Comments on: If you thought getting rapes prosecuted by the state was a difficult process…

By: Man against Rape

Man against Rape — Tue, 01 May 2007 17:11:02 +0000

This rape victim sued Uncle Sam:

http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Allegra/06/ALLEGRA.Elk.pdf

By: pink mohair

pink mohair — Tue, 01 May 2007 03:25:44 +0000

I worked as a physician for a primarily Native American community and the physical sexual abuse against women and children was shocking. More horrendous was how the abuser was often a respected member of society and the tribal police would treat him as such. Ergo, offenders often were not prosecuted or more often, women would not report the offenses against them. There was a lot of “turning the other cheek.”

By: zuzu

zuzu — Tue, 01 May 2007 03:23:10 +0000

So, you would be wrong to say that you should be glad that you don’t live on a reservation. The state or federal government always has jurisdiction over an offense committed against a non-native woman. The real key is that native women on reservations must know the status of the offender in order to determine jurisdiction.

I stand corrected, Dorotha. Good lord, that’s so much worse than I thought.

By: Lara

Lara — Tue, 01 May 2007 02:37:37 +0000

You know, I read people’s comments about how women “sometimes lie” about being raped, and then I look at stuff like this and I think “Are you fucking kidding me?” Women, especially African American and indigenous women, are treated like absolute crap in this country, and yet everyone keeps talking about how much better “We” are than other countries when it comes to women’s status. It makes me sick. I feel so useless, sitting here at my computer. I wish there was some sort of shelter or home I could volunteer at, some way I could help. I wonder if the link posted by Judith above is one small way….

By: Lara

Lara — Tue, 01 May 2007 02:36:15 +0000

By: Dorotha

Dorotha — Tue, 01 May 2007 01:51:46 +0000

Yup. A max of one year and $5000 for any criminal offense. (Basically, tribal courts can only sentence for misdemeanors.)

Of course, that’s assuming that there is a tribal court. Most tribes don’t have the infrastructure for a court system.

The states and the federal government have been in a “no, you take them!” jurisdictional war for quite a while. The result has been devastating on family law, property law, and criminal law. Rape is just one aspect of a much larger problem — the law makes it way too easy for states and the federal government to just forget that natives exist. (Or better yet, to write laws decreeing that they don’t exist.)

And everyone knows that IHS sucks, rape counselors or no. At least they aren’t sterilizing native women involuntarily like they did in the 1970s. (Or are they? hmmmmmmmm?)

By: Bitter Scribe

Bitter Scribe — Tue, 01 May 2007 00:22:07 +0000

Limiting the tribal courts to ONE YEAR for ANY criminal offense?

I think America generally punishes its citizens too harshly, but that’s just beyond ridiculous.

By: Dorotha

Dorotha — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 23:42:48 +0000

Federal Indian Law is extremely complicated when it comes to jurisdiction for criminal offenses. Tribes can only punish Native Americans for crimes committed against other Native Americans, and they can only impose a sentence of 1 year in jail and $5,000 fine for each offense. This is true for rape, assault, and even murder. Tribes tend to punish offenders for lesser crimes and have the sentences run back to back instead of concurrently in order to punish offenders for longer than a year.

So, you would be wrong to say that you should be glad that you don’t live on a reservation. The state or federal government always has jurisdiction over an offense committed against a non-native woman. The real key is that native women on reservations must know the status of the offender in order to determine jurisdiction.

By: Kat

Kat — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:50:36 +0000

Sad.

I lived on a military base, and based on that experience I can definitely see this occuring. On base, I was unable despite diligent effort to get a restraining order against my repeat-offender abusive husband. While a lot of that had to do with the culture of the military, it was further complicated by the fact that the local and state law enforcement had no jurisdiciton, and the federal laws didn’t seem to have specific regulations governing domestic abuse. With no real rules against it, these guys walk. And once they realize that no one will stop their bad behavior, they become empowered. If the woman complains, they are labeled a bitch. The “trained social workers” were incredibly backward about how they handled it (asking me things like… “well what did you do to make him so mad?”).