Over the course of this year, I’ve had countless conversations with female friends about the past trauma that has recently resurfaced for them. From national affairs like #MeToo and the Kavanaugh hearings to local issues like the expulsion of Representative Steve Lebsock from the Colorado legislature, there has been a major emphasis on gender,
violence against women, and sexual harassment in 2018. It’s scary and emotional and incredibly frustrating that we still need to have these conversations. At the same time, I also recognize that white women and our stories are getting most of the attention. Men, broadly, are the primary perpetrators of violence against women,
but women of color are victimized at much higher rates and in much more dangerous ways than white women. Native American women, in particular, have been systemically targeted since before our nation’s birth, and have historically had far fewer resources and pathways to advocate for justice.
The US has a long history of claiming Native American land for our own and murdering entire communities in the pursuit of our white supremacist notions of “Manifest Destiny.” White people pushed tribes further and further into the West and used
sexual violence over Native women as a tool of dominance and oppression. Colorado is home to the site of the shameful Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, where 150 Natives, mostly women, children, and elderly, were killed.
