Native American women are two to three times more likely than others to experience violence, stalking or sexual assault
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), a member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and her Senate colleagues wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to address the high rate of cases involving violence against women on Tribal land that the Department declines to prosecute. In their letter, the Senators press DOJ for more information on their rationale not to prosecute these cases, and they call for improved coordination between the DOJ and the Bureau of Indian Affair’s Murdered and Missing Indigenous Unit.
“According to the Justice Department’s own findings, Native American women are two to three times more likely than women of any other race to experience violence, stalking or sexual assault. Yet, the Department declines to prosecute of half of these cases,” wrote the Senators. “This in turn contributes to a culture whereby offenders feel emboldened because there is no one to hold them accountable. And families of victims often feel as though law enforcement is not providing regular updates on their cases.”
The Not Invisible Act Commission, which was created through legislation Cortez Masto passed into law, has released a report calling for action to address the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) and improve safety in Indian Country through prevention, coordination, justice, victim support and law enforcement.
Full text of the letter is available HERE.
In addition to Senator Cortez Masto, the letter was signed by Senators Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai’i), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.)
Senator Cortez Masto has been a strong advocate on behalf of Tribes in Nevada and across the country. She passed the bipartisan Not Invisible Act and Savanna’s Act, which were signed into law to protect Native women and girls, and has repeatedly advocated for additional federal funding to help Tribal communities combat violence. She is also leading bipartisan legislation to make it easier for the Indian Health Services (IHS) to recruit and retain physicians, which would help improve our health care workforce’s response to the rise of fentanyl addictions across the country, and she is pushing bipartisan legislation to help recruit and retain Tribal police officers.
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