A demonstrator stands outside the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wisc., in 2022 to commemorate missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Researchers have launched a new survey to determine the prevalence of brain injuries in Native survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, recalled a Native mother in her 30s who started having memory loss and other dementia-like symptoms.
The woman had suffered multiple blows to her head and falls at the hands of her husband over the years. He had wanted to disable her, to make it more difficult for her to keep her children if she tried to leave him, Echo-Hawk said…