Armstrong, Jeanette. “Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community,” in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith (eds), The Case Against The Global Economy. San Francisco, CA, Sierra Club Books, 1996. Pp 460-470.

“Sharing One Skin: The Okanagan Community” includes the concept of our four capacities of self as mentioned: the physical self, the emotional self, the thinking-intellectual self, and the spiritual self. These parts of us are connected and tied. They intertwine into one with our family, our community, the animals, and nature. The world and ourselves are connected. If we didn’t have these ties, we’d be nothing but flesh, waiting to die (page 468).

Horse, Perry G. “Native American Identity,” New Directions For Student Services. New York, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.,2005. Pp 61-68.

“Native American Identity” expresses the challenges of being American Indian today. Our culture and traditions are slowly being pushed back as American culture today is being brought forward. We are becoming part of the dominant American culture more than our own. White-privilege continues racism towards other races, including American Indians. Cultural change is occurring as American Indian redefinition is partly driven by white privilege (page 65). American Indians need to continue to strive and push forward to continue teachings and pass on the tribal spirit force.

“Thief.” Maid, season 1, episode 5, NBC, 2021. Netflix, www.netflix.com/.

The Netflix show, Maid, is about a single mother who is raising a child of her own after leaving her abusive relationship. To provide for the child, she gets a job to clean houses and does what she can to provide for her child. In episode 5 of the Netflix show, Alex, the mother, is assigned to clean the childhood house of a thief with another employee. While cleaning the house, Alex becomes triggered by what she sees in the house. The triggers take her back in time to her childhood and what she went through.

Golden, Hallie. “Families of Missing and Murdered Native Women Ask: ‘Where’s the Attention for Ours?’.” The Guardian, 24 September 2021, amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/24/native-american-women-missing-murdered-media.

The article, “Families of Missing and Murdered Native Women Ask: ‘Where’s the Attention for Ours?’," (Hale) recognizes the worldwide conflict of the lack of media coverage on the cases of Indigenous missing and murdered women victims along with the shortage of information known to the public about these cases. Specifically, Wyoming has had about 710 cases of Native American people classified as missing between 2011 and September of this year. Although the Indigenous people sum up to a small quantity of around 3% of Wyoming’s population, 21% of the murder cases in this state were Indigenous homicide victims. Most of the Native Americans victim cases remain open such as 22-year-old Gabby Petito, who had been found in the national park of Wyoming. There has been a small amount of media coverage on Indigenous victim cases, however, articles written on Native cases were more likely to include profane language and a negative portrayal of the victims. This year, in April, the Department of Interior provided a report which gave an estimation that 1,500 Indigenous people, including Alaskan Natives, were on the missing people’s list in the National Crime Information Center instead of the federal government’s list of missing cases. Deb Haaland has put in place a new team which will focus on investigating the current and critical situation for Native Americans. Native American women are more than ten times as likely to be murder victims than the national average yet lack media coverage and in some instances, a missing poster, such as Kiana Klomp who was seventeen when she went missing.

MANTEGANI, JOSEPH. “SLOUCHING TOWARDS AUTONOMY: REENVISIONING TRIBAL JURISDICTION, NATIVE AMERICAN AUTONOMY, AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN INDIAN COUNTRY.” The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), vol. 111, no. 1, [Northwestern University, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law], 2021, pp. 315–50, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48614106.

“Slouching Towards Autonomy: Reenvisioning Tribal Jurisdiction, Native American Autonomy, and Violence Against Women in Indian Country,” (Mantegani) summarizes the contradicting restrictions regarding tribal enforcement when it comes to prosecuting non-Native people of crimes committed. Rates of sexual abuse in Indigenous women exceeds beyond any other races. Due to the restrictions on tribal reservations, tribes are prevented from having the ability to protect the women. Non-Native offenders can’t be held accountable for crimes committed on the reservation and are causing a serious issue of injustice. State or federal law enforcement are in charge of these crimes committed by non-Indigenous people. Joseph Mantegani says, “But when those women live on reservations, their own tribes are restricted in their authority to protect their members. A maze of criminal jurisdiction overlies Indian country, one that depends on the location of the crime, the agreements a particular tribe has with local or federal authorities, the applicable federal jurisdictional statutes, and the offender’s race. Since Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe in 1978, tribes have not had criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit crimes on their reservations. Rather, tribes must rely on state or federal law enforcement to investigate and prosecute any crime committed by non-Indians.”

