Contributor: Epstein’s victims are remarkable. Similarly, 5,700 indigenous women and girls go missing every year

In recent weeks, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse have gained some ground that has long been denied them. Maybe their conversation even came up during your Thanksgiving holiday.

For many of us, conversations like this serve as a kind of moral palate cleanser. Once we reach our sympathy room, we feel free to go back to the soft glow of our loved ones, NFL commentary and tryptophan, feeling proud that we’ve exercised some moral clarity for the day.

But caring about survivors means caring about the exploited, not just the victims of the most high-profile predators.

The same forces that failed Epstein’s victims continue to fail thousands of others.

Here’s an example that probably didn’t come across as pumpkin pie: According to federal and tribal data, about 5,700 Native American girls are reported missing each year. (To put this in perspective, one of Epstein’s victims speculated that she was “A story of a thousand“But most estimates say dozens.” Whichever number you choose, the story is sad.)

The disappearance of Native American women—many of whom are believed to have been murdered, raped, or trafficked—receives only media attention, barely registering in the public consciousness.

Yet the crisis is so broad that it has its own summary – MMIP“Missing or murdered natives.”

Last November, Representative Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), who chairs the House Home Affairs and Environment Subcommittee on Appropriations, Wrote an op-ed states that “40 percent of all sex trafficking victims are identified as American Indian and Alaska Native women.” fourty Percentage for terms: only 2.9% of people Recognized as a native of the United States.

Simpson also noted that nearly three-quarters of Native American women who go missing by 2023 are children. the girls.

one The Associated Press has reported By the end of 2017, Native women had almost doubled in missing persons cases.

And even these eye-opening statistics understate the potential reality, as Native women are often identified as Hispanic or vaguely classified as “other” in official forms.

But why are Native American women disproportionately victimized? Many possible explanations conspire. High crime rates are certainly linked to poverty and decades, if not centuries, of systemic abuse. But there are other, more bureaucratic, reasons.

For decades, tribes have had No power to prosecute non-natives For actions taken on reservations. Meanwhile, jurisdictions create a kind of Bermuda Triangle: Is the crime the responsibility of tribal police, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the county sheriff, or the FBI?

One story illustrates the problematic nature of this gap in clear responsibility. Eugenia Charles Newton, Navajo Nation Law and Order Committee Chair; says When she was 17, she was taken to a shop where she was beaten and sexually assaulted for a week. “Because I didn’t know where I was being held – where the shed was located – they could never identify the authority,” she said. “And that man—that I knew—…I said his name—they never prosecuted him.”

Recent reforms seek to address these issues.

The 2019 Invisibility Act (signed in 2020) created a commission focuses on “Identifying, Reporting and Responding to Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) Cases and Human Trafficking Incidents.”

Savannah Law — named for a 22-year-old woman who was killed in 2017 while eight months pregnant — was passed in 2020 and signed into law by President Trump, with the goal of standardizing protocols and improving data collection.

And last year, the aid distributed according to the law on violence against women was sent more than this $86 million in programs Helping survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, historical violence, stalking and trafficking.

These efforts are laudable, but the promise is greater than the impact, while the overall numbers have not decreased: in 2016, about 5,700 indigenous women went missing. In 2023, this number was around 5,800.

It is reasonable to blame the long mouth of American history. But there is also a simple explanation – one related to Epstein’s story and related to human nature: predators choose vulnerable people who they think no one will believe (or spend energy seeking justice).

This is where the stories differ.

You don’t have to. One of the reasons that the Epstein case finally broke is because some of the victims were young, white women—the ultimate embodiment of what Gwynne Eiffel once said.The Missing White Woman Syndrome(And remember, Epstein’s victims still took decades to make us care. they.)

Native American women, sadly, are still treated by many alienating characters in the long national narrative.

So as we emerge from the holiday that commemorates the feast between English settlers and Native peoples and we plunge into Black Friday (also known as Native American Heritage Day), it’s worth pausing to consider a question.

If only our national interests would expand — interesting – To some type of high-profile predator surviving, how many other victims and predators remain hidden?

Matt K. Lewis is the author of “Stupid rich politicians“Oh”Too dumb to fail“