Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Floor Speech

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Mrs. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring attention to and urge Congressional action on the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

Mr. Speaker, more than 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime. More than half of American Indian and Alaska Native Women have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime.

American Indian and Alaska Native women are over one and half times more likely than White women to have experienced violence in the past year. Native women face murder rates more than 10 times the national average in some parts of the country. They also are almost 2 times as likely to have experienced rape than non-Hispanic White women over the course of their lifetime.

Given all these statistics of acts of violence, 96 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native women victims of sexual violence experience violence at the hands of a non-Native perpetrator. To reiterate, nearly all of the violence committed against Native women are committed by non-Natives.

Mr. Speaker, I do not believe the protection of all women and children is or should be treated as partisan issue. Tribal governments, through trust and treaty obligations should have the same authority as states to protect women and children in vulnerable situations. All states, tribal and local law enforcement authorities should have access and the use of the same tools to prevent these crimes, on or off the reservations. Hunters know where to hunt; fishermen know where to fish. And predators know where to prey.

I am pleased to see the House has taken action on this issue with the passage of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and I urge the Senate to take up this important legislation and include strong tribal provisions to ensure tribal governments have all the resources available to protect their communities.

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