The official number is bad enough: One in three American Indian women have experienced rape or attempted rape, a rate more than twice the national average. But it gets worse: One survey finds that in some rural villages, the rate of sexual violence is as much as 12 times the national rate, and interviews by the New York Times found that sexual assault is so common that few, if any, Native American women living on tribal reservations escape it.
The Times article relays wrenching stories (the 19-year-old rape victim who never received a return phone call from tribal police), offers more heartbreaking statistics (just 10% of sex assaults on reservations are reported, and arrests are made in just 13% of those cases), and details the myriad problems contributing to the tragic situation: isolated villages; alcohol abuse and a breakdown of the family structure; a lack of sexual assault training.
And the issue is now causing contention in Washington, as Republicans and Democrats wrestle over reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act: The Senate wants to give tribal courts more power to prosecute non-Indians in sex assaults, but some Republicans disagree. newser.com
One in three American Indian women (34.1percent) experience rape in their lifetime as compared with 18 percent of white women and 19 percent of African American women. This may have something to do with the fact that Tribal Law Enforcement cannot arrest non-natives for crimes committed on reservations, or with high rates of alcohol use, or maybe a combination of these factors. healthline.com
The Native American Women's Health Education Resource Center reports that 44% of IHS hospitals do not have SANE-trained personnel, and in some places, there is only a medical professional available once a week. In addition, there is no support for the lifelong process required to recover from a sexual assault, which happens most often to young women. Community-based organizations, like the Rape Abuse & Incest national Network, can fill the gap for support, but once the forensic evidence is lost, it is too late for any chance of prosecution, leaving rapists at large. healthline.com
Interviews with Native American women in Emmonak and across the nation's tribal reservations suggest few, if any female relatives or close friends have escaped sexual violence. NY Times
No place, women's advocates say, is more dangerous than Alaska's isolated villages, where there are no roads in or out, and where people are further cut off by undependable telephone, electrical and Internet service. NY Times
In the Navajo Nation, which encompasses parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, 329 rape cases were reported in 2007 among a population of about 180,000. Five years later, there have been only 17 arrests. Women's advocates on the reservation say only about 10 percent of sexual assaults are reported. NY Times
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