Sarah Deer is one of the leading experts on rape in Native communities in the United States. Having recently won the MacArthur Genius Award in 2014 for her pathbreaking work in this area, Deer's expertise comes from her many years working at the Department of Justice as well as the Tribal Law and Policy Institute, where she assisted tribes in developing sexual-assault policies and tribal codes.
To put Deer's work in context, she is part of a larger movement of Native feminists seeking to end gender violence in Native communities. Within this movement, diverse strategies have emerged. Some work primarily within the current legal system, advocating for federal intervention and reform to meet the needs of survivors. Other organizers and activists consider working with the US legal system as complicity in colonialism and focus on developing Indigenous-based approaches to ending violence. Deer's work mediates between these approaches through her twofold strategy of developing Native infrastructure for addressing violence while calling for stricter accountability of federal law enforcement to Native women.
Deer's book thus reflects her synthesis of practice and theory. She explains that the rape of Native women cannot be analytically separated from the history of the colonization of Native peoples. While Native feminists generally make a similar argument, Deer stresses that such a framework cannot make us forget the impact of rape on individual Native women. Here she links the sovereignty of Native nations to the sovereignty of “the soul” (ix). She calls on Native communities to understand the distinctness of the harm that results from rape specifically that has “profound psychological and spiritual ramifications” (xix). Consequently, one distinct feature of this book is her centering the stories of Native survivors of rape throughout the book. In doing so, she reminds the reader that rape and colonization are not abstract concepts but are lived daily by Native survivors of rape.
In making these connections, Deer notes that rape was much more of a rarity in many Native communities prior to colonization. She does not argue that there was one uniform set of practices or that there were no patriarchal tendencies prior to colonization. However, she argues that traditional practices in Native communities that were generally matrilineal can be a source for tribal communities to begin to address sexual assault as it currently exists. Deer does not think that traditions are a panacea or the limits of what tribal responses can be, however. She notes that federal intervention into tribal jurisdiction has damaged Native communities' ability to effectively respond to sexual assault. And many contemporary tribal approaches continue to blame rape survivors or inadequately address their needs. Essentially, Deer argues that the fact that colonization may be largely responsible for rape in Native communities today does not excuse tribal communities from using whatever resources are at their disposal (including their own traditions) to adequately respond today.
At the same time, Deer is clear that the federal government must take responsibility for essentially rendering Native women legally rapable through its colonial policies. She details the specifics of policies and legal decisions such as the Major Crimes, Public Law 280, Oliphant v. Suquamish, etc., to trace how they stopped Native communities from being able to address rape adequately. While some Native feminist scholars and organizers have tended to conclude from this history that the federal government is not the place to accept any assistance, Deer does not take this approach. She contends that the reform in federal policies is important to meet the needs of survivors, even if federal policy reform is not the ultimate goal. She further describes the pitfalls of reform through such measures as the Violence against Women Act and the Tribal Law and Order Act, which can have the impact of furthering colonial criminalization and legitimizing mass incarceration. At the same time, however, Deer thinks it is important to critique “peacemaking” practices within Native communities. She argues that these mediation-based systems often fail to actually hold perpetrators accountable or keep survivors safe. She also contends that traditional practices for addressing rape were not necessarily based on peacemaking or mediation, but had strong punitive elements. “Instead of being trapped by a false dichotomy of choosing between the American adversarial model and the mediation-like peacemaking model, I want to encourage the restoration or revitalization of responses to rape that include elements of retribution and restoration” (135).
With that, Deer then details a number of specific policy suggestions for tribal nations that cover everything from legal definitions of rape to civil protection orders, use of tribal civil remedies and tort law, alternatives to incarceration, and so on. Native peoples seeking practical steps for how to address sexual violence will find this book very helpful. The strategy behind her various recommendations is to encourage us to think of short-term strategies that are not simply based on increased incarceration, and will also more likely fall under the federal radar screen so that tribal communities have more time to practice new ways of supporting accountability for violence. Deer's ultimate approach is “a long-term vision of radical change [that] requires both immediate measures to address rape and a forward-looking effort to dismantle the culture of rape that has infiltrated tribal nations” (135).
Deer's long-awaited book is a must-read within Native feminist theory. Perhaps more than any other book to date, Deer combines Native feminist theory and practice not only to imagine a rape-free future, but also to address the immediate needs of those impacted by rape right now.
