Analysis Of Silenced Sisters: Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women

Silenced Sisters: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Homicide and sexual violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women are alarmingly ordinary in North America. From animated movies to western films, the general public has long seen the image of the Indigenous woman, a picture shrouded in dehumanization and fetishization. Historical treatment and perception of Indigenous women encourage trends of psychological and sexual abuse, far too often free from repercussions. Beyond a doubt, missing and murdered Indigenous women have remained forgotten by the North American justice system. Due to high statistics regarding abuse, fatal violence, lack of police presence on reservations, and unproductive federal policies, the epidemic of

However, this is simply untrue. There is no standout epidemic of missing and murdered white women ignored by the nation. In Source A, Erdrich emphasizes the severity of violence against Indigenous women. She writes, “There was vomit down the front of her dress and, soaking her skirt and soaking the gray cloth of the car seat, her dark blood,” (Erdrich 7). The imagery of Joe's mother, Geraldine, after she is raped and beaten highlights the brutality that Native American women face when victims of physical violence. The degree of Geraldine’s injuries serves as a wake-up call, a chilling reminder of the grotesque violence Indigenous women face when they escape their attackers. Erdrich creates a tense situation, prompting thoughts of what could have happened to Geraldine had she not evaded her attacker. Unlike the Indigenous sufferers of physical violence in Source A, Whitey’s girlfriend Sonja, a white woman, although also a victim of physical and emotional abuse, never experiences an equal extent of violence. It is true that more than just Indigenous women face violence. Violence against women in and of itself is an epidemic around the world. However, in Source A, Indigenous women are the only group in the novel to experience sadistic and fatal violence. Source A describes, “He rose and kicked me and went over and kicked her so hard she wheezed… he was pouring the gas can on Mayla,” (Erdrich 167). Geraldine recounts the attack on Mayla and her, illustrating the sheer brutality of violence against Native women. Not only does their attacker rape, beat, and terrorize them, but he attempts to set them on fire. Their attacker does not view them as human, an ingrained mindset appearing from colonial times, where Indigenous women went from being valued members of society to sexual objects. Dissimilar to the domestic abuse