In 1920, Native Women Sought the Vote. Here’s What They Seek Now.

As the centennial of the 19th Amendment approaches, it is worth taking up Bonnin’s call to remember Native women and their full range of political experiences. With this in mind, Prof. Cathleen D. Cahill, a historian who has written about Native suffragists, joined Prof. Sarah Deer, a scholar of Native law and a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, to talk about issues Native women face today. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Cathleen D. Cahill:

You have spent much of your career addressing the issue of violence against Native women, including in your book, “The Beginning and End of Rape.” Native women have been calling attention to this kind of violence for more than a century. Why are Native women especially vulnerable?

Sarah Deer:

I’m a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma and I have been working to address violence against Native women for over 25 years. I started when I was 20 years old as a volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual assault, and that experience inspired me to go to law school. It was in federal Indian law classes that I began to understand the reasons for the high rate of violence. Quite simply, the criminal legal system in Indian Country is broken. What else could explain these statistics: Over 84 percent of Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime, and over 56 percent of Native women have experienced sexual violence. This is data directly from the federal government — and these are probably low estimates.

To make matters worse, in 1978 the Supreme Court ruled that tribal nations lack authority to prosecute non-Natives — again, for any crime. Many experts believe this is one of the reasons Native people experience the highest rates of interracial violence in the nation. A system that doesn’t hold people accountable sends two message — to victims, it says “don’t bother to report” — and to perpetrators, it says “keep victimizing people.”