Read this, weep and rage: For Native American Women, Scourge of Rape, Rare Justice
"In the Navajo Nation, Caroline Antone, 50, an advocate for the reservation’s victims of sexual violence who has herself been raped, said sexual assault was virtually routine in her community. “I know only a couple of people who have not been raped,” she said. “Out of hundreds.”
It is well documented that "Adverse Childhood Experiences" have lasting life-long effects on phycical and emotional health. Persons who experience these die younger from all causes of mortality. The article, "The Poverty Clinic: Can a stressful childhood make you a sick adult" by Paul Tough in the March 21, 2011 New Yorker is an excellent companion piece to this riveting and important NY Times article documenting sexual violence in Native Americans.
Paul Tough's article is a "must read" for all care givers and other sentient beings. You can find a pdf online (too large to upload here) or read an abstract.
From my experience in clinical practice, I see patients every day whose physical and psychiatric health have been forged by ACEs -- Sexual Violence may be the most serious form of abuse and its aftershocks are devastating.
