Intertribal Life Newspaper -

Shortly after Abigail Echo-Hawk, M.A., began her job as director of Urban Indian Health in 2016, she was astonished at what she discovered when she opened a file drawer. Inside was a 2010 comprehensive survey which asked Native American women residing in the city if they had ever experienced sexual violence. The survey of the148 women participants revealed that 94 percent had either been coerced into sex or had been raped at least once.

But what astounded Echo-Hawk most was not the survey itself, or even its results. The enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma was more concerned th...