Cedric Sunray: Some Indian women remain stuck in loophole

Tuesday, February 26, 2013  

"Senator Maria Cantwell, the chair of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, stated in regard to tribal provisions in VAWA, “If you think you are rooting out crime in America and you are letting a sieve happen in Indian country you are not rooting out crime. You are sending a signal to people that this is an easy place to go. You are saying that this is the place where you can escape the law."

Clearly, Sen. Cantwell knows little of Indian country and reservations. The oldest Indian reservations in the country and the Indian women who reside on them will continue in the same situation regardless of the tribal provision’s passage or not. Why? Because some of the eldest tribes of the reservation system are not ‘recognized’ by the BIA and therefore are not a part of the nouveau “Indian Country” that is being sold far and wide in the press. These historic reservation communities are the very “sieve” the Congresswoman is speaking of without even knowing so.

The brown-skinned, brown-haired, brown-eyed, more than half-Indian by blood, indigenous language speaking, reservation based families having daughters won’t be protected under the current tribal provisions being proposed for VAWA. As a member of a reservation based historic state-recognized tribe and a federal Indian band in Canada she is not technically “Indian” here in these United States of America. And this goes for many other women."

Get the Story:
Cedric Sunray: VAWA Tribal Provision Continues Caste System in Indian Country (Indian Country Today 2/26)