Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said today that something must be done about the epidemic of domestic violence, sexual assault and sex trafficking among Alaska Natives and American Indians nationwide.
"The statistics on violence and assault are staggering, and whether it's one in three or one in four, any act of violence is unacceptable," Murkowski said in opening remarks at a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing.
"I meet with far too many Alaskans who tell me things may be worse - there is so much whispered and silenced into the shadows, which damages not just the victims, but also their families," she said.
Murkowski's first question was to the Department of Justice, asking an associate attorney general, "Young women are being hunted. You've got predators waiting outside homeless teen shelters, going to events like the Alaska Federation of Natives conference. What is the Department of Justice doing to target these sex traffickers?"
I am very glad that Senator Murkowski is finally addressing this issue.
This has been one of Alaska's most terrible, and shameful secrets going back decades, and it is well past time that somebody well connected politically brought it out of the shadows and did something substantial to institute laws and educational programs to finally address the issue head on.
However I fear that Murkowki may not truly understand the depth of this problem. Here is how it was explained in a news report from December 2010, by the Fairbanks Newsminer:
Sex traffickers use a combination of mind games and beatings, promises and drugs to control girls, authorities said.
Alaska Native girls are commonly lured from their hometowns by friends or relatives who are already working as prostitutes. They invite the girl to come hang out and go shopping rent-free.
About one-third of the women arrested this year for prostitution in Anchorage are Alaska Native, according to Lacey's figures.
It was an Alaska Native girl who moved to Anchorage to stay with family at the age of 12 who helped point investigators toward another prostitution kingpin: Don Webster, also known as Jerry Starr, Goeden said.
Webster, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2008, had tried to recruit the girl, Goeden said.
The FBI agent got to know the teen during visits to a youth jail. The pair talked about how the girl ended up selling her body at age 14 in Anchorage.
"Her response to me was, 'I could be back home in the village where I could be having sex with my grandpa for free, or I could be here getting paid for me,'" Goeden said.
"I didn't know what to say. I had no idea how to respond to this little girl."
That is not a problem which a few stricter laws, or a few more rural community sex education classes, will solve. This is a problem with deep roots in how some in the native community view women, how these women often view themselves, and how outsiders take advantage of these vulnerabilities.
If Senator Murkowski is serious about tackling this problem she needs recognize that this is going to require serious money going toward education in rural communities, providing much easier access to specially trained and licensed counselors, and an increase in a law enforcement presence that can go to a village to remove a child who is being molested immediately and put them someplace where they feel safe and will talk about their rapist without fear of being placed back into their homes.
(For those who are interested, I also addressed this terrible problem in an earlier post entitled Alaska's Secret Shame.)
This puts all things Palin in perspective. These children need to be saved.
ReplyDeleteShameful. Where have the cops been? How about going after the johns for a start.
ReplyDeleteI hope she really means to be a help and not an hinder to the problem. Of all states you would think that a state run by a female governor would have addressed this situation along with other crimes involving woman and children.
ReplyDeleteIt appears like nobody cares about any of these victims, they don't mind the statistics. Hell Alaska leading in Venereal diseases and has for a long time.
I just don't get Alaska sometimes, it is like there is an internal conflict going on that it does want to grow but the people won't let it.
Sex trafficking in Alaska?
ReplyDeleteDid Todd's name come up?
But why haven't you connected the dots and name the palins. Pls can you do that too.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice that SEn. Lisa is finally getting to this.
ReplyDeleteIf she had spent any time in Fairbanks, she would know that this was a problem.
Girls with long dark hair were approached all the time with offers of clothing and $$, as one asshole said to me "to just sit with a guy at the bar and laugh with him."
If you were tall or had light eyes, it brings more $$. I usually sign my name, but not on this.
Sarah is going to be pissed that her husband has a new name.
ReplyDeleteAlaska's Sex Traffic King
Sen. Murkowski should be ready to take on the power structure in this shameful industry. Some may be supporters.
ReplyDeleteI pray she is serious. That this is not just a chance for crime porn that gets shoved under the carpet once the investigation and hearings are done.
¨I had no idea how to respond to this little girl.¨
ReplyDeleteNeither would I. Alaska needs help on this one. This is a top priority. Your state needs funds in order to ramp up it´s rural education programs. There should be no opposition. If anyone gets in Lisa´s way, she should shame them out of politics. How can anyone not come to the aid of that little girl?
