I Am Outraged

Yesterday as I was about to meet Corky for dinner I heard the horrible statistic: 1 out of 3 Native American or Alaskan Native women will be raped in her lifetime. Thse rapes are most often committed by outsiders, not Native men living on the reservations. And they are unbelievably brutal. The report from Amnesty International includes the following:

"Over the past decade, federal government studies have consistently shown that American Indian and Alaska Native women experience much higher levels of sexual violence than other women in the USA. Data gathered by the US Department of Justice indicates that Native American and Alaska Native women are more than 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women in the USA in general. A US Department of Justice study on violence against women concluded that 34.1 per cent of American Indian and Alaska Native women – or more than one in three – will be raped during their lifetime; the comparable figure for the USA as a whole is less than one in five. Shocking though these statistics are, it is widely believed that they do not accurately portray the extent of sexual violence against Native American and Alaska Native women."

The NPR story interviewed women from three regions: Oklahoma, Alaska, South Dakota. The problems are multiplied by the lack of police and FBI attention given to the rapes.

The awful truth is that these women are "dehumanized" by both the rapists and by the system. And the end result is, as one social worker reported, rape has become a part of the despair for these women; it is almost expected.

This radio story followed a day in which I heard story after story about church squabbles over building programs, music, bulletin board placement.

Native women are being raped and brutalized at an astonishing rate and the church is fighting over bulletin boards.

God have mercy upon us.