State Crime, Native Americans and COVID-19

Finley, Laura

doi:10.13169/statecrime.10.1.0045

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State Crime Journal

Volume 10, Issue 1

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State Crime, Native Americans and COVID-19

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Author(s): Laura Finley ¹

Publication date (Print): 1 April 2021

Journal: State Crime Journal

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: COVID-19, Native Americans, colonialism

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Abstract

This paper examines how COVID-19 has disproportionately affected Native Americans. It frames the problem as one of existing structural disadvantage that is the result of settler colonialism, showing a history of abuse and neglect in earlier pandemics. The US has an obligation to Native peoples that it is failing to uphold in numerous ways, including needed health care and resources to battle the virus. The paper describes how this is state crime in the form of slow violence.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50005552

Journal ID (jcode): statecrime

Title: State Crime Journal

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN: 2046-6056

ISSN: 2046-6064

Publication date (Print): 1 April 2021

Volume: 10

Issue: 1 ( doiID: 10.13169/statecrime.10.issue-1 )

Pages: 45-60

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[1 ] Barry University

Article

Publisher ID: statecrime.10.1.0045

DOI: 10.13169/statecrime.10.1.0045

SO-VID: c38e3811-2659-43fa-99b4-9ccb30177dc9

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All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

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ScienceOpen disciplines: Criminology