As an integrated, approaching middle-aged Native woman, I've enjoyed a life in Alaska without much obvious discrimination. I am intelligent, confident and have a rather horizon-broadened world-view.
ReplyDeleteBut I am going to 'go there' about this topic you bring up. The reason why we have these crippling social pathologies is because of the Christian missionaries coming into our villages as THE LAW and telling us that everything about our ways, our identity, our faith in the natural environment and spirits was wrong.
In short order, they obliterated our identity and along with that our teaching and instructing methods that were very successful social engineering tools for an ancient culture.
The Elders would instruct the youth on how to be functioning and responsible members of society, we all had roles and apprenticeships on how to survive and contribute. The Tea Party and the Fundies would have been impressed with our "teach a man to fish" crap but they weren't, instead they got us hooked on government commodities, housing, schooling and that sweet, sweet unaffordable drug, fossil fuels.
One of the preeminent teachings with NO shame was sex education. We knew our bodies and what it was for and people respected each others beings and reproductive goals.
The Church told us we were worthless, had to rebuild ourselves as dependents on the White Man and their system and deconstructed thousands of years of respect, self-determination, competence and personal boundaries.
Systematic child abuse brought in by Catholic Priests and nuns, who were GOD in the villages, bred generations of children who grew up to be confused and self-loathing, delving into drugs, alcohol and other destructive behaviors to erase their inherent shame in being 'native' and victims of sexual abuse. Yes, they spread the wealth and here we are, abusing our own granddaughters.
I'm not saying we were perfect or pristine before Contact, but we were never ashamed of bodies or abused the helpless with dirty sex.
Remember when Sarah Palin told the only black man at a VP rally in her meandering, non-sequitor way that because Todd was Yup'ik or a person of 'color,' (hold back your laugh) that they, the Palins, "lived it, every day" - I think she was trying to say they lived against discrimination - and "we (Alaska) need to do better on that.
ReplyDeleteThat bitch never did a thing for her State's 20% Indigenous population and all she has to do is hide behind Todd and her children to give herself minority sensitive credentials and the press lets her get away with it.
You think I sound angry? What this Tea Party and the Fundies bellyhoo about every day for the last three years, is about letting the Government intrude on our private lives - well, they've done it, been sanctioned by Government also too, to do it to the most vulnerable and defenseless in our nation. I'll include our Tribal bothers and sisters in the Lower 48. Read it in the reports, the government raped and pillaged our Indigenous peoples for over 300 years and have resented us and the burdens they created by damaging us - as much as they've resented the slaves they brought over to end up being 'equal' by law.
And when our Native corporations finally utilize our Congressionally-mandated corporations to serve our population through the Free Market (instead of the Reservation System) and start to get our footing with taking advantage of such things like 8(a) no-bid non-competitive government contracts, you've got douche-bags like Joe Miller who sucks off government programs and social safety nets - attack Native Corporations for doing what the Free Market designs them to do in Koch Brothers fashion.
It's mind boggling, if the Native Corps had thrown their support in Joe's favor, he'd be singing us praises as representative corporations and success stories that affect government the way it is supposed to.
People like Sarah Palin and Joe Miller, who uses God and Jesus as politics, and boast of bullshit servant's hearts, are the least among us, parasites that contribute nothing but feed off our successes and exploit our misery.
Why do you think it is so prevalent in Alaska? Is it particularly something about Alaska, such as the remoteness?
ReplyDeleteI can see testosterone-fueled guys headin' for Alaska for decades for the adventure. But the moral bankruptcy?
Do the traffickers find it easier there? If so, why? And do you think it is the tip of the iceburg in this country?
And of course I have to ask, do you think the first dude was/is involved? It seems especially risky for the Palins' "careers" and "reputations".
Good for Murkowski.
It's great she's talking about BUT and I mean BUT
ReplyDeleteGet your head out of the sand Gryphen. Until AK actually votes in people - not Sullivan and Parnell, etc., the list too long to note -- I don't see where non-AK people are going to be prepared to send more flipping money to AK for another 'program/laws'. I say this in that we'd have to pay too, to put more cops on the streets since Sullivan yanked the budget, etc. I could go on but sorry, AK has to step up and grow up before we start paying for AK's new wish list.
The State has a huge reserved bank account, so it's time AK uses part of it. Charge a sales tax to be used. Hell, charge state income tax. People in many other states pay both so why can't you. Remember too, the megabucks that have been received by 'natives' for those no-bid contracts. What have they done for the 'communities'?? They too are sitting on a bank account. It's also the huge earmarks sent and misused. AK has money - use it and set your own laws and pay for the education, the cops, etc. It's not the responsibility of the rest of the US to keep propping up the wall when your state votes morons in.
