Native American communities have faced centuries of suffering from the time of European arrival in the United States all the way into today’s society. In Melinda Janko’s article, she describes the legal battle that Eloise Cobell fought with the US government regarding the injustices they inflicted upon Native Americans. This dispute brought to light the idea of racial injustices against Native Americans. Furthermore, in Jacob Lawrence's artwork Confrontation on the Bridge, the image demonstrates a moment just prior to a violent, racially motivated attack by white law enforcement. These ideas of racial injustice and racial violence are still seen today in the indigenous community. Violence rates against Native Americans, especially women, are …show more content…
In November 2014, a panel of Indian-county experts proposed to Attorney General Eric. H. Holder Jr. that “tribes be allowed to criminally prosecute non-Indians who sexually or physically abuse Native American children on tribal land” (Horwitz, 2014, p. 1). The gathering of the panel reflected that not one, but many Native Americans feel this restriction placed by the federal government was unfair. In addition to these federal restrictions, certain statistics suggest that violent crimes against Native American women are not considered as important to the federal government. In 2016, 5712 Indigenous women were reported missing while only 116 of those were logged into the U.S. Department of Justice’s missing persons database (Serchen et al., 2022, p. 12). Given that 5,596 missing women were not even logged into the missing database, this demonstrates the low priority that Native American cases fall under. Another example of federal neglect is that the funding for reservations by the US is in the discretionary portion of the federal budget. And, although the Interior Department funds tribal court systems, it is not nearly enough to match the spending levels of the rest of the country (Horwitz, 2014, p. …show more content…
One way to provide aid to Native American women is through different techniques of community intervention. The American Indian Holocaust exhibit, as described by Renya Ramierz (2004), is a prime example. Built with the purpose of healing Native women from the effects of colonialism, the art defies the silencing of violence against Native American women by confronting their colonial roots. The main take away from this exhibit is that healing is driven by learning about Indigenous women’s history and experience. Realizing that their colonial roots and intergenerational trauma is a cause of their feelings of unworthiness, Native American women might start to learn they are worthy of love and need to speak up against their perpetrators. Other community interventions include some tribal communities which have “reframed” certain programs by offering parenting classes in communities with high rates of domestic violence (Bubar & Thurman, 2004, p. 80). By implementing these community interventions, many people can become better informed on how to handle their trauma in appropriate
There is much literature about African American and Hispanic offenders and the punishment of males in the criminal justice system; however, there is not much literature on either Native Americans or women offenders in the criminal justice system. Luana Ross attempts to break this trend with her research in Inventing the Savage: The Social Construct of Native American Criminality. In her book, Ross first gives a comprehensive history and perspective on the perception of Native Americans by what she describes as “Euro-Americans.” In the second part of her book, Ross gives us a glimpse on the conditions and treatment of women prisoners (particularly Native American women) in a Montana women’s correctional facility (labeled the WCC by the author).
Lives for Native Americans on reservations have never quite been easy. There are many struggles that most outsiders are completely oblivious about. In her book The Roundhouse, Louise Erdrich brings those problems to light. She gives her readers a feel of what it is like to be Native American by illustrating the struggles through the life of Joe, a 13-year-old Native American boy living on a North Dakota reservation. This book explores an avenue of advocacy against social injustices. The most observable plight Joe suffers is figuring out how to deal with the injustice acted against his mother, which has caused strife within his entire family and within himself.
In the text “Seeing Red: American Indian Women Speaking about their Religious and Cultural Perspectives” by Inés Talamantez, the author discusses the role of ceremonies and ancestral spirituality in various Native American cultures, and elaborates on the injustices native women face because of their oppressors.
The depiction of Native Americans to the current day youth in the United States is a colorful fantasy used to cover up an unwarranted past. Native people are dressed from head to toe in feathers and paint while dancing around fires. They attempt to make good relations with European settlers but were then taken advantage of their “hippie” ways. However, this dramatized view is particularly portrayed through media and mainstream culture. It is also the one perspective every person remembers because they grew up being taught these views. Yet, Colin Calloway the author of First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History, wishes to bring forth contradicting ideas. He doesn’t wish to disprove history; he only wishes to rewrite it.
Continuing on, a prime example of this overrepresentation is at Toronto South Detention Centre, where Indigenous people are incarcerated about ten times more than those who are non-Indigenous (Chan et al., 2017, para. 2). The adage of the adage. The overrepresentation of Indigenous people has existed for years and serves as a prime model of how Canadian criminal law and how the application of incarceration is negatively impacting Indigenous peoples. Similarly, relating to federal institutions and sentencing, Indigenous cases that involve wrongful convictions are often neglected compared to others (Roach, 2015, para. 5.
