THESIS

CALIFORNIASTATE UNIVERSITY SAN J\1ARCOS

THESIS SIGNATURE PAGE

THESIS SUBlVIITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENTOF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE

MASTER OF

ARTS IN SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICE

TITLE: Warrior Womxn: Indigenous Womxn in theMarine Corps

AUTHOR(S): Jamie Jackson

DATE OF SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE: 04/29/2020

THE THESIS HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE THESIS COMMITTEE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENTOF THE REQUIREtvlENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICE

Lori Walkington 05/05/2020 Co:tv1:MITTEE CHAIR SIGNATURE DATE

Richelle Swan 05/05/2020 COMMITTEE MEMBER SIGNATURE DATE

Sharon Elise 05/05/2020 Sl�Ma,S,Mo) COMMITTEE MEMBER SIGNATURE DATE

COMMITTEE MEMBER SIGNATURE DATE Warrior Womxn: Indigenous Womxn in the Marine Corps

Thesis

Jamie Curtis Jackson California State University San Marcos

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... 2 ABSTRACT ...... 3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ...... 8 LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 12 RESEARCH ON VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMXN ...... 13 RESEARCH ON WOMXN IN THE MILITARY ...... 17 THEORY ...... 20 INTERSECTIONALITY ...... 20 BLACK FEMININST STANDPOINT THEORY ...... 22 INDIGENOUS FEMINISM ...... 23 METHODS ...... 25 PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURES ...... 25 DATA COLLECTION ...... 28 REFLEXIVITY...... 29 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ...... 30 METHODS USED IN PREVIOUS RESEARCH ...... 31 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS ...... 33 KINSHIP AND COMMUNITY ...... 33 THE IMPACT OF COLONIZATION: POVERTY ON INDIGENOUS RESERVATIONS ...... 38 RACE, GENDER AND THEIR INTERSECTIONS ...... 44 VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMXN ...... 54 DISCUSSION ...... 77 LIMITATIONS ...... 79 RECOMMENDATIONS ...... 79 CONCLUSION ...... 82 REFERENCES ...... 85 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ...... 93 Introduction: ...... 93 APPENDIX B: INFORMED CONSENT ...... 95 APPENDIX C: RECRUITMENT FLYER ...... 98

2 ABSTRACT

This qualitative research investigates the lives of 8 Indigenous womxn from various Indigenous tribes who served in the United States Marine Corps. It examines how intersecting social identities impact Indigenous womxn’s experiences with violence in the Marine Corps. Female service members experience high rates of violence in the military. Similarly, Indigenous womxn experience high rates of violence outside the military. Literature about the military tends to focus on the experiences of men and White womxn, while literature about Indigenous women in the military is non-existent. I utilized Intersectionality, Black Feminist Standpoint Theory and

Indigenous Feminism to understand how intersecting social positions impact Indigenous womxn’s experiences with violence in the Marine Corps. Research data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 8 participants who were womxn or self-identified as womxn, grew up on an Indigenous reservation or community, served at least one enlistment in the Marine

Corps and were enrolled with an Indigenous tribe. The findings reveal how kinship and community on the reservation shape Indigenous womxn’s social identities and how those intersecting social identities impact their experiences particularly with violence, in the Marine

Corps.

Key Words: Indigenous, Indigenous Feminism, Standpoint Theory, Intersectionality, Military,

Marine Corps, Veterans, Rape, Sexual Assault, Indigenous Women Veterans

3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Heavenly Father: Heavenly Father, you have been my greatest source of strength and inspiration. This would not have been possible without you, thank you for allowing me to do this.

Chris: Babe, I would never have gotten through this program without your love and support. Thank you for holding me down and not letting me quit. I love you. xoxo

Camille, Ava and Christopher: My babies, thank you for sacrificing your time with me for this thesis and for still loving me on those stressful days. I look forward to spending more time together. Mommy loves you!

Shimá dóó Shizhé’é: Ahéhee’ for the love and support you have shown me on my journey. I appreciate all your help, especially with the kids. I’m also grateful to you for sharing your knowledge about our land, people and culture. You two are my greatest teachers. Ayóó Ánííníshní.

Shitsilí, Shaundiin and Natalia: Thanks for your words of encouragement, support and love. I look forward to being there for Natalia one day as she navigates higher education. I love you.

Shawntae, Daisy and Maricruz: Ladies! Wow, I can’t believe we did it. I could not have gotten through this without our group texts, zoom meetings and FaceTime. It was a pleasure to learn and grow with such brilliant, beautiful and badass womxn.

My Committee: Dr. Walkington, Dr. Swan and Dr. Elise, thank you for always pushing and challenging me. I am so grateful for your knowledge, mentorship and guidance. Dr. Walkington, I want to especially thank you for helping me keep it together when I was feeling overwhelmed and also for being patient with me through this entire process. You are awesome! I hope to be a great scholar like you all one day.

Participants: I cannot begin to express how grateful I am to you all for sharing your stories. You all have inspired me to continue climbing the ladder, so that Indigenous womxn’s voices can continue to be heard. You all possess great knowledge and resilience; may you continue to walk in beauty. Ahéhee’

4 As I was growing up, I used to listen to my dad as he recalled his experiences of racism

while serving in the United States Marine Corps. When I enlisted later, I felt prepared to encounter racism but what I was not prepared to face was sexism. In hindsight I realize that it was naïve to believe that being a womxn would not create a different experience for me. In the early eighties, womxn were not allowed to serve in the infantry; therefore, my dad did not interact with female Marines and he certainly did not have knowledge of their experiences. I attended boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina where male and female recruits1 were

strictly prohibited from interacting. This included looking in their direction as I recall a female

recruit being disciplined by a Drill Instructor for staring at a male recruit. This was only the

beginning because I was in for a rude awakening.

When I arrived at my first duty station I was given what was called the, “don’t be a slut

speech” by a female Corporal. 2 It was intended to inform me of the responsibility I had to not make other female Marines look bad by sleeping around or appearing to sleep around. It did not take me long to discover that other junior Marines were participating in a bet on who would sleep with me first. At physical training (PT), it was not uncommon for the males to feel my legs to see if I shaved. Male Marines from other commands whistled and made sexual gestures as we conducted PT on base. I remember being called Pocahontas and asked if I smoked a peace pipe

or peyote because of my Native American heritage. 3 Some people assumed that I was entitled to

1 Designation given to those in boot camp who have not earned the title “Marine” 2 Corporal (E-4) is the fourth enlisted rank in the U.S. Marine Corps 3 American Indian, Alaska Native, Native American, Indian and Indigenous are used interchangeably to refer to communities Indigenous to North America specifically the United States; Active Duty, Reserve and National Guard.

5 “free” money or education. These initial experiences taught me to navigate the Marine Corps

with caution but it was not enough to prevent an incident that would change my life forever.

I was experiencing relationship problems and decided to spend time with a few male

peers. As we conversed, one of them offered me a drink and I accepted it. A short time later I felt

extremely intoxicated and could not recall much after. The next day I remember having

flashbacks of an event that I did not and was not capable of consenting to. I was ashamed for

being there in the first place and also felt betrayed because these peers were men of color. I

chose not to report the incident out of fear of retaliation, blame or not being believed. A friend of mine who was also friends with those men later heard them openly brag about the incident. He asked me not to disclose to anyone that he provided me with that information. I remained silent but struggled with the trauma and often turned to alcohol to cope. The stigma of mental health in the Marine Corps and in my Navajo culture prevented me from seeking professional help. It would take six years for me to draw up the courage to face the trauma that I buried deep inside. I finally sought and received professional help to cope with the pain I suffered as a result of that incident. That experience made me wonder how many other womxn of color specifically

Indigenous womxn had similar experiences of violence in the Marine Corps.

As an undergraduate student, I had an opportunity to participate in a study about female servicemembers who experienced emotional and mental distress in the military (Schmidt 2018). I immediately felt uncomfortable with the interview because the researcher was a White womxn.

In spite of this, I proceeded with the interview for the opportunity I was being given to share

experiences that caused me mental and emotional trauma. When I read the thesis, I was angry

and disappointed because it used a single axis-framework to examine the experiences of all

womxn in the military. The experiences of womxn of color are often absent in antiracist and

6 feminist discourse because it does not examine gender and race simultaneously (Crenshaw

1991). My words in the interview and the words that were published failed to capture my experiences as a womxn and Indigenous person in the Marine Corps. Gender was the primary focus of the research resulting in further marginalization of female servicemembers of color. The high rates of violence against indigenous womxn outside of the military (Tjaden and Thoennes

2000; Bubar and Thurman 2004; Tehee and Esqueda 2008; Rosay 2010; Modi, Palmer and

Armstrong 2014) made sharing my experiences both personal and political. I participated in the interview to break my silence—only to be silenced once again. Therefore, this research seeks to answer the question, how do intersecting social positions impact Indigenous womxn’s experiences with violence in the Marine Corps?

7 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In a 2012 report, American Indian and Alaska Native Servicemembers and Veterans, the

U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs released statistics 4 about Indigenous military members. 5 Of

the 2.2 million service members, 85.5 percent were men 6, 16.1 percent were womxn , and 0.2

percent were Indigenous womxn (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs 2012). Despite the

relatively small percentage of Indigenous womxn, it represents 6,027 womxn in the military and even fewer in the Marine Corps whose interests and experiences have not been heard.

Additionally, there’s a significant absence of scholarly literature that focuses on Indigenous womxn’s experiences of violence in a military context, specifically the Marine Corps

In the context of a predominantly white and male dominated institution it is not surprising that womxn servicemembers experience high rates of interpersonal and sexual violence. The

Department of Defense (DoD) Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military (2017) shows that 81 percent of sexual assault reports7 were filed by females and 86 percent of those victims

sexually assaulted 8 were also servicemembers. In terms of sexual harassment 9, 81 percent of

complaints were made by female servicemembers. Offenders of sexual harassment were

4 Department of Defense, Active Duty Master Personnel File; Reserve Components Common Personnel Data System (RCCPDS), 2010. 5 Active Duty, Reserve and National Guard. 6 1 percent Indigenous males, 1.4 percent total Indigenous peoples 7 There are two types of reports: restricted and unrestricted. A restricted report allows victims to receive care and services while maintaining privacy. An unrestricted report allows for the persons chain of command to be notified. Additionally, there is a formal investigation and disciplinary action imposed if the accused is found guilty. 8 Sexual crimes reported were rape, sexual assault, aggravated sexual contact, indecent assault and abusive sexual contact committed against servicemembers, DoD civilian personnel and other civilians. 9 Sexual harassment is defined as, “repeated, unsolicited verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature which is threatening in character” (38 U.S. Code § 1720D).

8 predominately male and account for 95 percent of sexual harassment complaints. Additionally,

96.5 percent of victims who received Family Advocacy Program services for domestic abuse-

related sexual assaults10 were female (DoD 2017). Of that percentage, the report showed that

33.7 percent of those female victims were servicemembers11. The offenders were 95.4 percent

male and 78 percent of offenders were servicemembers (DoD 2017). Rates of sexual assault vary

due to a high number of incidents not being reported. For example, in Fiscal Year 2016 there

were 4,794 sexual assault reports filed, however based on a past-year prevalence survey there

were 14,900 (88 percent womxn , 12 percent men) servicemembers estimated to have

experienced sexual assault. This indicates that 68 percent of sexual assaults were unreported and

despite a recent increase in reporting, the majority of sexual assaults go unreported (DoD 2017).

Indigenous womxn outside of the military experience higher rates of violence compared

to non-Hispanic white womxn and other minority groups (Modi, Palmer and Armstrong 2014;

Rosay 2010). The Urban Indian Health Institutes’ (UIHI) Missing and Murdered Indigenous

Womxn & Girls (MMIWG) report12 showed that that the National Crime Information Center reported 5,712 cases of MMIWG in 2016 and only 116 were logged into the Department of

Justice database. These rates are more likely higher due to Indigenous womxn being mistaken for

other races or belonging to tribes that are not federally recognized. There is also difficulty in

10 DoD Instruction 6400.06 defines domestic abuse as “domestic violence or a pattern of behaviors resulting in emotional/physiological abuse, economic control, and/or interference with person liberty that is directed toward a person who is a current/former spouse, a person with whom the abuser shares a child in common; or a current or former intimate partner with whom the abuse shares or has shared a common domicile (DoD 2017). 11 66.3 percent were non servicemembers including dependents of servicemembers 12 UIHI attempted to collect data in 71 cities in 29 states in the U.S. The report acknowledges limited resources and the poor collection of data by many cities. The 506 cases in this report are likely an undercount of MMIGW in urban areas.

9 obtaining records from cities charging fees for records or lack of tracking altogether.

Additionally, there were 506 cases of MMIWG across 71 urban cities. Of those cases, 25 percent

(128) were missing cases, 56 percent (280) were murder cases and 19 percent (98) had an unknown status. Interracial perpetrators account for 67 percent of rapes/sexual assaults 13 and 63 percent of assaults against Indigenous womxn (Bachman, Zaykowski, Kallmyer, Poteyeva and

Lanier 2008). This is consistent with other studies examining interpersonal and sexual violence

against Indigenous womxn . The Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Womxn

and Men: 2010 Findings From the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey found

that 97 percent of violence14 was committed by perpetrators who were not Indigenous (Rosay

2016). The UIHI (2018) reported that 84 percent of perpetrators were male and almost half were non-Native. Tjaden and Thoennes (2000) found that in their lifetime, Indigenous womxn experience higher rates of rape, physical assault and stalking (38 percent) compared to Black (26 percent), non-Hispanic White (26 percent), Hispanic/Latina (25 percent) and Asian/Pacific

Islander womxn(20 percent). Additionally, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)

Policy Insights Brief states, “39 percent of American Indian and Alaska Native womxn will be subjected to violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime, compared to 29 percent of African

American womxn , 27 percent of White womxn , 21 of Hispanic womxn , and 10 percent of

Asian womxn ” (2013:3). Given the high rates of violence against womxn in the military and

Indigenous womxn outside of the military (Bonnes 2017; Creech and Bursari 2014; Modi,

Palmer and Armstrong 2014; Rosay 2010; Tehee and Esqueda 2008; Suris and Lind 2008; Bubar

13 71 percent reported knowing their perpetrator. 14 Psychological aggression by an intimate partner, physical violence by an intimate partner, sexual violence and stalking.

10 and Thurman 2004; Antecol and Cobb-Clark 2001; Tjaden and Thoennes 2000), it is imperative for this research to examine how womxn’s experiences with violence, specifically Indigenous womxn ’s experiences, are impacted by their intersecting social identities.

11 LITERATURE REVIEW

Indigenous womxn were warriors defending their land, culture, and people (Lee and

Wing 1981) long before they served in the Marine Corps. Their extant role of warrior is often

obscured by the experiences of men and White womxn in scholarly literature. The Navajo Code

Talkers15 are usually who come to mind when people think about Indigenous people in the military. The recognition of Indigenous men, White men and White womxn, but not Indigenous womxn is common in American history. In the article, “Native American Womxn: A Silent

Presence in History”, Krogmeier stated, “Native womxn throughout history are unfairly stereotyped, abused, and misrepresented. Where they do appear, they are often the silent guardians of the European men [and womxn ] who spoke for them” (8). That passage resonated with me because of the absence of Indigenous womxn in military discourse. The quantitative research I’ve found examines violence against Indigenous womxn (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000;

Bubar and Thurman 2004; Tehee and Esqueda 2008; Rosay 2010; Modi, Palmer and Armstrong

2014) and violence against female servicemembers (Bonnes 2017; Creech and Bursari 2014;

Suris and Lind 2008; Antecol and Cobb-Clark 2001) but does not look at race and gender together in a military context.

Intersectionality is required in scholarly research to better understand the diverse experiences of service members in the Marine Corps. Ignoring the intersection of race, class and gender in feminist and military literature pushes those who are not men or white to the margins

(Crenshaw 1991). For example, scholarship about the military is primarily focused on the

15 The Navajo Code Talkers were Navajo men who created an unbreakable military code using the Navajo language during World War II (Durrett 1998).

12 experiences of men and white womxn. The absence of examining intersecting positions in those areas of discourse result in the marginalization of womxn of color specifically Indigenous womxn (Crenshaw 1991).

