essay on tribal discrimination

5.4 Civil Rights for Indigenous Groups: Native Americans, Alaskans, and Hawaiians

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Outline the history of discrimination against Native Americans
• Describe the expansion of Native American civil rights from 1960 to 1990
• Discuss the persistence of problems Native Americans face today

Native Americans have long suffered the effects of segregation and discrimination imposed by the U.S. government and the larger White society. Native Americans were not granted the full rights and protections of U.S. citizenship until long after African Americans and women were, with many having to wait until the Nationality Act of 1940 to become citizens. 93 This was long after the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, which granted citizenship to African Americans but not, the Supreme Court decided in Elk v. Wilkins (1884), to Native Americans. 94 White women had been citizens of the United States since its very beginning even though they were not granted the full rights of citizenship. Furthermore, Native Americans are the only group of Americans who were forcibly removed en masse from the lands on which they and their ancestors had lived so that others could claim this land and its resources. This issue remains relevant today as can be seen in the recent protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which have led to intense confrontations between those in charge of the pipeline and Native Americans.

NATIVE AMERICANS LOSE THEIR LAND AND THEIR RIGHTS

From the very beginning of European settlement in North America, Native Americans were abused and exploited. Early British settlers attempted to enslave the members of various tribes, especially in the southern colonies and states. 95 Following the American Revolution, the U.S. government assumed responsibility for conducting negotiations with Indian tribes, all of which were designated as sovereign nations, and regulating commerce with them. Because Native Americans were officially regarded as citizens of other nations, they were denied U.S. citizenship. 96

As White settlement spread westward over the course of the nineteenth century, Indian tribes were forced to move from their homelands. Although the federal government signed numerous treaties guaranteeing tribe members the right to live in the places where they had traditionally farmed, hunted, or fished, land-hungry White settlers routinely violated these agreements and the federal government did little to enforce them. 97

In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act , which forced Native Americans to move west of the Mississippi River. 98 Not all tribes were willing to leave their land, however. The Cherokee in particular resisted, and in the 1820s, the state of Georgia tried numerous tactics to force them from their territory. Efforts intensified in 1829 after gold was discovered there. Wishing to remain where they were, the tribe sued the state of Georgia. 99 In 1831, the Supreme Court decided in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia that Indian tribes were not sovereign nations, but also that tribes were entitled to their ancestral lands and could not be forced to move from them. 100

The next year, in Worcester v. Georgia , the Court ruled that non-Native Americans could not enter tribal lands without the tribe’s permission. White Georgians, however, refused to abide by the Court’s decision, and President Andrew Jackson , who had fought in conflicts against Native Americans, refused to enforce it. 101 Between 1831 and 1838, members of several southern tribes, including the Cherokees, were forced by the U.S. Army to move west along routes shown in Figure 5.15 . The forced removal of the Cherokees to Oklahoma Territory, which had been set aside for settlement by displaced tribes and designated Indian Territory, resulted in the death of one-quarter of the tribe’s population. 102 The Cherokees remember this journey as the Trail of Tears .

By the time of the Civil War, most Indian tribes had been relocated west of the Mississippi. However, once large numbers of White Americans and European immigrants had also moved west after the Civil War, Native Americans once again found themselves displaced. They were confined to reservations, which are federal lands set aside for their use where non-Indians could not settle. Reservation land was usually poor, however, and attempts to farm or raise livestock, not traditional occupations for most western tribes anyway, often ended in failure. Unable to feed themselves, the tribes became dependent on the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Washington, DC, for support. Protestant missionaries were allowed to “adopt” various tribes, to convert them to Christianity and thus speed their assimilation. In an effort to hasten this process, Native American children were taken from their parents and sent to boarding schools, many of them run by churches, where they were forced to speak English and abandon their traditional cultures. 103

In 1887, the Dawes Severalty Act , another effort to assimilate Native Americans to White society, divided reservation lands into individual allotments. Native Americans who accepted these allotments and agreed to sever tribal ties were also given U.S. citizenship. All lands remaining after the division of reservations into allotments were offered for sale by the federal government to White farmers and ranchers. As a result, Native Americans swiftly lost control of reservation land. 104 In 1898, the Curtis Act dealt the final blow to Indian sovereignty by abolishing all tribal governments. 105

