Tribe challenging pipeline has some advantages in courtroom

Members of the Ponca, Santee, Winnebago and Omaha Tribes in Nebraska and Iowa along with others participate in a rally on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016, in front of the Army Corps of Engineers offices in Omaha, Neb., to protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline in the Dakotas and Iowa. A judge is expected to rule Friday on whether to block construction of the pipeline that is supposed to pass close to the tribal reservation near the North Dakota-South Dakota border. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)

(Josh Funk Associated Press OMAHA, Neb. -- The American Indians)

This Thanksgiving, a day that celebrates the peaceful coming together of two cultures in 1621, Native Americans are being hosed down in freezing conditions, shot at and teargassed by law enforcement officials in Standing Rock, North Dakota.

The widely-reported and televised Native American protests against the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline has demonstrated the sometimes aggressive tactics used by police against the mostly indigenous protesters, helping surface the little-known yet deadly relationship that exists between the two. In 2016, more Native Americans per capita have been killed by police officials across the United States than any other race, a figure that has increased since 2015.

So far this year, 7.6 Native Americans have been killed by police per million of the population, up from 5.49 in 2015. By comparison, 5.66 black people have been killed per million this year, significantly lower than the 7.69 from 2015. For Hispanic and Latino, the figure is 2.72, while 2.4 for white people in 2016, according to statistics compiled by the Guardian newspaper. Asian and Pacific Islanders are the least likely to be killed by police with 0.95 per million.

In 2015, black people were being killed in far greater numbers than any other races per capita, according to the Guardian stats.

In pure figures, around 950 people have been killed by police officers in the United States during 2016. Nearly half of that figure is white people at 475 deaths, with 226 black people and 154 Hispanic and Latino being killed. Less than 20 Native Americans, who only represent two percent of the overall population, have been killed this year. Seventeen Asian/Pacific Islanders were also killed. In 2015, the overall figure was 1146 deaths.

Per state, Alabama was tenth in the country with 23 deaths overall in 2016, of which 16 were white and seven were black. Per capita, Alabama was ahead of many large states including California, Texas and Florida. Last year, 19 people were killed by police in the state. Twelve were white and seven were black.

While recent media attention has been placed on the many black people that have died at the hands of police officials in the United States, the Native American community has been all but forgotten. Of the 29 Native Americans killed between between May 1, 2014, and October 31, 2015, only one Native American death received sustained coverage, according to an investigation carried out by In These Times, an independent Chicago-based magazine dedicated to advancing democracy and economic justice.



Official statewide data collection on the Native Americans has been hard to come by, prompting the Washington Post and the Guardian to keep databases that are populated usng media reports. Unfortunately, the death of some Natives is either omitted from press coverage or the individual is misidentified.

However, according to officials statistics independently collected from medical examiners in 47 states between 2009 and 2014, Native Americans are still far more likely to be killed by police than any other race, including African Americans. By age, Natives 20-24, 25-34 and 35-44 were three of the five groups most likely to be killed by police. (The other two groups were African Americans 20-24 and 25-34.)