IPS newswire quoting the data and officials of the Indian Law Resource Centre has reported that one in three native American women is raped in her lifetime, while one in six will be domestically abused by a husband, boyfriend or intimate partner.

The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) estimates that the average annual rate of rape and sexual assault among American Indians is 3.5 times higher than for all races.

Several studies, which rely on statistical data from the Bureau of Justice, indicate that Native American women experience the highest rate of violence of any ethnic or racial group in the United States.

Moreover, nearly 65 percent of American Indian women surveyed for the National Violence Against Women Survey (NVAWS) reported experiencing rape or physical violence.

Making the matters worse, even the judiciary does not have enough laws to tackle violence against native women, reports the IPS news Gender Wire.

Tribal leaders across the country have for decades lamented the limitations of existing legal structures for prosecuting perpetrators of both physical and sexual abuse, as well as stemming the escalating violence on reservations, reports IPS.

Under current law, tribal governments lack the necessary authority to impose punitive measures against perpetrators; in fact, tribal courts can only sentence Indian offenders to one year in prison.