Indigenous womxn have remained largely invisible within literature about womxn or about the military. Indigenous womxn like Sacagawea, Pocahontas, Nancy Ward and La

Malinche were recorded in American history because of their aid to or sexual relationships with

European men (Krogmeir 2017). Literature about the Apache warrior womxn Lozen who fought with warriors against the United States and Mexico only exists because of oral storytelling. Her brother Victorio is said to have considered Lozen his right hand. He stated that she was “Strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy, Lozen is a shield to her people” (Hazen-

Hammond 2019). Indigenous womxn have continued to shield their people thorough their service in the Marine Corps. Therefore, it is imperative for literature to include their experiences with violence based on their intersecting social identities.

RESEARCH ON VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMXN

Historical Trauma or Intergenerational Trauma

European colonizers construction of Indigenous peoples as dirty savages justified acts of sexual violence on Indigenous womxns’ bodies (Warwick 2009). Indigenous womxn were sexually violated in boarding schools and involuntarily sterilized by Indian Health Services

(IHS). This resulted in conditions that make them vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation.

Bubar and Thurman (2004) referred to these violent practices and oppressive polices as historical trauma or intergenerational trauma. They state that, “[historical trauma or intergenerational trauma] is offered as a paradigm to explain, in part, the root or basis of the problems that have plagued Native American communities for many generations” (73). These traumas created,

13 “post-colonial homelessness, poverty, physical and mental health problems (including mental disorders), and a lack of basic services to address these conditions” (Farley, Deer, Golding,

Matthews, Lopez, Stark and Hudson 2016: 65). Additionally, navigating complicated

jurisdictional mazes, sexism and racism in the criminal justice system make it difficult to

prosecute non-Indigenous perpetrators in “Indian Country” (Cordero 2018). As a result, many

Indigenous womxn are left unprotected and with little help for obtaining justice.

Historically, many Indigenous communities prior to colonization were matrilineal and

matrilocal (Weaver 2009) meaning, “American Indian culture provided womxn with the inherent

opportunity to have social and familial power” (Tehee and Esqueda 2008:26). Womxn were

considered sustainers of land, life and culture in Indigenous communities. When the American

public deemed physical genocide unacceptable, the United States government decided to “kill

the Indian, save the man” instead (Smith 2004:90). In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth

century Indigenous children were removed from their homes and forced to attend off-reservation

boarding schools away from their families and community. Once in the school, the children were

stripped of their clothing, culture and identity including their language. They received physical

punishment if they were caught speaking their own language. Young Indigenous girls were raped

and sexually assaulted by priests, school employees and government officials. When pregnancies

resulted from these assaults, many babies were murdered and placed in unmarked graves near the

schools (Smith 2004; Fournier 1996). Boarding schools introduced patriarchy and gendered

socialization, for example girls were taught domestic work while boys were taught manual labor

(Smith 2004). The adoption of patriarchy where it had not existed in Indigenous communities

radically changed the role of Indigenous womxn in their families, communities and society. As a

result, many Indigenous womxn were involuntarily sterilized by IHS beginning in the 1960s. The

14 Minnesota American Indian Womxn ’s Resource Center report, The Shattered Hearts (2009)

noted that up to 50 percent of Indigenous womxn were involuntarily sterilized by Indian Health

Services between 1970 and 1976.

Sexual Exploitation

Sexual exploitation and racialized violence against Indigenous womxn are not new to the

Indigenous community. Sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision,

obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act (Cordero

2018:10). It began with the arrival of Europeans in the Americas and has continued today. The

difference is that Indigenous communities have named it and taken steps to combat sex

trafficking in their communities. Sex trafficking is a horrendous human rights violation and a form of sexual exploitation commonly perceived to be a foreign issue; however, there are 4.8 million victims (71 percent womxn and girls) being sexually exploited worldwide (Human

Rights First 2017) including in the United States and “Indian Country”. The National Human

Trafficking Hotline reported 6,081 (5,440 female) cases of sex trafficking in 2017. According to

the Minnesota Indian Womxn ’s Sexual Assault Coalition, “ [Indigenous] people experience

some of the highest rates of sex trafficking per population compared to any other ethnic or racial

groups” (Strengthening Sovereign Responses to Sex Trafficking in Indian Country 2018:31).

Sex trafficking carries a 5 to 10 years minimum sentence if convicted and increases if the victim is under the age of 18. A commercial sex act is defined as any sex act on account of which anything of value is given to or received by any person (Cordero 2018:10). This includes

food, shelter, drugs, alcohol or clothing. The trafficking of minors under the age of 18 constitutes

a more severe form of trafficking. If the child is under the age of 14, the offender receives a

mandatory sentence of 15 years-to-life.

15

Missing, Murdered Indigenous Womxn

Recently there has been a movement to raise awareness and address the issue of missing and murdered16 Indigenous womxn. Each year on May 5th Indigenous womxn everywhere wear red or display red dresses to raise awareness and remember missing and murdered Indigenous womxn. The movement has been important as Indigenous womxn have increasingly become victims of violence.

On December 1, 2018 Amanda D. Webster (age 26) was found dead in a hotel room in

Kentucky. Jesse A. James (age 32) admitted to police that he killed her, and he was recently deemed competent to stand trial for Amanda’s murder. Savannah Greywind was killed in Fargo,

ND in August 2017. She was eight months pregnant when she bled to death from her baby being cut from her body by a White couple who were her neighbors. Ashlynne Mike was an eleven- year-old girl who was sexually assaulted and murdered on the Navajo Nation in May 2016.

These womxn and girls’ deaths resulted in a call for new legislation and expanding the Amber

Alert system to the Navajo Nation.

On November 26, 2019 the President signed an executive order ‘Establishing the Task

Force on Missing and Murdered American Indian and Alaska Natives (The White House 2019).

This provided $1.5 million dollars to hire people to develop protocol about responding to violence against Indigenous womxn . While this is a step in the right direction and a victory for

Indigenous communities, the executive order is set to terminate in two years. More than two

16 People have assumed that Indigenous womxn are missing and murdered. However, this is meant to indicate that Indigenous womxn are missing or murdered.

16 years is required to investigate and document those womxn and girls who are missing and those who were murdered. This executive order serves more as a band-aid and response to violence against indigenous womxn rather than working to prevent it. This issue cannot be fixed or addressed in such short time span. The Task Force includes high ranking government officials like the Federal Bureau of Investigations Director and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs (The

White House 2019). Despite their knowledge or familiarity with Indigenous communities, this is an issue that needs to be spearheaded by Indigenous womxn.

RESEARCH ON WOMXN IN THE MILITARY

There is little research that focuses on womxn in the military and even less about womxn in the Marine Corps. The literature that does appear is limited to issues regarding gender, Post-

Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Military Sexual Trauma (MST). There is little research that examines how race and gender impact womxn ’s experiences in the military.

Race, Class and Gender Shape Experiences in the Military

It is important to consider race, class and gender together when examining the experiences of womxn in the military. Bonnes (2017) described the military as, “ ‘an extremely gendered’ and masculine institution that values aggressiveness, dominance, physical strength, mental fortitude, bravery, control and violence” (805). Doan and Portillo (2017) mentioned that the gendered structure of the military reinforces hegemonic masculinity and keeps womxn in an inferior status. The military, “uses womxn as feminine ‘other’ to construct themselves against, subordinating femininity and elevating masculinity, manhood and the role of men as protectors”

(Doan and Portillo 2017:237). The military also has a strong presence in many poor indigenous communities.

17 Moore (1991) argued that the experiences of white service womxn have controlled the narrative of womxn’s roles in the military. She further argues that different social statuses create different military experiences for black and white womxn. Bonnes (2017) states, “stereotypes surrounding womxn of color are often used to inform workplace expectations and treatment of these womxn , who may already be hyper-visible because of their race and gender” (805). Black womxn and womxn of color in the military face what Moore (1991) referred to as “double jeopardy” because they are already viewed negatively by stereotypes and controlling images creating experiences of racism and sexism. Bonnes (2017) writes, “Scholars examining inequality from an intersectional perspective argue that gender, race, class, sexuality, nationality, age and other social locations all intersect and form a ‘matrix of domination’ and should be understood in relation to one another rather than in isolation (807). In addition to race and gender, class also plays an important role in military experiences. Kleykamp stated, “An individual’s socioeconomic position, independent of the effects of race, also influences enlistment. Previous studies show that those with lower family incomes, larger family sizes

(more sharing of scarce resources), and less-educated parents are more likely to join the military”

(2006:277). It is important for research to utilize an intersectional approach to fully understand the experiences of womxn of color in the military.

Military Sexual Trauma (MST)

Literature about womxn in the military is often limited to issues of Military Sexual

Trauma (MST) and does not include an intersectional analysis to examine the experiences of womxn with different social positions.

The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs defines MST as, “experiences of sexual assault or repeated, threatening sexual harassment that a Veteran experienced during his or her military

18 service” (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 2015). Male dominated institutions like the military have been linked to higher rates of sexual harassment (Bonnes 2017). In fact, womxn in the military experience higher rates of sexual harassment in the workplace than civilian womxn at around 71 percent (Bonnes, 2017; Antecol and Cobb-Clark 2001). Creech and Borsari (2014) found that the rate of military sexual assault or rape at 35.5 percent is consistent with previous research. Additionally, they found that experiences of MST resulted in higher rates of alcohol use and binge drinking (Creech and Borsari 2014). Suris and Lind (2008) found that womxn in the military are 20 times more likely to experience MST than men during their military service.

Hannagan argues that literature surrounding military sexual trauma has created a dominant narrative that labels survivors of MST as victims—essentially re-victimizing them (2017). It is important to be critical of military literature that does not use an intersectional approach, Soeters

(2018) stated, “…any military performance—needs to be scrutinized and criticized from a normative, moral point of view (178). In this case, it is to disrupt the narratives of men and

White womxn about the military.

19 THEORY

For this research, I utilized a combination of theories to better understand Indigenous womxn’s experiences with violence in the United States Marine Corps. First, I utilized

Intersectionality by Black feminist scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989) to contextualize how the

intersection of social positions such as race, class and gender shape Indigenous womxn ’s

experiences with violence in the Marine Corps. Next, I turned to Feminist Standpoint Theory

developed by Patricia Hill Collins (1990) to center Indigenous female servicemembers

experiences with violence by drawing on their expertise as situated knowers. Finally, I utilized

Indigenous Feminism to demonstrate how Indigenous womxn have resisted colonization and

reclaiming sovereignty over their bodies, land and families.

INTERSECTIONALITY

Intersectionality is an idea, theory, and lens built on Black feminism and Critical Race

Theory; and is a mode of research and tool used to examine the experiences of intersecting social

positions (Henry 2017; Carbado, Crenshaw and Mays Tomlinson 2013). Intersectionality is best explained using an analogy of vehicles traveling through an intersection. Discrimination, marginalization and oppression can travel in one direction or from all directions resulting in a collision. If intersectionality is not taken into account for damages then it must be decided if race or gender is at fault but not both (Crenshaw 1989). However, intersectionality transcends race and gender to include other social positions such as class, citizenship, sexuality, and ableism.

(Carbado et al. 2017). Intersecting social positions create experiences that vary for individuals and groups of people. Shields (2008) argues that while intersecting social positions create experiences of oppression, they also create privilege for others. For example, a person who is male, white and wealthy will have experiences of privilege compared to a person who is female,

20 brown and poor. This is also true in regards to violence, Indigenous womxn experience violence

differently than womxn who are not Indigenous. An assault on an Indigenous womxn is not an

assault on her race or gender but her entire identity as an Indigenous person and a womxn

(Waters 2003). Patricia Hill Collins argues, “Rather than viewing violence primarily as part of

distinct social hierarchies of race and gender, violence may serve as conceptual glue that binds

them together” (1998:920). Collins (1998) further argues that how a victim or perpetrator is

treated depends on their race and gender. Indigenous womxn are experiencing violence at

alarming rates by predominantly white male perpetrators who are rarely prosecuted.

Literature about womxn in the military has not utilized an intersectional framework in its analysis but has raised critical issues (Henry 2017). An intersectional approach would provide greater understanding of Indigenous womxn’s experiences with violence in the Marine Corps. It would also decenter the experiences of men and white womxn within military discourse (Bonnes

2017; Creech and Bursari 2014; Suris and Lind 2008; Antecol and Cobb-Clark 2001). Anuradha

Bhagwati, a bisexual Indian womxn, offered a critical perspective of the Marine Corps as she recounted her experiences at Officer Candidate School. She stated, “We were mostly white and a few shades of Brown. Only one of us was Black. Seated beside several hundred men, we were thirty-four womxn ” (45). Waters (2003) explains that, “...contextual issues of race and gender cannot be separated in any analysis of Native womxn’s situation under colonial settlers” (xxvii).

In other words, you cannot examine a situation like violence against Indigenous womxn without considering their race and gender together.

21 BLACK FEMININST STANDPOINT THEORY

Black Feminist Standpoint Theory centers the everyday experiences of Black womxn and constitutes those experiences as knowledge (Watson, Flores, Grotewiel, Brownfield, Aslan and

Farrell, 2018). Patricia Hill Collins (1990) argued that contextualizing Black feminist thought required competency in comparison to the dominant standpoint. Black womxn were forced to use their creativity to produce knowledge that could not be invalidated by privileged White men within structures of knowledge (Collins 1990). The experiences and everyday lives of White men have been licit while the lives and experiences of womxn of color have been effaced (Brooks

2011).

While this theory was developed by Black Feminist scholars for Black womxn , it is also relevant to Indigenous womxn(Crenshaw 1989; Collins 1990; hooks 2000). Their experiences and knowledge have also been ignored or erased within traditional scholarship (Collins 1990;

Krogmeier 2017). In regards to collective standpoints Collins (1990) stated:

Overall, these ties between what one does and what one thinks illustrated by individual Black womxn can characterize Black womxn’s experiences and ideas as a group. Historically, racial segregation in housing, education and employment fostered group commonalties that encouraged the formation of a group-based, collective standpoint” (24).

This research presenting collective standpoints of Indigenous womxn's experiences with violence in the Marine Corps will contribute to literature about womxn in the military. I anticipate interviews from this study to reveal similar themes of racism, sexism, sexual violence and colonialism to those that emerged in the anthology This Bridge Called My Back17]. Indigenous

17 This Bridge Called my Back (2015) is an anthology edited by Gloria Anzaldúa, and Cherríe Moraga

22 womxn’s experiences with violence in the Marine Corps offer a unique perspective that is compounded by their intersecting social positions and the reputation of the Marine Corps. The

Marine Corps is regarded as the toughest branch of the military. Most who join do not make it through the rigorous 13-week boot camp to earn the title of Marine. Those fortunate enough to call themselves Marines take pride in being, “The Few, The Proud”. Female Marines in particular refer to themselves as, “Fewer, Prouder” because of the small number of womxn in the

Marine Corps.

INDIGENOUS FEMINISM

Indigenous Feminism Theory is an idea and praxis that ties decolonization and sovereignty into gender equality (Fisher 2015). The word feminist has previously held negative connotations in Indigenous communities because of its association with whiteness (Smith 2011).

However, Dina Gilio-Whitaker stated, “Long before there was ever a concept called ‘feminism’ in the US setter State, there was the knowledge of women’s power in in Indigenous communities” (2019:112). Indigenous womxn have resisted colonial patriarchy, heteronormativity and white supremacy in a struggle for sovereignty over their bodies, land and children. Inserting the voices and experiences of Indigenous womxn into literature that primarily focuses on men and white womxn in the military is an act of resistance against colonization.

Kate Shanely stated, “Just as sovereignty cannot be granted but must be recognized as an inherent right to self-determination, so Indian feminism must also be recognized as powerful in its own terms (Ross 2009:41). It is the goal of my research and future research about violence against Indigenous womxn to demand recognition of our sovereignty as Indigenous womxn .

This framework is useful for understanding how Indigenous womxn experience colonial violence and participate in state violence against other colonized people. Lorelei Decora Means stated,

23 “We are American Indian womxn in that order. We are oppressed first and foremost as American

Indians, as people colonized by the United States, not as womxn . As Indians we can never forget that. Our survival, the survival of every one of us— man, womxn and child — as Indians depends on it. Decolonization is the agenda, the whole agenda until it is accomplished” (Ramirez

2007:22).

