Native American Issues in Today's Society

1123 Words3 Pages

What if everyday in America there was not an action someone could take because someone of an opposite race sexually assaulted or domestically abused that person? Often news outlets only focus on major even in cities or towns, but never the reservations. With the lack of awareness of the number of rapes and domestic abuse victims on reservations, at large society is saying America doesn’t care due to reservations having sovereignty. Even with new laws signed into place by President Obama to deal with the rape and abuse problems to Native American women, that come from non Native Americans, the problem with this is it’s a pilot only on three tribes (Culp-Ressler,1).It is said it will expand soon, but how soon? America is not known for being speedy on American Indian issues. The numbers of people abuse and/or rape are not only put out there by non- Native American men, but by Native American men as well. Even with the amount of domestic abuse cases and sexual assault cases reported in the Native American, several never report what has happened to them. The statistics are too high, victims often silenced, and the law to put in place to protect them from others has only been put in place in three tribes because of the fear of the tribes abusing the powers. American Indians get the right to use sovereignty, meaning they deal with any crimes committed against them themselves, but the U.S. government likes to make simple sovereign nations have more complex situations than they should. This only applies to the 550 federally recognized tribes that are out there(amnesty,1). These 550 recognized tribes, though all of them except three lack the capability to prosecute non Native American men, who rape or domestically abuse American Indian wom... ... middle of paper ... ...injustice>. 4) "The Facts on Violence Against American Indian/Alaskan Native Women." n.pag. Futures Without Violence. Web. 11 Mar 2014.. 5) Williams , Timothy. "For Native American Women, Scourge of Rape, Rare Justice." New York Times 22 May 2012, n. pag. Print. . 6) "American Indian/Alaska Native Behavioral Health Briefing Book." . U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d. Web. 11 Mar 2014. . 7) United States. Unite States Cenus . Profile Facts for Features . 2014. Print. .

Open Document