Images of three women: J, survivor of sexual violence; Cindy Pennington, chair of the Alaska Native Women's Sexual Assault Committee; Winona Flying Earth, from Bridges Against Domestic Violence J, survivor of sexual violence; Cindy Pennington, chair of the Alaska Native Women's Sexual Assault Committee; Winona Flying Earth, from Bridges Against Domestic Violence (BADV). © A. Nadel.

In 2007, Amnesty International issued a report that included shocking statistics about sexual assault among these communities: Native American women are rape victims 2.5 times more often than other women in the U.S. In fact, more than one-third of Native American women will be victims of rape. And, as Amnesty International director recently wrote in an article regarding the necessity of addressing this issue, “women from the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in the Dakotas told us that they couldn’t think of a single woman who hadn’t been sexually assaulted.”

Cosby terms those facts “chilling” and goes on to castigate the justice system for failing Native American women – and the media for largely ignoring an inexcusable problem.

At least, she says, the Tribal Law and Order Act is a first step – “It shows that the administration is beginning to take these types of rights violations seriously and wants to do something about them.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: Amnesty International, buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Kelly Cosby, Native American news, Native American women, Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, Tribal Law and Order Act