24 METHODS

Qualitative methods using semi-structured interviews were necessary to capture

Indigenous womxn ’s experiences in the Marine Corps. This approached allowed the participants

to completely reflect on their experiences in a way that better informed my research (Marvasti

2004). This could not be achieved using quantitative methods as it does not allow the researcher to understand the participants particular standpoint in their own words.

I approached this research and interviews in a way that was guided both by my position as researcher and as an Indigenous womxn who served in the Marine Corps. One of the easiest ways of collecting data is to ask people questions and allow them to respond (Marvasti 2004).

Every day people engage in interviews that differ from our everyday interactions with our family and friends, but research interviews are structured in a way that allow the interviewer to contribute to a body of knowledge (Karner 2005). A separation of roles between the researcher and respondent does exist in research interviews (Marvasti 2004). Therefore, is important to establish a connection with participants to bridge that gap between roles. My subjective knowledge and experiences as an Indigenous womxn in the Marine Corps helped to reduce the power imbalance between researcher and participant. Additionally, my familiarity with Marine

Corps jargon and overall structure of the institution provided participants an opportunity to discuss their experiences in a language we both understood.

PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURES

The goal for this research was to obtain a desired sample size of 10 participants, however

I obtained only 8. I utilized two forms of nonprobability methods: purposive and snowball sampling. In purposive sampling, research is theory driven (Marvasti 2005) therefore, Black

Feminist, Indigenous Feminist, Standpoint, Intersectionality theories guided participant selection

25 for this project. These theories allowed me to center womxn’s experiences in the Marine Corps using an intersectional lens to understand their experiences as Indigenous womxn. Participants for this research were womxn or self-identified as womxn who were 18 years of age or older, and served at least one enlistment in the Marine Corps. Additionally, participants were enrolled in a federally recognized tribe and were raised on the reservation or resided in a heavily populated

Indigenous community. This prevented participants from claiming ancestry alone. Anne Waters

(2003) stated, “…to identify as Indian is to identify with land and community in a way that bring about unique responsibilities to all our relations”(x).

In order to recruit eligible participants, I utilized snowball sampling. I utilized contacts of individuals that I served with in the Marine Corps who then provided a research flier to other womxn they knew (Morgan 2008). However, I did not receive any inquiries from those womxn.

Participants were also recruited using social media. I initially shared a recruitment flier (See

Appendix C) to my social media account. A friend then shared it with other closed female

Marine social media groups while I shared it to the groups that I was already a part of. As a result I received numerous messages from womxn volunteering to participate or requesting additional information. The population of Indigenous womxn in the Marine Corps is relatively small, so social media allowed me to reach more Indigenous womxn who varied in location, tribe, age, rank and sexual orientation.

26 Table 1.1

Served Served

Pseudonym Years Type Personnel MOS at DischargeRank Sexuality Tribe Reservation Method Recruitment Type Interview 0111- Personal Navajo Video Carrie 4 Enlisted Administrative E4 Heterosexual Diné/Navajo Request Nation Chat Specialist * 5831- Navajo Social In- Haley 3 Enlisted Corrections E3 Two-Spirit Diné/Navajo Nation Media Person Specialist 0111- Standing Social Video Jenna 4 Enlisted Administrative E4 Heterosexual Hopi Rock Sioux Media Chat Specialist 0111- Red Lake Social In- Latrina 3 Enlisted Administrative E3 Bisexual Band of Red Lake Media Person Specialist Chippewa 0121- Personal Navajo Video Marisol 4 Enlisted Administrative E3 Heterosexual Diné/Navajo Request Nation Chat Clerk * Cheyenne Standing Social Video Paulina 8 Enlisted 3051-Supply E5 Heterosexual River Sioux Rock Media Chat

6046- Aircraft Cheyenne Personal Phone Shannon 7 Enlisted Maintenance E5 Heterosexual River Sioux Oklahoma Request* Interview Administration and Kiowa

3521- Navajo Social Video Sasha 4 Enlisted E4 Heterosexual Diné/Navajo Mechanic Nation Media Chat * Researcher personally asked individual to participate

27 DATA COLLECTION

For this research, I collected data using in-person interviews for participants who lived locally and video chat for participants unable to meet in person. The interviews were originally intended to last between 60-90 minutes however, some lasted as long as 3.5 hours. The

interviews explored participants’ experiences with violence in the Marine Corps using semi-

structured interviews (see Appendix A). Questions for this research were open-ended to allow

participants to discuss issues important to them (Bonnes 2017; Strauss and Corbin 1998). The

interview questions centered on four aspects of study participants’ lives that include: social

status, reservation life, race and gender, coworkers, experiences and impact of experiences with

violence and life after the Marine Corps. Although violence against Indigenous womxn in the

Marine Corps is the primary focus of this research, I did not limit interviewees to only those

experiences (Bonnes 2017). Examples of questions (Schmidt 2018; Bonnes 2017; Gurung;

Venuneac, Rendina, Savarese, Grov and Parsons 2017) that guided my interviews included:

Social Status: Reservation Life If you had to describe your reservation to someone who is not familiar with reservations, what would you say?

Race and Gender: Coworkers Did you feel treated differently than men of color (i.e. Black, Latin, Asian…)? a. What about womxn of color?

Violence: Experiences Can you describe a time someone made you feel uncomfortable? a. What did you do? b. How did it impact your life?

Impact of Experiences: Life After the Marine Corps How did your experiences impact life within your community?

28 REFLEXIVITY

The experiences I had in the Marine Corps have so much to do with who I am today. I

entered the Marine Corps a scared girl but left a wise womxn. I have continued friendships that

started in the Marine Corps with other Indigenous womxn. When we have a chance to talk, we

often talk about the funny things we saw or did while we were in. Although we can hear the pain

in our voices, we can never get ourselves to open up enough to talk about our traumatic

experiences. The image of Indigenous womxn in our families and communities is one of strength

and resilience. What we do not realize is that by upholding that image, we prevent healing. I

attended a Native Truth and Healing Conference recently in San Diego and one of the speakers

Dr. Anthony R. Pico (Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Nation) said something that resonated with me.

He said, “Healing comes from understanding what happened to us”. This is so important because

the purpose of this research is to understand what happened to us in the Marine Corps. I used to

think that my experiences were somehow unique and I was the only one who experienced them.

With few other Indigenous womxn in the Marine Corps it can be isolating and depressing. Sure,

you can hang out with other womxn of color but you could never truly fit in.

My position as an Indigenous womxn Marine veteran granted me insider status, but as a researcher and a graduate student, I also had outsider status. Therefore, this intersectional position led me to occupy the area in-between the dichotomy of insider-outsider status because I cannot fully be either (Dwyer and Buckle 2018). As an Indigenous womxn Marine veteran, I understand the language and culture of both the Marine Corps and Indigenous people which provided me a standpoint that civilians and non-Indigenous people do not possess. While I have insider experience with trauma, and have struggled with post-traumatic stress related to military sexual trauma, my outsider status as a graduate student researcher puts me in an outside status

29 because it gives me privilege. I had to consider that participants did not share my ideas that the

Marine Corps was a bad experience or that they may have encountered violence. Everyone's individual experience is different and this includes Indigenous womxn’s experiences with violence.

It was my goal to open up dialogue with other Indigenous womxn Marine veterans to hear their experiences with violence and the impact those experiences had on their lives. I wanted their voices to speak out and challenge the dominant narratives about the Marine Corps and the womxn in it. This work is so important because it can potentially help other Indigenous womxn Marine veterans dealing with the impact of their experiences with violence.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The potential ethical issues that may have arised as a result of using human research subjects and the sensitivity of this research are confidentiality, privacy and emotional distress. I informed participants that participation was voluntary and notified them of the potential risks prior to conducting the interview.

To minimize the risk for emotional distress I informed participants that they may skip questions or stop the interview at any time. Additionally, I informed participants that they have the right to review and withhold any interview material (Seidman 2019). I also provided participants with a list of resources in the event they experience mental, emotional or psychological distress. To protect the identity and privacy of participants, I assigned each participant a pseudonym. Once the data were collected, they were stored securely on a laptop and phone that was secured in a locked file cabinet that only I had access to. Once interviews were

30 transcribed, all digital audio recordings of the interview were deleted. The transcription and any information related to them has been destroyed.

METHODS USED IN PREVIOUS RESEARCH

The Shattered Hearts report (2009) utilized mixed research methods. A survey was used to examine the prevalence of commercial sexual exploitation of Indigenous womxn in

Minnesota. Roundtable discussions were used to interview advocates from various social programs who worked with indigenous womxn and girls. Survey statistics from the Minnesota

Office of Justice were analyzed to provide an understanding of the collected data commercial exploitation of indigenous womxn. On the other hand, The Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Womxn and Men (Rosay 2016) report only used quantitative methods. It used the general population sample and the “American Indian and Alaska Native” oversample from a

2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey to examine the prevalence violence in Indigenous communities.

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Womxn and Girls report (2016) collected data through the Freedom of Information Act requests to law enforcement agencies, state and national missing person databases, local and regional news media online archives, public social media posts, and information obtained from family and communities with missing and murdered relatives (UIHI 2016).

Qualitative methods appear to be the least used method in research about the military and violence against Indigenous womxn. However, I found that Hannagan (2017) interviewed multiple womxn who experienced military sexual trauma. The UIHI (2016) report utilized mix- methods approach but did not directly quote participant interviews. The literature reviewed posed the question: does being female and Indigenous increase the risk for violence in the

31 Marine Corps? The high rates of violence against Indigenous womxn outside of the Marine

Corps and military paralleled with high rates of military sexual trauma for womxn in the military indicates that they do. The literature demonstrates the need for more qualitative research to better understand Indigenous womxn’s experiences of violence in the military and the Marine Corps by

their own accounts. Hannagan stated, “Why should we listen to these untrained, non-expert

military womxn regarding MSA?” (2017: 632). I ask, why should we only listen to White womxn and men about experiences in the military and the Marine Corps? Cynthia Enloe also asks the questions, “Where are the womxn? Which womxn are specifically there and why is this natural” regarding military discourse (Soeters 2018:169).

32 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

KINSHIP AND COMMUNITY

For many Indigenous womxn in the Marine Corps, family and culture form the

foundation of their identities. It is important to understand how these impacted their experiences

in the Marine Corps as Indigenous womxn. The majority of participants discussed the role their

families and communities played in their decisions to join the Marine Corps. This concept of

kinship also played a role in the way they interacted with other Indigenous people in the Marine

Corps. The following sub-themes emerged from questions regarding family: (1) the role of

kinship in the decision to join the Marine Corps and (2) the role of kinship in interactions with

other Indigenous peoples.

“I Served in the Military because I Wanted to Protect My Family”: The Role of Kinship in the Decision to Join the Marine Corps

Kinship and community play an important role in many Indigenous cultures, so it was not surprising to find that it played a part in the participants’ decisions to join the Marine Corps. In many Indigenous communities, kinship includes a relationship to the land. This relationship sustained and protected Indigenous people before colonization and continues to do so today. The majority of participants explained that one reason they decided to join the Marine Corps was

because of veterans in their families or communities. Carrie, a Diné womxn who grew up on the

Navajo Nation and served four years in the Marine Corps stated: 18

I was actually in middle school. I did an interview with a Navajo Code Talker. It was Dan Akee from Tuba City, Arizona, and not really knowing the background and history of our culture and what we did in World War II. It started making me to think from that point and when I was in high school.

18 Carrie, Diné/Navajo, Video Chat Interview, January 5, 2020, Murrieta, CA.

33

The Navajo Code Talkers are heroes of the Navajo Nation who used the Navajo language in

World War II to defeat the Japanese (Durrett 1998). For Carrie, meeting a Navajo Code Talker

first sparked her interest in the Marine Corps. It was not until after returning home from college and with the encouragement of a Marine Recruiter who grew up in her community that she joined. Not only did she see honor in joining the Marine Corps but also an opportunity to get off the reservation and to make her family proud. Carrie’s decision to join also included protecting her country, family and community. She stated:

And as far as just being able to say, I joined a branch that, you know, that will provide not only for myself but as far as, like protection of the United States and my, where I’m from, my community, you know, so that, that’s most of it. And then when I joined, I understood fully of what, it all come, like came together. I would say.

Jenna, a Standing Rock Sioux womxn who grew up on the Hopi Reservation and served four years in the Marine Corps explained that one of the reasons she chose to enlist in the Marine

Corps was because of her aunt Desiree. 19 Her aunt was the first female Marine in their family

and she wanted to follow in her footsteps to be the second. Jenna stated:

…and another reason is my aunt always talked about how she is the only female in the family to serve in the Marines. So, I was just like another added . So, I was like just another added but I have strong lineage in the Marines.

That Marine Corps lineage in Jenna’s family includes seven family members spanning across generations. She also mentioned having another family member in the Air Force. Jenna explained that if Native Americans didn’t do their part to serve then they’re not protecting their

19 Jenna, Standing Rock Sioux, Video Chat Interview, January 4, 2020, Murrieta, CA.

34 lands or their people. As an Indigenous womxn, Jenna recognizes the important role she played

in protecting her land and people by serving in the Marine Corps. Jenna also stated:

I know like a lot of people when they asked, they're like, Well, why did you serve in the military? And it's like, I served in the military because I wanted to protect my family. Like I don't think about I don't think about the aspect of protecting the nation or anything like that. Like I think of it as something like I'm I'm doing my duty to help protect my family.

Jenna is honest about her decision to serve. She stated that it was to protect her family and not

necessarily the country as a whole. As an Indigenous womxn, Jenna’s sense of duty to protect

her family ties into Indigenous beliefs about community and kinship.

Latrina, a member of the Red Lake Band of Chippewas who grew up on the Red Lake

Reservation and served two and a half years in the Marine Corps explained that Indigenous

culture is more important than Marine culture. 20 Latrina explained:

And that's what I think is most important is remembering that like, you’re Native before you're a Marine, like your culture is more important than anything else, because that's going to be what you pass on to the next generation. And the Marine Corps will always be there. There's always going to be people. There's always going to be people passing on what's learned in the Marine Corps, but like, my culture is more important than the Marine Corps. So I would say to other people, to always remember your culture and who you are, where you come from.

Latrina states that your identity as an Indigenous womxn comes before your identity as a Marine.

As people of color especially as womxn of color, race and gender are what people see first and then that we’re Marines. Latrina’s understanding and recognition of the importance of preserving

Indigenous values and culture for future generations aligns with Indigenous feminists’ agenda to decolonize. She further stated:

…because like growing up my mom would always tell me that this was our country, this was our land and we needed to take care of it. And so I've always had like a really

20 Latrina, Red Lake Band of Chippewa, In-Person Interview, January 8, 2020, Fallbrook, CA

35 protective role in life. I've always tried to take care of the people I love. And so I wanted to defend the country and these people.

From an early age, Latrina’s mom instilled values and teachings about the land and Indigenous people’s responsibility to take care of it. Latrina acknowledges her desire to protect the kinship to her land and people in her decision to join the Marine Corps. However, her decision was met with resistance from other family members who did not understand. Latrina stated:

I guess my family's kind of like prejudice against White people. Like, like, not racist, but like, they don't necessarily favor White people. Like they don't hate them, but they don’t favor them. And so they were like, confused. So like, why are you joining a White fighting force? And I was like, well, God, I have to defend our country. And like, that's just my that's my job. I feel like like, I felt like that was my calling, so like, everybody was confused.

The families of Indigenous people who serve in the military often do not understand why their family member would serve in a military that colonized their people. Mihesuah stated, “ [Indigenous] women faced the intruders who invaded their lands and watched the devastation of their ways of life” (2003:41). As a result, Indigenous womxn have felt responsible for revitalizing and preserving their way of life within this colonial system.

These womxn are the embodiment of their Indigenous female ancestors and represent the continued resistance against colonization.

“You Ask, What Are Your Clans?”: The Role of Kinship in Interactions with Other

Indigenous Peoples

It is not common to cross paths with other Indigenous people in the Marine Corps but in the rare occurrence that it does happen there is an undeniable connection. You ask what tribe and reservation they’re from. If you’re the same tribe, you find out their clans to determine if you’re

36 related. Participants discussed their interactions with other Indigenous peoples they met while in

the Marine Corps.

