Citation: Social Justice Vol. 31, No. 4 (2004): 8-16. Buy PDF

This article traces the legacy for Native peoples of European-introduced diseases, malnutrition and brutal enslavement, fatal forms of punishment, and sexual abuses via colonization. This historical process was an official policy of genocide. The color of violence has been the color of white over black, brown, red, and yellow peoples. Shaping this color scheme are the labyrinths of class and gender, of geography and industry, of metropoles and peripheries, of sexual definitions and confinements. The essay pays particular attention to the implications for the indigenous population of Hawaii.

Key words: Hawaii, Euro-American colonialism, racism, dominant culture, genocide, violence

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 31, No. 4 (2004): 17-30. Buy PDF

This article focuses on the unique impact of federal Indian law on Native crime victims. Its analysis of historical events, contemporary statistics, and federal laws demonstrate why the adjudication and response to victimization of Native women and children must be restored to tribal nations. Although the federal system is currently tasked with primary control and power in cases in which Native women and children are victimized in Indian country, true justice and healing will only be possible when the victims can seek accountability within their own judicial systems.

Key words: American Indians, rape, law, tribal policy, women, violence

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 31, No. 4 (2004): 31-39. Buy PDF

The author narrates a personal story of abuse and addiction. She was raped as a child by her grandfather and violated multiple times from the ages of 19 to 28. These brutal assaults propelled her into alcohol and drug addiction. Consequently, her children were removed from her custody and placed with various relatives. Today she struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. She continues her healing journey with the aid of counseling and art. As an accomplished artist, art nourishes her spirit.

Key words: Native American, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction, rape

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 31, No. 4 (2004): 40-53. Buy PDF

This article examines the sterilization abuses perpetrated by Indian Health Services in the 1990s. It argues that this abuse reflects a larger genocidal project against American Indians. It also examines the U.S. federal government’s investigations into this abuse and contends that these investigations also disenfranchised American Indian women.

Using secondary sources, the author reviews and summarizes evidence of abuse by health authorities of Native American women's reproductive rights. The article focuses on the 1990s, but it also recapitulates evidence from the 1970s. It includes valuable personal testimony. It is argued that abusive sterilization of American Indian women was motivated by genocidal policies and efforts to limit "the next generation of colonial resistance." The author should take into account contradictions within sterilization campaigns or explore how indigenous organizations relate to issues regarding reproduction.

Key words: American Indian, women, sterilization, genocide, violence, reproductive rights

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 31, No. 4 (2004): 54-62. Buy PDF

This exploratory essay examines circumstances that lead to drug use among Native women and the effects of tribal, federal, and state policies on those convicted of drug-related offenses. This topic is an under-researched and unexplored area, and the beginning of a more detailed research project by the author. Current drug laws, welfare reform, and tribal policies destroy the lives of those convicted. The author emphasizes that the past and continuing forms of violence must be included in the analysis of Native women and substance abuse. The essay concludes with a discussion of the banishment of convicted drug felons on an Indian reservation and ponders what tribal communities can do survive the chaos created by drugs.

Key words: Native women, drug abuse, crime, drug laws, welfare reform, banishment, colonialism

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 31, No. 4 (2004): 63-69. Buy PDF

This article links the author's experiences of imprisonment for welfare fraud with the larger patterns of colonialism against Native peoples in California. It connects the author's personal biography to the larger societal structure, forms of imprisonment, and colonialism.

Key words: American Indians, women, prison, mission schools, violence, incarceration

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 31, No. 4 (2004): 70-86. Buy PDF

This article is an exploration of the high rates of violence against Native women. Based on a review of the literature, the historical context of the Native experience is presented and four factors are explored that the authors argue contribute to higher rates of violence against Native women. Implications for research and practice that address the needs of Native women are identified. Voices of Native women from tribal communities are incorporated within the article and the Community Readiness model is introduced as a potential tool in working with tribal communities to address violence against Native women.

Key words: native women, domestic violence, tribal communities, Indian Country, American Indian women, intimate partner violence, Native American women, and violence in Indian Country and community readiness

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 31, No. 4 (2004): 89-102. Buy PDF

This article analyzes the Boarding School Healing Project, which seeks to build a movement for reparations for American Indian boarding school abuses as part of a larger global reparations strategy for colonialism. This project rearticulates violence within Native communities as the continuing effect of human rights violations perpetrated by state policy; it frames the ending of gender violence as an anti-colonial strategy.

Key words: American Indians, women, violence, reparations, boarding schools, human rights

Citation: Social Justice Vol. 31, No. 4 (2004): 103-116. Buy PDF

This article reviews and comments upon an exhibit on the American Indian Holocaust. It is a personal and analytical account of the exhibit, relating its themes to broader political and cultural issues. The article is thoughtful, interesting, and well written. It asserts that colonialism and racism support a culture that sanctions violence against Native American women. Organizers of an American Indian Holocaust exhibit translated colonial representations of Indian women, discussed their history and roles, and used tribal spiritual practices to heal the debilitating effects of colonialism. These cultural approaches emphasize the importance of translation and transculturation as powerful tools to heal from colonialism. They also underscore the need to use Native rather than Eurocentric philosophy and viewpoints to begin to move beyond colonial hierarchies that have supported a culture that condones violence against Indian women.

Key words: colonialism, violence, American Indian Holocaust, exhibit, American Indian women, urban Indians

Copyright © 2004 by Social Justice.