Key Takeaways
- Native women experience stalking, sexual abuse, and trafficking at some of the highest rates in the U.S.
- These harms are tied to historic family separation, cultural disruption, and systemic inequities.
- Stalking often acts as a warning sign or bridge to more serious violence.
- Native communities are leading healing efforts rooted in culture, resilience, and collective action.
Understanding the Crisis: The Numbers Tell a Stark Story
American Indian and Alaska Native women face a disproportionate rates of violence. They are stalked at more than twice the rate of other women in the U.S. with 48.8 percent experiencing stalking in their lifetime. Native men also face significant risk, with 18.6 percent experiencing stalking. 1.
These experiences rarely occur in isolation. Instead, they often intersect with other forms of harm, creating compounded risks to safety, health, and well-being. While domestic violence,including physical assault and coercive control by intimate partners, is also prevalent in Native communities, this article focuses specifically on the dangerous progression from stalking behaviors to sexual assault and human trafficking.
Across Native communities, unwanted attention, persistent messaging, and stalking behaviors can quickly escalate into control, abuse, or exploitation. These behaviors are not isolated incidents,they are part of a larger, interconnected pattern of violence that includes sexual abuse and human trafficking.
How the Past Shapes the Present
To understand why these risks persist, it is essential to consider history. For generations, Native families were disrupted by government policies that forcibly separated children from their parents and attempted to erase Indigenous identities. Boarding schools punished children for speaking their language or practicing their culture, leaving many without guidance, safety, or examples of healthy family relationships.
These historical disruptions contributed to cycles of trauma and instability that continue today. Loss of land, poverty, underfunded services, and systemic inequities all create environments where violence, abuse, and exploitation can take root and persist across generations.
The Cycle of Vulnerability: How Early Trauma Creates Risk
Research shows a strong link between early trauma and later exploitation: 79% of Native women involved in trafficking were sexually abused as children, often by multiple perpetrators, and nearly half had spent time in foster care, separated from family, culture, and community. 2
Early experiences of abuse and disconnection make individuals more vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. When basic needs for safety, belonging, and stability are unmet, predators can exploit these vulnerabilities to gain control.
Stalking as a Bridge to Greater Harm
Stalking behaviors frequently act as a bridge between emotional manipulation and physical abuse, a warning sign of escalating danger that is too often overlooked or dismissed.
Stalking can take many forms:
- Following or spying on the victim from a distance
- Showing up unexpectedly
- Contact through a third party
- Sending unwanted gifts
- Making threats
- Digital stalking or GPS tracking
These are not harmless gestures or signs of affection. They are tools that establish control over a victim's life. When stalking behaviors are ignored or minimized, they can signal the start of a path toward sexual abuse or trafficking. The vast majority (89%) of stalking against AI/AN women is perpetrated by non-Native individuals, and violence often co-occurs among stalking, sexual assault, and intimate partner violence.3
The Trafficker's Playbook: From Stalking to Control
Many traffickers begin by posing as caring partners or friends, slowly isolating and manipulating their targets through stalking behaviors. They present themselves as sources of safety, affection, or financial help, only to manipulate and control their victims using emotional, psychological, or physical means.
Common risk factors among Native trafficking survivors include:
- History of homelessness or unstable living
- Prior experience of violence, especially sexual violence
- Involvement in foster care or the juvenile justice system
- Poverty and economic instability
- Substance abuse, both as a cause and effect of exploitation (often introduced or leveraged by traffickers)
- Disconnection from culture and community
How These Crimes Interact in Native Communities
The relationship between stalking, sexual abuse, and trafficking is not linear—it's cyclical and interconnected:
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Stalking often precedes or accompanies sexual abuse and trafficking, serving both as a means of control and a warning of escalating violence.
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Victims commonly experience multiple forms of abuse simultaneously. For example, a trafficking victim may also experience frequent stalking and sexual violence from their trafficker.
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The intersection of these crimes perpetuates trauma, mental health issues like PTSD and depression, and physical health problems among Native survivors.
Barriers to Justice
Even when crimes are reported, Native Americans face unique legal challenges. Federal and tribal jurisdiction often overlap, and crimes by non-Native offenders on tribal land are frequently unprosecuted. This lack of accountability reinforces the risk of abuse and makes prevention and intervention more difficult.
Stalking, by itself, is not explicitly listed as a crime under the Major Crimes Act. For Native Americans experiencing stalking on tribal lands, the case generally falls under the jurisdiction of Tribal Law Enforcement, assuming the tribe’s criminal code recognizes stalking as an offense. Tribal programs and resources play a critical role in supporting survivors, providing safety planning, advocacy, and guidance throughout the reporting process. However, prosecution remains extremely complex due to the fluid movement of Native individuals between reservation and non-reservation lands. Jurisdictional boundaries further complicate matters, crimes occurring on trust land, off trust land, or across state and tribal lines can create gaps in legal authority. Additionally, whether the perpetrator is Native or non-Native can determine which law enforcement entity—tribal, federal, or state—has jurisdiction. These complexities often extend to personal protection orders as well. While tribal courts can issue protection orders to safeguard victims, some law enforcement agencies outside tribal lands may fail to recognize or enforce these orders, leaving survivors vulnerable and without consistent protection.
Effectively addressing stalking also requires widespread education across professions that interact with survivors, including tribal law enforcement officers, federal and state law enforcement, social workers, healthcare providers, mental health counselors, school personnel, and victim advocates. Without proper training, these professionals may not recognize stalking behaviors or understand the proper interventions, potentially leaving victims vulnerable to escalating violence or more serious crimes. Comprehensive education and coordinated responses are essential to prevent further harm and to support survivors in seeking justice and safety.
Taking Action: Supporting Healing and Safety in Native Communities
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Educate and train first responders – law enforcement, medical staff, behavioral health professionals, educators, and social service workers learn to recognize stalking and other warning signs before they escalate into more serious harm.
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Integrate traditional healing with trauma-informed care – talking circles, sweat lodges, prayer, and cultural ceremonies are combined with counseling to address trauma holistically.
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Reconnect youth to culture and community – programs that strengthen identity, belonging, and resilience help prevent cycles of violence before they begin.
Every act of education, advocacy, and cultural connection empowers survivors, strengthens families, and reinforces community resilience. By participating, supporting, or promoting these initiatives, individuals and organizations contribute to breaking cycles of violence and building safer, healthier Native communities.
If you or someone you know is being stalked, trafficked, or abused, contact the StrongHearts Native Helpline at 1-844-7NATIVE (1-844-762-8483) or visit StrongHeartsHelpline.org.
References:
- Rosay, A. B. (2016). Violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women and men (Research Report No. NCJ 249822). U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/249822.pdf
- Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition & Prostitution Research & Education. (2011). The garden of truth: The prostitution and trafficking of Native women in Minnesota. https://www.niwrc.org/sites/default/files/images/resource/Garden-of-Truth.pdf
- Rosay, A. B. (2016). Violence against American Indian and Alaska Native women and men (Research Report No. NCJ 249822). U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/249822.pdf
