INDIAN ISLAND, PENOBSCOT NATION — November is National Native American Heritage Month, and Maulian Bryant, Executive Director of the Wabanaki Alliance, is shining a spotlight on violence against Indigenous women and people. Bryant testified on this issue this week at a congressional hearing.
“It felt very good to be seen and heard as somebody from Maine, as a Wabanaki woman, as somebody from the East,” shared Bryant.
She was the only attendee from the Northeast at the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies of the US House Committee on Appropriations, US House of Representatives hearing on November 20.
“When an Indigenous woman goes missing there is not the same attention and action as when a Caucasian woman is. The primary reasons for this are three-fold: societal indifference, jurisdictional and coordination issues, and a lack of resources for tribal law enforcement agencies,” she stated in her testimony.
And from WashingtonD.C.to Maine’s Penobscot Nation, she’s bringing attention to the violence …