Police brutality against Native Americans

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Police brutality means when police use more force than needed or threaten people in ways that are abusive or not allowed. It can also include hurting someone’s mental health with intimidation.

Native Americans are among the groups most at risk of death in police encounters. From 1999 to 2011, Native Americans were 0.8% of the U.S. population but 1.9% of police killings. That makes them about 3.1 times more likely to be killed by police than White Americans and about 2.6 times more likely than Black Americans. Native Americans ages 20–44 are especially affected.

Native communities also face higher rates of substance use and mental health problems. Indigenous people have the highest suicide rate of any U.S. minority and higher levels of post-traumatic stress disorder. They report serious psychological distress about 2.5 times more than the general population. When people have untreated mental illness, they are more likely to be killed during a police encounter. Some experts say we should have special teams outside police to handle mental health crises and reduce deadly shootings.

In border towns near reservations, Native people often experience more police violence and profiling.

Incarceration is higher for Native Americans. The Bureau of Justice says Native Americans are imprisoned at about 38% above the national average. Native American men go to prison about four times as often as white men, and Native American women about six times as often as white women. Native youth are 70% of minors in federal prisons even though they make up about 1% of U.S. youth, and Native youths are transferred to the adult system at a much higher rate than white youths.

There have been many cases over the years, including incidents in Minneapolis in the 1990s, shootings of Native people, and protests at the Dakota Access Pipeline. Media coverage of Native killings has often been limited. In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice found that the Minneapolis Police Department discriminates against Black and Native American people in routine stops and uses excessive force, with poor training and little accountability. In 2021, President Joe Biden issued an order to improve public safety and justice for Native Americans and to address missing or murdered Indigenous people.

Historically, Native people faced police brutality after moving to urban areas in the mid-20th century. The American Indian Movement started in Minnesota in 1968 to help reduce police violence against urban Natives. They created the Indian Patrol to monitor police and help keep Native people safe.

Today, groups like the Lakota People’s Law Project and the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center work to stop violence against Native Americans. The Native Lives Matter campaign, started in 2014, aims to bring national attention to police brutality, poverty, and mental health, and to push for reforms such as hiring police who reflect the communities they serve and funding cultural healing programs to address mental health, addiction, and poverty.