In January, Investigative Fund reporter Kathy Dobie wrote a shocking and sobering piece for Harper’s magazine (newly available here in its entirety) about the invisible war on women that is raging in Indian country. In the course of her investigation, she found women who had been raped as children, raped multiple times, gang raped, and then violated again by the refusal of law enforcement to convict the attackers.
This week, The Crime Report, a news service covering ciminal justice, published this follow-up story on violence against women on Indian reservations.
“Everybody seems to be on the same page when fighting the war on drugs, but nobody seems to be on the same page in fighting the war (that is being waged) on women and children,” says O’Brien, now a major in the detective division of the Commanche Nation force.
Experts contacted by The Crime Report suggest she’s right. Interviews with government officials, police, attorneys and others familiar with the problem say violence against native women has grown to epidemic proportions.
Read the full story here. Click here to read Dobie’s piece, “Tiny Little Laws.”