[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 165 (Friday, October 18, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1307]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 MISSING AND MURDERED INDIGENOUS WOMEN

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                             HON. TOM COLE

                              of oklahoma

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 16, 2019

  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring attention to and urge 
Congressional action on the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous 
Women.


 =========================== NOTE =========================== 

  
  October 18, 2019, on page E1307, the following appeared: Mrs. 
COLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to bring attention to and urge 
Congressional action on the Crisis of Missing and Murdered 
Indigenous Women.
  
  The online version has been corrected to read: Mr. COLE. Mr. 
Speaker, I rise today to bring attention to and urge Congressional 
action on the Crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.


 ========================= END NOTE ========================= 


  Mr. Speaker, more than 4 in 5 American Indian and Alaska Native women 
have experienced violence in their lifetime. More than half of American 
Indian and Alaska Native Women have experienced sexual violence in 
their lifetime.
  American Indian and Alaska Native women are over one and half times 
more likely than White women to have experienced violence in the past 
year. Native women face murder rates more than 10 times the national 
average in some parts of the country. They also are almost 2 times as 
likely to have experienced rape than non-Hispanic White women over the 
course of their lifetime.
  Given all these statistics of acts of violence, 96 percent of 
American Indian and Alaska Native women victims of sexual violence 
experience violence at the hands of a non-Native perpetrator. To 
reiterate, nearly all of the violence committed against Native women 
are committed by non-Natives.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not believe the protection of all women and 
children is or should be treated as partisan issue. Tribal governments, 
through trust and treaty obligations should have the same authority as 
states to protect women and children in vulnerable situations. All 
states, tribal and local law enforcement authorities should have access 
and the use of the same tools to prevent these crimes, on or off the 
reservations. Hunters know where to hunt; fishermen know where to fish. 
And predators know where to prey.
  I am pleased to see the House has taken action on this issue with the 
passage of the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, and I 
urge the Senate to take up this important legislation and include 
strong tribal provisions to ensure tribal governments have all the 
resources available to protect their communities.

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