Digital Commons Network^™

Tribal Sovereignty And Native American Women’S Rights In The Wake Of Castro-Huerta, Erin Geraldine Demarco

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis will primarily examine the sexual assault crisis Native American women face and the jurisdictional issues that influence whether and how tribes prosecute and punish perpetrators. Federal Indian policy and various Supreme Court cases have increasingly undermined tribal sovereignty over the past few centuries, resulting in tribal governments lacking the ability to respond to sexual violence against their members. Native women who experience sexual violence often find themselves entangled in a complex web of jurisdictional issues, resulting in a lack of clarity about which government body has authority. As a result, their cases are frequently left unprosecuted, denying them …