During the COVID-19 outbreak, the native voice has been forgotten. Native reservations had some of the worst outbreaks in the country. People who identify as American Indian and Alaskan Native are part of the indigenous community. Looking outside of COVID-19 the Indigenous community has always faced oppression in the regular health system. The life expectancy in Indigenous communities is 5.5 years less than the country’s average. Along with this, their suicide rates are higher than any other ethnic group in the United States. Native suicide rates are 2.5 times bigger than the national average. Think about that. The percentage of Indigenous people in this country is 1.01 percent. Yet their suicide rates double the rest of the nations.
The women from this community experience higher levels of domestic violence than any other woman in the US. According to the National Institute of Justice, almost 84 percent of the women experience violence in their lifetime. American Indians and Alaska Natives also experience PTSD twice more often than the rest of the country.
Here at SPA, there is barely any representation of Indigenous students and faculty. But this does not mean that the SPA community can just sit in ignorance. People need to be aware of what land they are on, who’s backs they broke to be sitting in their pretty classrooms.
Gen Z is finally waking up and realizing the problems that have been kept hidden: they need to reach out and not sit in our their privilege.

Take action now.  Educate yourself, donate, volunteer. Below are some helpful websites for more information.

Educate Yourself:

This is a A Guide to Tracing American Indian & Alaska Native Ancestry

https://www.bia.gov/sites/bia.gov/files/assets/public/pdf/idc-002619.pdf

Look at the digital American Indian Museum

https://americanindian.si.edu/

Find anything that you are curious about in the digitally archived library.

https://www.archives.gov/research/alic/reference/native-americans.html

Learn about traditions that are important in the Native American Culture.

https://www.nativeconnections.org/

Donate:

Health- https://www.nativeconnections.org/donate

Historical Preservation- https://www.nps.gov/getinvolved/index.htm

Historical Preservation- https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nagpra/index.htm

Housing For Homeless- https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_housing/ih/codetalk/aboutonap

Housing For Homeless- https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/798

Volunteer:

Contribute your time to help preserve national parks.

https://www.nps.gov/getinvolved/index.htm

Provide support to Indigenous Groups, specifically homeless families.

https://www.nativeconnections.org/volunteer

Help Indigenous families recover from former hardships, and volunteer by helping prepare meals.

https://www.volunteermatch.org/search/org661307.jsp

This story has been updated to include detail information about education and support links