ABSTRACT
The sexual assault against Native American women is a complex issue rooted in the historical oppression and marginalization of Indigenous communities during the colonial period. This study employs an intersectional approach to examine the multiple dimensions of identity, such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status, that contribute to the disproportionate violence experienced by Native women. The colonial policies disrupted the traditional gender roles and norms within Indigenous societies, imposing patriarchal structures and devaluing the status of women. The forced assimilation practices, including the placement of children in boarding schools, exposed them to sexual violence and exploitation, leading to intergenerational trauma. Today, Native women face a higher risk of domestic violence, sexual assault, and violent victimization compared to other women in the United States. The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis is perpetuated by inadequate law enforcement response, lack of proper data collection, and institutional racism. Despite recent legislative efforts, such as the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, significant barriers persist in addressing the root causes of sexual violence against Native women. These include limited access to resources, mistrust in the justice system, and the overshadowing of the issue by the perceived importance of collective tribal rights. This study highlights the need for a comprehensive, culturally responsive approach that acknowledges the intersectional nature of oppression faced by Indigenous women and addresses the ongoing impact of colonial history on their well-being.
Historically, Indigenous women underwent diverse forms of oppression having left an indelible mark on their physical and mental health manifested in the subsequent pervasive drug and alcohol abuse [16]. A lack of access to healthcare and reproductive health services, scarce housing options, low educational attainment, and a high unemployment rate are still persistent, reproducing the pattern of illiteracy and poverty and, thus, exacerbating their vulnerability. At the same time, steadily growing nationwide data on physical and sexual assault [15] cannot but increasingly galvanize widespread attention to the problem, therefore, pushing the government to undertake certain actions. Here, an attempt has been made to investigate the case of sexual violence against North American Native women through the lens of the intersectional approach.
Intersectionality is “the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage” [9]. Therefore, it appears insufficient to examine a person’s experiences referring only to one dimension of the identity but considering the multiplicity of aspects shaping such. The term was coined by Prof. Kimberlé Crenshaw to analyze the correlation between gender and race as a form of oppression towards Black women. Nevertheless, the diversity of aspects inherent to an individual allows one to apply the theory to different instances, including the tragic case under discussion.
Historical Background/Context
Despite the disproportionate effect of sexual violence on all women [21], the case of Indigenous women must be placed into the context of postcolonial historical oppression. The colonial policies shifted the role of females in the household and Indigenous communities to be replaced with the European patriarchal forms. Highly esteemed in the pre-colonization period and frequently allowed to a decision-making process backed by the matrilineal descent system, they held a position markedly different from the subservient one of the European women. Leadership was widely viewed as a shared responsibility, gender roles were fluid, and male/female duties were often exchanged or combined [25]. The relations were characterized by egalitarian, complementary, and cooperative gender norms, while “violence was virtually nonexistent in traditional Indian families and communities. The traditional spiritual worldviews that organized daily tribal life prohibited harm by individuals against other beings” [17].
The arrived colonial authorities fixed the marginalized position of the Native women depriving them of various rights and access to any form of participation in community governance. Following the rationale provided by the papal bulls of the 15th century sanctioning the enslavement of non-Christians [25], the colonists engaged in destroying the cultures and brutalizing Indigenous women, with the violence being, therefore, intrinsically connected to the commodification and appropriation of the land. The ability to sustain the tribes through childbearing turned them into a primary target of disproportionate physical and psychological abuse as an integral strategy of conquest. Natives were mostly deemed as merely dirty savages for their lack of clothing leading the colonists to believe in Indigenous women being “polluted with sexual sin” [20]. Dehumanized, they were considered, thus, rapable. Explicitly demonstrated in the policies of the Founding Fathers, the Indian Wars, and the California Gold Rush, the practice of sexual assault was perpetuated resulting in the disruption of the Indigenous communities further extended in the legislation of the 20th century.
Native tribes were forced to internalize the patriarchal norms emanating from the Euro-American societal order, enshrining the violence from both external forces (e.g. persistent impunity for perpetrators) and internal forces passing them down “intergenerationally through horizontal violence and sub-oppression of fellow tribal members” [13]. As a result, the status of a woman appears to be devalued, with the resilience of the Indigenous societies curtailed.
