Issue 1, 2018

On July 5, 2013, Hanna Harris, a member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, was reported missing by her family in Lame Deer, Montana. When her body was found five days later, she had been raped and murdered. “Too often in Indian country and Alaska Native villages indigenous women are disappearing and nothing is done,” says Jana Walker, director of the Indian Law Resource Center’s Safe Women, Strong Nations project.

During the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, indigenous experts called for action to fix a legal system that too often leaves Native women, particularly those in rural America, unprotected from violence and sexual assault. The March 19 panel, part of the NGO-CSW62 Forum, took place along with a screening of select scenes from Wind River, a feature film written and directed by Taylor Sheridan that tackles the subjects of sexual assault and missing and murdered indigenous women.

The Tlingit, Haida, Aleut, and Tsimpsian peoples of the Sitka Tribe of Alaska are fighting to protect Pacific herring in Sitka Sound. With commercial fishing interests operating in the Sound, the Sitka Tribe has been observing losses in both the spatial distribution and quality of Pacific herring spawn. They are now fighting to preserve their traditional way of life and seeking to have the State of Alaska take account of their traditional ecological knowledge in decision-making to protect the Pacific herring.

Since the of the adoption of the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (ADRIP) on June 15, 2016, the Organization of American States (OAS) has outlined steps toward advancing the promises in the declaration. Last June, the OAS adopted a Plan of Action with the mission to promote policies to ensure that indigenous peoples in the Americas enjoy and exercise all their rights. Most recently, the OAS passed a resolution to organize an annual event dedicated to indigenous peoples.