Today, due to a complicated system of criminal jurisdiction, non-Native Americans can commit crimes against American Indians with virtual impunity in much of Indian country (the legal term for American Indian reservations and land held in trust for Native people). This climate of impunity disproportionately affects Native women who are routinely targeted by non-Native men for sexual violence.

A problem over 500 years in the making, this research highlights race and gender in federal law to challenge the argument that violence against Native women in Indian country is simply collateral damage from a complex but necessary legal structure. Instead, it demonstrates that what’s happening in Indian country is part of a violent colonial legacy – one that has always relied on legal and sexual violence to disempower Native communities as a whole.

This book is the culmination of my six years of research as an adjunct professor of Ethnic Studies, as well as my work as a Case Worker for the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California.