Author: Marissa Hayes

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Indigenous peoples are more than twice as likely to be victims of violent crime than the rest of the U.S. population (Perry, 2004). The most prominent example today of the overrepresentation of Indigenous violence is the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. In recent years, the term has gained visibility in mainstream media, social media, and academia through the hashtag #MMIW or #MMIWG. According to U.S. Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, Native women are murdered more than 10 times the national average on some reservations (Pember, 2018). Current estimates according to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database are that there are approximately 5,600 missing Indigenous women in the United States (Mallonee, 2021), but the actual number is not known and likely far exceeds that estimate. The number of missing and murdered Indigenous women cannot be accurately addressed because of the major issues of data collection between state, local, tribal, and federal law enforcement agencies. Very few federally recognized tribes even have access to a Department of Justice terminal in which to input missing persons information into NCIC, and many have asked for terminals and training—even offering to pay for it themselves—with no response from the federal government (Pember, 2018).

Indigenous culture before colonization was distinctly matriarchal. Women controlled property and tribal councils (Deer, 2015), women owned houses, animals, and land, and women were responsible for socialization and cultural transmission (Weaver, 2009). Gender roles were generally fluid and egalitarian, and there was no hierarchy of authority within the communities (Gilbert et al., 2021). Settler colonization and the introduction of the patriarchal systems of the newly forming United States broke down those structures, causing Indigenous men to adopt Western ideologies of the subordination of women in communities (Gilbert et al., 2021). This change in attitude became another form of internalized colonization whereby the growing use of violence perpetrated against Indigenous women became “easier to perpetrate, less likely to be reported and less likely to be punished or prosecuted” (Gilbert et al., 2021, p. 450). Although the data is sparse, generalizations can be drawn from a few studies that domestic violence is also overrepresented among Indigenous populations (Jones, 2008; Tjaden & Thoennes, 1998). Among a large, nationwide probability sample (n = 8,000) studying violence against women, Tjaden & Thoeness (1988) found that Indigenous women are the most likely racial group to report physical assault by a family member or intimate partner. A smaller, non-probability sample (n = 329) of Navajo women found that 52% of women surveyed reported being victims of domestic violence at least once in their lifetime (Fairchild et al., 1998).

References

Deer, S. (2015). The beginning and end of rape: Confronting sexual violence in Native America. University of Minnesota Press.

Fairchild, D. G., Fairchild, M. W., & Stoner, S. (1998). Prevalence of adult domestic violence among women seeking routine care in a Native American health care facility. American Journal of Public Health, 88(10), 1515–1517.

Gilbert, S. L., Wright, E. M., & Richards, T. N. (2021). Decolonizing VAWA 2021: A step in the right direction for protecting Native American women. Feminist Criminology, 16(4), 447–460.

Jones, L. (2008). The distinctive characteristics and needs of domestic violence victims in a Native American community. Journal of Family Violence, 23(2), 113–118.

Mallonee, M. (2021). Selective justice: A crisis of missing and murdered Alaska native women. Alaska Law Review, 38(1), 93–120.

Pember, M. (2018). Missing and murdered: No one knows how many Native women have disappeared. Indian Country Today. https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/missing-and-murdered-no-one-knows-how-many-native-women-have-disappeared

Perry, S. W. (2004). American Indians and crime. U.S. Department of Justice. 

Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (1998). Prevalence, incidence, and consequences of violence against women: Findings from the national violence against women survey. National Institute of Justice.

Weaver, H. N. (2009). The colonial context of violence: Reflections on violence in the lives of Native American women. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 24(9), 1552–1563.