Years of historical trauma, high rates of crime and violence worsen the missing and murdered Indigenous persons epidemic in the U.S., making cases hard to solve and limiting the power of Indigenous women.
About 4 in 5 Indigenous people in the U.S. have experienced some form of violence, according to a study by the National Institute of Justice.
“You’ve got a country that was founded on violence against Native women, and you’ve got a culture that continues to celebrate violence against women,” said Mary Kathryn Nagle, an attorney for the Montana-based National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.
The origins of the missing and murdered Indigenous women’s crisis come from centuries of genocide, colonialization and the erosion of tribal sovereignty, according to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center.
Nagle explained that Halloween costumes of Indigenous people and images of Indigenous women on beer or butter products are examples of American culture devaluing Indigenous women.
Through her work with the center, Nagle said lack of value in Indigenous women in American culture allows and fosters violence against them.
“The people beating and abusing Native women learn that they can do that with impunity,” she said.
Shawnna Roach handles missing and murdered Indigenous persons cases for Cherokee Nation Marshal Service. She also investigates human trafficking and domestic violence cases.
Roach explained that historical trauma compounds the likelihood for Indigenous women to be victims of crime.
Roach said trouble at home or drug dependencies can make young women targets. Roach said the history of neglect for Indigenous women make them even more likely to be targeted.
“They’re not just local individuals,” she said of perpetrators. “They were coming here to find our Native American females.”
In the U.S., almost half of American Indian/Alaska Native women experienced some form of contact sexual violence during their lifetime, according to a CDC’s National Intimate Partners and Sexual Violence Survey. About 25% of Indigenous women experience stalking in their lifetime, and almost 30% experienced rape at some point in their lifetime.
