By Lauren Tousignant. Abigail Echo-Hawk, the director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, discovered the documents stashed in a drawer when she began her job in Of women surveyed, 94 percent reported being raped or coerced into having sex and 69 percent reported being harassed on the street. Eighty-six percent also reported historical trauma, which refers to the idea that suffering through oppression and colonization passes down through generations. Additionally, 53 percent were homeless at the time of the survey — which can significantly increase the chance of suffering sexual violence or assault. The survey is considered one of the first reports to look at the experience of Native American women living in cities instead of on reservations. Read Next. This story has been shared , times. This story has been shared 95, times. Learn More.
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Experts say that the survey, conducted by the nonprofit Urban Indian Health Institute and the Division of Violence Prevention at the CDC, reveals a vulnerability among Native women who live in cities that previous federal surveys have missed. The Seattle results follow a national trend: American Indian and Alaska Native women are at higher risk of violence, and sexual violence in particular. The Seattle survey recorded responses from women in Echo-Hawk, who is an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, said that the new data is preliminary, but fills a need for information about Native people living in cities, which could lead to resources from state and federal agencies. Native Americans have survived three centuries of federal policies that diminished indigenous culture and shrunk their numbers, from war with settlers to forced relocations , to programs that sterilized Native American women without their consent. The Urban Indian Health Institute collected the data in but delayed publishing the results until this year. Echo-Hawk said that decision, made by her predecessors, was driven by the stigma associated with victims of sexual violence.
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A report found 94 per cent of Native American women living in Seattle say they have been raped or coerced into sex at least once in their lifetime. The damning new report — from the Urban Indian Health Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — is believed to be one of the first to examine the experience of native women living in an urban environment instead of on reservations. Out of the women surveyed, 94 per cent said they had been raped or forced to have sex and 69 per cent claimed they experienced street harassment. Urban Indian Health Institute Director Abigail Echo-Hawk discovered the results of the survey in in the bottom drawer of a file cabinet in the corner of her office. Nevertheless, she said she thinks it is time the community publicly addresses the high rate of abuse and homelessness. Esther Lucero, CEO of Seattle Indian Health Board — the non-profit organisation which oversees the Urban Indian Health Institute — said the reasons for such high rates of abuse and lack of accountability are multifaceted and complex.
Find Help Now Encontrar Ayuda. Sexual violence against Native women is the result of a number of factors and continues a history of widespread human rights abuses against Indigenous peoples in the U. Historically, Native American women were raped by settlers and soldiers, including during the Trail of Tears and the Long Walk of the Navajo. Such attacks were not random or individual; they were tools of conquest and colonization.
