Native Americans with Disabilities

Keywords: Disability, Native American (American Indian), alcoholism and alcohol related injuries, diabetes.

Description: These issue brief reviews the most common disabilities among the Native Americans and American Indian population.

Key points:

• According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) nearly

29.9% of Native Americans have a disability with the second largest group being Non-Hispanic Blacks at 21.2%

• Disability among US Adults by Race or Ethnicity Non-Hispanic White – Disabilty-20.3%

Non-Hispanic Black – Disability-21.2%

Hispanic – Disability-16.9%

Asian – Disability-11.6%

Hawaiian/Pacific Islander – Disability-16.6%

Native American – Disability-29.9%

• Physical, invisible, emotional and sensory disabilities appear most frequently throughout the Native American population, including Alaska Natives, emotional disabilities and learning disabilities and sensory disabilities, predominantly hearing and vision issues.

• Native Americans have the highest alcohol related motor vehicle mortality rates among any racial/ethnic populations.

In 1990, the United States government passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to protect citizens with employment, public goods, and telecommunication accommodations. This act states that, “an individual with a disability is a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment; or is regarded as having such an impairment”

(eeoc)”. However, the ADA is flawed in properly representing Native Americans on reservations and other parts of the United States because the ADA forces them to choose between the government of their tribal lands and the rights given to the rest of the citizens of the United States. This conflict has created a dilemma for Native Americans and has not helped their already disability plagued communities.

With this said, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are approximately 2.5 million Americans who identify themselves as solely a Native American or Alaska Native and only 4.1 million who identify themselves as either Native American only or in combination with another race. Nearly 1 million of Native Americans live on reservations or on off-reservation trust lands. Some of the challenges that Native Americans with disabilities face is the rural geographical location of the reservations. According to the American Disability Legislative Project (AIDLP) survey, only two-thirds of the

reservations schools, stores, churches, and other buildings were handicap accessible, proving to make life very difficult for the Native Americans with serious disabilities (NCD).

Often caused by the poverty of reservation life and the lack of resources due to rural locations, alcoholism and alcohol related disabilities are extremely common in the Native American community. For example, in 1982 it was estimated that accidents on the road were 4.4 times more common among Native Americans than the rest of the US (Pichette).

Furthermore, between 1982 to 2002 an estimated 65% of car accidents on Indian Reservations were alcohol related compared to 47% nationally during the same time period (CDC). Most of these injuries, often followed by either temporary or permanent disabilities from the accidents include brain and bone damage. Also, in1997 AIRRTC found that alcohol abuse was the most common cause of disability among Native Americans who are commonly associated with alcoholism (NCD).

Along with the physical disabilities mentioned above, the more prominent disabilities among Native Americans are not highly physical but often mental and/or emotional disabilities. For example, diabetes, an invisible disability, is the most common disability is third (NCD). According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Native Americans have more than double the chance of developing diabetes than non-Hispanic whites in the United States. Moreover, Native Americans also have a very high sensory disability percentage. Work done at Northern Arizona University & University of Arizona in 1987 cited that hearing loss occurs four times more often and vision impairment occurs three times more often among Native Americans compared to the rest of the US population.

Overall, Native Americans suffer from multiple kinds of disabilities at a far higher rate than other ethno-racial groups. It does not look like many of these have a direct relation to others, with the exception to possibly alcohol related car accidents impairing your senses. However, many of these issues have a direct correlation to living on rural, poor Native American Reservations separated from the rest of general US population and lifestyle.

Works cited:

Pichette, Eugene F .; Berven, Norman L .; Menz, Fredrick E .; La Fromboise, Teresa D.

“Effects of Cultural Identification and Disability Status on Perceived Community Rehabilitation Needs of American Indian.” Journal of Rehabilitation, Vol. 63

The National Council on Disability. “People with Disability on Tribal Lands.” at http:/www.ncd.gov

The United States Council on Disability. People with Disability on Tribal Lands” at: http:/www.ncd.gov