SPRING 2015
APRIL 28, 2015 SAWIMAN
As Sara Baartman’s case showed us, indigenous women have been objectified, appropriated, and fetishized since the beginning of colonialism in order to justify the conquering of “lesser” people. One of the biggest weapons used against native people during colonization was sexual violence against women. Since the aboriginals were viewed for the most part as “dirty” and “without god” any violence done toward them didn’t count because they weren’t fully human. Indigenous women all over the world were taken and abused since the beginning of westward conquest, a trend that we can still see playing out in today’s world, but many of this stories were never publicized. Baartman’s story was overly publicized and exploited, but many other involving taken and murdered indigenous women were largely forgotten and unreported- a trend that can still be seen today.
Across North America, particularly we will look at Canada, the effects of these colonialist ideas still permeate how native women are treated and seen in society. Indigenous women are going missing and being murdered at a much higher rate than other women in Canada- a rate so high it constitutes nothing less than a national human rights crisis. Aboriginal women aged 25 to 44 are five times more likely to suffer a violent death than other women in Canada. And yet, these cases often go unreported in the media and are not given the same attention as white women who suffer the same. The media coverage of native women in Canada and the U.S. that is broadcast typically serves to reinforce stereotypes of native women. Kristen Gilchrist, a researcher on native women in media, found that a feeling of “otherness” permeates the coverage on missing and murdered native women, instead of feelings of united outrage and communal togetherness that is present in most stories on similarly situated white women.
More:
https://pages.vassar.edu/theirsorours/2015/04/28/lack-of-media-coverage-for-murdered-and-missing-native-women/
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Democrats have been concern about this genocide a very long time:
Missing and murdered Indigenous women
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) human-rights crisis disproportionately affects Indigenous peoples in Canada and the United States, notably those in the FNMI (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) and Native American communities.[1][2][3][4] A corresponding mass movement in the US and Canada works to raise awareness of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) through organized marches; the building of databases; local community, city council, and tribal council meetings; and domestic violence trainings for police.[5]
MMIW has been described as a Canadian national crisis[6][7][8] and a Canadian genocide.[9][10][11][12][13] In response to repeated calls from Indigenous groups, activists, and non-governmental organizations, the Government of Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau established a national public inquiry, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, in September 2016.[14][15] According to the inquiry's backgrounder, between the years 1980 and 2012, Indigenous women and girls represented 16% of all female homicides in Canada, while constituting only 4% of the female population in Canada.[16] The inquiry was completed and presented to the public on June 3, 2019.[14]
A 2014 report by the RCMP, titled "Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women: A National Operational Overview", found that more than 1,000 Indigenous women were murdered over a span of 30 years.[17] From 2001 to 2015, the homicide rate for Indigenous women in Canada was ales as high as the homicide rate for other women, representing "4.82 per 100,000 population versus 0.82 per 100,000 population."[18]: 22 In Nunavut, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and in the provinces of Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan, this over-representation of Indigenous most six timwomen among homicide victims was even higher.[18]: 22 The Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) has documented 582 cases since the 1960s, with 39% after 2000[19]—though advocacy groups say that many more women have been missing in Canada, with the highest number of cases in British Columbia. Notable cases have included 19 women killed in the Highway of Tears murders, and some of the 49 women from the Vancouver area murdered by serial killer Robert Pickton.[10]
In the US, Native American women are more than twice as likely to experience violence than any other demographic. One in three Indigenous women is sexually assaulted during her life, and 67% of these assaults are perpetrated by other races.[20][21][22][23][24][a] The federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was reauthorized in 2013, which for the first time gave tribes jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute felony domestic violence offenses involving both Native American offenders as well as offenders of other races on reservations.[26] In 2019, the House of Representatives, led by the Democratic Party, passed H.R. 1585 (Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019) by a vote of 263–158, which increases tribes' prosecution rights much further. The bill was not taken up by the Senate, which at the time had a Republican majority.[28]
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_and_murdered_Indigenous_women
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Interior Department's New Unit To Investigate Missing And Murdered Native Americans
April 4, 20215:18 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Less than a month after taking office, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history, announced the creation of a unit to investigate missing and murdered Native Americans. She made the announcement this past week, and the unit will be housed within the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The message - that the government needs to do more.
Haaland said in a statement, quote, "violence against Indigenous peoples is a crisis that has been underfunded for decades." And that violence is most acute for women. Native American women are the victims of murder at more than 10 times the national average. That's according to the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women.
More:
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/04/984290211/interior-departments-new-unit-to-investigate-missing-and-murdered-native-america
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MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN
Across the United States and Canada Native Women and girls are being taken or murdered at an unrelenting rate.
Facts About Missing And Murdered
Indigenous Women
There is widespread anger and sadness in First Nations communities. Sisters, wives, mothers, and daughters are gone from their families without clear answers. There are families whose loved ones are missing—babies growing up without mothers, mothers without daughters, and grandmothers without granddaughters. For Native America, this adds one more layer of trauma upon existing wounds that cannot heal. Communities are pleading for justice. However, the data to confirm the scope of the problem is elusive.
"The National Crime Information Center reports that, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, though the US Department of Justice’s federal missing person database, NamUs, only logged 116 cases."
. . .
Stereotypes about Natives Perpetuate Injustice
Due to the lack of tribal jurisdiction beyond reservation borders, Urban Indians receive less than adequate assistance when a loved one goes missing. America has written a stereotypical narrative for its First People: “They are lazy, drug addicts, and alcoholics who rely on the government to survive.”
Moreover, this modern stereo type was created through acts of colonization and cultural assimilation. Pre-colonization, Native societies traditionally revered and honored the sacredness of women. Women held positions of authority and did a large portion of labor within their camps, but the European colonists with patriarchal views took the women as slaves to the men. Soon, Native women had been victims of rape, violence, and submission. This mistreatment can be traced throughout America’s history. Natives were viewed as “savages.”
More:
https://www.nativehope.org/en-us/understanding-the-issue-of-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women
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