Native American Indians

When I think of racial profiling my first thought is regarding African American and Latino people. It is perhaps that I think of this first because of the deep history of discrimination, hate and oppression that has existed in regards with African Americas and Caucasians. It can also be because I am Latina and have witnessed it growing up. It can also be because of the recent increased attention of injustices against African Americans that has caused that to be in the forefront of my thoughts. The American Civil Liberties Union defines racial profiling as, ”[A] discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin” Therefore, it is important that throughout my project I include the stories of racial profiling of groups that are not often spoken about for example, Native Americans.

As it is with African Americans, the relationship of Native Americans with the history of the United States has not been a positive one. As Europeans came to the Americas they began to erase Native American identity and culture from the nation. Just to mention a few Native American Indians were forced to turn to Christianity, change their hair and clothing, they had to adapt to European gender and societal norms that stripped them of who they were. However, no matter how European they seemed, Native American Indians were still considered to be inferior. In the end the narrative of Native American Indians was written by Whites and they have practically been left with a couple of pages in a history book. 

"This lack of public interest in Native American issues is unjustifiable but not surprising. The groups’ history is rarely covered outside of the 19th century in school curriculum. This has made Americans to be unappreciative of Native American History” –Fountain 2016

Native American are the most economically impoverished ethnic group in the United States.  According to Tighe (2014) twenty-seven percent (27%) of Indian families live below the poverty level (compared to approximately eleven percent (11.6%) among whites nationwide. They are also more likely to experience more violent crimes than any other ethnic groups in the United States. Some of the crimes include, murder, assault, drug trafficking, human trafficking, gang violence, and illegal immigration through tribal lands. Firthermore, Native American Indians experience the highest rate of incarceration in the nation (Tighe 2014). Reading these statistics can be a little hard when you are not constantly exposed to the situation in which other underrepresented ethnic groups are under. It also serves as a reality check of how Native American Indians are made to be so removed from our society. Before digging into the topic I was not really aware that Native American peoples experienced the same amount of racial profiling from police as other ethnic groups that I am more aware of.  One of the most powerful statements that I came across while researching on Native American and racial profiling was,

“Native Americans are more likely to be killed by police than any other ethnic group in the U.S., but the national dialogue about racial bias and criminal justice reform continues to exclude them. The absence of American Indians, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians from conversations about police brutality and social inequality exemplifies the United States’ complicity to the continued marginalization and neglect of Native communities…Native men and women, for instance, are over represented in the prison system and as victims of sexual violence. Yet black and Latino males have become the faces of mass incarceration” –Native Lives Matter goes beyond police brutality Fountain, Aaron G. Jr. (2016)

This stood out to me because it is speaking to the reasons why I am not aware of Native American over representation in prisons. I was not aware of the magnitude of violent crime acts towards Native Americans or that the Native Lives Matter movement exists. I found a link to the movement’s social media page, Native Lives Matter @NLMcoalition

Similar to the Black Lives Matter movement that I am familiar with, this movement also calls for justice for the many Native American Indian peoples that have been victims of police brutality. It calls to the bigger issues that are behind the profiling. 

I have reached out to someone that identifies as Native American and Hispanic. I asked them* to respond  to any of the following question in any way that they would choose to: What are instances in which you have(or have not) experienced racial profiling or discrimination? What has been your families experience with racial profiling? What about people in your community? How do you see Native American Indians portrayed in the media?

They responded with a short recall of an instance in which their identity as a Native American Indian became was said to be the determining factor of their chance of success.

 "First of all I identify as Native American and Hispanic... When you look at me you see my Hispanic features and unless I tell you about my tribe you would never know. But in high school I was open about who I was and what I am.  Racial discrimination is one factor in my life.  During my senior year of high school, I was applying for colleges and being the dreamer that I am, I applied for Ivy schools thinking I was good enough. However my guidance counselor, some faculty members, my tribe’s higher education director and a couple of my community members felt differently. In fact most of these people told me I was just that, a dreamer and I would be lucky enough to not get pregnant. “College is out of my league and I should be happy to get my high school diploma.” "I think you should apply to community college because you will have a better chance." My high school guidance counselor attempted to talk me out of applying to any post secondary institution other than community college. He told me that I would have a better chance at a community college. I was confused about what he was trying to say, so I asked him to clarify. He told me "that given my family's history...it was likely that I wouldn't graduate college or make it to the first day. Your mom, your grandma, aunts and cousins all got pregnant young." I was angry so I talked to my tribe's higher education director and he said that my guidance counselor was only telling me the realities of my predicament. My mom always laughs about this story because when I heard these things it only fueled my fire. She laughs because she believes they made me push myself harder to prove them all wrong."

*this responded has wished to remain anonymous. To avoid using any distinguishing factors I have decided to use pronouns: they, them, and their to refer to the respondent. I also want to thank them for sharing this story with me. 

Here are a little bit more statistics and information about Native Americans and their position in the criminal justice system:

The Huffington Post reports, “The incarceration rate of Native Americans is 38% higher than the national rate. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights attributes this higher rate to differential treatment by the criminal justice system, lack of access to adequate counsel and racial profiling…Law enforcement agents arrest American Indians and Alaskan Natives at twice the rate of the greater U.S. population for violent and property crimes. On average, American Indians receive longer sentences than non-Indians for crimes” –Bell, 2011

“The total U.S. Native American population is 5,220,579 or 1.7% (USCB, 2010).5 The U.S. Census Bureau reports the Native American population in Oregon at 53,203 or 1.3% of the State’s population, and Marion County, Oregon at 7,883 or 2.5% of the County’s total population (USCB, 2010). The most recent Federal data of national arrests indicated that 1.4% (186,120) of all arrests in 2010 were Native Americans (US DOJ, 2011)” –Tighe 2014.

“Even the FBI's 2005 statistics on hate crimes that were reported to police show that while American Indians and Alaska Natives comprise only 1% of the U.S. population, they represent 2% of victims of racially motivated hate crimes” (Buchanan, 2006)-Tighe 2014

"The oppression of Native people is not limited to the criminal justice system. Native American women are twice as likely to be victims of sexual assault as women in any other race. On reservations, women are ten times more likely to be murdered than other Americans.”—fountain, 2016

Note: I have learned from doing research on this topic, and talking to individual that identify as Native American Indian, that it is not suffient to refer to them as Native American because that term refers to any individual born in America, which is why we must be specific and refer to them as Native American Indian.

References:

Tighe, S. (2014). “Of course we are crazy”: Discrimination of Native American Indians through criminal justice. Justice Policy Journal, 11(1), 1-38. Attained at: http://www.cjcj.org/uploads/cjcj/documents/tighe_discrimination_final_formatted.pdf

Fountain, Aaron G. Jr. (2016). “Native Lives Matter Goes Beyond Police Brutality” Aljazeera America. Attained at: http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2016/2/native-lives-matter-goes-beyond-police-brutality.html

Bell, Jamaal. "Mass Incarceration: A Destroyer of People of Color and Their Communities." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 25 May 2011. Web. 06 Apr. 2016. Attained at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jamaal-bell/mass-incarceration-a-dest_b_578854.html