Indigenous Justice and Gender

Edited by Marianne G. Nielsen and Karen Jarratt-Snider
University of Arizona Press (2023)
177 pages

Review by Cheryl Crazy Bull

Examination of the impact of colonialism and patriarchal practices that Europeans brought to America, shifting the traditional roles of Indigenous women as culture bearers, is the foundation of this book. Seven chapters divided into three parts explore (1) health justice and women, (2) violence against Indigenous women, and (3) Indigenous women taking action.

The diversity of issues in this book provides readers with a glimpse into the complexity of gender and Indigenous justice. For readers, the book provides perspectives rooted in traditional approaches to gendered healthcare and social wellness. It provides valuable introductions to how colonization has impacted the status, well-being, and safety of Indigenous women and girls and invites readers to learn more.

In the first part, contributors focus on reproductive rights, the rise of gestational diabetes, and access to healthcare for two-spirit relatives. Karen Jarratt-Snider and Marianne G. Nielsen consider reproductive rights, including the right of women to breastfeed their children as an act of rematriation, restoring women’s right to intimately care for their children through natural means. Melinda S. Smith and Jamie Wilson attribute the rise in gestational diabetes to increased use of processed foods and less physical activity rooted in settler colonialism. Finally, Lynn C. Jones and Brooke de Heer consider the intersectionality of sexual and gender identity with Indigenous women’s access to healthcare as gendered violence due to the colonization of Native people’s understanding of two-spirit identity.

In part two of the book, the complex jurisdictional environment associated with addressing the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women and girls and missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG) is considered from both a comprehensive examination of the Violence Against Women Act’s (VAWA’s) provisions upholding criminal jurisdiction over non-tribal member offenders in Indian Country and the urgent, critical need to focus on the safety of Indigenous women and girls. Anne Luna-Gordinier provides the landscape overview of VAWA in 2013 and the successful efforts to renew provisions applicable to Indigenous people in 2022. The author notes that implementing VAWA requires extensive community-based engagement and education for this exercise of tribal sovereignty to be fully realized.

While there is increased knowledge about and actions to address the MMIWG epidemic, Linda M. Robyn describes how the lack of comprehensive social and legal responses is rooted in widespread colonization, diminishing the status of women who are generally valued less than men. Indigenous women and girls are invisible even with other women. Robyn offers solutions including increasing visibility through data collection and advocacy, developing coordinated responses among agencies and with law enforcement, and elevating the issue to legislative responses at the state and national levels.

In part three, Mary Jo Tippeconnic Fox and Michèle Companion share how Indigenous women are taking positive action in the face of tremendous societal diminishment of their status. Tippeconnic Fox speaks to the ways that Indigenous women use their role in higher education to serve as scholar-activists, addressing community issues through their research and teaching. Companion shares that the loss of traditional food practices has had a severe impact on women and their culture-bearer roles. Restorative food practices restore women’s ability to provide for their families, ensure better health, and reinforce the relationality that humans have with the rest of creation.

Cheryl Crazy Bull (Sicangu Lakota) is the president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund.