I've followed the work of Sarah Deer for a long time. Unfortunately, Native American women suffer the worst when it comes to domestic violence, sexual assault, and sex trafficking and she has done amazing work to combat those things. She is one of my role models as someone hoping to become a lawyer as well.

Unfortunately, over the years the Native American/ Indigenous community has been suffering. These people are the ones who got to our land first and we took it away from them. This is where the line should have ended, but no it is not. We repay them by raping their women and taking them violently and doing who knows what to them. It is sad and disgusting, this is dehumanizing. This article was important because I learned about the different stories from other indigenous woman who have encountered such experiences. It is scary and not okay, they are people are should be respected like the rest of us. It is extremely sad that they are being treated like animals. This is making them fall apart as a community and a culture and it just isn't right.

The indigenous community has been suffering silently for decades. This country has continuously attempted to redact their stories from history, as well as cancel them as a culture while kidnapping and raping their women. It is beautiful and uplifting to know that indigenous women and being published and supported with their writings. It takes so much courage to share their stories and claim their voices. Their beautiful lands were pillaged and their communities destroyed, while they were pushed to the side to coexist amongst themselves on dictated reserves. Their cries for help have been ignored as their suicide rates skyrocket. It is disheartening to know that the despicable acts committed against this community rages on while the nation pretends they do not exist.

Some of the stories that really stood out to me were Chystos, Sarah Deer, and Audra Simpson. Chrystos is a non-binary poet who "explores issues of colonialism, genocide, violence against Native people, queerness, street life, and more." She is unafraid to be raw and open with their audience about Native American struggles inside other struggles as well through art. Sarah Deer works hard towards shedding light on the high rates of sexual violence against Native Americans today, as well as the history of sex-trafficking and rape. Audra Simpson researches the "Kahnawà:ke Mohawk struggles in asserting their legal and cultural rights across settler-imposed borders," in America and Canada.

It was very interesting to read and learn of the accomplishments and achievements of various indigenous feminists. I had never actually stopped and thought about, "There are so many feminist women in the present day, but where are all the Indigenous ones?". For that reason, I'm glad I was exposed to this article, because if I had not been, I would never have learned how indigenous people are effectively being silenced and shut out from the public eye. In the early parts of the article, the author described how settler colonialism works to erase indigenous people. Despite these major obstacles, the strong indigenous women mentioned in the article worked to fight against their oppressors through activism, scholarly pursuits, political engagement, and writing. One of the most interesting people on the list was Winona LaDuke. I was very fascinated by how she not only ran for vice president one year but also opened two large-scale projects, one being the White Earth Land Recovery Project. As part of the project's mission, her group repurchased non-native owned land that originally belonged to indigenous people. This is a wonderful redemption story and shows how strong of a woman she is for coming this far despite the world being against her and her people.