American Indians/Alaska Natives: Community Issues
 

Additional community issues:

• Regaining and maintaining the right of self-determination and governance.
  
• Expanding tribal opportunities for social, health, educational, and economic development.
  
• Addressing the suicide rate for AIANs which is 2-1/2 times the national average. According to the BIA annual survey, suicide is the second highest cause of death for 16-24 year olds.
  
• Focusing upon the needs of AIAN students in urban communties, where they are spread across districts, making it difficult for AIAN students to feel a sense of community. Their numbers are smaller, so the needs of these students often go unnoticed.

Focus On: Endangered Indian Languages (PDF)
For American Indians, the loss of languages has been intimately tied to the loss of major parts of their culture. Conversely, current efforts being made by American Indians/Alaska Natives to maintain or recapture their languages approach a nativisticrevitalization movement. (2006)

Resources from other organizations:

Walking A Mile: A First Step Toward Mutual Understanding
This qualitative study from Public Agenda explores how Indians and Non-Indians think about each other. Research examines Indians' perceptions of their own place in contemporary American society and how non-Indians view American Indians, what they know (or think they know), the generalizations they make and stereotypes they hold, how their perceptions were formed and their interest in learning more. (August 2007)

Native Americans with Disabilities Don't Get Services
A report from the National Council on Disability documents that American Indians and Alaska Natives with disabilities living on tribal lands were not receiving the services they were entitled. The report also found this group had the highest rate of disabilities and lowest opportunity for access to culturally sensitive programs and services of all races. This impacts special education. (August 2003)

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