Sorry - I'm seeing this as Lisa thinking she's playing 'Uncle Ted'. Let Lisa talk at State level -- wouldn't that be a new concept.
The State of AK could have been working with this for years to correct the problem.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't. Murkowski wants federal funds to be used.
AK is soooo screwed up.
this makes me so sad.
ReplyDeleteat first, i wanted to say that this has nothing to do with the Palins.
then i thought of the rape kits, and how the girls had to pay for them on their own.
and i thought of all that SPAK could have done during her time as governor.
and tho' i still don't think we can use this reality agaist SPAK, i do think that it shows just how unconnected to vital issues she is.
with problems like that in her state, she sends her daughter onto DWTS to bump and grind.
i find it all so sad
Anything from Shailey on her allegations regarding Todd's involvement with sex trafficking? t has been a month since she said "give me a month".
ReplyDeleteShe needn't look to her own party for support because the Republicans are going in exactly the opposite retro direction. Basically wanting to put women back into bondage with no protections and no legal rights.
ReplyDeleteIt was, I think, 1956 that the state of Texas passed a law allowing women to own property.
A large part of the push came from the automobile industry that wanted to sell cars to women. Not a social realization of women's equality.
Women could not inherit property. Any legacy in their name was managed by a male trustee, say a brother or lawyer or bank, who was the legal owner of the legacy and could use the money or sell off property any way they wanted. The woman had no legal say and no legal protections from being left pennyless and homeless.
(Yet another reason to pass the Equal Rights Amendment for Women)
A woman could not own a house in her own name or even receive a pay check in her own name. Legally the money belonged to her father, husband, brother of some other appointed male trustee.
Even if she were a wage earner she only had access to the allowance the trustee allowed her, and she had to ask for any other money she needed for housing, new clothes, medical bills, travel, etc.
This is where the Republicans want to take us.
Women, blacks and any other person they deem unworthy of the Old White Boys Club (Tokens eligible but only if they out white whitie, and only in very limited numbers.) are being reduced to such a level of poverty and dependency that they are essentially slaves.
In 1982 there was a short article about the diary of a young woman who worked as a house servant to a wealthy English family in the late 19th C. She was paid the equivalent of $10 a month, had to supply her own shoes, and got one afternoon a week off. The justification for the low wages was the free room and board and being on call 24/7.
But that level of pay guaranteed that she could virtually never break free of the bondage of that kind of job.
That is what the American wealthy are aiming for with their dreams of Empire and Royalty.
G -
ReplyDeleteI was impressed with comments left at 7:05 and 7:09.
It sounds like these are the kind of peopole Lisa needs to be talking to.
I could not help but wonder about her motives though - I know Malia Litman and others have been trying hard to get people to address the Todd/prostitution soap opera as well as how the authorities seem to manage to cover up for him. Can not help but wonder if this is a "backdoor" way of getting to Todd.
Pat Padrnos
Is Shailey Tripp an exploiter or a victim?
ReplyDeleteWe KNOW Tawd is an exploiter.
I find Murkowski's protestation's here to be disingenuous.
ReplyDeleteShe has voted lock-step with her GOP/Corp. Masters to limit if not stop all together those dollars that go to social services and programs that work to help poor, under educated, and minority women.
Where are Murkowski's protestations about Planned Parenthood being attacked and funding withdrawn? - for just one example of a social net that works to help disadvantaged women.
From this week's Alaska Ear:
ReplyDelete1) Second place goes to Sen. Lisa, who grilled the Department of Justice this week about sex trafficking affecting Alaska Natives, which included her asking them if they needed "clarification" about what constitutes Mann Act violations, according to earwigs with better computers than Ear. Find the really large video at http://bit.ly/nP5BR5.
2) And speaking of Shannyn, did you know she has a "role" in the Sarabots' newest prayer to their goddess, the movie "Undefeated?" Not by choice, Ear suspects. The producers apparently lifted part of an old radio comment criticizing some of the sillier ethics complaints filed against Sarah for undermining the legit complaints.
"They pulled my radio clips to 'DEFEND' Palin," Shannyn wrote. "Good lord."
http://www.adn.com/2011/07/16/
1971179/alaska-ear.html
O/T Bristol (and her scarf) was on Fox & Friends this morning.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the title of the video: "Bristol Palin Opens Up"
Is that with the help of wine coolers? Maybe Fox News does have a sense of humor after all.
