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What Can Non-Native Aspiring Allies Do to Honor National Native American Heritage Month? 

Seek to understand Tribal Sovereignty

By Cindene Pezzell, Esq., Director of the National Defense Center for Criminalized Survivors

At first glance, two devastating consequences of the colonization of the Americas appear contradictory: 

  1. Indigenous women and girls are disproportionately victims of gender-based violence. According to a 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice, 84.3% of Indigenous women in the United States – more than 4 in 5 - have experienced violence in their lifetimes, including 56.1% who have experienced sexual violence. "Native women have told me that what you do when you raise a daughter in this environment is you prepare her for what to do when she's raped – not if, but when," said Sarah Deer, citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, University of Kansas professor, and author of "The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America."  
  1. Indigenous women and girls are disproportionately criminalized. Though they make up less than 1% of the population, Indigenous women comprise 2.5% of people incarcerated in jails and prisons in the U.S. The numbers are even more severe when looking at states individually. For example, Native women in Minnesota make up 20% of the female prison population even though they are less than 1% of the state population. 

But how can this be true? How can Indigenous women dramatically overrepresent both crime victims and so-called “criminals?”  Because criminalization and gender-based violence are not byproducts of colonization, but two of its primary weapons. And because criminalization and gender-based violence are perpetuated by a chronic lack of access to resources and perpetual barriers to self–determination caused by the erosion of tribal sovereignty.  

Communities with few options, fewer resources, and a severely limited and regulated system of self-governance are forced to make difficult choices when it comes to survival. Sometimes these choices may not align with legal standards. The National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC) said it best: “[c]riminalizing survivors of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and trafficking for doing what they need to do to survive is not justice. The justice system must instead provide women access to services and treatment that will allow them to escape the abuse-to-prison pipeline once and for all.” 

Non-Native aspiring allies of Indigenous women and girls who wish to help increase safety and decrease criminalization must avoid interventions that, although well-meaning, may do more harm than good. This might mean setting aside assumptions about what “help” looks like for Native survivors. It might also mean halting judgment about what effective and just “law and order” looks like for tribal communities.  

Restoration magazine, a publication of the NIWRC, is an incredible resource and a great place to start learning about sovereignty. In an interview with Boston Review, Mary Kathryn Nagle (a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, a playwright, a prominent legal scholar, and a renowned expert on violence against women) breaks down some of the complex history of tribal sovereignty, the vast rift between sovereignty law and practice, and the evolving landscape of tribal self-determination.  

At a minimum, non-Native aspiring allies must accept and follow the leadership of Indigenous communities whose message has been clear and consistent: safety of Native women is inextricably tied to the restoration of Native sovereignty. 

Recent legislation like the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization Act of 2013 and 2022 has expanded Tribal jurisdiction over non-Native perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual assault, marking a significant step forward. However, full restoration of tribal sovereignty is essential to address the root causes of violence against Native women. 


 

TAGS: #Gender Based Violence #News

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