THE FIGHT FOR NATIVE AMERICAN RIGHTS

As Native Americans were removed from their tribal lands and increasingly saw their traditional cultures being destroyed over the course of the nineteenth century, a movement to protect their rights began to grow. Sarah Winnemucca ( Figure 5.16 ), member of the Paiute tribe, lectured throughout the east in the 1880s in order to acquaint White audiences with the injustices suffered by the western tribes. 106 Lakota physician Charles Eastman ( Figure 5.16 ) also worked for Native American rights. In 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act granted citizenship to all Native Americans born after its passage. Native Americans born before the act took effect, who had not already become citizens as a result of the Dawes Severalty Act or service in the army in World War I, had to wait until the Nationality Act of 1940 to become citizens. In 1934, Congress passed the Indian Reorganization Act , which ended the division of reservation land into allotments. It returned to Native American tribes the right to institute self-government on their reservations, write constitutions, and manage their remaining lands and resources. It also provided funds for Native Americans to start their own businesses and attain a college education. 107

Despite the Indian Reorganization Act, conditions on the reservations did not improve dramatically. Most tribes remained impoverished, and many Native Americans, despite the fact that they were now U.S. citizens, were denied the right to vote by the states in which they lived. States justified this violation of the Fifteenth Amendment by claiming that Native Americans might be U.S. citizens but were not state residents because they lived on reservations. Other states denied Native Americans voting rights if they did not pay taxes. 108 Despite states’ actions, the federal government continued to uphold the rights of tribes to govern themselves. Federal concern for tribal sovereignty was part of an effort on the government’s part to end its control of, and obligations to, Indian tribes. 109

In the 1960s, a modern Native American civil rights movement, inspired by the African American civil rights movement, began to grow. In 1969, a group of Native American activists from various tribes, part of a new Pan-Indian movement, took control of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay, which had once been the site of a federal prison. Attempting to strike a blow for Red Power, a multi-faceted movement to increase the power of Native Americans united by a Pan-Indian identity and demanding federal recognition of their rights, they maintained control of the island for more than a year and a half. They claimed the land as compensation for the federal government’s violation of numerous treaties and offered to pay for it with beads and trinkets. In January 1970, some of the occupiers began to leave the island. Some may have been disheartened by the accidental death of the daughter of one of the activists. In May 1970, all electricity and telephone service to the island was cut off by the federal government, and more of the occupiers began to leave. In June, the few people remaining on the island were removed by the government. Though the goals of the activists were not achieved, the occupation of Alcatraz had brought national attention to the concerns of Native American activists. 110

In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) , a more radical group than the occupiers of Alcatraz, temporarily took over the offices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, DC. The following year, members of AIM and some two hundred Oglala Lakota supporters occupied the town of Wounded Knee on the Lakota tribe’s Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the site of an 1890 massacre of Lakota men, women, and children by the U.S. Army ( Figure 5.17 ). Many of the Oglala were protesting the actions of their half-White tribal chieftain, who they claimed had worked too closely with the BIA. The occupiers also wished to protest the failure of the Justice Department to investigate acts of White violence against Lakota tribal members outside the bounds of the reservation.

The occupation led to a confrontation between the Native American protestors and the FBI and U.S. Marshals. Violence erupted; two Native American activists were killed, and a marshal was shot ( Figure 5.17 ). After the second death, the Lakota called for an end to the occupation and negotiations began with the federal government. Two of AIM’s leaders, Russell Means and Dennis Banks, were arrested, but the case against them was later dismissed. 111 Violence continued on the Pine Ridge Reservation for several years after the siege; the reservation had the highest per capita murder rate in the United States. Two FBI agents were among those who were killed. The Oglala blamed the continuing violence on the federal government. 112

Link to Learning

The official website of the American Indian Movement provides information about ongoing issues in Native American communities in both North and South America.

The current relationship between the U.S. government and Native American tribes was established by the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975. Under the act, tribes assumed control of programs that had formerly been controlled by the BIA, such as education and resource management, and the federal government provided the funding. 113 Many tribes have also used their new freedom from government control to legalize gambling and to open casinos on their reservations. Although the states in which these casinos are located have attempted to control gaming on Native American lands, the Supreme Court and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 have limited their ability to do so. 114 The 1978 American Indian Religious Freedom Act granted tribes the right to conduct traditional ceremonies and rituals, including those that use otherwise prohibited substances like peyote cactus and eagle bones, which can be procured only from vulnerable or protected species. 115 Another 1978 law, the Indian Child Welfare Act, prevented the frequent practice of removing Native American children from their homes and placing them non-Native American families. The law stated that if a child needed to be removed from their family for reasons of welfare and safety, they would be either placed with extended family, members of their own tribe, or members of another tribe—not with non-Native American families. (The law has been challenged, but in 2023 the Supreme Court ruled that it should remain intact.) 116