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/
fox-friends-weekend/index.html#/v/
1061356932001/bristol-palin-opens
-up/?playlist_id=163197
Tripp will learn to give back on their new reality show. Yeah, O.K.A.Y.
I too am eager to know what Shailey was going to tell us "in a month."
ReplyDeleteIt seems likely to be related to this topic.
Gryphen,
ReplyDeleteRebekah's arrest is not necessarily a good thing. It was timed for just before she gave evidence to the parliamentary commission and now she can wriggle out of answering any questions because she's "helping" the police with their inquiries.
Half of the bent cops involved in the scandal are still on active duty.
Murdoch seems to be orchestrating the whole thing so he looks mildly bad, but in a way that the whole truth doesn't come out.
We're watching it closely, it seems the parliamentary investigation takes two steps forward and three backwards, thwarted by the police investigation. It seems odd, but Murdoch has a lot of dirt on the cops and appears to have more leverage with them.
He's trying to get one investigation to come to a dead end because it could jeopardize the other, the one he seems to be controlling...
Cameron is terribly uncomfortable with the whole thing, Clegg is a wet rag. That leaves Labour. Both Ed Milliband and the chair of the commission, Keith Vaz, are not prepared to give Murdoch a pass, but somehow he appears to be manipulating the events.
I hope I'm wrong, but the timing of Rebekah's arrest stinks to high heaven.
Bill Allen was part of the problem and remember who his best friend was? TED STEVENS
ReplyDeleteI think it is time the shareholders of these native corporations instead of cutting themselves checks use that money to help all the homeless in the state. Too easy to kick them out the village and let Fairbanks and Anchorage take care of them
ReplyDelete@7:55
ReplyDeleteYou took the words right out of my mouth. This should be shouted from the rooftops!
Anon 7:05am Thank you for the history lesson. It is unfortunately the usual sordid tale. Outside money will help train counselors, but this is really a job for the elders. As an approaching middle-aged woman, you are going to have to become a loud voice for the girls. It may not be your nature, but someone has to speak up and get the people moving to help themselves. I don't know the Alaskan Native culture beyond superficially, so I don't have specific advice beyond recapturing what was good in your culture. Outsiders contributed greatly to this mess, but you are the people to clean it up. I learned this hard lesson dealing with intercity Black youth. There was only so much, I, as a white woman could do; the rest had to come from their culture. Dear one, I will cheer on Senator Lisa's efforts. I will cheer on your efforts. I will add my voice to the call for decent schools, and social services directed by your people. But I will never have the credibility you have.
ReplyDeleteBecoming a champion of this issue, and dedicating herself to stopping the abuse and degradation of all women in Alaska, natives especially, could make Lisa Murkowski a hero to women in her home state and around the United States.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone tell me why the Republican party would rather be seen as incompetent assholes than to do the right thing for the people that they are paid handsomely to represent? Did they not get into the representative government business to represent the interests of their constituents?
I double dog dare them to treat the children and all citizens of this country in such a way that they can get schools, streets, hospitals, airports, museums, and charitable organizations dedicated in their honor. The real glory lies not in what you take from the earth, but from what you leave behind.
Lisa, be a hero.
Amen, Anonymous 7:05. I recently read a history of Hawaii, and it's the same story: Christian missionaries stripping natives of their culture and languages, and instilling them with shame and self-loathing.
ReplyDeleteGryph,
ReplyDeleteIs this in any way connected to the Palin's and their suspected involvement in prostitution?
RE Fox headline "Bristol Palin Opens Up" - Bristol's earned a reputation for "opening up" plenty, and has the kids to prove it. Fox should have added "Again"
ReplyDeleteI am so offended by the FBI agent who said, "I have no idea how to respond to this little girl."
ReplyDeleteFourteen is not a LITTLE GIRL. Fourteen is a young woman. So long as you see the victim as a child, you think you have to fix things. When you treat the victim with the respect she deserves, you are more able to work with her towards a solution. Demeaning the victim is blocking your ability to assess the problem.
Incidentally, this is all about how the natives are involved in sex trafficking, and I'm sure they are. I'm equally convinced that the white majority is involved, if only as customers. More racism from Alaska.
Honestly, I'm getting tired of Alaska whining without doing anything. Start electing some competent people and actually demand that they do something.
Yes, I'm cranky this morning. I get that way when I see women bought and sold as slaves.