Marisol, a Diné womxn grew up on the Navajo Nation and spent 4 years in the Marine

Corps discussed “clicking” with other Diné she met in the Marine Corps. 21 Marisol stated:

It was kind of like, you know, you ask what are your clans? And you’re like are we related? And you know, there's, there's just like a closeness a thing that no one else really has, you know, like, yeah, if you're another race or come from another country you can. You're like, you have that in common. But Navajos, there's like something that kinda connects everybody. And when I met other Navajo people in the Marine Corps, I felt like, we just kind of clicked on a level that you can't do with anybody else.

In the Navajo culture, it is customary to state your clans when introducing yourself for the first

time. This informs the other person of who you are and where you’re from. Marisol explains that

Navajo people have a connection that transcends beyond race or nationality to something deeper

and different from non-Indigenous people.

Hayley, also a Diné womxn grew up on the Navajo Nation and spent three years in the

Marine Corps explained: 22

Mostly it was “oh which tribe?” and if it was mine, it's like, “oh, where?” And then if it was on the reservation, it's like, “oh, which part?” And then it got into the discussion of clans. And then it was like, “Oh, yeah, we couldn't date like clans before plans, but I can't date you anyway, because I'm already married. But even if I wasn't, we couldn't date because culturally, you're my brother or culturally I'm your mom or culturally I'm your kid and so this is not happening.”

The clan system in the Navajo culture determines kinship and if you’re allowed to have a romantic relationship with that person. It is forbidden and considered incestuous to date someone who is your brother, child or parent by clan. Shannon, a Cheyenne River Sioux and Kiowa

21 Marisol, Diné/Navajo, Video Chat, January 5, 2020, Murrieta, CA 22 Hayley, Diné/Navajo, In-Person Interview, December 20, 2019, Oceanside, CA

37 womxn grew up in a tribal community in Oklahoma and spent seven years in the Marine Corps stated: 23

Um it was how do I put it like kinda comforting to meet someone of my own race you know being away from home and just having something in common.

The shared culture, knowledge and practices of Indigenous people Shannon met provided her with comfort.

Latrina worked as an Administrative Specialist in the Inbound Section of the Installation

Personnel Administration Center and recalled checking in twenty-five Indigenous people over a span of two years. 24 When I asked her what those interactions were like, Latrina stated:

I would get super excited. I’d be like “Yo like what's up like I’m Native too” like, and then we would talk about our reservations. We would talk about like our, our Indian names we’d talk about like, how our cultures are similar and how they're different, how we grew up, talk about what we missed about our reservations and our family dynamics and everything.

Latrina’s interactions with other Indigenous people produced excitement similar to Shannon feeling of comfort as a result of shared social identities.

THE IMPACT OF COLONIZATION: POVERTY ON INDIGENOUS

RESERVATIONS

The impact of colonization is still visible on many Indigenous reservations in the form of poverty and isolation. This struggle is an everyday reality for those who reside there. Life on the reservation does not provide many opportunities to experience the world outside of it. Kleykamp stated, “Several studies have suggested that the military may provide a source of social mobility

23 Shannon, Cheyenne River Sioux and Kiowa, Telephone Interview on December 22, 2019, Murrieta, CA 24 Latrina, Red Lake Band of Chippewa, In-Person Interview, January 8, 2020, Fallbrook, CA

38 for disadvantaged minorities during service because of the less discriminatory environment,

steady employment that provides numerous benefits and compensation over civilian-equivalent

jobs and especially because of the GI Bill benefits, which can fund post service college

education” (2006:273). There were two sub-themes that emerged: (1) Poverty on Indigenous

Reservations and (2) Acculturation of Indigenous Womxn in the Marine Corps.

“I would say it’s a third world country”: Poverty in Indigenous Reservations

Poverty is described by The World Bank as, “poverty not only as hunger, lack of shelter,

and health care, but also the lack of a job and schooling, powerlessness, lack of representation

and freedom, fear for the future and living one day at a time (Spencer-Wood and Mathews

2011:1). Nearly all participants descriptions of reservations mirrored third world conditions where there is a lack of running water, electricity, food and access to services. Jenna described

the reservation stating: 25

I would say it’s a third world country, people don't realize that we have people that are living without running water running electricity, and no sewer. And you have like outhouses and stuff.

The poverty of many reservations is the result of historical trauma related to genocide, colonization and boarding schools. Indigenous people were forced to reside on reservations where the isolation created inequalities in health, education and employment leading to issues with unemployment, violence, substance abuse and health problems. Spencer-Wood and

Matthews stated, “The culture of poverty thesis assumes that poverty is the result of generational

25 Jenna, Standing Rock Sioux, Video Chat Interview, January 4, 2020, Murrieta, CA

39 patterns of behavior adopted due to the lack of resources for addressing and challenging

impoverishment” (2011:7). Similarly, Carrie stated: 26

You would have to discuss as far as why our reservation is so like poor compared to the outskirts of where we live.

Carrie is referring to the communities of towns and cities that border some reservations. The poverty on the reservation is more apparent than those towns and cities.

Sasha, a Diné womxn who grew up on the Navajo Nation and served 4 years in the

Marine Corps described the struggle of living in rural parts of the reservation. 27 She stated:

Um, uh, there's not a whole lot of, um, like a whole lot of, uh, like services out there. Like, um, you'd have to travel far to probably get like food and, um, your—like other necessities. Um, and we live like, there's not a whole lot of like neighbors nearby, so you're basically just out there, I mean trying to like survive (laughs).

Although Sasha laughed, trying to survive is reality for Indigenous families living on the

reservations across the United States. The recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)

pandemic has hit reservations like the Navajo Nation particularly hard due the lack of access to

resources like water, food and healthcare according to Dr. Loretta Christensen, Navajo Area

Chief Medical Officer at the Indian Health Service (National Public Radio 2020).

Latrina described the reservations as, “Um kind of like a, like a ghetto, but like, third

world, country status…” Latrina compares the reservation to impoverished communities located

outside the reservation and outside of the United States. She also revealed the lack of housing on

the reservation stating, “So it was me, my mom, three of my sisters and then there was eight,

eight of my nieces and nephews and then my sisters’ boyfriends. So there was like, 14 of us in a

26 Carrie, Diné/Navajo, Video Chat Interview, January 5, 2020, Murrieta, CA 27 Sasha, Diné/ Navajo, Video Chat Interview, February 2, 2020, Murrieta, CA

40 three-bedroom house.” This is not uncommon for multiple generations to live in one home due

to the lack of access to safe and affordable housing. Latrina also discusses issues regarding

dependence on the colonial system. She stated:

So like we would a lot of people live in poverty and like a lot of us like depended on food stamps and like disability from the government and like, I didn't know like any family that had more than like a one income. Like they were all we all made minimum wage out there like it was really not the best but doable.

Latrina’s statement reveals issues of food insecurity, unemployment and not being paid a living wage. For many of the participants, the reservation represents poverty found in many third world countries. Spencer-Wood and Matthews (2011) stated, “poverty is a social position created by political and economic relations, that situates and contains populations within larger social and cultural systems” (1). The social position of poverty and isolation for Indigenous people on the reservation is the result of colonial powers.

“It Was a Culture Shock”: The Acculturation of Indigenous Womxn in the Marine Corps

The relationship Indigenous people have with the United States Government is complex,

given its history of extermination and assimilation of Indigenous people. Indigenous people were

forced to attend boarding schools in an attempt to assimilate them into the dominant culture.

Similarly, when Indigenous womxn arrive at boot camp they experience, “a process of giving up

one’s traditional cultural values and behaviors while taking on the values and behaviors of the

dominant social structure” (Garrett and Pichette 2000:6). Boot camp was the first-time many

participants were away from the reservation. The isolation experienced in rural areas of the

reservation prevent Indigenous people from experiencing life off the reservation. Garrett and

Pichette (2011) described acculturation as:

The cultural change that occurs when two or more cultures are in persistent contact. In this process, change may occur in each of the cultures in varying degrees…a particular

41 kind of acculturation is assimilation, in which one culture changes significantly more than the other culture and, as a result comes to resemble it. This process is often established deliberately through force to maintain control over conquered peoples, but it can occur voluntarily as well (6).

Not only were participants experiencing the process of being indoctrinated into the Marine Corps

but also acculturation from life off the reservation. Participants described their experiences of

being in a new environment with different people. Latrina explained: 28

It was like a culture shock seeing so many people and to like hear people in boot camp speak Spanish. It was like (voice lowers) what the fuck because my school we didn't have to take Spanish, like it was offered.

Latrina grew up speaking English and learning Ojibway. The experience of hearing Latinx’s

speaking Spanish in boot camp helped to broaden Latrina’s world view.

Hayley 29 met womxn from other countries serving in the Marine Corps to earn their

opportunity to gain citizenship. Hayley stated:

And I did meet other women who were of — who came from other countries. There's a woman who is from Trinidad and Tobago, there was one who's who she decided to enlist in the Marine Corps to seek US citizenship that way. Pathway to citizenship, join the Marine Corps.

Similarly, Latrina also stated:

Most of the people in my platoon were like immigrants trying to get their green card. Yeah. So they were like, like, “yeah, we just we just crossed the border a couple years ago, and we're trying to get our green card”. And I was like, damn. That's crazy. Like, I was like, first of all, I've never met Hispanic person. And now you're telling me like you had to go through all of this to become an American citizen. And you're doing all of this. I was like, That's crazy. I was like you. You got a lot of courage.

As the original people to occupy the United States, the concept of citizenship is strange to

indigenous people. Despite that, Indigenous people were not granted American citizenship until

28 Latrina, Red Lake Band of Chippewa, In-Person Interview, January 8, 2020, Fallbrook, CA 29 Hayley, Diné/Navajo, In-Person Interview, December 20, 2019, Oceanside, CA

42 the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act (National Constitution Center 2019). In that aspect, Indigenous

people have citizenship privilege as they do not have to serve in the military for it.

Many reservations are hours from airports and plane tickets are expensive, so not many

Indigenous people who live on the reservation fly. Paulina, a Cheyenne River Sioux womxn who

grew up on the Standing Rock Reservation and served eight years in the Marine Corps stated: 30

I was scared because it would be my first time on an airplane ever and I was not ready to be racing into the sun.

Hayley also related to Paulina’s statement. She explained:

No, the first time [on a plane] was when I went down to Parris Island”. Both womxn had never been on a plane prior to shipping to boot camp in South Carolina.

Latrina recalled not meeting a White person until she was in the 6th grade. She also explained that she did not socialize with them, only Natives. When she arrived at boot camp she was meeting people from other races for the first time again. She described her experience:

It was crazy, I never met a black person until I joined the Marine Corps or Hispanic person, or Asian or anything. I never met any of them until I was in the Marine Corps. I only knew Natives and White people. It was crazy.

The Marine Corps provided opportunities for participants to experience social interactions that fell outside their norm. The participants were not only just beginning to learn to navigate the Marine Corps but also the outside world off the reservation in general.

30 Paulina, Cheyenne River Sioux, Video Chat Interview, December 18, 2019, Murrieta, CA

43 RACE, GENDER AND THEIR INTERSECTIONS

The particular standpoint Indigenous womxn have about experiences in the Marine Corps differ from the dominant standpoint of men and other womxn. In order to fully understand the experiences of Indigenous womxn in the Marine Corps, it is imperative to discuss issues related to race and gender. There were three sub-themes that emerged from the intersection of race and

gender: (1) The Subordination of Indigenous Female Marines; (2) Stereotypes and Race

Discrimination (3) Interactions with Other Womxn of Color and White Womxn

“You're Just A Woman”: The Subordination of Indigenous Female Marines

All participants for this research discussed their experiences with race and gender

discrimination. While they discussed the majority of their experiences separately,

intersectionality tells us that people do not experience race or gender discrimination

independently, but simultaneously (Crenshaw 1989). Carrie described the labels men created for

womxn who slept around in the barracks, “It'd be like you'd hear males just say like, ‘Oh, she's

the barracks bunny.’” 31 The label describes a womxn who “hops” around the barracks sleeping

with other Marines.

Marisol described how men in the Marine Corps would talk down to her. 32 She

explained:

Oh, you're just a woman, you know, you're um, they would kind of hint like, oh, you're just here for sex or you know, the barracks hoe.

31 Carrie, Diné/Navajo, Video Chat Interview, January 5, 2020, Murrieta, CA 32 Marisol, Diné/Navajo, Video Chat, January 5, 2020, Murrieta, CA

44 The sexual objectification of womxn in the Marine Corps is commonplace. Womxn Marines

have struggled to be recognized as Marines, a title they earned in boot camp like their male

counterparts. There is a quote and it’s unclear where it originated from but female Marines tend

to quote it frequently, “There are no female Marines, just Marines.” However, that status is often

overshadowed by their gender and statements like the one directed toward Marisol are painful

reminders that womxn are viewed as less than equal. Roberto Gonzales, discussed Everette

Hugh’s idea of a master status in his book Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in

America. Gonzalez stated, “The tendency of particular human traits, labels, or demographic

categories to dominate all other statuses and to prevail in determining a person’s general social

position”(15). In Marisol’s case her master status is female. Bhagwati (2019) stated about her

experiences in the Marine Corps, “This is not what I signed up for, this place where womxn who

didn’t spend time working the guys into a sexual frenzy were looked down upon” (68).

Similarly, Marisol’s purpose was assumed to be for the sexual gratification of men because of

her gender.

Hayley also described labels she was called when I asked if she was ever called

derogatory or insulting names she stated:

As for being a woman, walking mattress. 33 Woman Marine, walking mattress. My favorite one though has to be bitch.

In a masculine military environment, labels given to womxn like walking mattress and bitch— that are sexual and related to gender—are tools of oppression.

33 Hayley, Diné/Navajo, In-Person Interview, December 20, 2019, Oceanside, CA

45 Jenna recognized that although the Marine Corps claims to provide equal opportunity for all servicemembers, male Marines still hold patriarchal ideas about gender roles. 34 One day during field day while cleaning their office Jenna recalled:

I remember like someone pulled out the vacuum and [I said] "you need to wipe everything down first before you vacuum” and there was, someone was like, “Yeah, Nelson you would know”.

She further explained:

I feel that even still even though that we all claim that the Marine Corps has equality that there are still people that believe that women belong in the same of like the 1950s 1960s spectrum.

It is unclear if that individual was taking a jab at Jenna because she was telling him how to clean or that he actually assumed that Jenna’s gender automatically made her an expert at cleaning.

Similarly, Paulina stated that when she was in the Marine Corps she was often assigned to duties traditionally held by womxn. 35 She explained:

“Okay, well you're here to do the paperwork, we're going to put you in the office”. So I never really got to do any warehouse work until, actually until I was about a Sergeant.

Paulina’s official MOS was supply, a job that required her to engage in manual work. However, she was doing paperwork in the company. This assignment to do gendered administrative work prevented Paulina from being proficient in her own MOS.

Jeanna also missed out on professional opportunities in the Marine Corps because her shop relied too heavily on her despite her not being the only Marine in the shop. 36 Jenna explained:

34 Jenna, Standing Rock Sioux, Video Chat Interview, January 4, 2020, Murrieta, CA 35 Paulina, Cheyenne River Sioux, Video Chat Interview, December 18, 2019, Murrieta, CA 36 Jenna, Standing Rock Sioux, Video Chat Interview, January 4, 2020, Murrieta, CA

46 So I was stationed at Marine Barracks, Washington DC. So it's a very, 8th and I 37 is a very different duty station among, like all the other duty stations. And I actually had an offer to work as an administrator at Camp David. And again my Master Sergeant was like, she's not going. So yeah, I mean, I just feel like I had a lot of missed opportunities because my shop wouldn’t let me go.

Jenna was presented with a rare opportunity for a female Marine to work at Camp David where

Presidents of the United States often retreat. Jenna was denied the opportunity because the male

Marines in her shop didn’t want to lose her. Jenna mentioned that the other Marines were

unwilling to learn how to be proficient at their jobs. If Jenna took leave, then she was fixing their

mistakes when she returned.

“Are you the Indian drunk?”: Stereotypes and Race Discrimination

All participants for this study discussed their experiences of being targets of racially

motivated remarks and stereotypes about their Indigenous culture.

In the interview, I asked Carrie whether she was ever called degrading or insulting

remarks regarding her being Indigenous. 38 She stated that some asked her, “Are you the Indian

Drunk?” I lost my bearing for a moment and gasped in horror that someone could ask something

so clearly racist and stereotypical of Indigenous people. Carrie attempted to backpeddle to

downplay the racist question she was asked when she stated:

Well not like that way, but just as far as like, are you one of those Native Americans? like kinda like that, but no, nothing else.