“Indigenous Women Keep Going Missing in Montana.” YouTube, uploaded by VICE News, 3 December 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib0GDAPeymo.

The video, Indigenous Women Keep Going Missing in Montana, emphasizes on how big the MMIW crisis really is. In Montana, Big Horn County is one of the places with the highest numbers of MMIW cases across the United States. Lack of resources affects the cases in the county, including Selena Not Afraid’s case. At sixteen, Selena went missing with only a small search team organized by the family, including a search dog to look for the teenager. Compared to white women, Native women are around three times more likely to have a sexual violence experience. Desi Rodriguez says, “Why is it that we are more likely to be raped and murdered than go to college?” For women under the age of twenty, homicide is one of the top five causes of death, ranking in fourth place. A 2019 report showed that half of the murdered Native American women cases in Montana were dismissed due to investigation which showed supposedly causes of death such as suicide, overdoes, or exposure. Most girls go missing close to reservations which impacts the cases for these women and girls due to the lack of cell and radio service. Throughout centuries, the Native American data systems were erased, being wiped clean with dirty hands, and cases of other victims would be destroyed. Misclassification of the race of Native women for white, latina, black, or asian creates a conflict in the data collected of the reports on missing people.

Combating discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. OHCHR. (n.d.), www.ohchr.org/en/issues/discrimination/pages/lgbt.aspx. Accessed 16 February 2022.

In the article, “Combating Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity,” the issue of suppressing people based on their differences in sexual orientation and gender identity. Everyone deserves the right to freedom and to be able to express themselves how they want to. People tend to have a provincial outlook when it comes to LGBTQ + people and seem to be in a highly authoritarian state since people were mostly taught at a young age that it should always be a woman and man together and no other way. Since people with different sexual orientations and gender identities than what the norm has taught people, they are more than likely to have a target on their back when it comes to being degraded and abused. Sometimes, the abuse occurs in different settings such as in the work environment, in public, online, and other places. People with these certain differences have lost their jobs, human rights, homes, loved ones, families, and more because of the way they feel and think.

Thompson, V., Ellmann, N., Cokley, R., & Allsbrook, J. F. (2021). Sexual Violence and the Disability Community. The Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org/article/sexual-violence-disability-community. Accessed 16 February 2022.

The article, “Sexual Violence and the Disability Community,” discussed how people with disabilities are commonly targeted because of their impairment(s). No matter if people have a mental or physical disability, this community is still targeted since they seem to be vulnerable and are more likely to experience sexual abuse than those who are nondisabled. Sexual violence can also be responsible for causing more mental disabilities and those with disabilities are more likely to not be believed because of their condition when they voice what happened to them. Their condition plays a big role and causes the community to become more prone to being tricked psychologically and allowing for the continuation of non consensual sexual assault. Disabled people were found to be three times more likely to experience sexual violence than the nondisabled community, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 2009-2014 National Crime Victimization Survey.

Juarez, Nico. “Native Men are Being Raped.” YouTube, uploaded by TEDxTalks, 12 March 2018, www.youtube.com/watch. Accessed 16 February 2022.

In the video, Native Men are Being Raped, Nico Juarez stresses the issue of not only Native American men being sexually assaulted but along with Native American women. Most Native men who have been through sexual abuse are traumatized because their masculinity was ruptured. Naturally, people have the idea of women are always being raped and it’s always men doing the raping. However, it’s common for Indigenous men to be sexually assaulted just as much as it is common for Indigenous women. One in four Native American men will undergo sexual violence at a point in their life. The most common perpetrators of Native American men are women who are non natives. Nine in ten cases involve a non-native perpetrator.