MPR: Confronting sexual violence against Native women

Interview with Sarah Deer, author of THE BEGINNING AND END OF RAPE.

The Beginning and End of Rape (Sarah Deer)Tribal nations across the state and the country are battling a host of social issues: alcoholism, homelessness, unemployment. But there's one issue, according to Sarah Deer, that needs to be addressed first: Rape.

"When we look at why people drink, or why people don't work, or why people are homeless — all of these social challenges that tribal governments have been struggling with often have at the backdrop rape," Deer said.

Deer is a professor of law at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, and a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma. She is a past recipient of the MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" and the author of "The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America."

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Published in: Minnesota Public Radio