In another important recent development, several federal court cases have raised standing for Native American tribes to sue to regain former reservation lands lost to the U.S. government. Through a key 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court in McGirt v. Oklahoma , Native Americans realized the most important advancement in rights since the reapplication of the Winters Doctrine (which led to a stronger footing for tribes in water negotiations). 117 The initial case taken up by the Court in 2019, Carpenter v. Murphy , which revolved around a murder case in Oklahoma, became quite salient, given the history of the Trail of Tears. At issue was whether Mr. Murphy committed murder on private land in the state of Oklahoma or on the Muscogee (Creek) reservation and who should have jurisdiction over his case. If the court decided to proclaim the land as a reservation, that would potentially lead to half the State of Oklahoma being designated as such. 118 After hearing arguments in late 2018, they did not hand down a decision in 2019. However, in the follow-up case, McGirt v. Oklahoma , the Court took the step that strengthened Native American rights. The landmark decision held that a large part of Oklahoma is tribal land. Moreover, the court argued that crimes committed on those lands are subject to federal, not state authority. In this case, Jimcy McGirt was convicted in Oklahoma state court in 1997 of various sexual crimes. McGirt challenged the conviction on the basis that Oklahoma lacked jurisdiction to prosecute a member of the Muscogee Creek Nation tribe for crimes committed on tribal land. 119

In addition to gains in water rights and land rights, Native American tribes made other gains in recent decades. Tribes have robust and well-recognized governing institutions based on democratic principles. Moreover, many tribes now have governing compacts negotiated with the states where their ancestral lands lay. The proliferation of Indian gaming has further strengthened the success and political influence of the tribes. Finally, the appointment by President Biden, and subsequent Senate confirmation, of Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM) as Secretary of the Interior was a powerful and pathbreaking moment. She is the first Native American to hold that position at Interior, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

ALASKA NATIVES AND NATIVE HAWAIIANS REGAIN SOME RIGHTS

Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians endured many of the same abuses as Native Americans, including loss of land and forced assimilation. Following the discovery of oil in Alaska, however, the state, in an effort to gain undisputed title to oil rich land, settled the issue of Alaska Natives’ land claims with the passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. According to the terms of the act, Alaska Natives received 44 million acres of resource-rich land and more than $900 million in cash in exchange for relinquishing claims to ancestral lands to which the state wanted title. 120

Native Hawaiians also lost control of their land—nearly two million acres—through the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and the subsequent formal annexation of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States in 1898. The indigenous population rapidly decreased in number, and white settlers tried to erase all trace of traditional Hawaiian culture. Two acts passed by Congress in 1900 and 1959, when the territory was granted statehood, returned slightly more than one million acres of federally owned land to the state of Hawaii. The state was to hold it in trust and use profits from the land to improve the condition of Native Hawaiians. 121

In September 2015, the U.S. Department of Interior, the same department that contains the Bureau of Indian Affairs, created guidelines for Native Hawaiians who wish to govern themselves in a relationship with the federal government similar to that established with Native American and Alaska Native tribes. Such a relationship would grant Native Hawaiians power to govern themselves while remaining U.S. citizens. Voting began in fall 2015 for delegates to a constitutional convention that would determine whether or not such a relationship should exist between Native Hawaiians and the federal government. 122 When non-Native Hawaiians and some Native Hawaiians brought suit on the grounds that, by allowing only Native Hawaiians to vote, the process discriminated against members of other ethnic groups, a federal district court found the election to be legal. While the Supreme Court stopped the election, in September 2016 a separate ruling by the Interior Department allowed for a referendum to be held. Native Hawaiians in favor are working to create their own nation. 123

Despite significant advances, American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians still trail behind U.S. citizens of other ethnic backgrounds in many important areas. These groups continue to suffer widespread poverty and high unemployment. Some of the poorest counties in the United States are those in which Native American reservations are located. These minorities are also less likely than White Americans, African Americans, or Asian Americans to complete high school or college. 124 Many American Indian and Alaskan tribes endure high rates of infant mortality, alcoholism, and suicide. 125 Native Hawaiians are also more likely to live in poverty than White people in Hawaii, and they are more likely than White Hawaiians to be unhoused or unemployed. 126

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Mental Health Effects of Racism on Indigenous Communities

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Akeem Marsh, MD, is a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist who has dedicated his career to working with medically underserved communities.