Keywords: COVID-19,Native Americans,colonialism

References

Agozino, B. (2003) Counter-colonial Criminology: A Critique of Imperialist Reason. New York: Pluto Press.
Carlson, S. (2020) “The U.S. student loan debt crisis: State crime or state-produced harm?”, Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime, 1(2): 140–152.
Deaderick, L. (2020) “History of inequality making COVID-19 worse for Native Americans.”, San Diego Tribune, 10 May. Available online at: www.sandiegouniontribune.com/columnists/story/2020-05-10/history-of-inequality-making-covid-19-worse-for-native-americans (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Deer, S. (2009) “Decolonizing rape law: A Native feminist synthesis of safety and sovereignty”, Wicazo Sa Review, 24: 149–167.
Denetdale, J. (2006) “Chairmen, presidents and princesses: The Navajo nation, gender and the politics of tradition”, Wicazo Sa Review, 20: 9–28.
Doshir, S., Jordan, A., Kelly, K., and Solomon, D. (2020) “The COVID-19 response in Indian Country”, American Progress, 18 June. Available online at: www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2020/06/18/486480/covid-19-response-indian-country/ (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
DW (2020) “Native American tribes reject coronavirus checkpoint threat”, 11 May. Available online at: www.dw.com/en/native-american-tribes-reject-coronavirus-checkpoint-threat/a-53393465 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Fonseca, F. (2020) “Report highlights voting inequalities in tribal communities”, AP News, June 4. Available online at: https://apnews.com/article/b1667e917af219fc0b55dbb720c9e6a3 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Friedrichs, D. (2015) “Rethinking the criminology of crimes of states: Monumental, mundane, mislabeled and miscalculated cases”, Crime Justice Journal, 4(4): 106–119.
Gilio-Whitaker, D. (2020) “American settler colonialism 101”, Thoughtco, 6 January. Available online at: www.thoughtco.com/american-settler-colonialism-4082454#:~:text=The%20most%20obvious%20examples%20are,and%20French%20domination%20over%20Tahiti (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Givens, M. (2020) “The 5 million Americans that 2020 candidates refuse to talk about”, Vox, 13 March. Available online at: www.vox.com/first-person/2020/3/13/21176957/native-american-vote-2020 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Grande, S. (2004) Red Pedagogy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
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Hilleary, C. (2020a) “COVID spread may put Native Americans at increased risk of violence”, VOA News, 9 May. Available online at: www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/covid-spread-may-put-native-americans-increased-risk-violence (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
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Jones, V. (2020) “10 steps to save Native-Americans from Covid-19 catastrophe”, CNN, 6 May. Available online at: www.cnn.com/2020/05/06/opinions/native-americans-covid-19-avoid-catas trophe-jones/index.html (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Kiger, P. (2019) “Did colonists give infected blankets to Native Americans as biological warfare?”, History, November 25. Available online at: www.history.com/news/colonists-native-americans-smallpox-blankets (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Lyons, S. (2010) X-Marks: Native Signatures of Assent. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
McCaslin, W.D., and Breton, D.C. (2008) “Justice as healing: Going outside the colonizers' cage”, in Denzin, N.K., Lincoln, Y.S. & Smith, L.T. eds. Handbook of Critical Indigenous Methodologies. London: Sage.
Morales, L. (2020) “Navajo Nation sees high rate of COVID-19 and contact tracing is a challenge”, NPR, 24 April. Available online at: www.npr.org/2020/04/24/842945050/navajo-nation-sees-high-rate-of-covid-19-and-contact-tracing-is-a-challenge (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Moya-Smith, S. (2020) “Coronavirus takes more than Native Americans' lives. Killing our elderly erases our culture”, NBC News, 22 April. Available online at: www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/coronavirus-takes-more-native-americans-lives-killing-our-elderly-erases-ncna1189761 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
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Navajo Nation Department of Health (2020) Dikos Ntsaaígíí-19 (COVID-19). Available online at: www.ndoh.navajo-nsn.gov/COVID-19 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
New Mexico Department of Health (2020) COVID-19 in New Mexico, June. Available online at: https://cvprovider.nmhealth.org/public-dashboard.html (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Nixon, R. (2011) Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Noisecat, J. (2015) “13 issues facing Native people beyond mascots and casinos”, Huffington Post, 31 August. Available online at: www.huffpost.com/entry/13-native-american-issues_n_55b7d801e4b0074ba5a6869c (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
NoiseCat, J. (2020) “How to survive an apocalypse and keep dreaming”, The Nation, 2 June. Available online at: www.thenation.com/article/society/native-american-postapocalypse/ (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Ortiz, E. (2020) “Native American health center asked for COVID-19 supplies. It got body bags instead”, NBC News, 6 May. Available online at: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/native-ameri can-health-center-asked-covid-19-supplies-they-got-n1200246 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Ostler, J. (2020) “Disease has never been just disease for Native Americans”, The Atlantic, 29 April. Available online at: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/disease-has-never-been-just-dis ease-native-americans/610852/ (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
PBS (2005) Guns, Germs & Steel. Available online at: www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/index.html.
Regan, S. (2014) “5 ways the government keeps Native Americans in poverty”, Forbes, 13 March. Available online at: www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/03/13/5-ways-the-government-keeps-native-americans-in-poverty/#7f292b7a2c27 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Riley, N. (2016) “One way to help Native Americans: Property rights”, The Atlantic, 30 July. Available online at: www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/native-americans-property-rights/492941/#:~:text=The%202%20million%20Natives%20in,gang%20membership%2C%20and%20sexual%20abuse (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Rothe, D. L. (2020) “Moving beyond abstract typologies? Overview of state and state-corporate crime”, Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime, 1(1): 7–15.
Rothe, D. L. & Kauzlarich, D. (2016) Crimes of the Powerful: An Introductory Text. New York: Routledge.
Sepkowitz, K. (2020) “The risk to Native Americans from COVID-19”, CNN, 7 April. Available online at: www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/opinions/native-american-nations-risk-from-covid-19-sep kowitz/index.html (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
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U.S. National Library of Medicine (2009) “Native Voices 2009: Many reservation homes lack clean drinking water”. Available online at: www.ncai.org/Covid-19/legislative-updates/C4_Tribal_Infrastructure_Priorities_-House-.pdf (accessed 2 Dec 2020).
Ward, G. (2014) “The slow violence of state organized race crime”, Theoretical Criminology, 19(3): 299–314.
Watson, I. (2014) Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism and International Law: Raw Law. London: Routledge.
Wolfe, P. (2006) “Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native”, Journal of Genocide Research, 8(4): 387–409.
Wyoming Department of Health (2020) “COVID-19 map and statistics”. Available online at: https://health.wyo.gov/publichealth/infectious-disease-epidemiology-unit/disease/novel-coronavirus/covid-19-map-and-statistics/ (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Agozino, B. (2003) Counter-colonial Criminology: A Critique of Imperialist Reason. New York: Pluto Press.

[2] Carlson, S. (2020) “The U.S. student loan debt crisis: State crime or state-produced harm?”, Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime, 1(2): 140–152.

[3] Deaderick, L. (2020) “History of inequality making COVID-19 worse for Native Americans.”, San Diego Tribune, 10 May. Available online at: www.sandiegouniontribune.com/columnists/story/2020-05-10/history-of-inequality-making-covid-19-worse-for-native-americans (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[4] Deer, S. (2009) “Decolonizing rape law: A Native feminist synthesis of safety and sovereignty”, Wicazo Sa Review, 24: 149–167.

