One in three Native American women will be raped in her lifetime. :-(

[Catherine Vincent]

And our government doesn't care. Apparently word is out that you can rape a native woman and get away with it as long as you do it on native land.

NPR has been reporting for two days straight on these assaults that has been happening the last few years. These criminals are getting away with it. The government has set it up that law enforcement on native land can only prosecute native Americans. If they have a non-native in custody, they have to turn them over to federal agents. That is where nothing gets done. No charges are likely filed.

See here for more info on this tragedy:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12260610

All Things Considered, July 26, 2007

"Many of the criminals know Indian lands are almost a lawless community, where they can do whatever they want," O'Neal said.

· At 14, Bonnie, a Cherokee Indian, needed a ride home. She grew up near the small city of Talequah, on the eastern side of Oklahoma. A woman she knew from town offered her a ride, instructing Bonnie to wait at her house. The woman's husband was home, drinking with four of his friends. "I was in the other room, and they came in and threw me on the bed," Bonnie said. "And they all held me down." Bonnie never reported the rape. She says she had been told many times by her mother and other relatives that nobody was going to take a case involving an Indian girl getting raped. "I just didn't figure anyone would believe me — a child against five white men," Bonnie said.

Another story of an assault from yesterday was of a woman that was at a party and four guys were threatening to beat her up. She called her friend to tell her and her husband to come and get her. She was crying, then she hung up. The next day they found her in a hospital raped and beaten up real bad. She told her friend that was in the room to turn the lights on (the lights were on). She explained that all four raped her in a bathroom and left her there. She said she took some diabetic pills so she could pass out and maybe they would leave her alone. They didn't. They came back and beat and raped her again. The next day someone found her and called an ambulance. Btw, a few days later...the woman died.

Why is our government allowing this to happen? Is this racism? If these assaults were happening to white women by non white men, I doubt the government turn a blind eye to it.

[Maat]

1. Wow! This is tragic!

We have to figure out a way to take care of this! I'll get in touch with the local Native American progressive caucus, and see if I can help!

[BlooInBloo]

2. Heard that on NPR yesterday. Fucking disgusting.

[originalpckelly]

3. OMG! That's horrible.

That poor dear, I just cannot believe the other assholes in this world who purport to call themselves "men". What fucking bastards to go after someone only 14!

[AnExtremist]

4. Absolutely horrible

That's racist and sexist. It's terrible what goes on with the Native Americans in this country, which has happened since the birth of the nation. You'd think we could do more for the original settlers here when everyone talks about illegal immigration so much in this country, eh?

[brentspeak]

5. Part of the problem is that tribal police have traditionally claimed sole jurisdiction

of reservation criminal matters. As a result, and for other reasons, relations between tribal police and federal law officials have always been frosty. Neither side trusts the other. The feds will say, 'Oh, now you want our help -- after kicking us out of certain investigations in the past', while the tribal police will make similar accustions about the feds.

[Catherine Vincent]

6. Yeah and unfortunately the native American women are paying the price.

There was another assault told by a guy. He said his sister was raped as she was walking home by some guy driving by. He raped her in the back of his car and then threw her in the ditch and drove off.

[Solly Mack]

7. excerpt

"A 2003 report from the Justice Department found that U.S. attorneys take fewer cases from the BIA than from almost any other federal law-enforcement agency — a bitter reality for women on the reservations. "

[Wetzelbill]

8. I was witness to one on my reservation

at a party some guys trained a drunk girl, when she decided to press charges an FBI agent came to my house and everything. I said I would be glad to cooperate. These were people I knew for a long time, some were friends, but, you know, I am not down with that shit. I would have testified in an instant, however, her problem was she could not stop her social life. She would go out and party with some of those same people, even though she sought to press charges on them, so in the end her case was dropped.

These things happen more frequently than we like to admit. Maybe not your classic textbook case of rape where a woman is physically attack and forced to have sex in that manner, but young women who are under the influence of alcohol run the risk of being raped every time they go out. I have literally had to protect heavily intoxicated girls from being cornered and taken off alone by several guys. Training young women is almost a commonly accepted practice, I would say most guys on a reservation have been involved in something similar or at least been at a party when it has been done.

I am not sure if it's just one type of problem that leads to all of this. Typically law enforcement on Indian reservations isn't that good. The locals are usually inept, and often the Feds assign their newest agents to reservations, or when an Agent is a bit of a screw up they get banished to some podunk area that includes a reservation. It's not just rapes that are a problem. Murders are a big problem too. The fact is if you want to rape or kill somebody and get away with it, do it on an Indian reservation. That's your best shot. There are plenty of factors for sure.

[JudyM]

13. "Training" means raping or something more specific? nt

[mtnester]

14. Umm...taking turns

pulling a train

Used frequently in the 70's as slang for something not at all nice.

[Catherine Vincent]

17. Just because a woman is drunk doesn't give men the right to rape.

I wish you had told those men how would they like it if they were drunk and a gang of men rape them just because they can? Or ask them how would they like it if that were their mother, sister or aunt?

[Hydra]

9. Sick as that is

I seem to recall that it the likely number of women raped all over the US, before age 18. Scary, eh?

Digging up numbers and details on these sort of thing(my passion is child kidnapping- the crime that "doesn't exist") is like dredging through a cesspool. You find out things you NEVER wanted to know, and you start wondering how "civilized" we really are.

Pfff. Once you dig though that pile of s***, NOTHING seems tinfoil anymore.

[donsu]

15. isn't it 1 in every 5 american women have been raped?

sometimes in a group of women I will wonder which ones of us have been raped.

or I see a group of women politicians, I wonder which one(s) of them have been raped.

or I see a woman's sport team, and wonder which one(s) of them have been raped.

the penis can be a weapon of mass destruction.

[porphyrian]

10. That's fucked up. - n/t

[chknltl]

11. I do not have the answers

But yes, I can say I feel this is a form of racism. One perpetrated by our culture on the "race" of females. I'll thank a fellow DUer for opening this man's eyes to this. I mourn for the innocent lass who died, I feel pain for the child who was held down by four men and raped. I desperately want to see the victimizers pay, SEVERELY!!! I just do not have any answers. I can not believe that mankind will continue on into a future where women and children are targets of assholes like this. Perhaps our culture will change, I have my optimistic moments but after reading this, I am not having one of those moments right now. Recommended :cry: :cry:

[Hydra]

19. 2 Thoughts on that

1. ENFORCE THE F***ING LAWS!
2. Figure out if we value women and children as a society. The answer will be telling...

[Ghost in the Machine]

12. Rapists should be castrated... with dull, rusty pruning shears... n/t

[donsu]

16. or pinking shears

nt

[knitter4democracy]

18. *shudder* Those are some of my former students.

I had the opportunity to teach for a month on the Navajo Nation Reservation in college as part of a multicultural class, and it makes me ill to think that my students are at that kind of risk and that some of the boys I taught are rapists. :( How awful. They were such great kids, too. I remember most of them as polite and kind and just wonderful. I don't want to think of them as victims of rape. :cry:

[mzmolly]

20. One if four women is raped if you include date rape stats.

However, this is horrible. It's difficult enough to seek justice for these women, let alone if no one will even be charged.

Rape should be a federal offense.

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/publications/infores/tribal/tribalbult.htm

[ThomCat]

21. It's not much better if it's your daughter/sister/wife who is raped either.

You don't have to be Native American to face this kind of abandonment by the legal system. Rape is one of the least reported, leasted prosecuted, and least believed crimes. Women are left to deal with this alone and in silence every day.
:(

[Catherine Vincent]

22. That is true. :(

:kick: