DECOLONIZING YOUR NEWSFEED
 
 

BREAKING SILENCE | 9.18.20
 

Last Sunday marked 26 years since the Violence Against Women Act was passed.  Today, it hangs in the balance under Donald Trump, but not without pressure from women like North Dakota Rep. Ruth Anna Buffalo (MHA Nation).  The Native lawmaker took part in a panel hosted by Jill Biden and Cosmopolitan magazine, highlighting the real threats women like us face. 

“What data we do have - 4 out of 5 of our Native women are affected by violence, today. As a mom and a big sister, that’s hard for me to comprehend,” said Buffalo.  

Across Indian Country, there’s widespread belief that not a single woman has escaped some strain of violence.  That certainly is true for me.  And this spring, I broke my silence about it, and did so more publicly this week. In a piece published for the Washington Post’s The Lily, I write how I testified to the U.N. about being physically and emotionally harassed as a female journalist - by members of my own industry.  None of the words have been easy to get out, certainly not the day I shared my story to more than just close confidants. 

The actual testimony is featured in this week’s segment of “The Crisis.” While perhaps not your ideal weekend longread, it’s definitely worth taking in if you care to understand how women like me become targets at disproportionate rates, and also how a culture of media’s misogyny feeds into it--and not just by men.  

As I write these final words, news of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s passing is filling up news feeds. A notorious figurehead, not even she, in all her brilliance, could always grasp the unique realities of Indian Country. In this way, her immediate legacy is centering an unexpected sense of validation for me to just shake it off and keep going. There’s too much work to do.

When it seems there is never a safe way for women, particularly Black and brown women, to express criticism, feel rage, or call out injustice - the alternative, to do nothing - doesn’t seem like an option, at all.  It’s why this newsletter and your appreciation for it means everything.  Dawa’eh, thank you.

Stay safe and have a good weekend,

Jenni Monet 
 

THE INDIGENOUS INTERNET
 
 

INDIGENOUSLY INDEX
 

Total years since the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, now in limbo: 26

Percentage of increased domestic violence cases since the pandemic (early data): 1.8%

Average resting heartbeat per minute of the Native cop propositioned by AK Lt. Gov: 53

Total spike in heartbeats per minute when the Lt. Gov lured her to his hotel room: 115 

Number of people Pfizer seeks for Covid-19 vaccine trial, including Navajo citizens: 44K

Estimated mileage behind a x-country roller skate fundraiser for Navajo virus aid: 2000

Number of Bureau of Indian Education schools on the Navajo Nation: 32

Total weeks a last-minute distance learning model will be in effect at the schools: 9

Estimated months educators say there is a backlog to buy laptops and tablets: 3

Percentage of U.S. tribal college students polled who say they were food insecure: 69%

Amount tribal college advocates are lobbying Congress for annual funding: $40M

Exact years the late-educator David Gipp (Standing Rock) led tribal college, UTTC: 43

Total days a Lummi man lay unresponsive in the Nisqually tribal jail, before dying: 3

Number of days Pueblo repatriators mourned the return of ancestral remains: 4

Number of advocates who sent a letter asking Interior to slow Chaco drilling plans: 51

Approximate minutes of the Crow tribal chairman’s Trump endorsement speech: 4
 

THE CRISIS
 

When I was asked to testify to the U.N. last spring about how I was abused by members of my own industry - other journalists - I wasn’t sure. For almost three years, I’ve been processing all that’s happened to me and what manifested in the in-between. And the formal testimony I share here is also part of that careful consideration - a historical record of my abuse, backed by evidence, that I fully recognize is loaded. But it comes at a time when such uneasiness is in lockstep with this surging moment in America - hence, my breaking silence.
 

ENDORSEMENT
 

For your online streaming: In honor of this week’s newsletter centered around Indigenous feminism, and with concern over the persistent fires burning in the West, I thought of the Apache 8, the all Indigenous women fire-fighting crew that was featured in the timeless documentary by their same name: Apache 8 (2011). It recently became available to rent online, here. The trailer is everything.

 

FEEDBACK
 

“Loving the newsletter. There’s nothing else like it.”

Amanda, Brooklyn, NY
 

QUOTE
 

“It's interesting that we get taken to jail and all the laws apply to us - Indigenous women whose land we are on. And yet, no law applies to them? They get to waive laws anytime they want to?” - Nellie David (right), one of two Hia-Ced O'odham activists facing federal misdemeanor charges for blocking border wall construction in which dozens of laws were waived by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to speed up the project, last year.

 

Indigenously is a newsletter produced by Jenni Monet (Laguna Pueblo)

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