Abigail Echo-Hawk, M.A.

Shortly after Abigail Echo-Hawk, M.A., began her job as director of Urban Indian Health in 2016, she was astonished at what she discovered when she opened a file drawer. Inside the drawer was a 2010 comprehensive survey that asked Native-American women residing in the city if they had ever experienced sexual violence. The survey of the148 women participants revealed that 94 percent had either been coerced into sex or had been raped at least once.

But what astounded Echo-Hawk most was not the survey itself, or even its results. The enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma was more concerned that the six-year-old unpublished survey's results had remained in a file folder all that time.

When she inquired why it was never published, Echo-Hawk was told that, at the time, leadership in the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI) feared that the findings would further stereotype Native women as victims. Echo-Hawk, however, believed that in order to effect change, the women's stories should be both respected and shared in a positive way.

"I just knew this had to get out," Echo-Hawk told Mika Brzezinski, journalist and talk show host, whose Know Your Value empowered community helps women to grow their careers and form healthy habits in order to reach their full potential. And "get out" it did. Through Echo-Hawk's untiring efforts, on August 23, 2018, UIHI released the original report, titled Our Bodies, Our Stories. So, not only was the report shared, it garnered wide media interest.

Our Bodies, Our Stories also provided a platform for UIHI to explain that the 94 percent figure and other results "cannot be generalized to reflect all urban Native women in Seattle, and further provided a platform for predominantly homeless and low-income women, that neither should it be generalized across all urban Native women throughout the United States." Echo-Hawk further explained that "the high rates of sexual violence in the survey also reflect other issues which exist in other areas as well."

According to Sarah Deer, author of The Beginning and End of Rape: Confronting Sexual Violence in Native America, and professor of women, gender and sexuality studies at the University of Kansas, the results are "very consistent with all of the research in this area."

Echo-Hawk also believes that movements including #MeToo have helped to open such conversations nationwide and created a more hospitable climate for such stories. She further states that the high rates of sexual violence found in the survey go hand-in-hand with poverty and homelessness which are directly connected to historical trauma not unique to the Seattle area.

In addition to being an enrolled member of the Kitkehahki band of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, Abigail Echo-Hawk, born in Alaska, and is a member of the Upper Athabascan people of Mentasta Village (Alaska). She was raised in the Pawnee traditional values of love, giving, and respect for all-values that contribute to her also being a committed community volunteer with a focus on institutional and policy changes. Such, she hopes, will put an end to inequalities for women of color, both locally and nationally.

Married to Matt Hayashi, Abigail is the mother of two children. Her joy is being part of her extended family and a member of her community, and her hope is to play some small part in ensuring the future success of the next generation. y

KB Schaller is the International Book Award-winning author of 100+ Native American Women Who Changed the World, Women's Issues Category, and Whatsoever the Sacrifice, her latest work. Her books are available through Amazon and other booksellers.

Sources:

LinkedIn

National Institute of Health webpage

Pepitone, Julianne, Stats on Sexual Assault Rates, MSNBC webpage,

Tribal Public Health Conference webpage

Urban Indian Health Institute webpage

Wikipedia

Know Your Value webpage