(Image source from: Bustle)

According to a 2010 survey, 94 percent of the 148 women interviewed, all of whom known as American Indian or Alaska Native, reported they had been raped or were compelled into sexual activity at least once in their lives.

About 53 percent of more than half the women were homeless at the time they were surveyed.

Abigail Echo-Hawk, the Urban Indian Health Institute Director, revealed the outcomes of the survey in 2016 found in the bottom drawer of a file cabinet in the corner of her office.

The Seattle Times reports the survey, co-produced by the health institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, documented the sexual violence experiences among Native-American women living in Seattle.

But likewise astonishing was the reality that survey results had been kept covert for six years by the time in 2016 Echo-Hawk discovered them in her desk. Outcomes from two other surveys on sexual violence, done in two other United States cities had long ago been released at the same time as the Seattle report.

The survey results were first released by health institute in a community meeting on Wednesday, and then to the public Thursday.

Echo-Hawk said: the report is important not just because of the violence it documents, but because of the people surveyed. She believes this is the first report on sexual violence focused exclusively on Native women living in an urban setting and that also addresses factors like historical trauma.

By and large, surveys regarding Native people focus on those living on reservations, Echo-Hawk said. But approximately 71 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives live in urban areas like Seattle.

According to Echo-Hawk, the reason the survey results were hidden for so long is that leaders at the Urban Indian Health Institute, a division of the Seattle Indian Health Board, had decided to not release them, believing the information would only lead to negative characterizations of the Native community.

By Sowmya Sangam