Half of the survey respondents said they had a missing relative \u2014 with many having multiple missing relatives \u2014 55% said they had a relative who was murdered, 54% have experienced sexual assault, 56% have suffered domestic violence and 26% have misused alcohol.<\/p>\n Sonya Tetnowski, CEO of the Indian Health Center, said Indigenous people have raised the alarm for years about the brutality happening in and to their community. Now that there\u2019s the data to support it, tribal communities can move toward\u00a0healing<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like we have now the proof we need to say, \u2018This is happening to us right now,\u2019\u201d Tetnowski told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cIt has a historical context, but it\u2019s happening today. We\u2019re losing our children today.\u201d<\/p>\n Misclassified and erased<\/p>\n Indigenous communities have been historically misclassified or erased. Data collected by\u00a0health agencies<\/a>\u00a0often puts groups in broad categories such as Black, white, Asian, Latino or other.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of our data might go into \u2018other\u2019 or \u2018multiple ethnicities\u2019 so then we completely lose the data,\u201d Anecita Miller, a prevention services program director for the Indian Health Center, told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cThey call that data genocide because now they\u2019re saying that we don\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to the Indian Health Center\u2019s report, the only local data available for missing and murdered Indigenous people came from the\u00a0Urban Indian Health Institute<\/a>, a division of the Seattle Indian Health Board. The institute combed through law enforcement records, state databases and news articles \u2014 and found zero cases in San Jose, in part because the city did not respond to its\u00a0Freedom of Information Act<\/a>\u00a0requests, according to the study that began in 2017.<\/p>\n A 2016 report by the National Crime Information Center found\u00a05,712 Indigenous women<\/a>\u00a0reported to be missing nationwide, but the U.S. Department of Justice only logged 116 cases.<\/p>\n In Santa Clara County,\u00a0101 people out of every 100,000 females\u00a0reported sexual assault per year from 2018-2022, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The lack of data underscores why the Indian Health Center\u2019s report is so significant \u2014 and the findings are staggering, Tetnowski said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe hardest for me to even read or talk about was sexual assault against the children,\u201d she said. \u201cChildren should feel safe in their home.\u201d<\/p>\n More than 70% of survey participants\u00a0said they experienced abuse when they were 10 years old or younger.<\/p>\n Indigenous people face the greatest risk of sexual assault, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. Nationwide,\u00a0nearly half of women in the U.S.<\/a>\u00a0have experienced sexual violence and one in six women\u00a0have experienced rape or attempted rape.<\/p>\n In Santa Clara County,\u00a0101 people out of every 100,000 females<\/a>\u00a0reported sexual assault per year from 2018-2022, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n Pushed off reservations and into cities<\/p>\n Native Americans make up\u00a0less than 2%<\/a>\u00a0of Santa Clara County\u2019s population of nearly 2 million people. The\u00a0Indian Relocation Act of 1956<\/a>\u00a0pushed Indigenous people out of their reservations and into cities by offering job training, with hopes they would assimilate. In California,\u00a0San Jose<\/a>, San Francisco,\u00a0Oakland<\/a>\u00a0and Los Angeles were designated as\u00a0relocation sites<\/a>.\u00a0This resulted in a loss of culture,\u00a0homelessness<\/a>,\u00a0unemployment<\/a>\u00a0and more. As a result of federal policies, the\u00a0majority of American Indians and Alaska Natives<\/a>\u00a0live in cities and not on reservations, U.S. Census data shows.<\/p>\n \u201cThe things that were given to us for healing and for survival \u2014 those rituals or ceremonies or songs or dances \u2014 those were all taken from us,\u201d Miller said. \u201c(Violence is) happening in urban environments, not just on tribal lands. We need resources here.\u201d<\/p>\n Muwekma Ohlone Tribe<\/a>\u00a0Chairwoman Charlene Nijmeh said while the report\u2019s findings are significant, it stops short of addressing landlessness as the root cause of inequality.<\/p>\n \u201cJustice demands action, not just awareness,\u201d Nijmeh told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cConcrete next steps must include mandatory improved data collection disaggregated by tribe and urban Indigenous status, full implementation of\u00a0Savanna\u2019s Act<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Not Invisible Act<\/a>\u00a0provisions in California, increased funding for culturally grounded prevention and response programs and meaningful government-to-government consultation with recognized and unrecognized tribes alike.\u201d<\/p>\n Santa Clara County District 2 Supervisor Betty Duong said the county must respond with culturally centered care rooted in trust and healing.<\/p>\n \u201cMisclassification has erased Indigenous communities from our systems, making it harder to respond with the urgency and resources this crisis demands,\u201d Duong told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cAs a county, we have a responsibility to do better, that starts with data.\u201d<\/p>\n Contact Joyce Chu at\u00a0joyce@sanjosespotlight.com\u00a0or @joyce_speaks on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777400241_32_LNM-20250616-SJSPOTLIGHTLOGO-01.jpg\")
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