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Indigenous Communities Face Prevalent Racism

Mental health effects of racism, treatment issues, how indigenous communities cope, indigenous mental health resources.

• Next in The Other Side of Stigma Guide How Do Other Countries Deal With Mental Health?

Racism is increasingly recognized as a factor that plays a role in mental health as well as disparities in mental health care. This can be particularly true among many of the most marginalized groups, including Indigenous communities. 

Indigenous communities can be found in countries throughout the world and make up an estimated 5% of the world's total population. While these communities are unique and differ from one another in a variety of ways, they do have a shared history of trauma, forced migration, discrimination, and segregation that have had lasting effects on generations of Indigenous peoples .

Racism is a significant factor contributing to the onset of mental health conditions, but it also plays a major role in increasing disparities that contribute to worsening mental health.

Research suggests that racism affects health and well-being by increasing unhealthy psychological responses, contributing to poor health behavior, physiological dysregulation, sleep disruptions, and higher rates of substance use.  

In November 2020, the American Medical Association formally recognized racism as a public health threat.

Racism directed toward Indigenous people is a common problem throughout the world. In the United States, research suggests that both discrimination and harassment are widely experienced among Native Americans.

These experiences occur in multiple domains and locations including in health care, education, and the criminal justice system. Racism can come in a variety of forms including racial slurs, harassment, exclusion, and microaggressions . 

The mental health effects of past traumas are also something that these communities continue to grapple with. Racist policies in the United States subjected Native Americans and Alaskan Natives to significant psychological trauma. Such policies were aimed at stripping people of their cultural identity and heritage. 

For example, children were often removed from their families as part of forced assimilation programs, separated from their parents, siblings, and extended families for months or even years at a time.

They were unable to speak their own languages and were barred from participating in their spiritual and cultural traditions. Such practices created massive collective and intergenerational trauma, damaging families, their children, and entire communities.

It is important to recognize that racism is not something confined to the past. The U.S. Department of Justice has reported that Native American and Alaskan Natives are the victims of more violent crime than any other racial group in the U.S.

The cumulative effects of these experiences can take a tremendous toll on physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. In the U.S., Native Americans face issues including poorer health, lack of quality health care, higher mortality rates, and higher rates of suicide, drug and alcohol use, and sexual violence.

Such issues are not confined to the U.S., however. Indigenous people live in counties all over the world and often experience various forms and degrees of racism. One survey of Aboriginal people in Victoria, Australia found that 92% of those surveyed had experienced racism during the previous year. Those who experienced the most racism also reported the highest levels of psychological distress.

Such reports suggest that finding ways to reduce racism can play an important role in improving the mental health of people who are part of Indigenous communities. 

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According to the most recent census data, 1.3% of the U.S. population identifies as Native American or Alaskan Native.   Of these individuals, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reports that 19% have experienced a mental illness during the past year.

Evidence suggests that people who experience racism are at a greater risk of developing a variety of mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) . 

Some evidence suggests that exposure to racism can have particularly harmful effects when it occurs during important developmental windows in childhood.

One study found that Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander children who experienced direct racial discrimination during early childhood had an increased risk for negative mental and physical health outcomes during middle childhood compared to kids who had not experienced such racism.  

Substance and Alcohol Use Disorders

In the U.S., Native Americans and Alaskan Natives are significantly more likely to report having experienced the symptoms of an alcohol or substance use disorder in the past year than other races.

While a number of variables may contribute to the higher substance and alcohol use rates among American Indian people, research has suggested that factors such as racism, discrimination, and historical trauma play a significant role.  

Participants in one small study of tribal members in the state of Montana cited racism as a contributing factor to the onset of substance use as well as a major barrier to recovery. Other risk factors that are known to play a part in high substance use rates include trauma exposure, poverty, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Some participants in the study cited the intertwined effects of racial trauma and poverty as key factors driving substance and alcohol use. "People can’t understand…there’s intergenerational trauma, and then this need to belong, with such a high rate of poverty, a high rate of unemployment—they say it’s like 80% on the reservation," one participant explained.

Statistics show that Indigenous communities all over the world are frequently impacted by suicide at much greater rates than the non-Indigenous population. In the United States, the Indian Health Service reports that the suicide rate for Native Americans and Alaskan Natives is 1.6 times higher than it is for all other races found in the U.S.

