FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 8, 2015
Coalition of Native American and Women’s Organizations File Submission to United
Nations Requesting Intervention in Epidemic of Sexual Violence
Media Contact:
Thane Maxwell, thane@honorearth.org, (612) 900-5108
On April 21, 2015, a coalition of Native American and women’s organizations filed a
submission to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
requesting UN intervention in the epidemic of sexual violence brought on by extreme fossil
fuel extraction in the Great Lakes and Great Plains region. This body was convened in New
York from April 20 to May 1, 2015, for the Fourteenth Session of the UN Permanent Forum
on Indigenous Issues.
The submission documents the connection between extreme extraction and sexual violence
against Native women in the Bakken oil fields of western North Dakota and eastern
Montana, and the Tar Sands region of Alberta, Canada, where vast “man camps” of
temporary labor have become lawless hubs of violence and human trafficking. It also
contextualizes this epidemic within the history of colonization, genocide, and systemic
violence against Indigenous peoples, which has always disproportionately affected women
and girls.
The submission was made by Dr. Dawn Memee Harvard of the Native Women’s Association
of Canada, also on behalf of Honor the Earth, Brave Heart Society, Minnesota Indian
Women’s Resource Center, One Billion Rising, Indigenous Women’s Network, and
individuals including Tanaya Winder and Prairie Rose Seminole.
“Violence against our earth and water is perpetrated on a daily basis, against those things
absolutely vital to our very existence. We can't be surprised that people who would rape
our land are also raping our people. We must do something to stop this from continuing,”
said Patina Park, Executive Director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center.
"I have been to the Bakken oil fields and witnessed firsthand the extreme extraction being
perpetrated against our earth. I have heard the horrific stories of women who are being
trafficked and violated simultaneously. I know our fight is here. We must stand with our
Indigenous sisters who are on the front lines of this abuse and demand the end of rape of
women's bodies and our earth,” said Eve Ensler, Executive Director of One Billion Rising.
Winona LaDuke, Executive Director of Honor the Earth, said, “We are in a time of extreme
extraction, as we grasp desperately for the last remaining deposits of fossil fuels to satisfy
our addiction. This means extreme violence against Mother Earth, exploding her bedrock,
pumping lethal chemicals into the water, removing entire mountaintops, and destroying our
own habitat. This violence impacts Indigenous communities the most, especially women.
Violence against the land has always been violence against women.”
The submission requests that the UN Special Rapporteur hold hearings in the cities and
Indigenous territories of Minnesota and North Dakota to address the epidemic of sexual
violence against Native women. In the coming months, the coalition will be working to
organize those hearings.