"It is estimated that in their lifetimes, one in three Native women will be raped. Six in 10 will be physically assaulted.
Native women experience 66 percent of the violent crimes committed against Native people.
There are likely several reasons why Native women are victimized at rates higher than any other population in the United States.
Federal and state jurisdictions often conflict with reservation land bases, hampering tribal law enforcement's ability to arrest and prosecute non-Native abusers. And the higher rate of other-race abusers could be the result of Native women living in urban settings and border towns.
Grassroots leaders like Karen Artichoker, director of the Sacred Circle women's resource center in Rapid City, S.D., have been leading efforts on behalf of indigenous women for decades.
Ten years ago, groups such as Sacred Circle succeeded in getting Native women recognized in the 1994 Violence Against Women Act.
Now, for the first time in the act's 12-year history, a task force consisting of Native coalitions and leaders from the National Congress of American Indians have succeeded in amending the law to meet Native women's needs.
The effort has been praised as one of the greatest collaborations in Indian Country in recent years. Together, they brought Native women's need for protection before lawmakers."
Get the Story:Jodi Rave: Despite nationwide drop, Native women still beaten (The Missoulian 9/17)
Answers hard to come by for Fort Belknap woman (The Missoulian 9/17)
Decades later, daughter making peace with abusive past (The Missoulian 9/17) Relevant Links:
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