oops there it is
(*** trigger warning in this post for discussion of rape! nothing graphic but it is a main topic)
Reading the novel The Round House by Louise Erdrich has really made me consider even more how absolutely messed up this country is. I feel like every day in this class I read something new and then I'm like damn, what a great place to live :)
The basis of this novel is that the main character is a 13 year old Native American boy who lives on a reservation in North Dakota with his mom and dad. Fresh in the beginning, he and his dad discovered that the mom has been raped. The whole story so far has been playing out the timeline and the conflicting elements that naturally come with it, like finding the perpetrator and balancing the all the other things that come with being a Native American teenage boy, as noted somewhere in the slew of scribbles that is my attached note page.
Something that I found really interesting and is also what further increased my suspicion of the history of this grand country is the whole confusing mess of legal jurisdiction authority involving crimes taken place on a reservation or otherwise concerning indigenous peoples. Joe, the main character/narrator, notes that three different law enforcement officers came to the hospital to talk to his father: "There was a state trooper, an officer local to the town of Hoodpance, and Vince Madwesin, from the tribal police. My father insisted that they each take a statement from my mother because it wasn't clear where the crime was committed-- on state or tribal land-- or who had committed it-- an Indian or non-Indian." (Erdrich 8).
It is important to note that this story is realistic fiction, written by a native american woman. It holds so much legitimacy to it, despite being a novel. I decided to research some stuff about jurisdiction on reservations this morning in preparation to write this post. Truthfully, I only read two websites from the first page of Google. The first one was from the Tribal Law and Policy Institute, where I very much skimmed through a lot of confusing legal jargon to read a couple graphics that still confused me, but from what I understood-- it is a MESS.
For example, a crime committed on a reservation with a non-Indian perp and an Indian victim, major or general, holds federal jurisdiction under the General Crimes Act, BUT, may take tribal jurisdiction if the tribe "opts in" to the Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction-- which was only implemented in 2013.
The second and simpler article I read was from The Atlantic, where I learned that reportedly, the U.S. Justice Department did not prosecute 65%-- SIXTY FIVE !! OVER HALF !!!-- of rape cases on reservations, and in 86% of the cases, the rapist is non-Indian. Oh, and also, one in three Native women are raped in their lifetime. The author of this article notes that because of the mass of legal hoops to jump through just to make an ARREST on a reservation, let alone prosecute someone of a crime, many criminals do whatever they do because they know they can get away with it.
Here's a real actual quote in the article from someone living on an N.D. reservation with an extremely high crime rate: "you can do anything short of killing somebody."????????????????????????????????
For emphasis, in April 2012, the Senate added something new to the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, allowing tribal courts to prosecute non-Indians who have sexually assaulted members of a tribe. BUT, the bill died because Republican House members believed it would be "a dangerous expansion of tribal independence."
This, I believe, is systematic oppression. The american legal system is built to inhibit Native American peoples from expanding their personal rights and freedom. This is not just some outdated racist policy that people forget about because "it's just not like that anymore", yet it is LITERALLY the history of the United States of America. We are literally all sitting here peacefully at home today because our country was founded on enslavement and genocide. It is an active system, and no one is hearing these stories.
Once again, ???????????????????????????????????
Reading the novel The Round House by Louise Erdrich has really made me consider even more how absolutely messed up this country is. I feel like every day in this class I read something new and then I'm like damn, what a great place to live :)
The basis of this novel is that the main character is a 13 year old Native American boy who lives on a reservation in North Dakota with his mom and dad. Fresh in the beginning, he and his dad discovered that the mom has been raped. The whole story so far has been playing out the timeline and the conflicting elements that naturally come with it, like finding the perpetrator and balancing the all the other things that come with being a Native American teenage boy, as noted somewhere in the slew of scribbles that is my attached note page.
Something that I found really interesting and is also what further increased my suspicion of the history of this grand country is the whole confusing mess of legal jurisdiction authority involving crimes taken place on a reservation or otherwise concerning indigenous peoples. Joe, the main character/narrator, notes that three different law enforcement officers came to the hospital to talk to his father: "There was a state trooper, an officer local to the town of Hoodpance, and Vince Madwesin, from the tribal police. My father insisted that they each take a statement from my mother because it wasn't clear where the crime was committed-- on state or tribal land-- or who had committed it-- an Indian or non-Indian." (Erdrich 8).
It is important to note that this story is realistic fiction, written by a native american woman. It holds so much legitimacy to it, despite being a novel. I decided to research some stuff about jurisdiction on reservations this morning in preparation to write this post. Truthfully, I only read two websites from the first page of Google. The first one was from the Tribal Law and Policy Institute, where I very much skimmed through a lot of confusing legal jargon to read a couple graphics that still confused me, but from what I understood-- it is a MESS.
For example, a crime committed on a reservation with a non-Indian perp and an Indian victim, major or general, holds federal jurisdiction under the General Crimes Act, BUT, may take tribal jurisdiction if the tribe "opts in" to the Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction-- which was only implemented in 2013.
The second and simpler article I read was from The Atlantic, where I learned that reportedly, the U.S. Justice Department did not prosecute 65%-- SIXTY FIVE !! OVER HALF !!!-- of rape cases on reservations, and in 86% of the cases, the rapist is non-Indian. Oh, and also, one in three Native women are raped in their lifetime. The author of this article notes that because of the mass of legal hoops to jump through just to make an ARREST on a reservation, let alone prosecute someone of a crime, many criminals do whatever they do because they know they can get away with it.
Here's a real actual quote in the article from someone living on an N.D. reservation with an extremely high crime rate: "you can do anything short of killing somebody."????????????????????????????????
For emphasis, in April 2012, the Senate added something new to the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, allowing tribal courts to prosecute non-Indians who have sexually assaulted members of a tribe. BUT, the bill died because Republican House members believed it would be "a dangerous expansion of tribal independence."
This, I believe, is systematic oppression. The american legal system is built to inhibit Native American peoples from expanding their personal rights and freedom. This is not just some outdated racist policy that people forget about because "it's just not like that anymore", yet it is LITERALLY the history of the United States of America. We are literally all sitting here peacefully at home today because our country was founded on enslavement and genocide. It is an active system, and no one is hearing these stories.
Once again, ???????????????????????????????????
Wow--I am so impressed with your research!
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