Violence Against Native American Women

Barker, J. (2008). Gender, Sovereignty, Rights: Native Women's Activism against Social Inequality and Violence in Canada. American Quarterly, 60(2), 8. Retrieved fro m http://search.Proquest.com.Ez proxy.library.yorku.ca/docview/61688929?Acc ountid=15182.

Prior to the arrival of the Europeans to North America, and their colonization of the land, the Aboriginals lived prosperously. Notably, after the Europeans colonized the land, the woman’s role in the Aboriginal societies drastically changed. Originally, women played a large role in the political zone, as well as essential roles in their societies. Essentially, women in Aboriginal societies, were once considered to be integral parts to their society, and through the many attempts of assimilation from the Europeans, the women now have an insignificant role in their societies. Correspondingly, in the present year of 2014, women in Aboriginal societies seem to have no political power or voice and unfortunately, they have become the victims of many unsolved irrational violence attacks. Furthermore, a large and pertinent element to this problem would be the presence felt of the Indian Act. This led to the neglecting of Aboriginal women’s legal status as an Indian. The law had made women minorities; In order to obtain an Indian status, women would need to either marry an Aboriginal, or be the direct descendant of their father.

Imagine a normal day. You wake up, you get ready, you probably see your mom, wife or sister. You say goodbye and head on your way. Once home, you sit down with them and talk about your day. When sad they comfort you, they love, support, care for you. Now imagine you wake up one day and they have disappeared without a trace. Gone. You are heartbroken. This is a sad reality for many Indigenous families, many women are vanishing without a trace. Between 1200-4000 Indigenous women have been missing or murdered in the last 30 years. These women are often targeted and treated as being worthless leading to little support from police and the public. After being immersed into this issue I learned lots, but I was left feeling sad,

What if everyday in America there was not an action someone could take because someone of an opposite race sexually assaulted or domestically abused that person? Often news outlets only focus on major even in cities or towns, but never the reservations. With the lack of awareness of the number of rapes and domestic abuse victims on reservations, at large society is saying America doesn’t care due to reservations having sovereignty. Even with new laws signed into place by President Obama to deal with the rape and abuse problems to Native American women, that come from non Native Americans, the problem with this is it’s a pilot only on three tribes (Culp-Ressler,1).It is said it will expand soon, but how soon? America is not known for being

Although this course is about global women’s movements, the overall argument in which I intend on taking for the purpose of this book review is that besides women, First Nations men are also victims of oppression. In addition to oppression, first nations are often stereotyped by society. Rice’s book does a good job on reflecting this idea once again, through the use of first person point of view stories. It allows the reader to really understand how these stereotypes affect the everyday lives of First Nations people. Before getting into how stereotyping affects the lives of these people, we will begin with looking into oppression and how it relates to the textbook.

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

Native Americans have experienced a “historical trauma” that is characterized by enduring a history of institutional racism and discrimination by the dominant culture in America (Hays & Erford, 2014). Even today, Native Americans are being forced to assimilate or abandon their rich cultural heritage through the policies of our nation. With these ongoing discriminatory actions, counselors have a unique opportunity to lessen the effects of racism and discrimination that impact Native Americans. According to the ACA Code of Ethics (2014), counselors have the ethical responsibility to advocate for people who are faced by systemic oppression and discrimination. In our text, Hays and Erford (2014) suggest facilitating opportunities to advocate for Native people by raising social awareness by educating the masses through writing articles, disseminating educational materials, and even facilitating cultural sensitivity training programs in the community. Counselors may even empower Native people to advocate for themselves, drawing from the strengths of the community.

The film Highway of Tears brought to light many issues faced by Indigenous persons however, its main focus was the missing and murdered women found along Highway 16 in Northern British Columbia. Majority of the women who are missing as well as those who were murdered are Indigenous women. This film displayed that although there are ways to prevent and possibly end the violence against Aboriginal women, no action was being taken by police or other government agents to do so. It was discussed how this as well as other wrongs done to Indigenous persons and communities, is a result of past and present colonialism.

In the article “Domestic violence against indigenous women is everybody’s problem” domestic violence is depicted as a serious social problem that involves “unspeakable acts of violence” that leaves victims experiencing fear and despair (Taylor 2014). More specifically, the social construction of domestic violence will be discussed with an emphasis on Aboriginal women and a typology of intimate partner violence. The social construction of domestic violence has serious implications for victims of domestic abuse because there is a failure to address the processes that perpetuate the violence. Instead, domestic violence is addressed through the illusion of social support. What is evident is that domestic violence is a social problem that requires comprehensive services, particularly for indigenous women, to address the complexity of the interaction between the individual’s social location and the causes that lead to the violence.

Women no matter where they are in the world are too often victims of violence. They face higher rates than men both if it is sexual assault, stalking, or severe spousal abuse and usually the results are that women will end up extremely injured or dead. With young women suffering the highest rates of violence, Aboriginal women in particular face an increased risk of violence compared to non-Aboriginal women. Aboriginal women in Canada are three times more likely to experience crucial and severe violence compared to non-Aboriginal women. Most of these women end up missing and murdered. The predicaments of missing and murdered Aboriginal women has brought tremendous pain and suffering in homes, in families and throughout Aboriginal communities. Many sources and factors have contributed to hindering solving this issue. Media and discrimination have long been known to have played a huge role in this tragedy.

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.

Each change that has been made to VAWA over the few decades has made some attempts to fill in the holes left by the previous enactments. However, recent executive orders have arguably begun to strip away what VAWA had built. These recent changes are only making this already vulnerable group of women even more vulnerable.

On an early morning last June, on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in western North Dakota, tribal officer Nathan Sanchez was nearing the end of his shift when he noticed a frantic stirring in the cattails alongside the road. A girl emerged. Her jeans were wet, her halter-top fallen to her waist. Sanchez approached in his car to ask what had happened. The girl, in hysterics, mumbled that she had been raped and took off running.

Second Slide: The ways in which Indigenous Women tried to resist, but were ultimately victims of colonization, and how heteropatriarchy has affected them.

VAWA is a wide-ranging law which, among other things, mandated research into sexual and domestic violence, funded community efforts against sexual and domestic violence through grants, proposed changes in the evaluation and determination of evidence, affirmed victims' rights of