Hundreds of mourners gathered at a Kotzebue, Alaska church for the September 22, 2018 funeral of ten-year-old Ashley Johnson-Barr. Ashley, a sweet girl with a beautiful smile, was raped, murdered, and discarded on the tundra outside of Kotzebue in Northwestern Alaska. Authorities and citizens searched for Ashley for several days before they discovered her body, but Alaska State Troopers had little doubt who had abused and killed Ashley. Not long after they found Asley’s remains, troopers arrested 41-year-old Peter Wilson, and prosecutors charged him with murder, kidnapping, and sexual abuse of a minor.
Ashley’s murder once again reminded Alaskans of the deplorable statistics for violence against women in the state. The Violence Policy Center lists Alaska as one of the most dangerous places in the United States for women. According to a 2015 University of Alaska Justice Center victimization survey, fifty out of every one-hundred women residing in Alaska have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual violence, or both. A 2016 report by the Violence Policy Center ranked Alaska first nation-wide as the state with the highest homicide rate per capita of female victims killed by male offenders.
Alaska Native women are the most at-risk group to become victims of violent crimes. Alaska Natives comprise only 20% of the state’s population, but Alaska Native women represent 54% of Alaska’s sexual assault victims. Compared to all other women in the U.S., Alaska Native women are ten times more likely to experience domestic violence.
Alcohol and substance abuse contribute to these staggering statistics. According to the Alaska State Troopers, approximately 37% of all crimes they investigate annually involve alcohol and substance abuse, and drugs and alcohol contribute to 62% of all violent crimes. Alaska Native communities have the highest rates of family violence, suicide, and alcohol abuse in the United States. Rape in Alaska occurs at three times the national average, and the suicide rate is four times the national average.
Law enforcement is minimal or non-existent in rural Alaska. The three major cities and all the large towns in Alaska support local police departments, but the Alaska State Troopers are responsible for patrolling most of the state. Fewer than 400 troopers patrol a state 1/5 the size of the continental United States, leaving Alaska with one state trooper for every million acres of land. Also, 180,000 Alaskans do not have access to a modern 911 system. Even where the 911 system is operational, residents in many small, remote villages must wait hours if not a day or longer for the troopers to respond to a violent situation. Due to the remoteness of many rural communities, the lack of roads, rugged terrain, changeable weather conditions, and the high cost of air transportation, response by law enforcement to a critical situation requires time and resources.
On February 5, 2013, in Kake, Alaska, a small Tlingit village with 600 residents in Southeastern Alaska, a pastor’s wife found the naked, battered body of 13-year-old Mackenzie Howard in the back of Memorial Presbyterian Church. The church sits across the street from the house where Mackenzie lived with her family. A village elder immediately called the state troopers in Juneau and then gathered other villagers to cordon off the crime scene and guard Mackenzie’s body until the authorities could arrive and begin their investigation. Frightened villagers did not know who the murderer was or if he would strike again. Residents waited and guarded the crime scene for 11 hours before troopers responded to the crime, and they waited several hours longer for crime scene investigators to arrive from Anchorage. Ten days later, troopers had collected enough evidence to arrest a 14-year old boy from the village.
Less than five years later, in August 2017, violence again struck Kake when someone murdered 19-year-old Jade Williams in her home. Villagers called the Alaska State Troopers, but due to bad weather, the troopers were grounded in Juneau and could not fly to Kake. Instead, a Wildlife Trooper traveled to Kake by boat from Petersburg, 65 miles away. Homicide investigators arrived the next day, but police still have not yet arrested anyone for the murder of Jade Williams.
According to one Kake resident, criminals in remote villages have little to fear from law enforcement. By the time troopers can respond to a reported crime, most of the evidence from the crime has either been destroyed or compromised, and not enough remains to support an arrest. Criminals learn they are unlikely to be punished for their crimes.
The ugly problem of violence against women in Alaska, and especially sexual abuse against native women is not new, and for it to go away, attitudes need to change. Public service television ads now air, featuring village elders talking about how women should be valued, honored, and treated with respect. Alaska has adopted a special version of the “Me Too” movement as native women begin to open up and report instances of sexual violence.
Two female relatives of Peter Wilson, the man charged with kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and strangling ten-year-old Ashley Johnson-Barr, admitted they had been repeatedly raped by Wilson when they were children. A cousin told a reporter from the Anchorage Daily News that Wilson raped her more than forty times in 1996 when Wilson was 18, and she was 12. When she tried to fight him, he began choking her. Wilson’s younger sister reported she was only three-years-old when Wilson, then 12, sexually abused her and another child while he was babysitting them. Wilson later apologized to his sister for the incident.
Both Wilson’s sister and cousin regret not coming forward sooner, and feel if they had spoken up sooner, Ashley might still be alive. Both recall telling adults at the time about Wilson’s attacks, but the adults told them not to talk about the sexual abuse, and so they remained quiet. Now, they want to come forward and empower other women to tell their stories. They want other abused women to know they are not alone, and they matter. Perhaps as attitudes change, the statistics detailing the high rate of violence against women in Alaska will drop.