[5] Denetdale, J. (2006) “Chairmen, presidents and princesses: The Navajo nation, gender and the politics of tradition”, Wicazo Sa Review, 20: 9–28.

[6] Doshir, S., Jordan, A., Kelly, K., and Solomon, D. (2020) “The COVID-19 response in Indian Country”, American Progress, 18 June. Available online at: www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2020/06/18/486480/covid-19-response-indian-country/ (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[7] DW (2020) “Native American tribes reject coronavirus checkpoint threat”, 11 May. Available online at: www.dw.com/en/native-american-tribes-reject-coronavirus-checkpoint-threat/a-53393465 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[8] Fonseca, F. (2020) “Report highlights voting inequalities in tribal communities”, AP News, June 4. Available online at: https://apnews.com/article/b1667e917af219fc0b55dbb720c9e6a3 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[9] Friedrichs, D. (2015) “Rethinking the criminology of crimes of states: Monumental, mundane, mislabeled and miscalculated cases”, Crime Justice Journal, 4(4): 106–119.

[10] Gilio-Whitaker, D. (2020) “American settler colonialism 101”, Thoughtco, 6 January. Available online at: www.thoughtco.com/american-settler-colonialism-4082454#:~:text=The%20most%20obvious%20examples%20are,and%20French%20domination%20over%20Tahiti (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[11] Givens, M. (2020) “The 5 million Americans that 2020 candidates refuse to talk about”, Vox, 13 March. Available online at: www.vox.com/first-person/2020/3/13/21176957/native-american-vote-2020 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[12] Grande, S. (2004) Red Pedagogy. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.

[13] Hedgepeth, D. (2020) “Native American tribes were already being wiped out. Then the 1918 flu hit”, Washington Post, 27 September. Available online at: www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/09/28/1918-flu-native-americans-coronavirus/ (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[14] Hilleary, C. (2020a) “COVID spread may put Native Americans at increased risk of violence”, VOA News, 9 May. Available online at: www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/covid-spread-may-put-native-americans-increased-risk-violence (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[15] Hilleary, C. (2020b) “Native American tribes face critical shortages of COVID-19 test kits, protective gear”, VOA News, 21March. Available online at: www.voanews.com/science-health/coronavirus-outbreak/native-american-tribes-face-critical-shortages-covid-19-test (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[16] Jones, V. (2020) “10 steps to save Native-Americans from Covid-19 catastrophe”, CNN, 6 May. Available online at: www.cnn.com/2020/05/06/opinions/native-americans-covid-19-avoid-catas trophe-jones/index.html (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[17] Kiger, P. (2019) “Did colonists give infected blankets to Native Americans as biological warfare?”, History, November 25. Available online at: www.history.com/news/colonists-native-americans-smallpox-blankets (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[18] Lyons, S. (2010) X-Marks: Native Signatures of Assent. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

[19] McCaslin, W.D., and Breton, D.C. (2008) “Justice as healing: Going outside the colonizers' cage”, in Denzin, N.K., Lincoln, Y.S. & Smith, L.T. eds. Handbook of Critical Indigenous Methodologies. London: Sage.

[20] Morales, L. (2020) “Navajo Nation sees high rate of COVID-19 and contact tracing is a challenge”, NPR, 24 April. Available online at: www.npr.org/2020/04/24/842945050/navajo-nation-sees-high-rate-of-covid-19-and-contact-tracing-is-a-challenge (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[21] Moya-Smith, S. (2020) “Coronavirus takes more than Native Americans' lives. Killing our elderly erases our culture”, NBC News, 22 April. Available online at: www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/coronavirus-takes-more-native-americans-lives-killing-our-elderly-erases-ncna1189761 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[22] National Congress of American Indians (2018) Research Policy Update, February. Available online at: www.ncai.org/policy-research-center/research-data/prc-publications/VAWA_Data_Brief__FINAL_2_1_2018.pdf (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[23] Navajo Nation Department of Health (2020) Dikos Ntsaaígíí-19 (COVID-19). Available online at: www.ndoh.navajo-nsn.gov/COVID-19 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[24] New Mexico Department of Health (2020) COVID-19 in New Mexico, June. Available online at: https://cvprovider.nmhealth.org/public-dashboard.html (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[25] Nixon, R. (2011) Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[26] Noisecat, J. (2015) “13 issues facing Native people beyond mascots and casinos”, Huffington Post, 31 August. Available online at: www.huffpost.com/entry/13-native-american-issues_n_55b7d801e4b0074ba5a6869c (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[27] NoiseCat, J. (2020) “How to survive an apocalypse and keep dreaming”, The Nation, 2 June. Available online at: www.thenation.com/article/society/native-american-postapocalypse/ (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[28] Ortiz, E. (2020) “Native American health center asked for COVID-19 supplies. It got body bags instead”, NBC News, 6 May. Available online at: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/native-ameri can-health-center-asked-covid-19-supplies-they-got-n1200246 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[29] Ostler, J. (2020) “Disease has never been just disease for Native Americans”, The Atlantic, 29 April. Available online at: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/disease-has-never-been-just-dis ease-native-americans/610852/ (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[30] PBS (2005) Guns, Germs & Steel. Available online at: www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/index.html.

