A Problem Among our Community

I took this photo of my friend not too long ago and decided to use it for this blog post. The reason I chose this picture is because Native American women are the highest ethnicity to be raped or sexually assaulted in their life time. 1 in 3 Native American women will be sexually assaulted and 70% will not be reported. Women in our culture are highly respected and some tribes even have a matriarchal society. It is really upsetting to know that we still contain the highest rate of rape. The hand prints my friend is facing represents a small number of the indigenous women who have been sexually assaulted. She is wearing her traditional Jingle Dress outfit in this picture. Only women wear this when they are dancing at a Powwow. The Jingle Dress Dance is often called the healing dance. Sexual assault causes disturbances in families and traditional values more than the oppressor may ever know. This worries me as a Native American women because this has been problem among my community for too long.It just goes to show that sexual assault can happen in anybody's community or neighborhood. It can happen to anybody, no matter what they are wearing. That is why I hope to spread awareness about this problem so that we can find solutions and promote awareness among our own communities.