Carrie dismissed the racist question either because she separated herself from “those” Indigenous

people or because it was not clear to her at that time that it was a racist.

37 “Ceremonial and security missions in the nation’s capital, located on the corners of 8th and I Streets in southeast Washington, D.C.” (www.barracks.usms.mil 2020) 38 Carrie, Diné/Navajo, Video Chat Interview, January 5, 2020, Murrieta, CA

47 Other racial stereotypes and remarks directed at participants include being asked if they lived in a teepee, smoked peyote or rain danced. There was one particular instance with Shannon that was more hostile. Shannon explained, “He started calling me a redskin and an effin’ Indian oh and what is it … savage”. To provide context, a male peer was angry with Shannon for being promoted ahead of him. He indicated that she obtained her promotion as a result of performing sexual acts rather than based on her abilities.

There were also incidents of Indigenous womxn being called racial slurs based on their intersecting social identities of being Indigenous and a womxn. A common label used against

Indigenous womxn is Pocahontas.

Marisol recalled being called Pocahontas. 39 She stated, “I did get um you know, called

Pocahontas”. Similarly Sasha recalled being in MOS school when her peers had a coin she believed had Pocahontas on it. 40 She stated:

I think there's the, it was like that or something. It was something about that coin. Um, they like, I don't know, it was like some kind of like a joke or something towards me and it had to do with like that Pocahontas coin. But I never found out what, what they were like, what they were talking about. But I know it was about me ‘cause I was like the only Native American girl in that class. So, yeah.

Marisol and Sasha were called Pocahontas, a term used to attack their race and gender. The history of Pocahontas is not the colorful story portrayed in Disney. Pocahontas was raped, kidnapped and trafficked by colonial settlers.

39 Marisol, Diné/Navajo, Video Chat, January 5, 2020, Murrieta, CA 40 Sasha, Diné/ Navajo, Video Chat Interview, February 2, 2020, Murrieta, CA

48 “I Kind of Clicked More with People That were Like Hispanic”: Interactions with Other Womxn of Color and White Womxn

Indigenous people in the Marine Corps are so far and in-between that it was not uncommon for participants to connect with and form friendships with people who looked similar to Indigenous peoples. Jenna explained that being from Arizona it is common to hang around

Latinx’s. 41 When Jenna attended high school off the reservation, she had a mix of friends who were Indigenous and Latinx. She recalled:

I think that's why I kind of like, I kind of clicked more with people [in the Marine Corps] that were like Hispanic.

Jenna connected so well with Latinx womxn that her best friend Jennifer who she remains close with today is Mexican.

In the interview I asked Sasha if she ever felt like she was treated differently than other womxn of color. She was confident that they were all treated the same and revealed that her best friend was Mexican. Sasha stated:

No, I don't. I think we were all treated the same way ‘cause you know, it's like there was like my best friend, the one that was with me, she was, um, she was Mexican. Um, so I think that they were all treated the same way.

Sasha stated that they spent significant time together, even visiting her family in San Diego frequently.

Hayley’s interactions with other people of color was positive. 42 Hayley discussed:

I think there was more comfort, more ease, and more willingness to be myself around men of color and women of color because there was this visual of, okay, we put up with bullshitters all day what's not bullshit each other. Let's just sit back, relax, talk about life, not talk about problems because we could get here we could just sit here and be angry

41 Jenna, Standing Rock Sioux, Video Chat Interview, January 4, 2020, Murrieta, CA 42 Hayley, Diné/Navajo, In-Person Interview, December 20, 2019, Oceanside, CA

49 about how we're treated because of color. How we're treated because of religion. We can be treated, be upset about how we're treated because of sexuality or we could just simply relax. We usually ended up relaxing, still, that level of respect of who you are, what rank you attain, how you learn things while you're in.

Other people of color provided Hayley with a sense of community and offered a safe space where she could escape discrimination.43 Hayley also discussed having a positive relationship with a Black womxn. She stated:

Another person that I did did get along with very well with [pause] uh was um later on uh my roomie while I was when I was stationed overseas and when I came back to the states. Yup! So that was Keisha. I did get along with her. We had a healthy respect for the other person and healthier enough respect to be out of each other's way.

While some participants discussed having positive relationships with other womxn of color, not all participants felt the same way. For example, Latrina stated:

Most of the women in my shop are like rude. Like they were like those, like super sassy like Hispanic woman, like, I'm not going to talk to you. I'm just here to get my work done. so I didn't really talk to them that much because I was like intimidated by them because they were like, their energy was like, just super fierce and so I’m just gonna leave you alone…

Latrina was unable to connect and form friendships with the Latinx womxn in her shop because she felt intimidated by their strong personalities.44

The interactions participants had with Black womnx was less about personality and more about physical features like their hair. Paulina revealed issues with the oil Black womxn used for their hair. 45She stated:

It's like that, I think I talked about that oil in that girl's hair. I think that I was trying to keep it off me, because you get in trouble for having oil on your, your clothing, and stuff, and you know, that head, your, that girl's head, back of her head about, you know, six

43 Hayley, Diné/Navajo, In-Person Interview, December 20, 2019, Oceanside, CA 44 Latrina, Red Lake Band of Chippewa, In-Person Interview, January 8, 2020, Fallbrook, CA 45 Paulina, Cheyenne River Sioux, Video Chat Interview, December 18, 2019, Murrieta, CA

50 inches from your nose, and you don't want it on your, on your uniform, because you'll get in trouble for it.

Paulina’s reaction was more about not wanting to get into trouble than it was about being discriminatory. Indigenous womxn have experienced their own issues with their hair being cut in

boarding school. Many Indigenous womxn are unaware of the struggle Black womxn have faced

with their hair. What Paulina did not know is that oil is necessary to keep Black hair moisturized

to prevent breakage.

Similar stories emerged from other participants Black womxn’s hair. Latrina

recalled a time in boot camp when their buns were taken away forcing them to find

alternative hairstyles while remaining in standards. Latrina explained:

Oh, well, we'll just French braid it. I was like, Oh, that's gonna be easy. I know how to French braid (confident). And then there was like, some Black girls, and they didn't know how to braid their hair. And I was like, I've never touched a Black person's hair before (Whispering). And they were like, well, it's just hair. Like, you should be able to braid it. And I was like, but it's course. Like, it's different. I don't think I'm going to be able to braid it. And I tried and it came out so bad. She got in so much trouble. And I was like, dude, I'm so sorry. Like I told you, I wouldn't be able to do it.

In boot camp, everything is a privilege including hair buns. When a platoon is not performing to

their Drill Instructors satisfaction those privileges can be revoked. Navigating new spaces while

surrounded by people of different cultures is a struggle that Indigenous womxn are not used to.

This interaction with Black girls was a negative experience for Latrina because she felt bad for

not being able to help.

Carrie’s experience with Black womxn involved hair regulations. 46 Carrie stated:

I would say that's the only thing that [I] would see different African Americans. They would definitely go out regulations and they wouldn't be not reprimanded, but just kind of

46 Carrie, Diné/Navajo, Video Chat Interview, January 5, 2020, Murrieta, CA

51 just spoken to. So I thought that was a little, like, mistreat mistreatment. But I know you can't really do anything except just worry about yourself.

In the Marine Corps, hair regulations for Black womxn are different compared to womxn non-

Black womxn. For example, Black womxn are authorized to have their hair styled in cornrows or

braids from the top of their scalp all the way down. Carrie expressed that it was unfair how Black

womxn were disciplined for being out of regulations. What I find interesting is that Carrie was

not bothered when she was asked if she was the Indian drunk but felt that Black womxn being

disciplined differently was “mistreatment”. This is an example of internalized sexism that affects

many womxn who serve in a male dominated institution like the Marine Corps. Paulo Freire

(2000) stated, “the oppressed at a certain moment of their existential experiences, adopt an

attitude of ‘adhesion’ to the oppressor” (45). This also includes how people of color experience and cope with racism in the Marine Corps.

Participants’ interactions with White womxn seem to have been more problematic than their interactions with womxn of color. Jenna described having close relationships with most of the womxn at her duty station but stated, “Well, the ones that I had hiccups with, um, they were both White.” Jenna did not go into detail about the problems she had with these womxn but stated that she is friends with one now and remained acquaintances with the other.

Hayley also discussed having issues with a White girl in boot camp who came across as privileged.

We would say her name, three times. Marsha Marsha Marsha! but using her last name instead. Whenever whenever she would say something or you know, be a little bit caddy or bratty, we'd be like, oh my God. She’s like, what is that? Um like you’re starting to show a little bit uppityness to the rest of us. We don't like it. So we're pointing it out to you. That you're behaving like Marsha and all of us are being and you put us all as Jan in the situation. She's like, Oh, so it's like one person I did not get along with was her.

52 A person who doesn’t conform in boot camp is perceived as believing they’re “special”.

Privilege is something that is frowned upon because everyone is supposed to be equally nothing in boot camp. Hayley also discussed another interaction with a White girl that was problematic. She stated:

I think it's it was one day in which I got accused of and I hate to say it, well actually I will say it. She was White and she accused me of reverse racism. Because (Laughs) I'm looking at her I’m like let me think about this for a second. You're accusing me of reverse racism. Whyy? And she's like, well, I don't think you're Native American, I think you're Asian. I’m like going? Nooo, I am Native American unless you want to talk about geography. Then I am Asian, but I have a lot huge of Asian influences in my life because of where I grew up and how I grew up and who my neighbors were and what I was exposed to as a child. So how dare you deny me in your mind—my culture. You can think whatever you like about my work performance, or how I do things or how I relate to other people. But you cannot accuse me of reverse racism. That’s you telling me that you are racist. Let me see if I understand that correctly. She pretty much decided to write me off as a human being from that point on.

Hayley acknowledges the idea that Indigenous people migrated from Asia through the

Bering Strait when she states that, “I am Native American unless you want to talk about geography. Then I am Asian.” 47 This particular White womxn made no sense in accusing

Hayley of reverse racism —as Hayley does not belong to a dominant racial group— or had any right to tell Hayley who she is. Hayley’s decision to speak out against that individual for their own racism prompted her to dismiss Hayley in an attempt to silence her.

Marisol offered a different perspective about White womxn in the Marine Corps 48:

I know definitely that I was treated better than some umm better than some white girls. And that was because they [other Marines] didn't think too highly of them. You know,

47 Hayley, Diné/Navajo, In-Person Interview, December 20, 2019, Oceanside, CA 48 Marisol, Diné/Navajo, Video Chat, January 5, 2020, Murrieta, CA

53 they thought they were promiscuous or just you know, not easy to get along with more than me.

White womxn were problematic for participants but also for others who viewed them

negatively due to their perceived sexual promiscuity. Marisol explained that she was

more respected among her peers for not being White. Although participants expressed

feeling a connection with some womxn of color, it was nothing compared to the

connection they felt with other Indigenous people.

VIOLENCE AGAINST INDIGENOUS WOMXN

The most compelling finding for this research was that nearly all participants experienced

some form of violence that was either physical, sexual or emotional. There were five sub-themes that emerged: (1) Physical, Sexual and Emotional Violence; (2) Individual Reactions to

Violence; (3) Institutional Reaction to Violence; (4) Justice; and (5) Narratives of Resilience.

“He Asked Permission to Kiss Me. I Said ‘No’ And Then He Went to Proceed to Beat Me Up”: Physical Violence

Haley was stationed in Okinawa, Japan when she was physically assaulted by a male

Marine. He asked if he could kiss her, she said no, and then he attacked her 49 She explained:

He hit me, started with both fists on my face. I had a bruise on the side of my face that covered up my entire face. I reported him. And they were like, “what would you do? What did you do to provoke him?” I said, I wouldn't let him kiss me. It's like what? He asked me if I could kiss, if—he asked permission to kiss me. I said no. And then he went to proceed to beat me up.

49 Hayley, Diné/Navajo, In-Person Interview, December 20, 2019, Oceanside, CA

54 Sarah Deer stated, “It is impossible to have a truly self-determining nation when its members have been denied self-determination over their own bodies” (2015: xiv). In Hayley’s case, the consequence for exercising her own self-determination was being physically beaten. The questions Hayley was asked following the assault are an example of victim blaming. They automatically assumed that Hayley was responsible for her own attack. Hayley stated that she reported her attacker. I asked Hayley if she had to testify in the military court proceedings and she stated, “the body of evidence was enough where I didn't have to come in and testify and the evidence taken from me or (Pause) taken of me, was used. So I did not have to testify.” The

perpetrator was confined to the brig 50 after Hayley left Okinawa, so that she would not be forced

to see her attacker at work.

Similarly, Jenna recalled being out with friends when she suddenly felt tired. Her friend

offered to walk her back to the car to hang out. 51 She stated:

So I did, but another guy followed with him. I remember as much as like he kissed me and I didn't like it but I don't really remember much from there.

Jenna admitted that she was intoxicated at the time but recalls pulling away from him. There’s no way to tell what that individuals’ motive was but one thing is for certain, Jenna was fortunate that the situation did not escalate any further. Jenna also stated that after that incident, she avoided that individual until he was discharged from the Marine Corps.

Other participants experienced physical assaults while in professional spaces, I will refer

to this as professional violence as it happens within the context of their profession. Paulina

50 U.S. Navy term to describe a military prison or jail. 51 Jenna, Standing Rock Sioux, Video Chat Interview, January 4, 2020, Murrieta, CA

55 described being physically assaulted while at Sergeants Course, a professional school for Marine

sergeants. 52 She stated:

And one of 'em [instructors] used to take me by the front of my shirt while I'm doing sit- ups and just take me and just do this with me [up and down motion]. "This is how you do sit-ups Richardson!” And he used to drag me around.

Professional violence is often dismissed as training where personnel will put their hands on you

to demonstrate the correct way to do something. Paulina further stated:

Um, that was probably the worst treatment I ever had there, in the military, is, is these Sergeants who are actually, I don't even, one was a Staff Ser-Staff Sergeant, the other one was a Sergeant, but it was the Sergeant that was doing that and he told the Staff Sergeant that he was trying to make me a better Sergeant. So it was okay for him to grab me by my T-shirt and fling me around, you know what I mean?

The Sergeant was Paulina’s peer because they were the same rank. His position as an instructor and male Marine allowed him to assume it was ok to touch Paulina in such a demeaning manner to “make her better”.

Similarly, Marisol recalled being hit in the face with her rifle in boot camp by a

Drill Instructor. 53 When I asked Marisol if she thought it was on purpose, she stated:

Um, I think it was on purpose but made to look like an accident and like I wasn't holding my rifle up high enough. She put it up and hit me with it in the face and then put it back down.

Marisol claimed that her history of child abuse made this experience feel normal for her. This type of abuse is common for recruits and is rarely reported.

52 Paulina, Cheyenne River Sioux, Video Chat Interview, December 18, 2019, Murrieta, CA 53 Marisol, Diné/Navajo, Video Chat, January 5, 2020, Murrieta, CA

56 “I Had A Pillow Case Over My Head And A Knife To My Throat And Then He Started To Rape Me”: Rape and Sexual Assault

Narratives of rape and sexual assault were common for nearly all participants. Sarah Deer quoted Deborah Miranda in her (2015) book The Beginning and Ending of Rape: Confronting

Sexual Violence in Native America, “Indian bodies are inferior bodies. Indian women’s bodies are rape-able bodies. Indian bodies do not belong to Indians, but to those who can lay claim to them by violence” (9).

Shannon was living alone in a squad bay 54 reserved for married Marines

returning from deployment. 55 Shannon recalls another Marine breaking into the squad

bay while she was asleep. She explained:

When I woke I had a pillowcase over my head and a knife to my throat and then he started to rape me. And then said if I fought back he will slice my throat. But then I took a split-second decision on whether I’ma fight or just let him violate me. So I chose to fight back. So I just kicked punched fought and he had threatened me but then I was like yeah fight or just let myself be violated so I chose to fight or if he really wanted to kill me then I’ma fight even harder so I fought him off and then he jumped up really quick and so after I pulled the pillowcase off my head all I could see was the back of him and he was still in his uniform.. running away.

