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Identity

The Young Native Women Fighting to Protect Each Other When No One Else Will

VICELAND's show RISE travels to Indigenous communities across the Americas to meet people protecting their homelands and rising up against colonization.
Image via VICELAND

Sarain Fox travels three hours north of Standing Rock to visit Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, where a group of young women are gathering together to protect their communities from sexual violence and trafficking.

While the recent oil boom in North Dakota has brought an influx of money into the region, with it has come drugs, crime, and sex trafficking. Since the appearance of "man camps," the temporary lodging made available to oil workers, the local community has seen a 168 percent increase in violent assaults against women.

The US Supreme Court stripped tribal police from the right to arrest non-Natives who commit crimes on Reservation land, which has severely limited the community's power to protect girls and women from the violence. "I refuse to let that happen to me or any of us," says Zaysha Grinnell during a gathering with other young advocates. "I want to use my voice because it can't continue to go on how it is going."

RISE airs at 9 PM Fridays on VICELAND. Want to know if you get VICELAND? Find out here.