The physical and sexual abuse faced by Indigenous women in childhood is likewise rooted in the period of colonization. The newly arrived authorities established a practice of forced assimilation and erasure of the Native heritage through placing children into boarding schools or foster families exposing them to an environment often characterized by the presence of sexual violence and exploitation. The trauma stemming from being upbrought by absent or abusive caretakers severed the intergenerational transfer of parenting skills and dismantled positive parenting role models [10]. Harsh treatment and negligence toward meeting the basic need of love normalize violence from the very beginning of an individual’s life, particularly manifested in the current rate [7] of Indigenous women who experienced childhood sexual abuse. The sexual assault suffered in educational institutions of the past reproduced in the common environment of the present often results in protracted depression and a strong feeling of self-blame and induces one to resort to such coping strategies as engaging in risky sexual behavior and substance abuse to “chemically numb themselves from the pain” [24], thus increasing the likelihood of later revictimization [2].
The Situation Today
The justification for the ostensible acculturation through the imposition of patriarchal orders is found in the contemporary writers’ works depicting Native women as already oppressed and inferior to the Native men reflected in the hard labor assigned to them. Nevertheless, such assumptions are based entirely on the comparison with the role reserved for a white woman. An ideal of a “frail, dependent person in need of protection” [5] stemming from the bias of the superiority of the colonialists’ culture becomes indisputable, while the adoption of the Euro-American lifestyle is posited as the only way to liberate them from their hardships. The unique character of the women’s place in the Native society, their duties and rights, was, therefore, universally neglected, substituted with the image of a distressed ignorant person requiring immediate salvation.
According to recent surveys, Indigenous women often find themselves at greater risk of domestic violence and other instances of physical/psychological and sexual assault as adults, together with violent victimization in their childhood. In the United States, Native women are 2.5 times [3] more likely to be sexually abused or raped than other women [19], while 96% of the sexual violence against them is committed by non-Indigenous perpetrators rarely facing justice [23], with meaningful remedies hardly provided for the victims. The 2016 survey [12] conducted by the Urban Indian Health Institute showed a significant Indigenous femicide rate (ten times higher than the national average for women living on reservations), while murder constituted the third leading cause of death. At the same time, the devaluation of women’s status turns them into a target by their fellow tribal members as well [13], reflecting the reversal of the female-centered Indigenous traditions.
The MMIW Crisis – contributing factors and attempted solutions
The persistent practices of forced assimilation resulted in the ongoing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis, largely stemming from the inadequate response from the law-enforcement institutions and the diminution of the issue. The perpetuating effect comes from a lack of proper data collection, prejudice, the impossibility of generalizing due to the wide diversity of tribes and unique experiences, and insufficient reporting. The latter reflects the systematic racial misclassification, poor record-keeping protocols, and institutional racism, but mostly the distrust in the criminal justice system owing to the distorted relations between Indigenous women and authorities. Direct involvement of the police officers in mechanisms of oppression of the past and the perceived lack of confidentiality translate into the reluctance to subject private lives to scrutiny and control by the officials. Concurrently, tribal agencies appear understaffed, underfunded, and undertrained, further emphasizing the problem [14].
Certain progress has been made to address the issue in the federal legislation. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) of 1994, helped significantly reduce the rate of intimate partner violence against females by 53%, though turning a blind eye to “the multifaceted oppression faced by women of color, specifically, the unique circumstances surrounding the exploitation of Indigenous women” [14]. Only the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 and the subsequent act of 2022 [22] expanded special Tribal criminal jurisdiction (STCJ) to cover non-Native perpetrators of sexual assault, child abuse, stalking, sex trafficking, and assaults on Tribal law enforcement officers on Tribal lands and allocated extensive funding to fight the gender-based violence. Until the very 2022, the federal government exercised concurrent sovereignty over tribal governments, while cases against non-Natives could be brought up in front of Tribal courts only if those were involved in a relationship with a Native.
