Safe
by Faith Koontz [1]
At first glance, the idea of being “safe” seems easy to understand–a state that all people have the ability to understand and achieve without conscious reasoning. However, in reality, one must claim their own safety, making it a condition that must be worked towards or earned and even then, may not be achieved. Although the word “safe” is largely associated with positive conditions, such as comfort, protection, and peace, the word is a direct response to harm and only thrives in a context of violence. For Indigenous communities, sexual assault and domestic violence have stripped women of their safety for centuries. Native American women have lower life expectancies than the total U.S. population (Wingate et al. 2023) and experience the highest per capita rate of rape in the U.S, with 7.2 per 1000 Native persons being raped compared to 1.9 per 1000 persons of all races (Deer 2015). In the U.S, the federal government has denied tribal governments jurisdiction over the majority of sexual violence cases against Native women (Deer 2015). This denial of jurisdiction to tribal governments, as well as the historical and ongoing impacts of colonialism, have created a world where the safety of Native women is constantly threatened by sexual assault.
The harm that Native women receive through sexual assault deprives them of their safety. According to Deer (2015), “1 in 3 Native women will be raped in her lifetime.” This normalization of rape in tribal comunities has forced morthers to teach their daughters what to do when, not if, they are assaulted (Deer 2015). Mothers always fear for their daughters’ safety, as most victims of sexual assault tend to be younger and assaulted by a relative (Du Mont et al 2017). As a result, women can’t feel safe in their own homes and communities, making them uncomfortable and hurting their abilities to trust others. In comparison to women of other races, Native women experience a significantly higher rate of physical violence during rape, such as physical beatings and being attacked with weapons (Deer 2015). “When asked whether aggressors physically hit them during the assault, over 90 percent of Native women responded affirmatively, compared to 71 percent of white victims,” and “25 percent of Native women victims report that their perpetrator(s) used a weapon, compared to 9 percent of white women'' (Deer 2015). Going to extra efforts to ensure that Native women endure tremendous suffering shows that these attacks are racially motivated.
In addition, Native women experience severe trauma as a result of rape. Deer (2015) found that women experience nightmares and insomnia after being raped. The likelihood of developing mental health disorders also increases (Du Mont et al. 2017). Rape has long-term effects and can completely change one’s feeling and interpretation of safety. It is dehumanizing, as it “cut[s] to the core of who [women] are” (Deer 2004). Often, feelings of self blame and guilt are more overwhelming than the trauma itself, as a woman convinces herself that she is to blame for the assault, and if she had done something differently, the attack would not have happened (Deer 2015). Blaming herself rather than the abuser causes her to feel that she, by simply existing, is a threat to her own safety. According to Deer (2004), the “resolution of the trauma is never final, recovery is never complete.” Native women never fully recover because someone else has taken control of their lives and taken away their power, causing them to doubt their intelligence and decision making abilities (Deer 2004).
One case of sexual assault produces a rippling effect throughout the rest of a community. In Native cultures, each woman's life is connected to the lives of many other women in the forms of mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends (Deer 2015). When one woman is violently assaulted, it causes the women around her to question their safety as well. It causes them to realize that safety is not guaranteed, and their identity makes them susceptible to violent harm. In addition, friends and relatives watch raped women fall into dark places mentally and physically (Deer 2015). Watching their loved ones suffer hurts their mental health, as they worry about the victim’s well-being and safety while also having to focus on their own.
Prior to colonialism, women’s safety was a value that was embedded into Native cultures. The idea of “patriarchy” is European, so prior to colonialism, Native women had power politically, economically, and spiritually, making them respected in their communities and not solely the property of men (Deer 2015). Since women played integral roles in tribal communities, they were valued and their safety was protected. In addition, Native spiritual world views shaped the norms of daily life and prohibited individuals from harming each other, since, in Native cultures, to harm others is to harm the spirit world (Deer 2015). Due to this emphasis on the prohibition of violence against others, sexual violence was rare and women constantly felt safe in their communities. On the unique occasion that sexual assault did occur, tribal nations took it very seriously. Legal systems were centered on the victim, meaning that the government wanted to provide recovery for the victims and assure that they would feel safe (Deer 2015). In addition, punishments for abusers were extreme, such as banishment (Deer 2004). Having extreme punishments and measures to help victims recover shows that keeping women safe is very important in Native cultures.
The prevalence of sexual assault against Native women has created a need for women to learn self defense. Edwards et al. (2022) conducted a study on the effectiveness of a self defense training program on Native girls from an Indian reservation in the Great Plains region of the United States. The program put an “emphasis on empowering girls to believe that they are worth defending” (Edwards et al. 2022), helping them heal from the harm they have endured and find a voice. This connects to tribal values of bravery and perseverance (Edwards et al. 2022) through hardships. Girls who participated their program showed significant increases in the efficiency to resist sexual assault, as well as increases in self defense knowledge (Edwards et al. 2022). The need for a program to teach women how to keep themselves safe, rather than encouraging healthy masculinity and assault prevention in men, shows that women have to actively work to live lives where they feel safe.
The norm of unsafety for Native women has emerged through colonialism. Throughout the history of the United States, there have been many instances where Europeans have raped Native women and destroyed their reproductive organs (Deer 2004). Not only does this harm a woman physically, but emotionally, as it takes away a unique reproductive power that she possesses. Deer (2015) argues that “rape can be employed as a metaphor for the entire concept of colonialism. The damage to the self and spirit that rapists cause has some of the same features that colonial governments perpetrate against entire nations.” In addition, the same language that is associated with colonization is associated with rape, such as the words “seize,” “conquer,” and “posses” (Deer 2005). Colonialism and rape are both dehumanizing, as they seek to take power away from Native women and objectify them for the benefit of others. 19th Century English rape laws treated women as “subordinate at best,” as they were not focused on the safety of Native women, but on the possession of them (Deer 2015). Since Native women are seen as objects rather than humans, their safety, in the eyes of abusers and those involved in colonialism, is not important.
