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American Public Health Association, American Journal of Public Health, 11(111), p. 1969-1975, 2021

DOI: 10.2105/ajph.2021.306465

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“American Indian” as a Racial Category in Public Health: Implications for Communities and Practice

Journal article published in 2021 by Danielle R. Gartner, Rachel E. Wilbur ORCID, Meredith L. McCoy
Distributing this paper is prohibited by the publisher
Distributing this paper is prohibited by the publisher

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Abstract

When public health considers the health and disease status of Indigenous people, it often does so using a racial lens. In recent decades, public health researchers have begun to acknowledge that commonly employed racial categories represent history, power dynamics, embodiment, and legacies of discrimination and racism, rather than innate biology. Even so, public health has not yet fully embraced an understanding of other components of identity formation for Indigenous people, including political status within Native nations. In this article, we discuss why the continued racial conceptualization of Indigeneity in US public health is inadequate. We begin by providing a brief account of racialization as a tool of colonization, of failure to recognize and acknowledge Indigenous sovereignty, and of common public health practices of Indigenous data collection and interpretation. We then articulate the stakes of racialized health data for Native communities. We end by offering alternative approaches, many drawn from scholarship from Indigenous researchers. (Am J Public Health. 2021;111(11):1969–1975. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306465 )