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   On Friday, December 14, 2012 7:41:04 AM UTC-10, chatnoir wrote:   
   > headline:   
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   > Deborah Parker, Vice Chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes, speaks on April   
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   > 25, 2012. Courtesy: YouTube   
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   > My question for Congress was and has always been: why did you not   
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   > protect me, or my family? Why is my life, and the life of so many   
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   > other Native American women, less important?”   
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   >       —Deborah Parker, vice chairwoman, Tulalip Tribes, April   
   25,   
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   > 2012.   
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   > On April 24, Deborah Parker, vice chairwoman of the Tulalip Tribes in   
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   > Washington State, visited Congress regarding an environmental   
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   > protection matter. She stopped by Senator Patty Murray’s office and   
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   > asked how the Senate reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act   
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   > (VAWA) was proceeding. Staff members informed her that despite the   
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   > efforts of Senator Murray and others, provisions to protect Native   
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   > American women would not be included in the bill.   
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   > Parker was devastated. She had been abused as a child and has also   
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   > witnessed rape and abuse many times on the reservation. Each time the   
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   > “non-Indian” perpetrator wasn’t prosecuted because tribal authorities   
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   > have jurisdiction only over Native Americans, and state and federal   
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   > authorities were unresponsive. This is a crisis not only for the   
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   > Tulalip Tribes, but also on reservations across the country, where non-   
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   > Indians are permitted to commit violence against Native women with   
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   > impunity.   
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   > “I don’t feel people understand,” Parker tells me. “On the   
   reservation   
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   > there is such a feeling of despair—it’s not a matter of is it going to   
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   > happen, it’s when is it going to happen? Perpetrators even mock Indian   
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   > women because they know they will not get prosecuted.”   
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   > The statistics are indeed horrific: one in three Native women will be   
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   > raped in their lifetimes; two in five are victims of domestic   
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   > violence; three out of five will be physically assaulted. Native women   
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   > are 2.5 times more likely to be assaulted—and more than twice as   
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   > likely to be stalked—than other women in the United States. On some   
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   > reservations, the murder rate of Native women is ten times the   
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   > national average. According to the Indian Law Resource Center, 88   
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   > percent of these crimes are committed by non-Indians—the majority of   
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   > the population residing on reservations is now non-Indian—and US   
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   > attorneys are declining to prosecute 67 percent of sexual abuse   
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   > matters referred to them.   
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   > As a result, the Department of Justice under the Obama administration   
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   > proposed that VAWA reauthorization allow tribal courts to prosecute   
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   > cases of domestic and dating violence, and violations of restraining   
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   > orders, where a non-Indian has a clear relationship with a tribal   
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   > member. It is a limited reform—it doesn’t address stranger-on-stranger   
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   > violence, rape or sexual assault, for example. Still, it’s an   
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   > important advance in addressing a situation which Parker describes as   
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   > allowing non-Indians to “come on the reservation and commit heinous   
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   > crimes and walk off and little to nothing occurs.”   
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   > After receiving the news from Murray’s staff, Parker attended her next   
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   > meeting on the Hill. But she didn’t finish it. She returned to   
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   > Murray’s office and asked to see the Senator.   
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   > Murray left the Senate floor within ten minutes and met alone with   
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   > Parker, whom she has known through many years of working together on   
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   > tribal issues. The moment Murray saw Parker she said, “You’re   
   it”—that   
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   > Parker was the person they needed to be a spokesperson on this issue.   
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   > Murray told her that she would hold a press conference the next day,   
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   > and that Parker should just “tell the story that’s most important to   
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   > you—I want people to understand how this is affecting tribes.”   
      
   It is an extreemly sad thing to see this importaint topic not discussed here   
   on Alt Native! Our issus need to be focused on and highly discussed. How are   
   thigs going to change if no one stands up and talks about it. We remain silent   
   in our suffering    
   nothing changes. That IS what is expected! we know the facts, we live the   
   statistics and all too few stand up and demand change. Please share this   
   artical repost it in your trabal paper. please speak up   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)