“In 15-years of conflict in Iraq the US has suffered 4,541 fatalities. In 2016 alone, there were 5,712 reported MMIWG cases in the US. That should provide pause and context. We need to keep pushing on legislation until it is signed into law and ensure that Congress appropriates the funds to implement the legislation.”

 - Tom Rodgers, Vice President – Global Indigenous Council.

 

For more than a decade, the DOJ has estimated that Native women are around 2.5 times more likely to be victims of sexual assault when compared to the general population.
 

One in three Native American women will be raped in their lifetimes.
 

In Canada, Native women are six times more likely to be the victims of homicide.

On the other side of the world, a 2012 Australian Institute of Criminology report found that nationally, First Nation Australian women were also six times more likely to be murdered than non-indigenous women. 

In some areas of Australia, indigenous women are 80 times more likely to be victims of violence.
 

Among the general population of Native women, 67% of rapes suffered by Native women are committed by non-Natives, 80% of sex crimes on reservations are committed by non-Natives, and according to the US Department of Justice, 86% of all reported sex crimes against Native women are perpetrated by non-Natives.

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According to the National Crime Information Center, nearly 6,000 MMIWG cases were cataloged in 2016, a figure widely considered to be low, due to underreporting and inadequate data collection. Savanna’s Act, introduced to the 115th Congress by former Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) and co-sponsored by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), was intended to address some of the jurisdictional paralysis and failings in existing law and its application in respect to Indian Country and specifically the MMIW epidemic. Despite passage in the Senate, the Act was blocked in the House Judiciary Committee by retired Chairman, Representative Bob Goodlatte. In December 2018, Senator Murkowski committed to an alliance of the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council (RMTLC), the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association (GPTCA), and the Global Indigenous Council (GIC) that she would reintroduce Savanna’s Act.

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Please peruse our dedicated section to the MMIW issue starting here.

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