On this edition of Conversations, K.A. Cobell talks with host Dan Skinner about her debut Young Adult novel, "Looking for Smoke." Cobell is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation. She wrote the novel in part to bring attention to the epidemic of violence against indigenous women. The murder mystery plot centers around four Native teenagers who are the prime suspects in the death of a classmate.
According to the press materials accompanying the book, "the Indigenous communities of the US and Canada face a prevailing issue in Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, or #MMIWG2S. The numbers speak for themselves: 84 percent of Native women have experienced violence and 56 percent have experienced sexual violence. The murder rate of Native women is three times more than that of white women, and in some locations the rate is more than ten times the national average. While Native women, girls, and two-spirit people are drastically more likely to be killed or go missing than any other group, these tragedies have typically not received the necessary attention from news media, law enforcement, or wider society."
