As we mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we celebrate the cultures, contributions and resilience of Indigenous communities across the United States.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day also serves as a critical day of reckoning – a recognition of the forced displacement of Indigenous Peoples from their land. As we confront the atrocities of settler colonialism and the injustices committed by European/U.S. colonizers, we must also work towards ending the systemic violence that Indigenous women continue to face today.
An Ongoing Human Rights Crisis
American Indian and Alaska Native women are murdered and go missing at incredibly high rates. Native women are killed 10 times more than the national average. What’s more, Native women face some of the highest rates of sexual violence in the country:
- 56.1 percent of Native women have experienced sexual violence.
- By the age of 18, 1 in every 3 Native girls will be raped.
- Native women are 2.2 times more likely to be raped than non-Hispanic white women.
The epidemic of violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women is a human rights crisis. It represents a broad pattern of gross neglect and active harm by a justice system and federal government that has not done enough to protect Native women.
Native women are not given a clear route to justice. Instead, the U.S. government has created a complex jurisdictional maze of federal, state and tribal jurisdictions that fails Indigenous survivors. This maze undermines tribal authority, often stripping them of the ability to arrest a perpetrator, and it creates an impossible legal process for survivors, many of whom give up, knowing that their case will never be pursued.
With little interagency cooperation, survivors are forced to face various law enforcement, prosecutors won’t take cases to trial, and perpetrators evade justice. While perpetrators are never brought to trial, Native survivors are denied justice. To make matters worse, chronic under-resourcing of law enforcement agencies and Indigenous health service providers contribute further to an unforgiving cycle of violence and erasure.
Violence Emboldened by a Colonial Past
This cycle of violence has made one thing clear: the United States has failed to fulfill its human rights obligations towards Native women.
This failure stems from a long history of settler colonialism, including the forced relocation of Indigenous people and widespread atrocities throughout the process. It is informed by a legacy of gender-based violence against Native women – carried out by European colonizers and the U.S. government alike – intent on devastating Indigenous communities.
This violence is not confined to distant history. U.S. policies in the 20th century of forced boarding schools and mass sterilization have contributed to a cycle of violence. That is why something must change now – systemic violence against Native women demands our attention, action and justice. It must be a national priority.
Justice must be served NOW:
The U.S. government has a unique legal obligation to ensure the protection of the rights and well-being of Indigenous Peoples, and to prevent sexual violence against Native women.
Despite piecemeal efforts to address such violence, the government has failed to provide meaningful solutions. However, two pieces of legislation have been introduced in Congress that can help make long-term solutions and address this crisis:
- H.R 1010 and S. 390; Bridging Agency Data Gaps and Ensuring Safety (BADGES) for Native Communities Act, and
- H.R 4712 and S. 2452; The Parity for Tribal Law Enforcement Act.
Combined, these two pieces of legislation will:
- Provide adequate resources and funding for law enforcement, Indigenous health providers and data collection
- Ensure that Tribal Nations have jurisdiction and resources to keep their communities safe
BADGES for Native Communities Act
A major contributor to this crisis of violence is that very few perpetrators are ever brought to justice. Jurisdictional confusion and limitations on tribal police impede Native survivors of sexual violence from obtaining justice, as does a lack of resources for tribal police and poor interagency coordination. The BADGES Act would help address these issues.
Specifically, this legislation would:
- Ensure Tribes have access to critical criminal justice data and build better coordination between federal databases that help track cases
- Improve coordination between overlapping agencies by establishing a Tribal facilitator to improve communication and coordination between Tribal and federal law enforcement agencies
- Improve Tribal officer recruitment by authorizing the Bureau of Indian Affairs to conduct its own background checks
Parity for Tribal Law Enforcement Act
The lack of adequate funding and resources for tribal law enforcement agencies leaves many Indigenous communities without the presence of law enforcement required to respond, coordinate and investigate crimes. Because of these deficits, law enforcement and safety departments in Indigenous communities do not have the capacity and flexibility to implement strategies that will protect American Indian and Alaska Native women from violence. What’s more, the degradation of tribal sovereignty has led to ineffective policing in tribal communities, as tribes often lack the jurisdiction to protect their citizens.
The Parity for Tribal Law Enforcement Act would:
- Improve the hiring, retention, training and authority of tribal law enforcement officers
- Ensure tribal police receive equal treatment and resources to strengthen responses on crimes committed against Indigenous women
Native women have the right to live free from violence. They have the right to equality, liberty, and security. They have the right to be free from discrimination on the basis of Indigenous status.
Today is a call to action, as much as it is a celebration. This Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the U.S. government must stop failing Native women. Lawmakers must drive policy change and hold systems accountable, so that violence against Indigenous women is no longer ignored.
We must call on the U.S. government to pass both the BADGES Act and Parity Act. Only then can the government end its complicity in this human rights crisis.