Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 6 sepTember 2018
#NotInvisible: Why are Native American women vanishing?

By SHARON COHEN tually return.
Associated Press U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp
VALIER, Mont. (AP) — is trying to address these
The searchers rummage problems with "Savanna's
through the abandoned Act," named after Savanna
trailer, flipping over a bat- LaFontaine-Greywind, 22,
tered couch, unfurling a who was murdered in North
stained sheet, looking for Dakota in 2017 while eight
clues. It's blistering hot and months pregnant. Neigh-
a grizzly bear lurking in the bors cut her baby girl from
brush unleashes a menac- her womb. The child sur-
ing growl. But they can't vived. A woman pleaded
stop. guilty, and her boyfriend
Not when a loved one is still awaits trial.
missing. The bill proposed by Heit-
Ashley HeavyRunner Lor- kamp, a North Dakota
ing, a 20-year-old member Democrat, aims to improve
of the Blackfeet Nation, tribal access to federal
was last heard from around crime information data-
June 8, 2017. Since then her bases. It would also require
older sister, Kimberly, has the Department of Justice
been looking for her. to develop a protocol to
"I need to do this," says respond to cases of miss-
24-year-old Kimberly. "I Randy Ortiz wears a shirt with the names of missing and murdered indigenous women as he ing and murdered Native
don't want to search until searches for Ashley HeavyRunner Loring in the mountains of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Americans.
I'm 80. But if I have to, I will." Babb, Mont., Thursday July 12, 2018. Lawmakers in a few states
Ashley's disappearance is Associated Press also are responding with
one small chapter in the un- measures that aim to get a
settling story of missing and violence and domestic no one has ever been ar- but if a crime is suspected, better handle on the mag-
murdered Native Ameri- abuse. rested. it's difficult to know how to nitude of the problem. A
can women and girls. No For many, the issue is deep- There are many similar mys- get help. 2016 federal stud y found
one knows precisely how ly personal. teries. Sometimes, there's a Sarah Deer, a University of more than 80 percent of
many there are because "I can't think of a single quick resolution. But often, Kansas professor, author of Native women experience
some cases go unreported, person that I know ... who there's frustration with tribal a book on sexual violence violence in their lives.
others aren't documented doesn't have some sort police and federal authori- in Indian Country and For the Blackfeet Nation,
thoroughly and there isn't a of experience," says Ivan ties, and a feeling many member of the Muscogee which has seen cases of do-
specific government data- MacDonald, a member cases aren't handled ur- (Creek) Nation, says Native mestic abuse and murder,
base tracking these cases. of the Blackfeet Nation. gently or thoroughly. women have long been Ashley's disappearance is
But one U.S. senator with "These women aren't just "It boils down to racism," considered disposable and just the latest trauma.
victims in her home state statistics. These are grand- MacDonald argues. "You that's "made us more of a Posters of her are scattered
calls this an epidemic, a ma, these are mom. This is could sort of tie it into pov- target, particularly for the around town, showing a
long-standing problem an aunt, this is a daughter." erty or drug use or some women who have addic- fresh-faced woman flash-
linked to inadequate re- MacDonald and his sister, of those factors ... (but) tion issues, PTSD and other ing the peace sign.
sources, outright indiffer- Ivy, recently produced a the federal government kinds of maladies." Kimberly remembers her sis-
ence and a confusing juris- documentary on Native doesn't really give a crap That attitude permeates ter as funny and feisty, the
dictional maze. American women and at the end of the day." reservations where trib- keeper of the family photo
Now, in the era of #MeToo, girls in Montana who've Tribal police and investi- al police are frequently albums who always carried
this issue is gaining political vanished or been killed. gators from the federal stretched thin and lack a camera. She learned to
traction as an expanding Among them: their 7-year- Bureau of Indian Affairs training and families com- ride a horse before a bike
activist movement focuses old cousin, Monica, who serve as law enforcement plain officers can be slow and liked to whip up giant
on Native women, a popu- disappeared from school in on reservations, which are to respond, telling them breakfasts of biscuits and
lation with some of the na- 1979. Her body was found sovereign nations. But the their loved ones will even- gravy.q
tion's highest rates of sexual frozen on a mountain, and FBI investigates certain of-
fenses and, if there's ample
evidence, the U.S. Depart-
ment of Justice prosecutes
major felonies such as mur-
der, kidnapping and rape if
they occur on tribal lands.
Former North Dakota fed-
eral prosecutor Tim Purdon
calls it a "jurisdictional thick-
et" of overlapping authority
and different laws depend-
ing on the crime, where it
happened (on a reserva-
tion or not) and whether a
tribal member is the victim Roxanne White, whose aunt was murdered in 1996, sings and
A woman performs a traditional Native American dance during or perpetrator. Missing per- drums a women's warrior and honor song created for missing
the North American Indian Days celebration on the Blackfeet son cases on reservations and murdered indigenous women, before joining a search in
Indian Reservation in Browning, Mont., Friday, July 13, 2018. can be especially tricky. Valier, Mont.
Associated Press Some people run away, Associated Press