Sexual Assault and Rape on Native American Reservations-Carson Cherry

Being that last week we talked about Native Americans I thought that it would be fitting to do one of my blogs on sexual assault and rape on Native American reservations. When we think of a Native American Reservation we sometimes think of a tourist attraction such as Cherokee where the casinos attract thousands of people a year. Native American reservations are more an out of sight out of mind thing for most Americans, you never hear about them on the news or in the media. Even though the idea of a reservation sounded like a good idea at the time many are plagued with poverty and crime. Rape and sexual Assaults on reservations are higher than the national average. One third of Native American women will be raped in their life time according to an article in the New York Times; this is double the national average. One problem with prosecuting rape suspects on tribal grounds is that the tribal court has jurisdiction over its Native American people. In an instance where a Native American woman is raped by someone who is not Native American then they cannot be tried in Tribal Court. The sad part about this is that 80% of the people who commit rape on reservations are non-Indian men, which creates a cluster in court if and when they get caught. Up until 1978 the Tribal courts had authority to convict non-Indians but the Supreme Court ruled that convicting them in Tribal court was not in their jurisdiction. Most women who are raped o[i]. The facts that are given are only the numbers that have been reported. Most systems on reservations are outdated and overran which leads to numbers that may be below the actual rates. In a document that I found during my research I found that 39% of Native American women report being abused by their intimate partner and that Native American woman are 2.5 times more likely to be raped compared to women of other races across the nation[ii].

n the reservation do not speak up and are afraid of what will happen if they do speak up

The rape and abuse that occurs on Native American reservations is something that is swept under the table here in the U.S. Most Americans are not informed nor educated about what really happens on most Indian reservations. We look at 3^rd world countries overseas and remorse over them and overlook our own mini third world countries here in the United States.

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[i] Erdrich, Louise. "Rape on the Reservation." The New York Times, February 26, 2013.

[ii] Future without Violence, "The Facts on Violence Against American Indian/Alaskan Native Women." Accessed January 27, 2014. http://www.futureswithoutviolence.org/userfiles/file/Violence Against AI AN Women Fact Sheet.pdf.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qualla_Boundary

http://mendotadakota.com/mn/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/poor-native-american-indians-shelter-shack-dilapitaed1.jpg