New Legislation on Tribal Rape Cases........

[walksalone11]

"Signed into law July 21, 2010, the Tribal Law and Order Act in part aims to fight the atrocious rate of sexual violence in native communities living on reservations by strengthening the tribal criminal justice system and tightening communication between tribal, local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.  In a long overdue step towards amending the federal government’s ignorance of Native American rights issues, the act highlights another painful burden born by American women of color due to government socio-economic strategy.

In a mess of jurisdiction regulations and legislative loopholes, the federal, state, and tribal law enforcement facilities have struggled for decades with the prosecution of sexual violence offenders in native communities.  The Amnesty International 2007 report Maze of Injustice: the Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA publicized statistics on unprosecuted rape and sexual assault cases on reservations.  US Department of Justice data shows that Native American and Alaska Native women are over 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than the average American woman.  Over 1 out of 3 American Indian and Alaska Native women will be raped during her lifetime, while the national figure for women is less than 1 of 5.

More disturbing is the statistic indicative of the grave abuses that our federal government treaties allow non-native Americans to impose upon Native American and Alaska Native women.  According to the US Department of Justice, in 86% of reported rape or sexual assault cases against Native American and Alaska Native women, the perpetrators are non-native men.  Federal legislation in these treaties prohibiting tribal courts from trying non-native persons gives complete impunity to the majority of sexual violence perpetrators on Indian reservations."

Read more @ http://www.stanford.edu/group/progressive/cgi-bin/?p=945