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
Supreme Court Justice John Roberts once said, “It’s a sordid business this divvying us up by race.” (Will “Blood”). In 1978 an act was passed in congress to preserve Indian tribal populations; it allowed tribes to terminate adoptions and place Indian children in Indian homes. The Indian Child Welfare Act has many positive impacts, including the promotion of strong Native-American identity, but there are also drawbacks, such as the lack of concern for the children’s safety and how they’re used as pawns to keep the tribes intact, no matter what the cost is for the kids.
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
The systematic racism and discrimination in America has long lasting effects that began back when Europeans first stepped foot on American soil is still visible today but only not written into the law. This racism has lead to very specific consequences on the Native people in today’s modern world, and while the racism is maybe not as obvious it is still very present. These modern Native peoples fight against the feeling of community as a Native person, and feeling entirely alone and not a part of it. The poem “The Reservation” by Susan Cloud and “The Real Indian Leans Against” by Chrystos examine the different effects and different settings of how their cultures survived but also how so much was lost for them within their own identity.
The United States Government was founded on the basis that it would protect the rights and liberties of every American citizen. The Equal Protection Clause, a part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, provides that “no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws”. Yet for hundreds of years, the US government and society have distressed the Native American people through broken treaties, removal policies, and attempts of assimilation. From the Trail of Tears in the 1830s to the Termination Policy in 1953, the continued oppression of American Indian communities produced an atmosphere of heightened tension and gave the native peoples a reason to fight back. In 1968, Clyde Bellecourt, Dennis Banks, and Russell Means founded the American Indian Movement to address issues concerning the Native American community and tackle the situation and position of Native Americans in society. Over the next few decades, the movement led to a series of radical protests, which were designed to raise awareness to the American Indians’ issues and to pressure the federal government to act on their behalf. After all of the unfair and unjust policies enacted by the U.S. government and society, all of the American Indian Movement’s actions can be justified as legitimate reactions to the United States’ democratic society that had promised to respect and protect their people and had failed to do so.
Today, Native American women continue to be victimized and remain vulnerable targets within, their communities, reservations, tribal law enforcement agencies, and federal law enforcement agencies. In order to restore peace and justice for Native women we first need to have critical and substantive discussion regarding all aspects of sexual assault on r...
In this documentary, I was first surprised by the statistic that less than 9% of the population of South Dakota are Native American but they make up 40% of all sexual assault cases. I think the fact that I was shocked by this statistic is because the topic is not discussed regularly between people outside the reservation, in the media. In today’s world, many people have the opinion that if it doesn’t affect them, than it doesn’t matter. I think because the reservations are more independent, non-Natives are ignorant and unaware of the high levels of crime and violence.
Should individuals be encouraged to exhibit moral courage and intelligent disobedience as a means of challenging authority for the betterment of society? In a world where conformity often seems like the norm, should people be encouraged to step up against injustice, even if it means opposing the prevailing norms? In Jacob Lawrence’s magnificent art piece titled “Confrontation at the Bridge”, he vividly portrays the clash between civil rights marchers and law enforcement, showcasing the tensions that arise when individuals confront established norms and power structures. Lawrence’s masterpiece explores the concept of moral courage and intelligent disobedience, and how they serve as tools to challenge unjust authority and norms. Looking into
Intergenerational trauma is defined as “the apparent transmission of trauma between generations of a family”. Many different cultures and races have experienced, or are still experiencing, intergenerational trauma. Native Americans are among these minority groups, who have faced unspeakable and unthinkable negative events that are still affecting people in their community today. A film by Don Coyhis and Marlin Farley called “The Wellbriety Journey to Forgiveness”, this powerful film does an amazing job explaining this inter-generational trauma and how it has and still is affecting many today. The main component of this inter-generational trauma is the genocide of Native Americans that lasted centuries.
The National Collaborating Center for Indigenous Health (NCCIH) (2005-2024). Charlotte Reading’s fact sheets illustrate how racism against Indigenous groups is embedded within Canadian institutions and policies, therefore leading to social exclusion and disparities in the health, justice, and social services for Indigenous people. The impact of racism on Indigenous women. Terese Marie Mailhot highlights the rising vulnerability of indigenous women to violence and lack of justice in certain crime cases. For example, the Joey English and Barbara Kentner case about First Nations women in Canada being four times more likely to go missing or be murdered than any other group of women, making indigenous women the “minority” of the population.