I so hope Murkowski is being truthful about her concern in this matter...she has not shown to be truthful in other occasions.
ReplyDeleteSince Todd Palin has been involved with this matter - using prostitutes - and receiving 'cover up' from the Anchorage Police Department - I hope they go after him too.
The profile of a large number of teen prostitutes is they came from a situation where they were being sexually abused. When I lived in Nome the number of raped kids from villages who had psychological issues was huge. They were often flown to the hospital for suicidal ideation or attempts. Then they put them in a room where they were not allowed phone calls, TV nor could they leave the room. It was like they were punishing them for being traumatized which of course causes more trauma. There was an attitude that they were just acting out to get a flight to Nome. They had people who watched them from a chair outside the room which was important, but they have no psychiatric training, that's why they just called them sitters. They then were taken to behavioral health for about an hour a day or someone came to them. Some of the nurses were quite nasty to them and as I have said so many times, mental health care in rural AK is so bad it is often better to just stay the hell away from it completely. How would a kid have even an inkling of a clue that the health care providers were a huge part of the problem. So, they end up with even lower self esteem and get sent back to the village. The fact that many are exploited and end up in prostitution is predictable. This is just one of the factors that really got to me in Nome and contributed to the whole picture of my breakdown. The police did not arrest a rapist if a woman did not want him arrested. When I voiced my opinions about all of this I found out people thought this was all normal and nothing could be done to change it. In abuseful situations where a woman has to go back to a very small village and the rapist's family will be against her what choice does she have, but to say she doesn't want him arrested. This contributes to serial rapes. Law enforcement in many of the villages is extremely poor and can be very delayed. They may have one VPSO for the whole village and what if he is related to the perpetrator? These guys are operating without a lot of resources and training as well as being very vulnerable themselves due to working alone. One of the many days I had an ER and the clinic full of patients and could not get a nurse in the inpatient unit to leave the break room to help me a raped woman came in and the SART person on call did not respond. I had no choice but to leave her by herself for a long time. Every time something like that happened it felt like a piece of my soul was gone. For politicians to suddenly act like they just found out about this situation is disingenuous.
ReplyDeleteAre all of Tawd's prostitutes in his prostitute ring Native American?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThe State of AK could have been working with this for years to correct the problem.
They didn't. Murkowski wants federal funds to be used.
AK is soooo screwed up.
7:24 AM
-----------------------------------
FYI since Alaska has no state income tax and gets back more federal dollars than it sends in, all of Alaskan programs are paid for by the federal tax dollar. But maybe instead of giving all Alaskans a yearly check, those monies could be used for some of these programs?
I agree with 8:01--there is something ulterior in Murkowski's motive here. She has probably been given the task of opening the door to finally shutting down Palin's political career and even influence. I'm sure her bus tour stop in New Hampshire on the same day as Romney's announcement pissed everyone off at the top.
ReplyDeleteThey finally understand what a loose cannon she is.
Suddenly, the feds will get the ball rolling on this investigation in the next month and Todd (or his co-horts) will be implicated, pre-empting Sarah's announcement to run.
Since the call for an investigation comes from an Alaskan Republican female Senator, the hands of the men at the top of the GOP are clean. Sarah can't claim it was sexism or the good old boy system that is trying to keep her down. Nice work, Karl.
Prostitution and sex trafficking are bigger than Alaska. The sex industry is a by-product of the corporatist state which does its best to keep jobs scarce, wages low, and Republicans in office.
ReplyDeleteCelia H, thank you so much for being here. I always learn so much from your comments and I'm so sad at all the terrible things you must have seen and experienced. Those dealing with post-trauma so often find it hard to speak out about the causes of their suffering, and you are one brave lady! :)
ReplyDeleteI wish her luck in this adventure. I know too many girls personally that are hookers. And when she is done with this quest, maybe she will have some left over materials to give out to any relatives of the Heath's and the Palin's. Seems like none of them know anything about sex education either.
ReplyDeleteIF YOU WANT TO HELP TALK TO YOUR LOCAL SENATOR AND TELL THEM TO PASS THE INTERNATIONAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT... THIS WILL PLACE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AT THE TOP OF FOREIGN AID THIS WILL BLACK LIST ALL COUNTRIES WHERE WOMEN HAVE NO RIGHTS, ARE BEING HONOR KILLED, SEX TRAFFIC, AND RAPED.... HELP OUT AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL by GETTING THIS BILL PASSED...
ReplyDelete