Public Radio aired a story about rape on Indian reservations. According to their statistics, ONE in THREE Native American women living on reservations will be raped at least once in their lifetime.
The real horror? If the rapist is not a Native American, he will not be arrested or charged.
Indian reservations are patrolled by Native Americans and local police. The Native American officers have the authority to arrest Native Americans but outsiders fall under local jurisdiction.
If a Native American steals a pack of cigarettes, he is arrested and does jail time. If an outsider steals the same pack of cigarettes, nothing is done. Their example, not mine.
Prosecutors do not want to waste time on rape cases when they could be handling terrorist activities, murder, and more glamorous/worthwhile crimes.
Women rarely even report the crime which adds to their pain an the rapists' sense of power. One woman holds sweat lodge ceremonies to help victims and there are so many she has to turn away victims.
As a result of this report, a long buried rape case in which the victim named her attackers and later died, has been resurrected. No one was sure why her murder hadn't been investigated.
I was horrified. Does anyone on Mudcat have contacts on reservations who can give some insight into this? Does it make any sense to allow a known rapist to go free? I am baffled.