American Indian Girls Often Fall Through the Cracks: "It's like these kids are living in a war zone"
In 2013, the American Indian and Alaska Native population was 5.2 million, about 2 percent of the U.S. population. The median age was 31, compared to 38 in the general population. And 29 percent of American Indians-Alaska Natives were poor, a higher rate than any other ethnic group.
American Indians ages 16 to 24 have the highest dropout rates in the country, more than twice the national rate, 15 to 7 percent. One in five Native girls become mothers before age 20. American Indian women have the highest rates of rape in the country, more than twice that of other ethnic groups. The vast majority of the perpetrators are non-Indian men, according to Amnesty International.
All these factors create a climate where juvenile delinquency can flourish, child advocates say. Violent crime rates among Native Americans are twice that of the country as a whole, and tribal communities experience high rates of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, alcohol addiction and gang involvement, according to the Tribal Court Clearinghouse. Native children are over- represented in child protective services. And while the violent juvenile crime rate for US teens has declined, it has increased for teens in tribal communities, according to the Clearinghouse.
A 2013 report by the Indian Law and Order Commission found that American Indian children suffer post-traumatic stress disorder at the same rates of veterans returning from combat duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Sarah Deer, Co-Director of Indian Law Program and a Citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation
"It's like these kids are living in a war zone," said Sarah Deer, co-director of the Indian Law Program at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a 2014 winner of a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a genius grant.
Working with Native girls who've ended up in the juvenile justice system in Minnesota has its challenges. Particularly girls who were lured into prostitution and peddling drugs by older men whom they believe to be their boyfriends and with whom they have developed intense, unhealthy emotional connections. Breaking those bonds is difficult, Park said.
Poverty shapes their lives in ways that makes it hard for them to see a way out, she said. To make ends meet, they often rely on "working long weekends," heading out to the oil fields along the North Dakota border, "man camps" where men have cash and an appetite for paid sex. It's tough trying to break them out of the cycle. "Sex is a tool for surviving," she said.
But at the Indian Women's Resource Center, they try. Young girls receive mental health services and education counseling. And elder women teach them about their cultural roots, learning about Indian medicine, ceremony, praying the traditional way and honoring their ancestors.
As Park sees it, these girls connect with the "blood memory" of their ancient heritage and heal from their past traumas.
"It gives them hope," Park said. "It helps them see they can be more than their parents, who are struggling with drug addiction and homelessness. It's hard to see yourself as more when you don’t see that around you."
*The Pew Charitable Trusts is driven by the power of knowledge to solve today's most challenging problems. Pew applies a rigorous, analytical approach to improve public policy, inform the public and invigorate civic life.
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