Shannon’s decision to fight back is a fight or flight response to trauma. Shannon does not know

how the perpetrator gained access to the squad bay. It is possible that he stalked her prior to the

attack because he knew she would be alone. Shannon also stated that her attacker was an

African-American man. Sarah Deer (2015) stated, “Indigenous people across the world share a

common experience—namely, intrusion on their lands and culture by an exterior, hostile

54 Living quarters meant to house a large number of Marines 55 Shannon, Cheyenne River Sioux and Kiowa, Telephone Interview on December 22, 2019, Murrieta, CA

57 outsider. Rape victims experience the same dynamic, but it is played out on their bodies and souls rather than on the land” (xiv).

Similarly Paulina was on her way from the enlisted club one night on base when she was attacked by a stranger. 56 She explained:

He dragged me into one of the rooms and tried to rape me. Um, you were talking by violence, I think. That was probably the worst of it when I was in the Marine Corps, 'cause that violence, um, he was a... some Tank Battalion, or something, in... um, I pretty much fought him off and ran out... lucky, he ran out the door.

Paulina was fortunate to be able to fight off her attacker before he could rape her. Paulina also stated that her attacker was a Black male. Both Shannon and Paulina’s attackers were non-

Indigenous, which is consistent with studies showing interracial perpetrators account for 67 percent of rapes/sexual assaults (Bachman, Zaykowski, Kallmyer, Poteyeva and Lanier 2008).

Latrina’s perpetrator was someone she knew, trusted and often confided in. 57 One night while Latrina was socializing at the barracks, the perpetrator approached her and a group of friends. He was previously disciplined several times for underage drinking, so Latrina felt a responsibility to help him back to his room before he got in trouble again. Latrina stated:

So I brought him back to his room. And then when we got there, he locked the door. And I was like, scared. And so I just sat down on a chair and he like, kept pulling my chair closer to him. And then, and then he was like, he was being super, I don't know, he kept pulling my chair closer to him. And I was like, scooting away. I was getting scared and then like, in my head, I was like, I should have never came in here. Like I just kept blaming myself. And um I didn't want to scream for help, because everybody already knew me as like the girl who cried depression, like the girl, like everybody just thought that like, I was trying to be depressed to get attention. And um so I didn't scream for help or anything. And then he like, took my clothes off of me and like forced me to have sex with him and was trying to like force me to, um like suck his dick. And I was like, just crying and I was like, we can't do this. Why are you doing this? Like this can't happen. Why are you doing this? Why don't you stop like I was just really like numb to the fact

56 Paulina, Cheyenne River Sioux, Video Chat Interview, December 18, 2019, Murrieta, CA 57 Latrina, Red Lake Band of Chippewa, In-Person Interview, January 8, 2020, Fallbrook, CA

58 that it was happening but I just knew that if I just did everything he said it would be over with quicker. So I just did everything he said. And then he got—after he was done. He got dressed. And he just went to sleep as if nothing happened. Like he didn't say anything at all. He just went to sleep.

The Marine Corps teaches its Marines that they can and should always be able to rely on their

fellow Marines as sisters and brothers—something Indigenous womxn take very seriously as our

culture revolves around kinship. Latrina believed she was looking out for a fellow Marine and

brother but instead was betrayed when he violently raped her. In military masculine culture,

“women are encouraged to believe that the men they serve with are their comrades and even at

some level their family” (Weitz 2015:175). In addition to suffering psychological pain as a result

of the rape, Latrina also suffered physical pain. She stated:

My neck was super swollen because he used this MCMAP belt to choke me.58 And so my neck was all purple and bruised up and swollen. And underneath, my eyes were swollen, and like he was slapping me, so I had his handprints like imprinted all over my body like it was red and swollen.

Later in the interview, I asked Latrina if she knew her assailant’s race. She stated:

I think he was like, Mexican, maybe. I don't know. He looked—he acted white but he was dark. So I know that. I don't know he might have been Native, honestly because he's from Michigan. But I didn't know like exactly what race he was.

Hayley was assaulted twice while in the Marine Corps. Once physically and then in a separate incident she was stalked and raped by a former inmate she guarded at the brig. 59 She stated that

finding out where a brig guard lived was easy as was accessing barracks rooms. Hayley

explained:

58 Marine Corps Martial Arts Program belt 59 Hayley, Diné/Navajo, In-Person Interview, December 20, 2019, Oceanside, CA

59 I found out that this prisoner li-took a particular liking to me. Found out and it's easy to learn any guard’s schedule. Found out my schedule and that where I would be. Found out my room, attempted to rape me. My roommate stopped what was happening.

Hayley explained her understanding of the legal definition of sexual assault and rape. She stated,

Uh it's of degrees. So legal definition assault, rape. So if it was on the surface it’s assault if it even just penetrates the slightest bit it’s considered rape.

I asked Hayley if the perpetrator penetrated her and she stated, “Yes”. Hayley contradicts herself several times. When she described incident she stated the perpetrator attempted to rape her.

Later, she states that he penetrated her and by her own legal definition constitutes rape. The perpetrator in Hayley’s rape was Latinx, a non-Indigenous person like Shannon and Paulina.

Rape and sexual assaults are not always violent but they still inflict physical and psychological pain as well. Jenna explained that she used to hang out with her Sergeant, a superior, in her shop.60 She often spoke to him about issues in her personal life including an

emotionally abusive relationship she was in. She stated:

To wake up, to wake up the next day not necessarily knowing and understanding what happened. And I don't I feel like I never really said anything because I couldn't like I I didn't want to point. I didn't want to point blame at someone that I felt didn't. I don't know. Like, I, I just didn't want to point blame at someone that I felt didn't. I don't know, like I, I don't really I wasn't maybe realizing like what was going on too. I don't know. I've never like even to this day like I have never told my husband about this. I haven't told I’ve maybe one other person. And to this day, like I don't know what to think about that day or what happened in that situation and how that situation classifies.

Jenna expressed confusion about the incident that occurred with her Sergeant. Sh recalls

consuming wine and not being able to remember the events of that night. Jenna stated that her

Sergeant was a Black male. Jenna stated that she doesn’t recall giving consent to the events that

60 Jenna, Standing Rock Sioux, Video Chat Interview, January 4, 2020, Murrieta, CA

60 occurred that night. However, legally if you’re intoxicated you cannot consent. Jenna was by

legal definition raped.

Sasha recalls being home on leave, and going out with her cousins.61 They met a

friend of her brothers at the bar and decided to take him home to their house. Sasha stated

that she was extremely intoxicated upon leaving the bar. She stated:

And, um, my cousins put me in, in a room and, um, they closed the door and the next morning, um, like my, my pants were off. And, um, that guy was the, my brother's friend was like laying by me and I'm like, what the heck? Um, and the door was locked cause I got up and I wanted to get out and the door was locked and no, my cousin tried to open the door and she's like knocking on the door and I heard her. And so I opened the door and, um, I just like went out and I'm just like, what the heck happened? And she's like, "we put you in a room by yourself." And um, she's like, "he must've went in there." And I was like, "I just want to go, I want to leave."

Although Sasha’s cousins placed her in a room alone, the rapist was able to still gain access to her. Sasha was unconscious and unable to consent to having sex with the perpetrator. Her experience was unique compared to the other participants. Her rape happened away from a

Marine Corps installation and the perpetrator was an Indigenous man. Despite the majority of rapes and sexual assaults against Indigenous womxn being committed by non-Indigenous men,

Indigenous men also rape. Sarah Deer (2015) stated that when non-Indigenous perpetrators are

the primary focus, “we lose sight of the fact that there remain a significant number of Native men

involved in these crimes” (7).

“I Was Angry At The Rapist”: Individual Response to Violence

The impact of participants’ trauma experiences included feelings of anger, confusion, and

even self-blame. Their responses to the trauma and how they chose to cope with it are different.

61 Sasha, Diné/ Navajo, Video Chat Interview, February 2, 2020, Murrieta, CA

61 Sarah Deer (2015) explains:

All these events [sexual violence] are attacks on the human soul; the destruction of Indigenous culture and the rape of a woman connote a kind of spiritual death that is difficult to describe to those who have not experienced it. It is not only Native womxn who have been raped but Native Nations as a whole (12).

Shannon discussed feeling anger as she coped using alcohol.62 I asked Shannon

if she noticed that her alcohol consumption increased after her attack. She responded:

Oh it definitely did. It increased it was more often and when I did abuse alcohol I would not go to a happy place those emotions I would those emotions would come back up that I tried to suppress. And then because of that and me abusing alcohol I would have my outbursts. Like I was just angry. Angry that it happened to me. And I blamed myself. I was angry at the rapist.

Shannon managed her trauma by attempting to suppress it, but when she consumed alcohol it

surfaced. This avoidance strategy is common among survivors of trauma including alcohol

abuse.

Sasha also expressed feeling anger about her rape stating, “And I get mad like, because he

was like one of my brother's like best friends growing up.” 63 Sasha’s statement also indicated disbelief and betrayal because the perpetrator was a friend of her brothers.

Participants also expressed confusion about their violent experiences as they attempted to comprehend it. Jenna stated:

I trusted this I trusted this person. It's not like this person treated me any different after any of this happened. It's not like it's not like I woke up like the next day, feeling Like, I was beaten in any form or physical way or that I had bruises on myself so that I couldn't, like, I don't know, like I, I've even to this day like, I don't know.

62 Shannon, Cheyenne River Sioux and Kiowa, Telephone Interview on December 22, 2019, Murrieta, CA 63 Sasha, Diné/ Navajo, Video Chat Interview, February 2, 2020, Murrieta, CA

62 Jenna connects rape to physical violence; however, rape is sexual violence that is not always accompanied by other forms of physical violence like in the case of Shannon, Paulina, Hayley and Latrina. 64 The majority of rapes are committed in a manner that does not involve other

forms of physical violence and is committed by an individual the survivor knows. Jenna further

stated:

So whenever there's like studies or anything like that, about women being in the service, and like when the question is asked, like, have you ever been sexually assaulted before and it's like, I don't know if I fall under that.

Participants who were older spent many years processing and healing from their traumatic

experiences. Participants who are younger and haven’t been out of the Marine Corps long like

Jenna are still in the process of understanding what happened to them.

Participants not only discussed confusion about what happened to them, but also about

what to do next. Sasha who stated:

And so we left me and her [cousin] left and she's just like, I can't believe he like did that to you. And I was just like, Oh my gosh. I was just like crying and everything. And um, I was like, what am I supposed to do?

Sasha’s question is common for many rape survivors who don’t know what just happened to

them let alone what to do next.65

One emotion stood out for participants and that was self-blame, which is also a common

response to experiencing traumatic events. Sasha explained:

It made me feel like, like worthless, you know? Like I was just like so mad at myself. Like I was thinking I shouldn't have even gone home. And then none of that would've happened, yeah.

64 Jenna, Standing Rock Sioux, Video Chat Interview, January 4, 2020, Murrieta, CA 65 Sasha, Diné/ Navajo, Video Chat Interview, February 2, 2020, Murrieta, CA

63 Sasha’s feeling worthless demonstrates the deep psychological impact the rape had on her and

resonates feelings of shame. Her statement also implies that perhaps she was safer on the military

installation than she was at home. Other participants like Latrina also express self-blame for her

rape. Latrina stated

I was getting scared and then like, in my head, I was like, I should have never came in here. Like I just kept blaming myself.

Paulina shared the same feelings about her attack, she stated:

I think about it now and I'm like, “Well, I was stupid. I shouldn't have been alone.” You know what I mean?

Jenna expressed self-blame for her rape as well. 66She stated:

I don't know like if it was me that was in the wrong for trusting someone that was supposed to protect like a junior, their junior Marine.

Oftentimes survivors of rape and sexual assault place responsibility of their rape or attempted rape on themselves by internalizing it. Jenna, Latrina and Sasha were raped by acquaintances making their rapes even more traumatizing. Vidal and Petrak (20070 stated:

Findings suggest that women who knew the assailant felt more ashamed of themselves and their bodies following the sexual assault than if the assailant was a stranger. Rape is more readily defined when it occurs between strangers and is consistently treated as more serious and more believable than assault amongst people who know each other (168).

Many of the participants discussed the ways in which they chose to cope with their traumatic experience. They include avoidance, religion and therapy.

Hayley stated 67:

One of them, the one that can prescribe drugs, psychiatrist. Yeah psychiatrist and based on her recommendation, I was put on an antidepressant and I managed to fall into a small

66 Jenna, Standing Rock Sioux, Video Chat Interview, January 4, 2020, Murrieta, CA 67 Hayley, Diné/Navajo, In-Person Interview, December 20, 2019, Oceanside, CA

64 percentage of the population if you give them an antidepressant, they become suicidal. So here I am on an antidepressant but suicidal and I did not do well on anti-depressants. So, because I was not doing well, they switched up medications on me and discovered that I don't do well on antidepressants of any order that they could think of of anything that they currently had and anything that they were currently experimenting with. So I asked to be taken off antidepressants. And because I was not doing well on medication, and I was not recovering as easily as they were experienced with when it came to rape and assault. They recommended that I be put on a Medical [Evaluation] Board and because of the medical records that were impeccably kept by all the doctors recommended that I be discharged with PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from Military Sexual Trauma

Hayley attempted to take medication to assist her in addressing her trauma but that didn’t work out. As a result, a Medical Evaluation Board recommended Hayley for a medical discharge deeming her unfit for duty. Upon separating from the Marine Corps Hayley began therapy.

So I was seeing a therapist for about about 17 years there. So I had that talk therapy. I specifically asked for therapy because I knew I would not make it on an antidepressant alone. And I did not want antidepressants, so I needed that talking therapy. Time and getting the degree and meeting other people with MST as well. And don’t talk about it too often and people are like, well, we have PTSD groups and I’m like, that’s for combat veteran, your focuses is combat veterans, my trauma to them will look like nothing, even though it is physically impacting. And I liken it to the fact that (chuckles) part of my brain damaged itself. And I’m learning how to and have been learning how to rewire myself to healthy, gonna take a long time, but work at it every single day. My brain is going okay, this is not healthy, but I need to rewire it so I can get to healthy again. And it’s time. It’s a lot of time. It’s a lot of work. It’s not something you snap out of. It’s something that you work at every single day and every time, someone says snap out of it! You’re like, you snap out of diabetes or you snap out of cancer.

People who have never experienced rape or sexual trauma do not understand that it’s a process and a journey. Mental health is often not seen as a legitimate medical condition and can be frustrating for survivors of rape and sexual assault. Hayley also mentioned the problem with participating in PTSD groups. The majority of these groups are made up of older men whose trauma stems from combat. It is not a space where a female who never deployed can go to discuss her struggles with MST.

65 Sasha also discussed how she coped with her rape.68 Sasha stated:

So, um, and just kind of like, I don't know, it affected me for a while. Um, I think I drank a lot. Um, I drank a lot and, and um, uh, yeah. I just, I drink a lot and I went to, um, to see a therapist while in the Marine Corps and, um, it helped. And then just like over the years, you know, it just, it kind of like, I hate this, I hate him

Coping using alcohol is a common response to experiencing trauma. In a study, Creech and

Borsari (2014) found that those who consumed alcohol also reported experiencing MST. They also found that avoidance coping strategies were strongly correlated to alcohol consumption.

Sasha was in therapy while in the Marine Corps but decided to cope on her own once she was discharged.

Shannon was another participant whose avoidance strategy involved alcohol. She stated,

I never really did cope with it but I did use I did abuse alcohol to how they say it, numb your feelings.

Similarly, Latrina also stated:69

I knew that like drinking was the only thing that would help me cope. So I started drinking heavily.

Latrina revealed that she went to rehab on two occasions while in the Marine Corps for her drinking.

Jenna also coped with her trauma using avoidance coping strategies. 70 When I asked her how she coped with her experience. She stated:

Shove it in the back of my mind. Kinda kinda pretend like it didn’t really happen. And then do you just get those moments when you're by yourself and you have time to be in your thoughts that things like that. They just come up. You kind of ponder on it for a while and then you shove it back again.

