“Sexual Savages:” Christian Stereotypes and Violence Against North America’s Native Women

Abstract

In both the USA and Canada, research has found indigenous women to be more frequent victims of physical and sexual violence than women of any other racial or ethnic group. Unlike women of European descent, the violence that perineates the lives of today's Native North American women is not rooted in their traditional religions or cultures. Rather, it is directly linked to the sexualized stereotypes constructed by Christian ministers and colonial leaders during the colonial era. Christian dogma in Europe had long emphasized women's inherent inability to resist evil, but Protestant ministers in the British colonies depicted Native women as closely aligned with the devil, sexually depraved, and a threat to Christian society. Those stereotypes remain embedded in the USA and Canadian social attitudes toward Native women, framing them as deserving targets for "disciplinary" violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)