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“Savanna Greywind was 22-years-old and 8 months pregnant when she was murdered in 2017.
In the year since, her story has become the face of the fight against the violence towards Native American women — women that also go missing at an alarming rate. It’s an epidemic of violence in the United States that has inspired the bill S.1942, also known as Savanna’s Act, championed by outgoing Democratic senator from North Dakota, Heidi Heitkamp. After a unanimous Senate passing vote, however, things have stalled out and the bill may be dead. But why, and why now?
Before we get into all that, let’s break down what Savanna’s Act is all about, how it passed, and the politics that have led to its current state.
Savanna’s Act was drafted to address the alarming rate of violence and kidnapping perpetrated against native and indigenous women.
According to The National Crime Information Center, in 2016, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, but only 116 of those cases were logged though the US Department of Justice’s federal missing persons database, NamUs. The National Institute of Justice also claims that 84 percent of indigenous women face violence in their lifetime.
This, of course, begs the question: why is this happening, and being so under reported?
The short answer? It’s complicated.
Inadequate resources, apathy, racism, as well as the jurisdictional maze of governing on and in cooperation with reservations (officially recognized Tribal Nations have their own systems of rule in concert with the US government), have all been blamed in varying combinations.”
– The Stylist, What is Savanna’s Act, the US Law protecting indigenous women that’s now in jeopardy?.
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Indian Country 52
Indian Country 52 is a weekly project by David Bernie that uses the medium of posters that promote issues and stories in Indian Country. Follow the series: Indian Country 52
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