68 Sasha, Diné/ Navajo, Video Chat Interview, February 2, 2020, Murrieta, CA 69 Latrina, Red Lake Band of Chippewa, In-Person Interview, January 8, 2020, Fallbrook, CA 70 Jenna, Standing Rock Sioux, Video Chat Interview, January 4, 2020, Murrieta, CA

66

Nobody Ever Tells You That When You're Assaulted, That You'll Get Raped Again: Institutional Response

Participants who reported their rape or sexual assault described the social response of the

Marine Corps. Initially, Sasha didn’t report her rape but did once she returned back to base. She informed her chain of command about the incident.71 Sasha stated:

Yeah. It was like, it was crazy. I mean, I mean if they weren't supportive, you know, I probably would, I probably would have been, I probably ... I don't know what I would've done. But they were there for me the whole time. And um, um, they talked to the police officers and um, and then like when it came to like a, he said, she said thing kind of thing. They were there for me the whole time and like they were like, we're sorry and this happened to you. And that's when they like, you want us to go to Utah and like, like beat him up. And I'm like, yeah I do but they never did, yeah. They were just, you know, saying stuff like that to help me.

Sasha’s chain of command acted as a liaison between Sasha and the cops in Utah. Sasha indicated that she might not have been okay, if her command wasn’t supportive. The fact that

Marines in her chain of command offered to beat the perpetrator up implies a close relationship.

Similarly, Shannon also expressed having the support of those in her command.72 She explained:

My SNCO [Staff Non-Commissioned Officer] 73 was supportive. I had one female SNCO she was supportive but she was you know never been married or had kids. I was supported by my SNCO but people equal rank or lower there was kinda quiet didn’t know didn’t know what to say to me so we just kept it professional. It’s just like ok well that happened when I’m at work let’s do our job.

71 Sasha, Diné/ Navajo, Video Chat Interview, February 2, 2020, Murrieta, CA 72 Shannon, Cheyenne River Sioux and Kiowa, Telephone Interview on December 22, 2019, Murrieta, CA 73 Staff Non-Commissioned Officer(s) (SNCO) are enlisted members whose rank include E-6-E9 in the Marine Corps

67 Shannon implies that her female SNCO may not have completely understood what she was going through because she wasn’t married or had any kids. Her peers didn’t know how to react to her traumatic experience, it must have been difficult for them to understand. They too utilized avoidance coping strategies by maintaining professionalism. However, maintaining professional behavior dismisses and also silences survivors.

For other participants, their commands were not as supportive. Hayley stated:

An experience that made me sad in the Marine Corps [Thinking to herself] (Long Pause) Two days after my assault after I was assaulted, reported the guy had the medical exam done everything and nobody ever tells you that when you're assaulted, that you'll get raped again. Not by the person who assaulted you, by everyone else who has an opinion or thinks they know what happened And then I cried afterwards out of anger and frustration and over the fact that I couldn't punch her in the face, because if I did not only that she only did she win but also my assailant won and I had to be the better person. She came up to me and she said “You asked for it”.

Harber, Podolski and Williams (2015) stated, “Many victims seek sympathy and affirmation but are instead blamed for their travails and are therefore subject to the secondary victimization this blaming creates” (612). Hayley felt that the victim-blaming she experienced after her rape to being raped again.

When Latrina transferred duty stations she stated that she immediately sought mental health treatment.

But I'm like, I didn't make any friends here for like the first two months. And my friends from Lejeune, stop talking to me, because a lot of people in Lejeune thought that I lied about everything, to request orders. They're were like, Oh she lied, she lied about getting raped, he didn't rape her. And, like a lot of my close friends really believed that. Like they thought that I lied so I got super, super depressed. And so like, probably a month and a half after being here, I tried to kill myself.

68 Latrina had no support system at her new duty station or at her previous duty station where she was accused of lying about the rape.74 Harber, Podolski and Williams (2015) indicated that discussing feelings and thoughts about the incident could prevent a secondary assault for the survivor. Latrina made several attempts to commit suicide resulting in her going in and out of the psychiatric hospitals and rehab. Finally, Latrina felt that everything was too much for her to bear, she approached her commanding officers. She stated:

I just told my Battalion CO and like, Chief Warrant Officer 5, I was like, I really like I feel like, I'm really going to die. Like if I stay in here, like I'm really going to actually commit suicide, and it's gonna work if I don't get out of here. And they were like, Yeah, well, we understand why you didn't have a good first hand you didn't get you weren't dealt the best cards and so it's reasonable for you to feel this way, so they were super understanding. And so they helped me speed up my process. And so after I requested my administrative separation in May, and then I was out by August, like normally supposed to take nine months, but they sped it up. So I got out in three.

In this situation, Latrina’s command understood her situation and supported her in exiting the

Marine Corps with a medical discharge.

Hayley, as previously stated was also given a medical discharge.75 Hayley was emotional and visibly upset when she stated:

And then the saddest day for me was um um the XO [Executive Officer] coming down, tell me that he was recommending a medical discharge for me (crying). I took that the hardest and he said, it's not a reflection on you but it was the greatest kindness he could offer another person and it took me about seven years to realize how true those words were, that it was the greatest kindness that he could offer me but I didn't —and he's like you can't see it now, seven years later, I was finally able to accept that.

Hayley was wearing a black Marine Corps shirt at our interview giving me the feeling that she loved the Marine Corps. I understood how hard it must have been for her to be discharged early.

74 Latrina, Red Lake Band of Chippewa, In-Person Interview, January 8, 2020, Fallbrook, CA 75 Hayley, Diné/Navajo, In-Person Interview, December 20, 2019, Oceanside, CA

69 Her Executive Officer giving her the opportunity to leave the Marine Corps allowed Hayley to process her experience and begin healing.

Shannon was also discharged due to repeated incidents of domestic violence related to her alcohol abuse that stemmed from her rape.76 When I asked her to tell me how she felt about discharged she stated:

Pretty shitty, like because I was …yeah I made a damn good Marine just outside of work is when I fucked up as far as my marriage. I had issues in my marriage, issues with myself. So that didn’t help. I kinda felt discarded because I did everything I was supposed to except outside of work. It was mostly because of alcohol abuse then I would have arguments with my husband and since we lived on base those incidents were reported. And so they gave me a hearing and then they gave me a lawyer and then had a yeah like a hearing like a little trial and then the panel went back and decided if they wanted to keep me or discharge me they discharged me. Cause I had statements from SNCO’s like you know speaking highly of me everything I did my awards. I wasn’t a bad Marine it was just my actions outside …of it.

Shannon was absolutely a good Marine but she was unable to get the drinking under control or seek help for her trauma, so that it didn’t affect her marriage or career.

“I Don’t Know That Was A Question That Was Never Answered During That Whole Thing” : Forgoing Justice

Indigenous womxn who are survivors of rape or sexual assault often are not afforded justice. Issues regarding jurisdiction, racism and sexism in the criminal justice systems often prevent them reporting their rape or sexual assaults. Latrina was the only survivor to see the inside of a courtroom.77 Shortly after Latrina was raped, another girl came forward accusing the same perpetrator of raping her too but her story was not consistent, which significantly hurt

Latrina’s case. Latrina stated:

76 Shannon, Cheyenne River Sioux and Kiowa, Telephone Interview on December 22, 2019, Murrieta, CA 77 Latrina, Red Lake Band of Chippewa, In-Person Interview, January 8, 2020, Fallbrook, CA

70 And so instead of being him being charged with sexual assault, he was just charged with aggravated assault and battery. Yeah, and so I that's when I lost it. I was like, Oh my God, he's gonna get out of the brig. He's gonna he's gonna come back and do it again. Like, I started freaking out. I got super scared. And so then I went to my doctor, and I started crying. And I was like, they charged him with a battery and assault. And she was like, why would they do that? We had all the evidence to put him away for the rest of his life. And he was only in the brig for eight months and then he got out. And so I was like, I need to leave I can't be here I'm scared he's gonna come back after me and like I was super scared and so I requested orders from the UVA and I left like within a week.

The perpetrator in Latrina’s case received a “slap on the wrist”. Latrina feared retaliation from

the perpetrator, so she was transferred to a different duty station on a different coast. Latrina

further stated:

Like when he got out the brig, nobody told me like nobody over there told me at all. I had to find out through a boot. And like nobody told me when he got out, like nothing when I had to find that all out on my own, like everybody just forgot about me once I moved. And I was like, super scared. For a while I was scared to go home because Michigan is right next to Wisconsin, and that's where my mom lives is in Wisconsin. And he's from Michigan. So I was scared to go home because I was like, What if he knows that I go home and like he finds me?

It’s unclear why the Marine Corps did not notify Latrina of her attacker being released from the

brig. In the civilian world, the jail or prison will call survivors to notify them that their assailant

is being released. Although Latrina’s assailant served time in military prison, the time he was

sentenced to did not provide Latrina with the justice she deserved. Similarly Hayley’s

perpetrators in both her sexual assault and in her physical assault were arrested and sentenced to

time in the brig although she did not specify the length of time they were given.

Paulina, Shannon, Sasha and Jenna didn’t receive the least bit of justice. Paulina

explained that her attacker got away and she never reported the incident.78 The reason for this was because Paulina was stalked previously by a White male Marine while in MOS school. She

78 Paulina, Cheyenne River Sioux, Video Chat Interview, December 18, 2019, Murrieta, CA

71 attempted to report the stalker to “any and everybody” but no one took the accusation seriously.

She stated, “Back then stalking was no big deal, you know what I mean?” As a result, Paulina never reported the attempted rape stating, “This was after the stalking thing. So, I’m like, ‘Well nobody’s gonna care. No one’s gonna care.’”

In Shannon’s case, the perpetrator also got away despite her reporting the incident to the

Provost Marshal’s Office (PMO) and Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).79 In the interview, I suggested that perhaps the attacker might have worked at the squad bay she was residing in at the time of the attack. She stated:

THAT’s what they [PMO and NCIS] had thought too. That maybe he had worked there before or something. ‘Cause they had wondered if he used the key to get in. I don’t know that was a question that was never answered during that whole thing.

That lingering question is something that Shannon has to ponder for the rest of her life. There is no one to prosecute. After her sexual assault, Shannon was faced with yet another tragedy. She lost a baby before it was born. She stated:

I was at …[Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron] 12380 they were going to deploy and that’s why I ended up going to [Marine Light Attack Training Squadron] 321 and they took me off the deployment list. She was born, she was still born. I was five and a half months and I still had to deliver her. John held her but I couldn’t.

Shannon suffered one blow after another. Not only was she raped but her first marriage ended because she was not coping with her trauma. She later remarried and then delivered a still born baby girl. Then she was involuntarily discharged from the Marine Corps. Shannon never got justice.

79 Shannon, Cheyenne River Sioux and Kiowa, Telephone Interview on December 22, 2019, Murrieta, CA 80 Marine Corps attack helicopter squadrons

72 Although Sasha reported her rape, when I asked if she ever went to court.81 Sasha stated:

Mm-mm (negative). Cause they tried to get in contact with him, but he um, never like, he never called back to them.

I found it shocking that the police officers didn’t investigate Sasha’s rape further. Fox and Cook

(2011) stated, “male victims and intoxicated victims were perceived as more blameworthy by police officers” (3409). This explains why they stopped investigating when they were unable to contact the perpetrator. Sasha stated that it became a “he said, she said’ thing. I informed Sasha that in some states there are no statute of limitations on rape. She then stated

Yeah, yeah. And that's what my husband was saying. It made me think a while back cause my husband's, he's, he's a state cop. Um, he's been a state cop for almost two years, and he was telling me about that and I was like, thinking in my head, I was like, wait, maybe I can take him back to court.

If Sasha chose to pursue her case again then she might receive some justice for her rape and possibly prevent the perpetrator from committing more rapes.

Jenna did not report her rape because she was trying to understand and make sense of what she experienced.82 Jenna stated, “I just never knew what to classify or to say about it.”

In the military, approximately 68 percent of rapes and sexual assaults go unreported

(DoD 2017). Additionally, UIHI’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Womxn & Girls

(MMIWG) report found that the National Crime Information Center reported 5,712 cases of

MMIWG in 2016 and only 116 were logged into the Department of Justice database.

Furthermore, Sarah Deer (2015) stated, “If the tribal legal system is not able to provide safety and accountability to victims, some choose to forgo justice altogether.” (45). The justice systems

81 Sasha, Diné/ Navajo, Video Chat Interview, February 2, 2020, Murrieta, CA 82 Jenna, Standing Rock Sioux, Video Chat Interview, January 4, 2020, Murrieta, CA

73 both inside and outside the Marine Corps make it complex for victims of rape and sexual assault

to pursue justice resulting in them not pursuing it further.

“Stay Strong and Remember What You Were Taught”: Narratives of Resilience

As participants discussed their experiences, I also heard and felt their resilience.

Michelle Jacob (2013) stated, “To heal oneself is to help heal ancestors’ soul wounds, and to help protect future generations from soul wound suffering” (12). I heard many narratives of resilience and efforts from participants to protect their sons and daughters.

Shannon was the only participant who expressed that she would not be happy if her daughters chose to join the Marine Corps.

Sigh, I would not let them join the Marine Corps but that’s their choice but I would strongly disagree. I would not want my daughters in the Marine Corps not what I’ve seen or what I’ve experienced it’s not good. I won’t let them be in the military period. I would strongly oppose their decision if they did. And I think I would actually tell them about my experience before they want to make their decision to join the Marine Corps.

Shannon further explained that she was able to separate her trauma from being a mother.

Shannon explained:

Um It didn’t really it didn’t impact me as far as being a mother because I kinda left that at the door when I got home. You know. Yeah I left that there and then having a different mindset with my child just go back into that mommy mode and just leave that at the door.

As mothers, there are times when you are forced to put your own emotions aside to be there for you children. It is what Indigenous womxn have managed to do since the beginning of colonization. Indigenous motherhood is strong and it is resilient. Shannon now enjoys spending her time as a stay-at-home mom and wife living on the east coast.

Sasha also talked about motherhood, she stated, “Like I just, I didn't want it to bring me

down because I have, you know, my son now, I didn't want to be down in the slumps and let it

74 like hurt me anymore.” 83 Sasha is determined to find healing, so that she can be there for her

son. Sasha now works for the city nearby, where she grew up and is attending school to be a

teacher.

Latrina does not have kids but is active in the lives of her nieces and nephews. I asked

Latrina during our interview what advice she would give to an Indigenous womxn thinking about

joining the Marine Corps.84 Latrina stated:

I don’t know like be, just try to stay strong and like, remember what you were taught growing up, like it's going to be hard being away from the rez and being away from your culture because that's all you know your whole life. But if you like, if you're more involved than, like I was growing up. And I think that you'll be able to practice your culture more often. Even if you're not by it 24/7.

When I met Latrina she was wearing pretty beaded Indigenous earrings, I sensed her pride for her culture and people. Latrina’s statement discusses how strength and remembering to practice your culture is helpful in navigating the Marine Corps. She also stated about her rape, “I didn't mean to let that rape and my friends leaving me define me and I could do so much more so. And so that helped me change things around.” Her realization that she was more than the opinions of her peers helped her to transform her life. Latrina is a college student, receives VA disability and supports her nieces and nephews.

Hayley found healing with people who had similar experiences. She stated:

Battle scars. They make things so much fun to make some of the weirdest drinking buddies on planet Earth. No, seriously, you find other other adults your own age that has survived the horrors you did as a child. You pretty much go “You’re hurt. I was hurt. Let's go. Let's let us let our hurts heal each other”. And it works, if you find the right person who can put up with your weirdness as well.

83 Sasha, Diné/ Navajo, Video Chat Interview, February 2, 2020, Murrieta, CA 84 Latrina, Red Lake Band of Chippewa, In-Person Interview, January 8, 2020, Fallbrook, CA

75 In our interview, I felt that it was important for me to open up about my experiences, so that

participants like Hayley knew that I could empathize with her. Hayley has a degree in

Management Accounting and volunteers with various organizations in her community.

Paulina completed a bible-based 12-step program to help her heal from her traumatic experiences. She stated:

So, you know, I think at this point, I have a good heart. I have a good heart. It's easy for me to talk to you about it because there's nothing there holding it anymore like there was when I was younger.

Paulina indicates that the older you are then the longer you’ve had to understand and find healing

in your experiences. The majority of my participants are young, some are seeking healing while

others are still navigating their way through their trauma. Paulina has grown children, retired and

a stay-at-home wife.

Surviving rape and trauma is a constant journey and the persistence of these womxn to push forward on their journey demonstrates just how resilient they are. This research was very emotional for me. I managed to contain my emotions as they told their story but as soon as it was over I cried. I cried because I could feel their pain but I also cried because I was amazed at the strength they displayed while telling their stories. Indigenous womxn struggle with violence both inside and outside the Marine Corps but they are constantly moving forward for their culture, land and people.

