Hmm. Well, I don't doubt that the above reports are true.

I went out with a Native American woman who was born on a reserve west of Sudbury, Ontario. I was with her for about 3 years. What she told me would indicate that rape and abuse of children and young women was quite common in her community, as was rampant alcoholism and drug use...and suicide. Alcoholism and drug use tend to lead in the direction of sexual abuse. Both she and her sister were certainly raped and abused by relatives and "friends" of the family. In this case it would mostly have been violence perpetrated on Native Americans by other Native Americans. That doesn't tell me anything intrinsic about Native Americans...it tells me something intrinsic about poverty, loss of culture, unemployment, despair and reservation life in general.

It would have happened to any race or cultural group placed in similar historical and economic circumstances, in my opinion.

I'd be inclined to approach this whole issue less on the very divisive and potentially nasty basis of "race relations"...and more on the basis of haves and have-nots.

When you look at issues primarily on the basis of "race" it leads to all sorts of ugly attitudes, accusations, and vendettas. It leads to guilt trips and arrogance. When you look at issues on the basis of economic and social justice, you're looking reality straight in the face. Every race of people can be rapidly reduced to a miserable level when they are denied economic and social justice. It is the poor who are most discriminated against, in any society, because it is they who are most powerless.

But I just offer that as a different angle on the discussion. I am not disputing that the present setup of law enforcement is set up badly to deal with crimes committed on reservations, and that that is contributing to these problems, as noted above.