California tribe confronts crisis of missing, murdered women

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Feb. 20, 2022 | GILLIAN FLACCUS ,

[artichokegrower]

YUROK RESERVATION, Calif. (AP) — The young mother had behaved erratically for months, hitchhiking and wandering naked through two Native American reservations and a small town clustered along Northern California’s rugged Lost Coast.

[artichokegrower]

But Native women face murder rates almost three times those of white women overall — and up to 10 times the national average in certain locations, according to a 2021 summary of the existing research by the National Congress of American Indians. More than 80% have experienced violence.

"But many here see in her story the ugly intersection of generations of trauma inflicted on Native Americans by their white colonizers"

Somehow I knew it was our fault.

[Sarcazmo]

Boy, that train’s never late.

[cicero2k]

If only the colonized adopted the culture of law and order of the colonizers, these women would be going to graduate school.

[artichokegrower]

Should have followed the guidance of Father Serra

[ronnie raygun]

whities fault just like its trumps fault

[Karliner]

Yurok are a very wealthy tribe. They own a lot of wilderness. Whether Yurok, Weott, or Hoopa( etc) there’s a LOT of hard drugs and “mischief” on the rez. Lots of meth and fentynal. Add to that the weed wars up here which includes grows on tribal land.

[Bon of Babble]

I’m sure several billion dollars will ameliorate the situation.

[Nifster]

That and alcoholism

[alstewartfan]

Try trillion.

[dljordan]

“Somehow I knew it was our fault.”

They just had to do it.

[Bob434]

And that is the bottom line. The folks sit around waiting for their monthly checks to come in, then spend it on drugs and alcohol, and when their checks run put, they resort to crime to keep,their addicitins going

Noone forced them to,become addicts, they chose to be. Driving around rez areas one year on trip across country, stopped and talked with local folks, and they didn’t have much praise for Indians because of how they let themselves go and the crime they brought to the areas, and the reservations look like slums. They did point to some reservations where the folks there were succesful, and crime was down, and businesses were booming, and spoke well,of those folks, but they stated many just sit around stoned in other areas, and crime is really high In those areas.

[oldplayer]

If only the colonized adopted the culture of law and order of the colonizers, these women would be going to graduate school.
_______________________________________________________

A Yurok friend of mine grew up on this reservation and graduated in engineering from Stanford in the mid-60’s. He didn’t get any breaks from being Indian in those days. He got a graduate degree from Stanford and became a managing partner at a large (350 person) engineering firm.

Great guy who I miss, but who made his mark upon the world and for his tribe.

[Vaduz]

Fire water bad

[dfwgator]

Hey I remember that song:

The drunk old Injun
Squattin' in his teepee
Firewater keepin' him warm....

[Karliner]

Alcoholism is a given. Very very few want to learn the old ways and fewer still finish any schooling. People disappear up here all the time. It’s not just rez people.

[Karliner]

I’ve befriended quite a few young kids. By the time they’re mid 20’s they reserve themselves to dying of OD’s. I worked at that”psych hospital” they do not name. Problem is if they’re from a rez they’re turned over to the rez. There’s a BIG issue medicating any native, or caring for them without the Yurok council coming down and pissing on things.

Maybe they’ll change a little? The Yurok are about the most hostile tribe in the area.

[Bob434]

Yeah that’s sad. Seems like their tribal leaders don’t want them to get help. I wonder why? You woild,think that they wouldn’t want to help improve the lives of Indians, but it sure seems they are fighting it for some reason.

[Fightin Whitey]

Appreciate your post.

I grew up on the Rez. It’s a flaming hell but for those who somehow had parents who managed to stick around. There are a lot of reasons for the collapse of tribal society, not all of them brought on themselves.

There’s not much hope left now, but for sports teams, basketball, track, even golf for a few...watch the long-distance runners in my home area, and the basketball players...that’s where you can see a glimmer of their marvelous skills and pride.

[fini]

"That and alcoholism"

I think there has to be some genetic link to the poor relationship between the American Indian and alcohol. There are just too many stories and my own personal experience, to dismiss a linkage. When I was a lieutenant, I had to sh*tcan three Marines that belonged to tribes. They were all decent Marines until they got alcohol in their system. Additionally, there is good evidence that my family has a significant amount of American Indian blood and guess what- every one of us has to really watch our alcohol intake, e.g. two of my cousins died of alcohol poisoning.

My grandfather had a theory. His theory was that Europeans adjusted to alcohol over many centuries, because the water quality was so poor that you drank beer like water. Those that did not adjust never passed their genes on.

[Nifster]

True natives carry a hooked gene that makes alcohol consumption dangerous