The name of Pocahontas is not a slur, though that’s what news outlets and Sen. Elizabeth Warren have repeatedly said following President Trump’s comment<\/a> on Monday.<\/p>\n
Pocahontas was the nickname of a child that oral histories <\/a> of the Powhatan people say meant “mischievous one.” And it was, we are told, an apt description of the young girl who bore it more than 400 years ago: a girl who fearlessly entered the strange community of the English and turned cartwheels and played with the English children.<\/p>\n
In some counties, the rate of murder is 10 times the national average.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So Pocahontas is not a slur. What it is <\/em>is a reminder of the untold numbers of Native women who are lost to our communities every year. According to a 2008 Department of Justice report, <\/a> 1 in 3 Native women will experience sexual assault, rape, and\/or murder. In some counties the rate of murder is 10 times the national average. Another DOJ report <\/a> shows that 70 percent of these rapes and murders are done by non-Native men, including white men. This is unusual as most women are raped and murdered by men of their own race\/ethnicity.<\/p>\n
So, Sen. Warren, the next time (according to some,<\/a> this is the 26th time he’s done this) President Trump calls you Pocahontas, don’t stop with, “He seems to think that that’s somehow going to shut me up. … He’s wrong.”<\/p>\n
Use the moment and media attention to change the message.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Instead, use the moment and media attention to change the message<\/em> and remember an MMIW like Olivia Lone Bear, 32, a Native American mother who has been missing for nearly a month <\/a> after disappearing from the Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota.<\/p>\n
Her family has been leading the search for her over a vast reservation totaling nearly 1 million acres. According to reporting by The Bismarck Tribune, family members have said that law enforcement has not treated the search for Lone Bear with enough urgency. Meanwhile, investigators have said their “role has been limited because there’s no evidence<\/a>.”<\/p>\n
So, Sen. Warren, I’m asking you: Mention Lone Bear’s name<\/a>. This is what the name of Pocahontas really means.<\/p>\n
And wouldn’t Trump hate that? The master of redirection having his messaging redirected?<\/p>\n