VOA新闻杂志2022--Tribe in California Struggles with Missing Women

Tribe in California Struggles with Missing Women

Emmilee Risling had been behaving strangely for months. The 33-year-old Native American woman had been seen getting car rides with strangers and walking without clothes through Native areas along Northern California's mountainous coast.

But things got more serious when she was charged with starting a fire in a burial area. Her family hoped the case would force her into mental health treatment.

Instead, she was released.

Emmilee was last seen walking across a bridge marked End of Road, in a far corner of the Yurok Reservation.

No one has seen her since.

Her disappearance¹ is one of five examples in the past 18 months where Native American women have gone missing or been killed in the area.

Urgent crisis

The crisis has led the Yurok Tribe to issue an emergency declaration. It also has brought urgency to efforts that include building California's first database of such cases.

Native women face murder rates almost three times higher than those of white women in America. That information comes from a 2021 report by the National Congress of American Indians. More than 80 percent of Native women, the report found, have experienced violence.

In the coastal² area where Emmilee was last seen, almost everyone knows someone who has disappeared.

In the state of California, the Yurok Tribe and the Indigenous³-run group Sovereign Bodies Institute uncovered 18 cases of missing or killed Native American women in the past year. They consider that number far lower than the actual count. An estimated 62 percent of those cases are not listed in state or federal databases for missing persons.

Like many cases involving Indigenous women, Emmilee's disappearance has gotten no attention from the outside world.

Nearly all of the area's Indigenous people have ancestors who were sent to boarding schools as children. The children were forced to abandon their language and culture. The harmful effects of such removals remain among the Yurok. They play out in the form of drug abuse and family violence.

'There were just no services for her'

Emmilee was born into a well-known Native family. She had a bright future ahead of her. At age 15, she walked down the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with other tribal⁴ members at the opening of the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. The Washington Post newspaper published a front-page picture of her.

Emmilee received a financial award to attend the University of Oregon. There, she helped lead a Native students' group. During college, she was in an abusive relationship with a Native man. Later, she became pregnant from another man. She returned home to Northern California to have her baby.

Over time, her family says, they noticed changes in Emmilee. Her behavior became difficult to understand. Eventually, her son was taken from her care. She got involved with another abusive man and had a daughter who was also taken from her care.

Her parents were shocked by her fast decline. They think she developed a mental illness.

The only in-patient mental health center close to her home was always too full to admit her.

"There were just no services for her," said Judy Risling, Emmilee's mother.

Recent efforts

In September, Emmilee was arrested after she was found dancing around a small fire in the Hoopa Valley Reservation cemetery⁵. The Hoopa Valley tribal police chief at the time, Bob Kane, appeared in court to explain her many mental health problems. But the court released her. Soon after, she disappeared.

Kane was not surprised. "We had predicted that something like this may ... happen in the future," he said.

Indigenous tribal police face several issues when a woman is reported missing. A complex mix of federal, state, local and tribal agencies must work together. This often delays investigations⁶.

Recent efforts at the state and federal level seek to deal with what activists⁷ say have been years of neglecting missing and murdered Indigenous women.

In November, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to set up guidelines between the federal government and tribal police that would help investigate and prevent crimes against Native Americans.

Emmilee's case demonstrates some of the difficulties in the area.

She was a citizen of the Hoopa Valley Tribe, but she was reported missing on the neighboring Yurok Tribe's reservation.

Law enforcement decided⁸ there was not enough information to launch a full search and rescue operation in such a mountainous area.

Emmilee's family is struggling to protect her children from the trauma⁹ of their mother's disappearance. Her son has been having bad dreams. He asks to help search for his mother.

Emmilee's father, Gary Risling, said, "It's real difficult when you deal with the grandkids, and the grandkid says, ‘Grandpa, can you take me down the river and can we look for my mama?'"

"And then he says, ‘What happens if we can't find her?'"

Words in This Story

reservation - n. an area of land in the U.S. that is kept separate as a place for Native Americans to live

indigenous - n. produced, living, or existing naturally in a particular region or environment

decline - n. to become worse in condition or quality

trauma - n. a very difficult or unpleasant experience that causes someone to have mental or emotional problems usually for a long time

neglect - v. to fail to take care of or to give attention to (someone or something)

1 disappearance   

n.消失，消散，失踪

参考例句：

• He was hard put to it to explain her disappearance.他难以说明她为什么不见了。
• Her disappearance gave rise to the wildest rumours.她失踪一事引起了各种流言蜚语。

2 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

3 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

4 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

5 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

6 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

7 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。