76 DISCUSSION

The experiences of Indigenous womxn are different from the experiences of men and

White womxn in the Marine Corps. This includes their experiences with violence. The purpose of this research was to understand if indigenous womxn’s intersecting social positions impacted their experiences with violence in the Marine Corps. I found that their intersecting social identities not only impacted their experiences with violence but also their experiences before, during and after the Marine Corps. There were four major themes to emerge from this research.

They are: (1) Kinship and Community; (2) Impact of Colonization: Poverty in Indigenous

Reservations; (3) Race, Gender and their Intersections; and (4) Violence Against Indigenous

Womxn.

Kinship and community was an unexpected but important finding in how participants decided to join the Marine Corps. Many of the participants discussed joining the Marine Corps because of their families or community members who were veterans. Many also expressed that they chose to join the Marine Corps to protect their families, communities and land.

Additionally, Participants also discussed their interactions with other Indigenous people they met in the Marine Corps. I also found that the shared knowledge, culture and practices of Indigenous people allowed them to connect on a deeper level compared to non-Indigenous people. Poverty was not a surprising finding but it was something that all participants discussed.

The majority of participants described the reservation at being a third world country within the United States. They discussed the lack of running water, electricity, employment, housing and access to services. Additionally, I found that many of the participants experienced acculturation to military culture and the dominant culture at the same time. The moment they arrived in boot camp they were being indoctrinate to military culture but also at the same time

77 they were navigating life off the reservations in the dominant society. Participants discussed meeting people of other ethnicities for the first time or flying on a plane for the first time.

It was also interesting to find that participants experienced race discrimination, gender discrimination and discrimination based on both their intersecting identities of being Indigenous womxn. Participant discussed their experiences in navigating the masculine culture of the Marine

Corps. There were instances where participants were subordinated by their male peers either through their actions or by derogatory labels. Participants also described being asked questions that were stereotypes of Indigenous people. Some described being asked if they lived in a teepee or smoked peyote. I also found that participants experienced both positive and negative interactions with womxn of color and White womxn. I was surprised to find that the majority of participants interactions with people of color was negative. In the absence of having indigenous people around, I assumed participants would have connected.

The biggest finding I found for this research project was the overwhelming presence of violence experienced among participants. Nearly all participants personally experienced or knew someone who experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence. The rates for violence among female service members is high. The rates of violence against Indigenous womxn outside the Marine Corp is high AND the rates of violence against Indigenous womxn in the Marine

Corp is also high. I also found that older womxn were more willing to discuss their traumatic experiences because they had more time to process and heal from it while younger participants were not quite there yet. In addition to experiencing violence, participants discussed their individual response to trauma and the response by the Marine Corps. Discussions about justice and narratives of resiliency also emerged for this research.

78 These finding indicate that Indigenous womxn intersecting social identities do impact

their experiences in the Marine Corps including their experiences with violence.

LIMITATIONS

Limitations for this research project include having a small sample size. I intended to obtain a

total of ten interviews but had difficulty recruiting participants given the nature of the research. I

received numerous inquiries but once I provided a copy of the informed consent (See Appendix

B) they declined. One womxn in particular stated that she worked hard to get past the things she

experienced and did not want to revisit it. Another limitation was time, one semester to complete

a thesis is not ideal. There were other avenues I wanted to explore with the data I collected but

due to time constraints I had to choose only major themes. I also feel that this being my first

research project that I was still in the process of learning. I made mistakes that I learned from

and future research will be easier because I have gained more knowledge and experience.

RECOMMENDATIONS

I have a few recommendations that involve addressing the issues that impact Indigenous womxn after the military and also before they join the military. The military is something that will never be abolished given the U.S. military power. It is better to educate and address the issues associated with military service rather than do away with the entire military. I have my own feelings about the Marine Corps for what happened to me but I also recognize that it is

important to protect our country from other invaders.

Tribal Involvement

Indigenous veterans of the armed forces are often perceived to be only men. It is important for

Indigenous womxn also be recognized as veterans to address the unique issues that they face as

womxn. As protectors of the family, land and people they also need to be protected. Providing

79 services using a transformative justice model can be utilized to provide healing to Indigenous womxn. This can be accomplished by providing services that are trauma-informed and focused on the survivor. These include culturally appropriate services like classes on beading, using traditional herbal medicines, language and cooking. Tribes can be held accountable by demanding that they partner with the city, county, state and federal governments to recognize and support the unique struggles Indigenous womxn veterans face. All participants I interviewed reside off the reservation and the Veterans Administration does not offer services that support

Indigenous womxn, forcing participants to seek services on their own. The technology today makes it possible to use video chatting to connect with Indigenous female veterans off the reservation to assist in their healing journey.

Educating Indigenous Womxn

It is also crucial to educated young Indigenous womxn who want to join the military not just the

Marine Corps. Participants discussed the culture shock they experienced when they arrived to boot camp from seeing a new place and new people who do not look like them. It is important to explain to them how important their knowledge, culture and practices are and for them to remember it while they’re in. Most importantly it is imperative to explain the danger of being in a male dominated institution like the Marine Corps. Additionally, they need know that they will experience sexism and racism because of their intersecting social identities.

Future Research

More research has to be done about Indigenous womxn in the military not just the Marine Corps.

There is little literature that discusses their experiences or the impact of their experiences. I would like to continue this research in a PhD program in the future and expand it to include other branches of the military and focus specifically on the Navajo Nation. I feel that there is more that

80 can be discussed about how Indigenous womxn come to form their identities as Indigenous womxn and how that impacts their experiences in the military.

81 CONCLUSION

There is an immense difference in what is seen in literature and what is heard in oral storytelling

about Indigenous womxn warriors. There is an absence of literature about Indigenous womxn

warriors like the Apache womxn Lozen who was a leader on and off the battlefield. Existing literature about her life is often told by outsiders who are male and non-Indigenous. Her story however lives on through oral history and oral storytelling that provides a window into an area of life that people do not hear or even think about.

There is a great need to conduct more research about the experiences of Indigenous womxn veterans who served in the Marine Corps. Given the high rates of violence against

Indigenous womxn outside the military (Tjaden and Thoennes 2000; Bubar and Thurman 2004;

Tehee and Esqueda 2008; Rosay 2010; Modi, Palmer and Armstrong 2014) and high rates of violence against womxn in the military (Bonnes 2017; Creech and Bursari 2014; Suris and Lind

2008; Antecol and Cobb-Clark 2001) this need is urgent. The statistics indicated that it is more likely that an Indigenous womxn serving in a predominantly male and non-Indigenous military will experience violence (Rosay 2010; Tehee and Esqueda 2008; Thurman and Bubar 2004;

Tjaden and Thoennes 2000). Kimberlé Crenshaw explained that if there is not a name for an issue then it remains invisible and unsolved (TED Womxn 2016). Therefore, once there is a name for the violence and sexual trauma Indigenous womxn endure in the military, we can begin

to understand it and better address it.

Qualitative research that centers on Indigenous womxn’s lived experiences provided an

opportunity to hear their stories in their own words. Sarah Deer (2015) stated, “National numbers

are flat; they lack dimension and stifle future exploration. For Native womxn, surviving rape is a

journey with texture and dimensions that are shaped by history, language, and ceremony” (15).

82 Indigenous womxn have been silenced not only by the Marine Corps but our society in general.

This creates the need for a movement that would raise awareness and focus on violence against

Indigenous womxn . The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Womxn movement has helped to highlight the invisibility that missing or murdered Indigenous womxn and their families face socially and politically. The election of Indigenous womxn like Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids to Congress provides hope that legislation will be passed to better protect Indigenous womxn.

The movement however marginalizes survivors who are not missing or murdered but struggle with the trauma of their experiences. Research that allows survivors to speak about their experiences can provide education to the community on how intersecting identities impact womxn veterans experiences with violence. This would allow for more culturally appropriate resources and services to be provided to them.

With this research, I also hope to educate young Indigenous womxn contemplating joining the Marine Corps or military. I plan on holding information sessions at the local community centers for parents and female students about being an Indigenous womxn in the military. I wish that I had another Indigenous womxn Marine veteran to talk to about how my experiences would be different than my dad’s. I would like for those young womxn to be aware of racism, sexism and the risk of violence they will face, if they do choose to join the Marine

Corps, so they may be cautious. Additionally, this research highlights the various reasons

Indigenous womxn choose to join the military. The Marine Corps has provided me with many great opportunities and benefits but it did not come without a cost.

This research contributes to a body of knowledge in literature that focuses on Indigenous womxn’s collective experiences in the Marine Corps. It also encourages further research about the intersection of race, class and gender; and how it impacts womxn's experiences with violence

83 in the military. Indigenous womxn are brave and resilient but their experiences of oppression and racialized violence in the Marine Corps and the military in general have been silenced in literature. Their stories have to continue to be told and incorporated into literature to disrupt the single dominant narrative about womxn in the military specifically the Marine Corps.

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92 APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Introduction:

Thank you for agreeing to participate in this study. The purpose of this interview is to understand Indigenous womxn ’s experiences in the Marine Corps. We are interested in your experiences with violence. This interview is scheduled to last for approximately 60-90 minutes. I would like to remind you that you may skip questions or stop the interview at any time. Before we move forward, do you have any questions or comments.

Demographic Questions: 1. Gender, age, sexual orientation, education (before the Marine Corps), current education, length of service, and military occupational specialty (MOS).

Ice-Breaker Questions: 2. What tribe(s) are you from? 3. What made you decide to join the Marine Corps? a. Why not the other branches of the military?

Social Status: Reservation Life 4. If you had to describe your reservation to someone who is not familiar with reservations, what would you say? 5. Tell me about how common it is for people to join the military where you’re from. 6. Tell me about your experiences in boot camp? 7. Were those experiences similar or different to reservation life? Gender and Race: Military Coworkers 8. Tell me about your coworkers? 9. Were they men or womxn ? 10. Tell me about problems you had at work? 11. Tell me about experiences where you might have been treated differently because of your gender (i.e. ever put down, referred to in insulting or offensive terms) 12. Did you feel treated differently than white men? a. What about white womxn ? 13. Did you feel treated differently than men of color (i.e. Black, Latin, Asian…)? a. What about womxn of color? 14. Tell me about interactions you might have had with other Indigenous people?

93

Now, I’m going to ask you questions about violence in the Marine Corps?

Violence: Experiences With Violence in the Marine Corps Some womxn have reported experiencing violence. 15. Tell me about an experience in the Marine Corps that made you happy. 16. Tell me about an experience in the Marine Corps that made you sad. a. Were there service available to you? b. How did this impact your life? 17. Can you describe a time you felt scared in the Marine Corps? a. Did you seek services? b. How did this impact your life? 18. Can you describe a time someone made you feel uncomfortable? a. What did you do? b. How did it impact your life? 19. Describe a time, if any, that you felt cornered or trapped. Impact of Experiences: Life After the Marine Corps 20. Tell me about being discharged from the Marine Corps a. How did you feel? b. How did your experiences in the Marine Corps impact your life? 21. How did your experiences impact life within your community? 22. Tell me about services or support you received as a result of your experiences since being discharged. 23. Tell me what an average week for you is. 24. If you could go back and change anything, what would it be? a. Why? 25. If you have a daughter or if you had one. How would you feel about her serving in the Marine Corps?

Probing Questions: How so? Tell me more about that. Describe it. How did that make you feel?

94 APPENDIX B: INFORMED CONSENT

Warrior Womxn: Indigenous Womxn in the United States Marine Corps

Informed Consent

Invitation to Participate

Dear Participant,

My name is Jamie Jackson and I am a graduate student in the Master of Arts in Sociological Practice at California State University San Marcos. You are invited to participate in a research study to understand Indigenous womxn ’s experiences with violence in the Marine Corps. The military is made up of 84.3 percent non-Indigenous men. Indigenous womxn make up approximately 0.2 percent of the 2.2 million service members in the military, where approximately 68 percent of sexual assaults are not reported. In the United States, Indigenous womxn experience higher rates of rape, physical assault and stalking (38 percent) compared to Black (26 percent), non-Hispanic White (26 percent), Hispanic/Latina (25 percent) and Asian/Pacific Islander womxn(20 percent). Additionally, 97 percent of that violence is committed by non-Indigenous people.

You were selected as a participant because you are an Indigenous womxn who is enrolled in one of the 573 federally recognized tribes and grew up or spent significant time on a reservation. Additionally, you served in the Marine Corps. Please read this form carefully and ask any questions you may have before agreeing to be in the study. You must be 18 or older to participate.

KEY INFORMATION ABOUT THIS RESEARCH STUDY: STUDY PURPOSE:

The following is a short summary of this study to help you decide whether to be a part of this study. Information that is more detailed is listed later on in this form.

The purpose of this study is to examine your general experiences during and after the Marine Corps as well as your experiences with violence. You will be asked to participate in an interview for approximately 60-90 minutes. The primary risk of participation is the fear that your identity will be revealed, and the possibility of emotional distress. The main benefit is that you will contribute to knowledge that will help better understand Indigenous womxn ’s experiences with violence in the United States Marine Corps. NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS:

95 If you consent to participate, you will be one of 8-10 participants who will be participating in this research.

PROCEDURES OF THE STUDY: If you agree to be in the study you will do the following: • Agree to meet the researcher at a time and place that if comfortable and convenient for you. • Participate in a one-on-one interview for approximately 60-90 minutes. • Answer questions about your positive and negative experiences in the Marine Corps.

RISKS AND INCONVENIENCES: There is minimal risk and inconveniences to participating in this study. These include: • The interview may take longer than expected. • Certain interview questions may potentially cause emotional, mental and psychological stress. • You may fear that your identity could potentially be discovered. This may occur despite the researcher’s efforts to assign a made-up name or to take precautions to protect your identity.

SAFEGUARDS: To minimize the risks and inconvenience the following measures will be taken: • The interview will be scheduled at a time and place that is convenient for you. You may choose to stop the interview at any time if time becomes inconvenient. The researcher will be sure to monitor the time so that the interview does not last longer than expected. • You may choose to skip questions or stop the interview at any time for any reason. • You will be provided a list of local counseling services in the event you want to talk to a professional about the issues raised in the study.

CONFIDENTIALITY All digital audio recording of the interview will be stored in a locked cabinet on a password protected computer that only the researcher and her advisor will have access to. Professional transcription companies used to transcribe the data are bound to a confidentiality agreement therefore your information will be kept confidential. Upon completion of the transcription of the interview, all digital audio recordings will be deleted. Once the research project is complete, the digital interview transcript will be deleted and paper copies shredded. The paper consent forms will remain in a locked file cabinet for the duration of 3 years after the project is completed. After 3 years, they will be shredded.

VOLUNTARY PARTICIPATION: Taking part in this study is voluntary. You may choose not to take part of may leave the study at any time. Leaving the study will not result in any penalty. Your decision whether or not to participate in this study will not affect your current or future relations with California State University San Marcos.

96 BENEFITS OF PARTICIPATING IN THE STUDY: There are no direct benefits to participation in this study, however, your participation will help better understand Indigenous womxn ’s experiences with violence in the United States Marine Corps.

PAYMENT OR INCENTIVE: You will not receive payment for taking part in this study.

CONTACT INFORMATION If you have any questions about the study, please call me at (951) 428-0454 or email me at [email protected]. You may also contact my faculty advisor, Dr. Lori Walkington at [email protected]. You will be given a copy of this form for your records. If you have any questions about your rights as a participant in this research or if you feel you have been placed at risk, you can contact the Institutional Review Board Office at [email protected] or (760) 750-4029.

PARTICIPANT’S CONSENT: By signing below, you are giving consent to participate in this study.

Please check the option that applies to you before signing:

☐ I give permission for my interview to be audio recorded. ☐ I do not give permission for my interview to be audio recorded

Name of the Participant: ______

Signature of the Participant: ______

Date: ______

97 APPENDIX C: RECRUITMENT FLYER ATTENTION INDIGENOUS WOMXN MARINE VETERANS

WHO?

Indigenous Womxn Marine Veterans who grew up or spent a significant amount of time on a reservation and enrolled in a federally recognized tribe.

WHAT?

Participate in an interview for a CSUSM graduate student research study

WHY?

To understand the experiences of Indigenous womxn in the Marine Corps

To participate or for additional information please contact Jamie Jackson at [email protected]

98