Too many women experience violence on tribal lands

In theory, all 50 states share the same legal framework. Sure, the way of life in Tempe is different than New York or San Francisco. But if you commit a crime, there is a good chance you will be caught, arrested and tried in court.

But it is not necessarily the case for perpetrators on tribal land, which is about 27% of Arizona. Commit a crime – even a serious crime like rape or murder – in Indian country and odds are you will not be brought to justice.

Consider that more than 80% of Native American and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetimes, and 96% of these survivors experience this violence at the hands of a non-Native perpetrator. Between 2005 and 2009, roughly 67% of the sexual abuse and related offenses committed in Indian country were left unprosecuted by the federal government.

I’m not a Native American. But you don’t need to be Native American to be troubled by these facts.

I am an Arizonan, where I have lived and worked my entire adult life. I am also deeply committed to living my Quaker faith and values. I cannot and will not ignore the injustice suffered by Native women and Native people. They deserve equal rights and justice with the resources to do so.

In 2013, Congress passed a Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which allowed tribal governments to enforce criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians who committed domestic violence against Native American victims on tribal lands. In short, tribes were given some authority to prosecute crimes, rather than watching hopelessly as the federal government sat on its hands.

The 2013 VAWA was a good first step, and we expected to build on this success in a 2019 reauthorization. We hoped to expand the list of crimes that tribes could prosecute and allow more tribes to enforce the law on their land. But unfortunately, like so many other vital bills, VAWA landed on the partisan chopping block.

If the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women is to matter anywhere, it must matter in Arizona. We have the third highest number of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women, behind only New Mexico and Washington. This is life and death here. It is not a hypothetical legal debate or trivia question.

The good news is Congress has been on the right side of history of late on Native issues. Both Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act were signed into law, making more collaboration between federal agencies and tribal law enforcement possible. For this trend to continue, we need leadership.

Domestic violence and the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women don’t just matter to those directly affected. They matter to people of faith, people like me. And they should matter to all Arizonans, including our senators.

Let it be known, particularly now that Arizona has a new senator: when it comes to addressing the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, Arizona must not sit on the sidelines or follow. We must lead.