Waking up one morning Rose, an Arapaho member, was sitting at the table with her 14-year-old daughter. Rose told her daughter to "move her hair away from her face," and her daughter refused to do so. Her daughter, Latoya, was holding her hair over her face to hide something (Edwards, 2017, para. 1-7). In 1857 the Dawes Act was signed and urged the government to move the Native Americans to land that was divided into reservations. A reservation is an area of land managed by the Native American Tribe under the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. There are approximately 310 reservations in the United States although there are 550 federally recognized tribes. In the 1850s, white settlers were moving and taking over these Native American lands for farming. The main reasons for these reservations were to keep the Native Americans under government control, try to minimize conflict between white settlers and Native Americans, and encourage Native Americans to take on the ways of white men. Violence against women is one of the highest rated cases in every country of the world. It is also one of the most hidden. Rapes happen in families and even a stranger can do this. Native American women are raped and abused more than three times the national average, reservations are in major need of better-hospital care, rape kits, and more skilled nurses.
The problem of Native American women being abused and even raped in their reservations without police or medical assistance has been an ongoing problem for many years now, and people do not realize that this is happening in their own states. White men are able to come onto these reservations, harm, or rape a woman, and be able to leave without prosecutions against them. Native Americans are even afraid to come forward because they know nothing will be done to help them if they are raped. "The Justice Department of these reservations also known as the Federal Bureau only files charges in only half of the Indian country murder investigations and turns down nearly two-thirds of sexual assault cases, according to new federal data" (Williams, 2012, p. 1). Women are seeing that nothing is being done when their own neighbors are being raped or harmed, and if this does happen to them they lack no one to go to decide and to tell just not anyone. White men are not the only ones who are being accused of these doings, even men in the women's own communities, such as family members, and even husbands.
Reservations are located in many states such as Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, California, and many more. The one state that has Native American reservations and has the most-rape cases is Alaska. The way Alaska is designed there are hardly any roads in or out, and there are practically no telephone services or internet available (De Wind, 2012, para. 6). If a female is raped in Alaska territory it could be difficult to try and escape especially in the winter due to the snow that could be on the ground and freezing temperatures.
A certain case that happened in Wind River, Alaska a young Native American woman was visiting her boyfriend when his friends showed up to the house drunk. They began to beat up her boyfriend, and once he was unconscious they began to rape her, she was able to escape but had to run six miles in the snow, barefoot, because she had no time to put on her shoes, and it was pitch-black outside. She was found in the middle of nowhere by a wildlife ranger, and the reason of her death was she had run for so long, she fell onto the snow from exhaustion and inhaled the cold air making her lungs fill with blood and could no longer breathe. Her family was devastated and wanted answers to who could have done this to their daughter. The mother even considered taking her own life due to the loss of her daughter. The case was difficult to crack due to the hospital staff who did not know how to perform rape kits and wanted to ignore just that she was raped, and base her death off dying of extreme weather conditions (Klassen, 2017, para. 2).
Why should people who are not Native Americans care about this problem? This tragedy does not only affect the women involved but her family, and close relatives also. If a life is taken in the Native American community everyone knows about the case and sends their condolences to the family involved. These communities are like one big family, everyone knows each other and cares about one another. Another issue in the reservations that could also be a reason for these doings is the drug and alcohol abuse that is happening. The unemployment rate is high in these territories, many people have nothing else to do than sit around and consume alcohol all day. People who are drunk have little to no awareness of what they are doing and can become angry quickly. This is how most of these rape cases happen, the men can consume too much alcohol for their own well-being and any little comment can throw them off the edge. The fact that the men know that they can get away with rape does not help the situation. Men are more prone to take advantage of women if they know that nothing can happen to them, and no prosecutions will be charged against them.
What can happen if this problem is not solved? More women and even teenage girls are going to continue being raped. Families are going to have to continue suffering through heartache as their daughters go through this distress. Another consequence that can happen if this problem continues to happen is the women even go through mental abuse such as, Rape Trauma Syndrome. This consists of different aspects that happen to these women daily after rape. Such as having dreams, seeing the situation happening over and over again in their heads. They cannot focus at work and eventually can be fired from their job. If they have kids they can even end up losing them to the Child Protection Services because some do not have the motivation to cook or clean their own house. Not only do children end up in foster homes, but they can possibly stay in there until they are eighteen years old. Most kids in foster homes do not always become adopted, and even some suffer mental and physical abuse daily by either kid's their own age or their own foster parents. Children who are exposed to domestic abuse and sexual violence carry the trauma with them throughout their lives. Even children who are never abused directly, but who witness violence in their household, have problems ranging from PTSD to behavioral problems, from learning disabilities to suicide, from incarceration to teen pregnancy.
An accusation from many people can say that these women and teenage girls can be full of lies, and are just doing this for different reasons. How do people know these women are telling the truth? There are many cases where girls are just saying they have been raped for attention and even money. For example, Bill Cosby's case where many females are accusing him of rape can be females just trying to earn money since he is a millionaire. Native American women really cannot receive anything if they say they've been raped and really haven't because nothing is being done for the women who are raped and do decide to tell the justice system. A recent movement has that started on twitter and has been blasted all over social media, it's called the #MeToo movement. A new stand up for women who have been raped and are coming out to say it, and are telling their story. They simply have to post a status or caption a picture #MeToo that stands for all of the women who have been raped too. Not only does this movement stand for rape, it also stands for sexual harassment and abuse.
What can be done to stop this problem from continuing on? The first change that needs to be made is allowing anyone that has been raped or abused to come out and tell their story that way the government can see just how many girls are raped, and there is a problem happening. A solution that can be presented is the federal government provide more aid to the reservations so they can have more money to give to hospitals and other facilities that will go toward helping solve rape cases. I consider even paid counseling for victims who have been abused or raped because they may not always have someone to talk to about this important topic. Being raped can be a huge embarrassment to these young girls, and having to even sit in front of a jury, and their perpetrator trying to tell their story can take a huge toll on the victim emotionally, and physically. Another factor that can contribute to stopping rape cases in reservations is having better policemen inside the reservation and outside. What also needs to be done is not allowing just anyone to come onto the reservations. Most of these rape cases are non-native Americans who just come onto the reservations and can leave after. A lot of alcohol and drug abuse is happening in these reservations due to these people just being "bored." Maybe adding more amusement and activities to do for the younger teens because that is where the problem starts is with teenagers. They do not have much to do so they become involved with gate drugs and alcohol. How much money is going to be needed for all of this to be accomplished? A lot of money is going to be needed to begin building amusement parks and activity centers, better law force, and hospital care. For example, at least 30 million dollars is needed to begin making these reservations better. The federal government should provide this since they should know what their reservation needs to better themselves.
Rose continued to urge her daughter to move her hair away from her face, and once Latoya did Rose saw what she was hiding all along. Hickeys. They went from her neck almost to up to her face. Latoya informed Rose that a girl who was 6 years older than her forced Latoya to kiss her. Rose wanted to protect her daughter because she had been through the same thing when she was her age many times (Edwards, 2017, para. 1-7). We should care more for our women, as they are the ones who birth children, and are our nurtures. Not many people know about these situations that are happening almost every day in reservations. These women's stories not only affect Native Americans but women all around the world. What can you do to help these women being affected?