CUSTER -- More than 70 years after her bones were unearthed in a cave near Argyle in the southern Black Hills, a funeral procession of sorts for a young American Indian girl named Hehakawin wound its way from the Forest Supervisor's office in Custer to her final resting place 15 miles west of town on Monday.
WASHINGTON (IPS/GIN) - Native American women are at least 2.5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes as other women in the United States, according to a report released Apr. 25 by Amnesty International.
At least one in three Indigenous women is raped or otherwise subjected to sexual violence during her lifetime, according to the 113-page report, the latest in a series produced by the London-based group’s Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women.
At least 86 percent of reported rapes or other sexual assaults against Indigenous women are committed by non-Indian men who are rarely prosecuted or punished, according to the report, “Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA.”
The failure to pursue justice in such cases is due to a number of factors, the report noted, including chronic under-funding of police and health services, and a “complex maze of tribal, state and federal jurisdictions that is so confusing that it often allows perpetrators to evade justice entirely.”
