In an emotional vote that left many on the dais and in City Council chambers in tears, Seattle’s elected officials voted unanimously to pass a first-of-its-kind resolution aimed at stopping an epidemic of violence against Native women and girls.
The resolution calls for Mayor Jenny Durkan and city departments such as the Seattle Police Department (SPD) and Human Services Department to work directly with Native-led organizations to improve data collection around violence against Native women and girls, to improve government-to-government relations between tribes and the city and to use city resources to fund culturally attuned services to help the local Native community.
It also includes a liaison position with subject matter expertise who will work directly with SPD to facilitate relationships, lead trainings and implement best practices on data collection and reporting methodologies. The position will facilitate communication with the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB), the city, urban Indian organizations, tribal liaisons and other law enforcement agencies.
Violence against Native women occurs, in part, because systemic racism has made it and its victims invisible to the government entities that are meant to be helping and protecting them, said Councilmember Debora Juarez, an enrolled Blackfeet tribal member and champion of the resolution.
“We will be invisible no more,” Juarez told the audience. “This is just the beginning and our very first step to make sure when we lose our women and our children that somebody will be there to go look for them.”
Seattle’s resolution is one of the first in the nation, but it’s not just the words on the paper that make it so powerful, said Abigail Echo-Hawk, chief research officer at the Seattle Indian Health Board (SIHB). It comes with tangible resources and a commitment to working directly with organizations like SIHB, which have the subject matter expertise and, often, lived experience to direct the work.
“I am ecstatic,” Echo-Hawk said. “This is such an opportunity, and we recognize it as a first step.”
There is no one in the region more experienced in taking on the work than SIHB.
Echo-Hawk led the team of researchers that produced a stunning report that hints at the scope of violence perpetrated against Native women in urban areas. Seattle had the ignominious distinction of having the most murdered and missing indigenous women and girls out of the 72 cities that the research team was able to examine.
Echo-Hawk knows that the 45 cases that they were able to find in Seattle are likely a massive undercount. The new push from the city — which, by the resolution, will have to deliver a report on its efforts in one year’s time — will likely turn up many more, she expects.
“If we don’t know the numbers, how can we address it?” Echo-Hawk said.
RELATED ARTICLE: Report: Seattle tops list of murdered and missing Indigenous women
The assembled audience in Council Chambers hinted at the scope of the crisis. One by one, Native men and women from across the region approached the microphone to give testimony and nearly every one had a story of an aunt, a sister, a friend who had gone missing or been murdered.
This perpetuation of violence is what happens when government looks away, Juarez told Real Change.
“They haven’t looked at us, and this population that is in crisis,” Juarez said. “That’s what troubles me. This is a good starting point, but this isn’t the end.”
The violence against Native women can be overlooked by institutions in a number of ways, from racially misclassifying Native women — hiding their identities in incorrect statistics — to ignorance resulting in poor data collection to a lack of connection with tribal governments.
The violence against Native women can be overlooked by institutions in a number of ways, from racially misclassifying Native women — hiding their identities in incorrect statistics — to ignorance resulting in poor data collection to a lack of connection with tribal governments.
Good data and relationships with tribal governments are key because communities have the knowledge and resources to bring their family members home and heal them, Juarez said.
“We don’t leave anybody behind,” Juarez said.
The resolution comes forward at a time of reckoning across North America as the scale of violence against Native communities is pushed into the sunlight. Echo-Hawk presented her report just days after Canada released a 1,200-page national inquiry examining its history of violence against Native peoples.
The authors were unsparing in their assessment — the apathy of the Canadian society to the violence perpetrated against Native communities amounted to genocide.
For Juarez, the timing of her resolution had everything to do with ensuring that it would have the teeth it needed to make a real difference for Native communities. That meant a lot of work invested the Mayor’s Office, SPD and fellow elected officials to align resources and get buy-in from departments that will be operationalizing the resolution before a vote took place.
“I can use my role and my relationships with the Mayor’s Office, with Chief [Carmen] Best, with Pete Holmes. I can reach out and work with colleagues in other branches of government,” Juarez said. “This is a crisis and we need to dedicate essential government resources — i.e. money — to deliver deliverables. To put real teeth in the legislation.”
When it came time to vote, Council Chambers fell silent. A box of tissues snaked its way through the room. Each council member added their affirmative vote, several moved to tears themselves. When the last vote was cast, the room erupted into celebration.
Ashley Archibald is a Staff Reporter covering local government, policy and equity. Have a story idea? She can be can reached at ashleya (at) realchangenews (dot) org. Follow Ashley on Twitter @AshleyA_RC
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