You hear a lot about the systematically high rates of sexual violence, suicide, missing people, and alcoholism that the native population faces, but you don’t often read actual stories about their experiences.

Knott is a native woman from Canada who deals with all this stuff. Her history of sexual violence begins at age two and picks back up in her teenage years. She started doing coke because it kept her from blacking out when she was drunk (re: rape). She ran away from home (and from her kid) as a young adult. She also turned things around for herself after taking the initiative to learn about her tribe.

Her honesty is so necessary.