They are our mothers and sisters, our best friends and co-workers. So why don't we hear their cries?
Two recent reports have - again - highlighted the shameful lack of attention given violence against Native women.
The U.S. Department of Justice found the same in its own 2006 report. Plus this: More than 86 percent of rapes against Native women are carried out by non-Native men, most of them white.
And a National Institute of Justice report found that 64 percent of Native children had witnessed abuse against their mothers by age 3.
Last week, the Bureau of Indian Affairs added its own, shameful litany of statistics, telling of reservations where there is no 24-hour police coverage and where violence against women often goes either unreported or unpunished. Indeed, the violence is likely much more prevalent than the studies show.
There is no one reason, and therefore no easy solution, for these problems.
All agree that the tangle of tribal, federal and state judicial and law enforcement jurisdictions allows far too many crimes to go unpunished. No one entity, for example, has authority over all crimes committed on tribal lands. The jurisdictional lines are confusing, and confound attempts at even adequate law enforcement.
And when violence goes unpunished, victims are less likely to report the next attack. Therein lies another piece of the puzzle.
Law enforcement funding, provided by treaty from the federal government, falls short in part because it is based on population, and does not take into account the huge expanses tribal police officers must cover.
BIA officials told a U.S. Senate hearing last week that tribal officers often patrol alone, to both misdemeanor and felony calls. Their only backup can be many miles - or hours - away.
Simply throwing money at the problem won't fix this mess, either.
What is needed is a commitment - on and off reservations, by tribal and non-tribal governments - to actually do something about violence against Native women. That means creating clear jurisdictional lines for law enforcement and the judiciary on reservations. It means focusing funding on programs that actually hold assailants accountable for the violence, and that help women safely escape their attackers.
It means standing up and saying - loudly and in unison - that violence against Native women will not be tolerated. That these women deserve and will be given the full protection of the law. That their safety is all our responsibility.
That we care, because these women are our mothers and sisters. Our best friends and co-workers.
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