-Ruth Hopkins (Cankudutawin-Red Road Woman), a Dakota/Lakota Sioux writer, biologist, attorney, and former tribal judge recently wrote:
The federal government’s policy of termination against tribes lasted from 1887 to 1943. Native people were stripped of their cultures, languages, and ancestral instructions and expected to adopt the ways of the colonizer. Our ceremonies became illegal. Children and adults alike suffered and died to save them. These things survive today only because they continued in secret.
Throughout this time, mainstream society participated in our degradation and erasure. Pop culture hypersexualized native women with its "Pocahottie" imagery, and dehumanized us by saying we’re little more than a Halloween costume.
Today, we are still being hunted and killed.
There is an epidemic of missing and murdered native women throughout North America, but even though it’s been going on for decades and many native families on the continent can recount stories of loved ones who’ve gone missing or been murdered, there remains insufficient data on the problem because there’s been no centralized database for keeping that information. In 2013, the Canadian government began a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, but the United States has yet to take such action.
The statistics we do have are astounding. In the United States, native women are murdered at 10 times the national average rate on some reservations, according to a 2008 report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice.
A 2016 National Institute of Justice–funded study revealed that a staggering 84% of native women have experienced violence in their lifetime, and 56% of native women are survivors of sexual violence. But we aren’t just numbers. Missing and murdered native women have stories and faces, families who miss them desperately, and come from communities who are crying out for justice.
-from the Stranger:
"It's an issue that we hear about in Native community a lot," Elisabeth Guard, an associate at Native law firm Galanda Broadman, told The Stranger. "It's not an issue that's highly reported outside of Indian media, so I think it's important for the non-Native community to see what an issue it is."
According to data from the Department of Justice, indigenous women face astronomical rates of violence. A Department of Justice report published in 2010 concluded that American Indian and Alaska Native women are 1.7 times more likely than white women to experience violent crime within the last year and are more likely to experience violence from an interracial perpetrator. An estimated 56 percent surveyed in the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS) said that they had experienced sexual violence, and 55.5 percent reported physical violence from a partner. Another study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published last year reported that American Indian/Alaska Native women died at higher rates of homicide than any other group.
But the names of missing indigenous women often don't make it onto the state's missing and unidentified persons list. At last week's legislative hearing, Captain Monica Alexander of the Washington State Patrol testified that neither Kinsey's name, nor the name of another missing indigenous woman from South Seattle, were being tracked by the Patrol's missing person's unit.
Andulia Sanchez WhiteElk: Andulia was born on the Northern Ute Reservation in Utah. She moved to Portland 28 years ago to be closer to her family. She has four children and three grandchildren. She has been involved roller derby for ten years and currently with Team Indigenous as the team’s manager and coach. Andulia currently works at the Confederated Tribes of Siletz as an addictions counselor. She has worked in the domestic and sexual violence field for many years and an addictions counselor for 12 yrs. Throughout her years of work within the field, she has held positions such as a Fetal Alcohol Case manager and an addiction counselor for NARA Northwest and a Life Skills Trainer at Mental Health Services West, a women’s advocate and children’s program coordinator at the Bradley Angle House, and a women’s advocate/ case manager for Lotus Prostitution Alternative. She is a certified community health worker and a natural helper with the Future Generations Collaborative.
Amanda Swanson: Amanda is the statewide Trafficking Intervention Coordinator with the Oregon Department of Justice and has 10 years of experience working with and for victims of human trafficking. Amanda is working to develop a coordinated statewide response to child and youth sex trafficking by building partnerships between law enforcement, victim service providers, child welfare and public health. Amanda also chairs the Attorney General’s Trafficking Intervention Advisory Committee whose mission is to provide guidance, support and resources to communities as they work to build a strong response to child and youth sex trafficking by developing local services and providing meaningful access to those services for all survivors in Oregon.
Chenoa Landry: Chenoa (Puyallup/Ojibwe) is the Cultural Arts Coordinator at NAYA Family Center where her focus is “culture is prevention.” Through her cultural knowledge and teachings, she coordinates opportunities for community members of all ages to experience culture. She assists with other projects within NAYA and was a former elder’s coordinator and sexual assault and domestic violence advocate. Chenoa immerses herself in community engagement and enjoys pow wows, traveling, spending time with friends, her two sons and husband.
Laura John: Laura, a descendent of the Blackfeet and Seneca Nations, began work as the City of Portland’s second ever Tribal Liaison in 2017. She brings over 20 years of experience working in Indian Country. She is a former State Policy Fellow with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and was formally the State-Tribal Policy Analyst for the Montana Budget & Policy Center, working closely with Native American state legislators and elected tribal leaders in Montana. Laura holds undergraduate degrees from Portland State University and Haskell Indian Nations University, and graduate degrees from Washington State University and the University of Montana. As the City’s tribal liaison, she will assist the Mayor, City Council, and all City bureaus in strengthening relationships and coordinating overall policy development with Tribal Governments and the Portland Native American community. Laura was born and raised in Portland and is honored to have the opportunity to serve her community in this role.
Jordan Cocker: Jordan is Kiowa and Tongan. She works as a project coordinator for the Native Wellness Institute and co-leads the Indigenous 20-Something Project (I2SP). Through I2SP she co-facilitates wellness and healing gatherings for her generation. She will be graduating in a few weeks with her master’s degree from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Jordan enjoys traveling, pow wowing, crafting and trying out new adventures.
The Native American Youth and Family Center was founded by parent and Elder volunteers in 1974, and incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 1994. Throughout our history, they’ve sustained their diverse traditions while expanding and modernizing programs and services to meet the needs of the people. They serve self-identified Native Americans, infant to Elder, from across the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area.
- KBOO