{"id":96657,"date":"2018-12-17T18:12:13","date_gmt":"2018-12-18T01:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/flc-students-bring-awareness-to-indigenous-missing-and-abused-women\/"},"modified":"2018-12-17T18:12:13","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T01:12:13","slug":"flc-students-bring-awareness-to-indigenous-missing-and-abused-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/flc-students-bring-awareness-to-indigenous-missing-and-abused-women\/","title":{"rendered":"FLC students bring awareness to indigenous missing and abused women"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:cfbcd90e-bdb9-43c9-8188-10ce55dedee4 --><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/52J7n76vMdw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Each earring on the \u201cSing our Rivers Red\u201d exhibit represents a local missing or abused indigenous woman and aims to bring awareness about Native American and gender-based violence in the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n<p>The Durango exhibit is part of a national movement that sheds light on the violence against Native American women, using water as a symbol for the lives of women and red to represent the missing and murdered women and those drowning in injustice.<\/p>\n<p>Earrings show a personal connection, woman-to-woman.<\/p>\n<p>AJ Nequatewa, a Fort Lewis College graduate and Navajo, led a workshop at FLC in October where students painted earrings for the exhibit.<\/p>\n<p>Nequatewa said she has a friend who has been missing from the Navajo reservation since July, and she knows Native American women who are survivors of violence and rape.<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 75 percent of crimes investigated on tribal lands in the United States involve homicide, rape, violent assaults or child abuse, according to statistics from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fbi.gov\/investigate\/violent-crime\/indian-country-crime#Statistics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FBI<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/new.items\/d11167r.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">government accountability report<\/a> found the complexity of legal jurisdiction often results in sexual assault cases being handed over to the U.S. Attorneys Office versus being tried in tribal court, and about 67 percent of such cases are not pursued because of lack of scientific evidence and witnesses.<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-element naviga-subheadline1\">More than half experience sexual violence<\/div>\n<p>The Sexual and Assault Services Organization in Durango partnered with FLC in late November to host a symposium focused on violence against Native American women.<\/p>\n<p>Maura Doherty Demko, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.durangosaso.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SASO<\/a> executive director, said in Colorado, 1 of 4 women will experience some type of sexual violence in their lifetime, but the statistics don\u2019t cross over to the Native American population.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe all need to work together to understand how hard and detrimental violence is for Native American women so that we as an agency and community can serve the people that we are all a part of,\u201d Demko said.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=8baea57b-17a8-4ceb-86ec-e3cef9d48a6c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=8baea57b-17a8-4ceb-86ec-e3cef9d48a6c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=800 800w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=8baea57b-17a8-4ceb-86ec-e3cef9d48a6c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1200 1200w, https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=8baea57b-17a8-4ceb-86ec-e3cef9d48a6c&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=1800 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 2000px\" alt=\"People were encouraged to write a message to indigenous women Dec. 7 during Noel Night at the \u201cSing Our Rivers Red\u201d earring exhibit at the Durango Arts Center. The display is part of a national movement that sheds light on violence against indigenous women.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">People were encouraged to write a message to indigenous women Dec. 7 during Noel Night at the \u201cSing Our Rivers Red\u201d earring exhibit at the Durango Arts Center. The display is part of a national movement that sheds light on violence against indigenous women.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Among indigenous women, 4 of 5 will experience violence in their lifetime, and more than half will experience sexual violence, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/nij.gov\/journals\/277\/Pages\/violence-against-american-indians-alaska-natives.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Institute of Justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>FLC senior and Navajo April Yazza spoke at the symposium about how she survived sexual abuse at age 9 and learned later in life how to overcome victim shaming, or self-blaming for what she encountered.<\/p>\n<p>Yazza said her abuse extended beyond her childhood and manifested in ways like anger, depression and control issues.<\/p>\n<p>She said it took her about 13 years to come to terms with her past abuse, and women should take the healing process in their own time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to speak for those who cannot yet speak for themselves,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Yazza published a #MeToo video on YouTube and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BklBxgTFNFm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a> in June that detailed how she went through the healing process, moving her from victim to advocate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor so long, when I was getting ready for school, I would have a note on the mirror that said, \u2018It\u2019s 2018, you are April Yazza, you are 23 years old and you\u2019re at Fort Lewis College,\u2019\u201d Yazza said. \u201cIt\u2019s important to focus on the present versus reverting to the past abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:kwalsh@durangoherald.com\">kwalsh@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Symposium addresses sexual assault of Native American women<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5794,5735],"tags":[561,524],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-96657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news","tag-native-american","tag-sexual-assault"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96657"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=96657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}