User:Oleena.H/Native American feminism

Native American feminism or Native feminism is an intersectional feminist movement rooted in the lived experiences of Native American and First Nations women. As a branch of the broader Indigenous feminism, it similarly prioritizes decolonization, indigenous sovereignty, and the empowerment of indigenous women and girls in the context of Native American and First Nations cultural values and priorities, rather than white, mainstream ones. A central and urgent issue for Native feminists is the Missing and murdered Indigenous women crisis.

Overview
Native feminist Renya K. Ramirez, writes that, "[T]he word Native in the term 'Native feminisms' [is used] in order to concentrate on our similar experiences as Native women all over the Americas. But whether one utilizes a tribal name, 'indigenous,' 'Native,' 'First Nations' or another term, highlighting the heterogeneity is essential for appreciating the varied experiences Indigenous women experience. Indeed, similar to other women of color feminists, this diversity encourages individuals to argue for the development of multiple feminisms rather than a singular feminism."

Ramirez sees a goal of Native feminism as redefining and establishing the struggles of Native women in a field where "feminism" is generally assumed to mean "white feminism". In her view, Native feminism is intersectional, and relationships between race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class and nations in North America from colonialism onward are to be reexamined as a means of understanding and identifying feminist praxis.

Issues
A core issue in Native American Feminism is the Missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) crisis. Thousands of Indigenous women have been murdered or gone missing in North America with little to no investigation from the Canadian or US governments. Pressure from victims' families and their FNIM Indigenous communities finally led to the Canadian National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which concluded that there is an ongoing genocide against Indigenous women in Canada.

Jennifer Brant and D. Memmee Lavell-Harvard have written that the MMIW issues is often overlooked and not taken seriously[by whom?] because Indigenous women face systemic racial and gender oppression.

Indigenous decolonization, as seen through the lens of Native American feminism, can involve the revitalization and reclamation of Indigenous matriarchal cultural traditions. Maile Arvin writes that during colonization white settlers imposed their heteropatriarchal practices onto Indigenous communities. Arvin states that Native American Feminists are reinforcing matriarchal processes through education and activism.

Cultural baggage associated with the words "feminist" and "feminism" has led to some disagreement about what to call "Native feminism". Kate Shanley, an Assiniboine feminist, believes that most Native women see “feminism" as solely a white women's movement, and therefore do not want to be associated with the word. She goes on to say that feminism as a concept, however, by whatever name, has a special meaning to Native women, including the idea of promoting the continuity of tradition, and consequently, pursuing the recognition of Tribal sovereignty.

Tribal sovereignty is central to Indigenous feminism, as well a pivotal political concern in Indian country, with Native American self-determination considered foundational to both cultural and material survival. In Ramirez's view, in order to accomplish this, tribal sovereignty must be re-conceptualized from Native women's perspectives.

Crystal Ecohawk writes,"Sovereignty is an active, living process within this knot of human, material and spiritual relationships bound together by mutual responsibilities and obligations. From that knot of relationships is born our histories, our identity, the traditional ways in which we govern ourselves, our beliefs, our relationship to the land, and how we feed, clothe, house and take care of our families, communities and Nations'."

Highway of Tears
Highway of Tears refers to a stretch of Highway 16 in Northern British Columbia that is 724 kilometres long. Many indigenous women have gone missing or were discovered murdered along this road since 1970. The term "Highway of Tears" was coined during a 1998 vigil held in Terrace, British Columbia for four murdered and two missing women.

represent the massive murder of indigenous women since 1969. This highway in Northern British Columbia is 724 kilometres long and many innocent women and girls were continuous victims of a mass murder. Whereas, there were no governmental support for aboriginal communities as concerns of poverty raise as a majorly along with it been reason for these deaths. For instance, there was no proper path to travel, people had to "hitchhike" in order to get to a proper road. Moreover, there is a lot more to this issue, as those cases and much more are not resolved even today. Furthermore, the police investigators not been as involved in solving many cases reflect how bias and discriminatory the legal system had been. With all aboriginal women being murdered weren’t as cared for in comparison to a case of a white female. The lack of care attention given by the media for the murdered women were very little as well. Furthermore, police abuse were barely or never covered in media even with such alarming number of reports daily no measures were taken by the police. A documentary by Matt Smiley regarding the missing and murdered Indigenous women, open up about recent accuses over RCMP officers’ violent actions against aboriginal women. Also continued to raise more concerns regarding the missing cases as to why they were not as involved to properly resolving them. The mistreatment of aboriginal women compared to average women were higher as they are not as “valued in the eyes of the law”.

Domestic Violence
The hidden issue concerning aboriginal women is domestic violence. Whereas, most aboriginal women in households report constantly on domestic violence committed by their partners. Few of the reasons behind such domestic violence to occur is through the lack of resources in the aboriginal communities such as unemployment, dislocation from society and post traumatization. As most have exposure to the effects done by resident schools to their families, domestic violence continues along the family generations. For instance, children who are raised in households of domestic violence are more likely to have emotional and behavioural problems. Alcohol abuse is the most known among aboriginal civilians which resulted in more deaths on reserves as well as leading for domestic abuse. Moreover, unemployment is another huge risk factor in regard to domestic violence; those who live on reserve are highly victimized than on rural areas. As well as sexual assault, assault, homicides rates are high in comparison to those non aboriginal civilians in Canada. Unemployment have resulted in having to do with lack of education received for aboriginal communities causing for more children to drop out in schools. Also, there are less remedies along domestic violence as aboriginal women are not to be cared for by the law. Whereas, dislocation from society become their own disadvantage and they are often ignored by the government in trying to seek help for native civilians as other Canadians. For instance, women who have tried escaping the violent environment have often been left out help as the access for such help are often very far from reserve and in larger cities or towns. Moreover, those who have been through the procedure have experienced shortage of cultural safety and staff that lack any understanding based on similar situations. The reason being that these programs are often created by mainstream and other that lack any experience.

There are often other reasons that are considered to be issues faced by aboriginal women; although, all reasons lead back to resident schools. The reason being that most native civilians still live along that fear and have been decriminalized within society for their skin colour and other differences. They are not to be cared for just because they lack in educational resources or they are often identified as alcohol/drug abusers, and treated as low because they are not considered to be as respected in comparison to a white female or any other even today.

Carleton, S. (2015). Highway of Tears and the missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. Canadian Dimension, 49(4). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.dproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/docview/1734314744?accountid=26375

Unravelling the "highway of tears" (2014). . Toronto: CTV Television, Inc. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.dproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/docview/1504677102?accountid=26375

Palmater, P. (2016). Shining Light on the Dark Places: Addressing Police Racism and Sexualized Violence against Indigenous Women and Girls in the National Inquiry. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, 28(2), 253–284. 10.3138/cjwl.28.2.253.

Gilmore, S. (2016). Canada's unspoken crisis. Maclean's. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.dproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/docview/1859903276?accountid=26375

Brownridge, D. A. (2008). Understanding the Elevated Risk of Partner Violence Against Aboriginal Women: A Comparison of Two Nationally Representative Surveys of Canada. Journal of Family Violence, 23(5), 353–367. 10.1007/s10896-008-9160-0

Klingspohn, D. M. (2018). The Importance of Culture in Addressing Domestic Violence for First Nations Women. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(872). 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00872