[31] Regan, S. (2014) “5 ways the government keeps Native Americans in poverty”, Forbes, 13 March. Available online at: www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/03/13/5-ways-the-government-keeps-native-americans-in-poverty/#7f292b7a2c27 (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[32] Riley, N. (2016) “One way to help Native Americans: Property rights”, The Atlantic, 30 July. Available online at: www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/native-americans-property-rights/492941/#:~:text=The%202%20million%20Natives%20in,gang%20membership%2C%20and%20sexual%20abuse (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[33] Rothe, D. L. (2020) “Moving beyond abstract typologies? Overview of state and state-corporate crime”, Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime, 1(1): 7–15.

[34] Rothe, D. L. & Kauzlarich, D. (2016) Crimes of the Powerful: An Introductory Text. New York: Routledge.

[35] Sepkowitz, K. (2020) “The risk to Native Americans from COVID-19”, CNN, 7 April. Available online at: www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/opinions/native-american-nations-risk-from-covid-19-sep kowitz/index.html (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[36] Silverman, H., Toropin, K., Sidner, S., and Perrot, L. (2020) “Navajo Nation surpasses New York state for the highest COVID-19 infection rate in the U.S”, CNN, 18 May. Available online at: www.cnn.com/2020/05/18/us/navajo-nation-infection-rate-trnd/index.html (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[37] Strickland, P. (2016) “Life on the Pine Ridge Native American reservation”, Al Jazeera, 2 November. Available online at: www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/10/life-pine-ridge-native-american-reservation-161031113119935.html (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[38] Tauri, J. M. (2014) “Criminal justice in contemporary settler colonialism”, African Journal of Criminology & Justice Studies, 8(1): 20–37.

[39] Taylor, R. (2019) “6 Native leaders on what it would look like if the US kept its promises”, Vox, 23 September. Available online at: www.vox.com/first-person/2019/9/23/20872713/native-american-indian-treaties (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[40] Tombs, S. (2018) “For pragmatism and politics: Crime, social harm, and zemiology”, in Boukli, A. & Kotzé, J. eds. Zemiology: Reconnecting Crime and Social Harm. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

[41] United Nations (2020) COVID-19 and Indigenous Peoples. Available online at: www.un.org/develop ment/desa/indigenouspeoples/covid-19.html (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[42] U.S. Census Bureau (2017) “American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month”, 6 October. Available online at: www.census.gov/newsroom/facts-for-features/2017/aian-month.html (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[43] U.S. Government Accountability Office (2018) “Indian Health Service: Agency faces ongoing challenges filling provider vacancies”, 15 August. Available online at: www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-580#:~:text=IHS%20data%20show%20an%20average,housing%20to%20meet%20the%20demand (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[44] U.S. National Library of Medicine (2009) “Native Voices 2009: Many reservation homes lack clean drinking water”. Available online at: www.ncai.org/Covid-19/legislative-updates/C4_Tribal_Infrastructure_Priorities_-House-.pdf (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

[45] Ward, G. (2014) “The slow violence of state organized race crime”, Theoretical Criminology, 19(3): 299–314.

[46] Watson, I. (2014) Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism and International Law: Raw Law. London: Routledge.

[47] Wolfe, P. (2006) “Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native”, Journal of Genocide Research, 8(4): 387–409.

[48] Wyoming Department of Health (2020) “COVID-19 map and statistics”. Available online at: https://health.wyo.gov/publichealth/infectious-disease-epidemiology-unit/disease/novel-coronavirus/covid-19-map-and-statistics/ (accessed 2 Dec 2020).

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State Crime, Native Americans and COVID-19

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