Violence Against the Earth Begets Violence Against Women: An Analysis of the Correlation Between Large Extraction Projects and Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and the Laws that Permit the Phenomenon through an International Human Rights Lens

Abstract

This note examines the prevalence of sex trafficking of Native women and children, and the correlation those rates have with large extraction projects, such as the Bakken Oil Fields in North Dakota, and the camps (“man camps”) that employees live in. In order to fully flesh out the phenomenon accurately, this note walks through pertinent history and the Truth of the Native experience of colonization and genocide in the United States. Further, this note also examines the current laws and policies in the United States that perpetuate and exacerbate the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls phenomenon. Finally, it compares those laws and policies to international human rights standards, speaks to how the United States consistently falls short of international human rights standards, and how the issue can be remedied.