Underground Codes: Race, Crime and Related Fires

2. American Indians and Crime: Invisible Minorities and the Weight of Justice

American Indians and Crime Invisible Minorities and the Weight of Justice I. Introduction The treatment that American Indians have received from the U.S. criminal justice system serves as a classic example of the harms and slights, intended and unintended, experienced by racial minorities within the criminal justice system. There are a host of injuries that go unnoticed and, therefore, unaddressed by the justice system. In fact, the experiences of American Indians, in society and in the justice system, represent a classic underground code.1 Because the group’s experiences operate mostly below the public radar, they are largely perceived and responded to in stereotypical terms. Many American Indians are processed and handled by a system that operates behind a legal curtain, which few social scientists have dared to pull back. Each spring, thousands of undergraduate criminal justice majors graduate from U.S. colleges and universities. It is a good bet that few have been exposed to research, data, or discussion about American Indians and the criminal justice system. For those interested in learning more about American Indians and crime, there is little to draw from. Why is this? First, when it comes to explicit examinations of race, the overwhelming focus of sociologists and criminologists has been on African Americans —who until recently were the largest racial group of color in the United States. Second, American Indians make up a very small percentage of the U.S. population, less than 1 percent. According to the 2000 Census, approximately 2.5 million people identified themselves as American Indian. The number increases to 4.5 million if we add to it the number of people who 2 20 said they were American Indian in combination with another race.2 By either count, American Indians, who once numbered more than ten million, are the smallest racial group in America. Not surprisingly, there are very few American Indian academics, and only a handful with criminology doctorates. For example, between 1995 and 2000, fewer than five Native Americans received doctorates in criminology.3 This is noteworthy because research indicates that minority criminologists are likely to study their own racial or ethnic group. Third, for a variety of reasons, it is difficult to assess how Native Americans are processed through the criminal justice system. Native Americans are the one group whose criminal cases may be adjudicated in any one of three entirely separate legal systems—tribal, state, and federal. Even the most basic attempt to make sense of these schemes requires a broad knowledge base, one that includes history, law, criminology, sociology , and political science. Individually and collectively, these factors help to explain the dearth of theories and analyses of Native American victimization and criminality in the United States. This chapter takes a small step toward bridging this gap and incorporates a range of information on American Indians and the justice system. The discussion centers on four themes. First, there is a consideration of foundational issues, such as how “American Indian” is defined. Second, there is an examination of some contemporary representations of American Indians. Third, and related to the former, there is a discussion of the use of American Indian names, mascots, gestures, and symbols within the mainstream. Fourth, there is an overview of the existing literature on crime and American Indians, legal and empirical. In conclusion, the silence on American Indian justice issues operates as an underground code—sending a subtle yet clear message that issues involving Indians and crime do not deserve widespread attention. II. Choosing, Defining, and Locating Before undertaking an analysis of the involvement of American Indians in the criminal justice system and how they have fared, it is necessary to address two preliminary issues. First, what is the appropriate racial label for the group commonly referred to as American Indians? Is it Native Americans ? Aboriginals? Native peoples? Indians? Natives? Indigenous peoples ? Is tribal affiliation appropriate? Are these terms interchangeable? American Indians and Crime | 21 Are any of them inappropriate? Are there other terms that should be considered ? These are important questions, because how a group is labeled may determine whether the group being studied will view the research as legitimate. Ideally, researchers would use the same name or names that the group being studied uses to describe itself. A 1995 study conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that “American Indian” was selected as the preferred term by half of...