Nevertheless, the respective institutions are often found unwilling to commit resources [2] to a proper investigation raising the issue of a complicated evidence collection process due to the different approaches to collaboration with tribes and confusion over which department should take the case. The strict guidelines often fail to meet culturally responsive needs impeding the actual allocation of money, and do not cover the root causes of the sexual abuse and exploitation of Indigenous women, namely the “racial fetishes” [6]. The latter is particularly important for the Native population due to the limitations arising from the problematic socio-economic environment, namely the widespread homelessness and low income. The prevalent barriers to accessing well-paid positions in the labor market as a result of colonial policies further compound the process of getting out of financial dependency, thus trapping certain victims in relationships with abusive partners. At the same time, according to the study on Native women in prostitution, 75% of the interviewees had sold sex in exchange for shelter, food, or drugs [8]. Sex work, therefore, becomes for many a matter of survival.
Another complication stems from the lack of appropriate medical resources and rape kits discouraging sexual assault victims from seeking help, thus enabling perpetrators to avoid punishment and normalizing the pattern. What is more, while providing federal health services to most tribal members, Indian Health Services (IHS) often turns out to be incapable of maintaining anonymity for abused women [1]. The failure to secure confidentiality, together with the insensitivity against tribal culture from the medical personnel, prevents appeals for help and exacerbates the underreporting.
The striking data are found in Alaska, where, according to the Department of Public Safety, more than half of the victims of sexual assault are Natives despite comprising only 20% of the overall population [4]. The western part of the region is particularly affected due to the limited access of the rural residents to public safety and law enforcement mechanisms and their consequent vulnerable position, with the high rates of alcoholism aggravating the problem. At the same time, the crisis is not confined to the reservations, with the urban area not appearing safe either owing to the detachment from the resources linked to their culture and tribal community and the feeling of psychological isolation. The crisis is accentuated by the above-mentioned mistrust in the justice system, stemming from the disproportionality of arrests, the lack of accountability of perpetrators, and general discrimination throughout the State, coupled with the presence of police officers previously convicted of domestic violence [11].
Nevertheless, despite the continuously refined data on the MMIW instances, efforts to raise awareness and promote further legislation are still largely obstructed by the criticism against the feminist movement, depicted as inconsistent with the essence of tribal sovereignty. Acting as “an imperial project”, it “assumes the givenness of the federal government's ultimate control of tribal nations” [18]. The fight against sexism is, therefore, considered prone to produce racial division alienating Indigenous men and women from each other. Exercising the subservient role within the American Indian Movement (AIM), Native women are subject to following the decisions made exclusively by the male leaders, while any attempt to stand out with extra demands is presented as destructive to the united front of the Native nationalism. Thus, addressing the roots of sexual violence is impeded by the accepted overshadowing of the issue by the perceived more important advocation of the collective tribal rights, particularly when the Native perpetrators are concerned. At the same time, often posited as a product of white culture, feminism, if embraced by Indigenous women, is doomed to deprive them of identity via inevitable acculturation and assimilation.
Conclusion
The case of sexual violence against Native American Women demonstrates the intersected character of oppression as an extension of prejudice, discrimination, and barriers that go beyond the gender aspect. Thus, neither feminist nor anti-racist advocacy movements appear to be fully capable of capturing the marginalization of Indigenous women. At the same time, placing the issue into the intersectional framework implies the simultaneous examination of multiple variables involved, contributing to the substantiality of the analysis. The illustrated proceedings constitute a vivid reflection of the traumatic and destructive impact of colonialization on the Indigenous population of North America, subjected to racist laws and regulations that suppressed language and religion, destroyed culture, and dismantled Indigenous families and communities. The coined pattern of disproportionate violence exemplified by the high rate of the abused and murdered has eventually led to the MMIW crisis, perpetuated by the resultant mistrust in the authorities. The root causes remain mostly untouched, thus leaving space for widespread revictimization. Despite the innovative legislation adopted, it is still characterized by critical gaps both in articulation and implementation serving as an obstacle to any substantive progress. Nonetheless, the variety of research on the topic provides the grounds to suppose the greater attention being drawn and potentially more efficient steps to be made.
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