The assigned article that sheds light on the sexual colonialization of native people is authored by Andrea Smith. Andrea Lee Smith is an American academic, feminist, and activist against violence. Smith’s work focuses on issues of violence against women of color and their communities, specifically Native American women. Luana K. Ross is a Native American sociologist of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, located at Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana.

For today’s assignment, based on the Smith and Ross (2004) reading, please explain how colonialism is interlinked with sexual violence – specifically violence against women.

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 POST 1

The emergence of colonialism in correspondence with the patriarchy, constructed values, norms, practices, and standards. The latter was bolstered through the established patriarchal state that composed large institutions and patriarchal figures of significant influence that permeated their ideologies into laws, regulations, and practices that normalized patriarchal culture. Accordingly, its manifestation targeted individuals/groups that did not meet patriarchal standards of race, gender, and sexuality. Thus, the targets of the patriarchy became viewed as dispensable and unworthy to society, thus stripping said individuals of their humanity and identity. Hence, there is an evident interlock between colonialism and sexual violence, specifically against women and, in this case, against Native American women. Namely, the success of colonization was significantly attributed to the violence and abuse of Indian bodies, thus producing the inextricability of violence against Native American women in accordance with the state. More so, due to the origination of colonization being attributed to the assaults of Native American women, their bodies are consequently viewed as tarnished, dirty, and “rapeable” through the lens of the patriarchy. Therefore, making any form of assault seem permissible and insignificant (similar to the invasion of Native land). Hence, through the latter patriarchal ideology, violence or domestic abuse of Native women is not counted as genuine violence; only violence against women who suit patriarchal values (white women) are considered to be violated. As a result, Native American women are assaulted and violated without acknowledgment, forming their self-image as one that does not deserve bodily integrity and thus generating internal self-hatred. As such, the latter is the goal of the patriarchy because “when Indian women are assaulted some say “I wish I weren’t Indian” (Smith, 1999), stripping their identity and humanity and forming low-self esteem and hate for themselves.Moreover, Indian women are the targets of sexual abuse since their reproductive systems enable them to continue their heritage; thereby making it a patriarchal goal to dismantle and eliminate future generations of “deviant” or, in better words, non-patriarchal individuals. Hence, since the state was constructed and nourished by colonists and patriarchs through the gruesome acts taken on Native Americans, domestic/sexual violence against Native American women is prominent and hindered by the patriarchy. Therefore, it is of high criticality that political mobilization becomes apparent and federal systems sponsoring the ongoing abuse of Native American women become dismantled.