This norm of unsafety that has been embedded through colonialism has resulted in Native women being skeptical of the federal government and services provided by non-Natives. Du Mont et al. (2017) argues that “Indigenous women experience sexual assault and other forms of abuse disproportionately or differently due to social and historical factors that may impact the ways in which services should be offered and delivered.” Native women are abused at a high rate because norms of harming, devaluing, and objectifying them have been embedded into the country’s society. Native women believe that the federal government doesn’t have their best interest at heart (Deer 2015), as they have traumatic histories of colonial institutions harming them and their people. They are hesitant to report their assaults, as they are afraid racist treatment and fear that reporting could cause retaliation by the perpetrator (Deer 2018).
The refusal of the federal government to give power to tribal governments hurts the ability for Native women to feel safe. Deer (2004) argues that “the crisis of rape in tribal communities is inextricably linked to the way in which the United States developed and sustained a legal system that has usurped the sovereign authority of tribal nations.” By denying sovereign authority to tribal nations, tribal nations don’t have the ability to investigate and prosecute crimes based on Native cultural perspectives and values, including the value of women’s safety. In addition, laws have been established to deprive U.S. tribal governments of power (Deer 2004), including the Major Crimes Act, which gives the federal government responsibility for prosecuting sexual assault cases, and Oliphant v. Suquamish, which gives tribes no jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit crimes on tribal lands (Deer 2004). When talking to tribal police officers, Deer (2015) learned that “rapists walked free on a regular basis” and “taunt[ed] their victims and tribal officials because of legal loopholes.” Although the federal government has taken on the role of prosecuting rape cases, their responses have been weak or non-existent (Deer 2004), showing that keeping Native women safe is not a priority. The federal government doesn’t understand that each tribal community has its own unique needs, and instead, lumps all tribes together into one category (Deer 2015). Not allowing each tribe individual tribe to handle their trials prevents effective solutions from being made and allows sexual assault to remain prevalent.
The revision process of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) shows that the idea of being “safe” can be contradictory. The VAWA is “a comprehensive federal law that approaches violence in a multifaceted way, including funding, programming, and criminal justice system reform,” plus, resources for tribal domestic violence and sexual abuse (Deer 2015). Based on this act, one is likely to conclude that the federal government wants to help Native women feel safe. However, in 2013, when women were trying to amend the VAWA to give tribal governments authority to prosecute non-Indians who commit domestic violence against Native women on tribal lands, Republican congressmen were opposed (Deer 2015), as they felt it was unfair for a jury of Natives to prosecute a white person. They cared more about keeping white abusers safe from arrest than keeping Native women safe from rape. In 2012, Deborah Parker, vice chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes, spoke out about her experience surviving sexual assault, asking Congress, “why did you not protect me or my family? Why is my life and the life of so many other Native American women less important” (Deer 2015)? Native women have come to the sad realization that they will never achieve safety at the expense of a white person’s safety, meaning they will always be in danger.
Although the 2013 revision of the VAWA passed, the amendment “does not extend to cases of rape outside of the context of domestic violence,” meaning that a non-Indian is exempt from tribal jurisdiction if he and the victim don’t have an intimate relationship (Deer 2015). This means that tribes still don’t have jurisdiction over most rape cases. Native women are still constantly in danger and have a long way to go before they can truly feel safe in their communities.
If it weren’t for the violence, harm, and suffering that Native women have received through colonialism, they wouldn’t need to be safe. Since the history of colonization is something that cannot be erased, will Native women ever be truly free from the norms of violence and discrimination against them that have been embedded into colonial society? Is it possible for women to achieve safety, or will it always be denied, as Native safety will never be achieved at the expense of a white person’s safety? I hope that these questions will reshape the way we, as a society, think about the ongoing effects of colonialism on the safety of Native women.
[1] Click through image Georgia O’Keeffe, Drawing no. 13, 1915, charcoal.
Work Cited
Deer, Sarah. The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America. Project MUSE, Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2015, https://muse.jhu.edu/book/42560/pdf.
Edwards, Katie M., et al. “Effectiveness of a Sexual Assault Self-Defense Program for American Indian Girls.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 37, no. 15-16, 2022, pp. NP13245–NP13267, https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260521997942.
Du Mont, Janice, et al. “A Comparison of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Survivors of Sexual Assault and Their Receipt of and Satisfaction with Specialized Health Care Services.” PLOS ONE, vol. 12, no. 11, 16 Nov. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0188253.
Wingate, Kaitlin, et al. “A Review of Occupational Safety and Health Research for American Indians and Alaska Natives.” Journal of Safety Research, vol. 84, 1 Feb. 2023, pp. 204–211, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022437522001736, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2022.10.020.
Deer, Sarah. Expanding the Network of Safety: Tribal Protection Order for Survivors of Sexual Assault. 2004. https://lawschool.unm.edu/tlj/common/docs/volumes/vol-4-deer-sarah-expanding-the-network-of-safety-tribal-protection-order-for-survivors-of-sexual-assault.pdf.
Deer, Sarah. “Sovereignty of the Soul: Exploring the Intersection of Rape Law Reform and Federal Indian Law.” Suffolk University Law Review, Vol. 38, p. 455, 2005, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=987702.