also addressed the ways our laws failed to prosecute and punish perpetrators of these crimes of violence, while often increasing the trauma experienced by victims. The act included measures designed to protect crime victims' rights and provide crime victims with compensation, establish hotlines for sexual assault and family violence victims, establish sex offender registration and community notification, protect women from "date rape," and coordinate law enforcement and social services to deal with crime in a unified manner.