Native American women victims of sexual violence, government complicity

To this day, the U.S. government is turning a blind eye to rampant sexual attacks against Native women committed by white and other non-Native men. According to federal law, tribal police and prosecutors are prohibited from arresting or prosecuting non-Natives—even if they commit violent crimes on supposedly-sovereign Native soil.

According to data from the Department of Justice, the rate of victimization among Native women is two times the national average. More than one-third of all Native women will be raped at least once during their lifetimes, and nearly two-thirds will be assaulted. Nearly 90 percent of rapes and sexual assaults are perpetrated by non-Natives. ( Los Angeles Times, Aug. 3)

Cases of domestic violence against Native women and children rarely get prosecuted. This appalling trend of violence against Native women is a manifestation of national oppression of Indigenous people in the United States, perpetuated by hundreds of years of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The lie that the federal government recognizes Native American tribes as sovereign nations is just propaganda. The federal government recognizes Native sovereignty only as far it allows the government to neglect reservations; the federal government continues to hold an oppressive a grip on Native society.

In the past century, Congress and the Supreme Court have severely undermined the safety of reservations. In 1885, the Major Crimes Act was passed, declaring that the federal government— not the Native tribes—has jurisdiction over murders, rapes and felony assaults involving Native Americans.

Then, in 1978, the Supreme Court ruled in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe that Native tribes cannot try and punish non-Natives who commit crimes on reservations. Consequently, when a non-Native victimizes a Native, only U.S. attorneys can file charges.

However, Justice Department data reveals that U.S. attorneys decline to prosecute crimes committed on reservations nearly twice as often as those committed elsewhere. According to a Justice Department official, the welfare of Native Americans is simply not a high priority within the federal government. (National Public Radio, July 25)

The end result is that reservation communities can be terrorized without consequence. Sarah Deer, a victim advocacy attorney, told the Inter Press Service: “In many tribal communities, rape and molestation are so common that young women expect that they will be victims of sexual violence at some point.”

In Alaska, where Native Americans make up 16 percent of the population, Native women were victims in nearly 80 percent of al l confirmed cases of rape and murder over the last 15 years. (IPS, July 26) This terrible situation is a symptom of national oppression—the subjugation of a whole people based on their nationality.

National oppress ion of Native Americans was central to the spread of capitalism in the United States. Almost immediately after Christopher Columbus set foot on the Americas in the late 15th century, masses of Indigenous people were enslaved and exterminated, their rich resources pillaged.

Sexism and violence against women are also products of capitalism.

These oppressive trends continue. Today, Native communities suffer some the highest poverty rates in the United States. The federal government has systematically denied adequate resources to these communities.

Due to chronic underfunding, social services on reservations are deplorable. Many health facilities cannot afford qualified personnel or essential medical equipment, such as inexpensive rape kits. “Tribal nations know best how to protect tribal women,” Muscogee victims’ advocate Deer told Amnesty International on April 24. “It is the imposition of foreign legal systems that has resulted in such a high rate of victimization.”