A 2011 report by Statistics Canada found that the suicide rate among Indigenous people in Canada was three times higher than it was for non-Indigenous Canadians. In particular, young people between the ages of 15 and 24 as well as women were found to be particularly vulnerable.

What are some explanations for the increased suicide risk faced by Indigenous peoples? Current racism as well as the effects of cumulative grief and historical trauma can all play a role in contributing to high suicide rates among Indigenous communities.

Historical trauma refers to the cumulative psychological effects that affect people across generations due to a significant collective trauma. 

Research suggests that up to a third of Indigenous adults report having daily thoughts related to this form of trauma, leading to serious negative emotional effects. Historical trauma has been linked to symptoms such as survivor's guilt , depression, poor self-esteem , increased fear, and self-destructive behavior.

Statistics also suggest that Indigenous communities face higher rates of domestic violence. Native American and Alaskan Native women experience among the highest races of intimate partner violence and sexual assault.

The Association on American Indian Affairs reports that women, girls, and Two Spirit people are most impacted by violence, with nearly 85% of American Indian and Alaska Native women reporting that they have experienced violence during their lifetime.

Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

This is particularly evident in the missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) epidemic that has affected individuals in the U.S. and Canada. The corresponding movement inspired by these acts aims to raise awareness of the disproportionately high rate of violence, homicide, sexual assault, and sex trafficking experienced by First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and Native American women.

In addition to the mental health effects of racism, race-based discrimination can also play a role in treatment. Systemic racism and relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures can influence a variety of factors related to mental health treatment. 

The American Psychiatric Association reports that the utilization of mental health services by Native Americans and Alaskan Natives is low. This is likely due to the combination of several factors, which include a lack of mental health services, a low number of culturally trained providers, and the stigmatization of mental health conditions in Indigenous communities.

Attitudes Toward Treatment

Because of the high prevalence of racism directed toward many Indigenous communities, people may be less likely to seek out treatment when they are facing mental health issues. For example, researchers have found that 1 in 6 Native Americans report seeking medical assistance because of anticipated discriminatory or unfair treatment.  

Indigenous beliefs about mental illness can also play a role in the type of help people decide to seek. In many cases, people may be more likely to seek help from a traditional or spiritual healer who is part of their community rather than from a medical source.

Because Indigenous worldviews differ from those of many non-Indigenous cultures, expressions of emotional distress may also be different from the diagnostic criteria outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) , the resource used by doctors to diagnose mental health conditions.

Access to Services

Racism can also play a role in affecting the availability and accessibility of mental health services in Indigenous communities. Some research suggests that people may be more likely to prefer ethnically matched providers, particularly among groups who have been historically marginalized by non-Indigenous people.

In the U.S., there is a scarcity of mental health care providers who are of Native American or Alaskan Native background.

Indigenous communities also often lack access to health services. Healthcare accessibility is often impacted by policies that neglect the needs of Indigenous communities. Access to mental health services is also often severely limited by a number of factors including lack of insurance coverage and a lack of accessible clinics serving Indigenous communities. While tribal reserves may provide mental health services, many Indigenous people live outside of these areas.

Lack of Culturally Trained Providers

Culturally competent mental health care is important in order to understand and address the needs of people who are part of Indigenous communities. The Indian Health Service reports that more than 50% of mental health programs and more than 80% of substance and alcohol abuse programs are tribally operated.  

This helps to ensure that people are better able to access holistic, integrated, community-based services that incorporate cultural and traditional practices while addressing issues such as racism, historical trauma, and cultural healing.

However, this means that people living in areas outside of tribal communities may have a much more difficult time accessing such services and finding culturally sensitive care.

People are also affected by Western views of mental well-being that neglect Indigenous views of mental health and trauma. In his book Healing the Soul Wound: Counseling With American Indians and Other Native Peoples , psychologist Eduardo Duran describes the concept of a "soul wound," which describes the way traumatic events disrupt the interconnections between the mind, body, and spirit. Duran suggests that mental health practitioners need to provide interventions that address these holistic connections.  

In order to address the effects of trauma and provide quality mental health services, it is essential for providers to consider the perspective and experiences of Indigenous peoples.

Racism in Healthcare

In a report exploring experiences with the Canadian healthcare system, Indigenous people reported widespread racism and discrimination that impacted both access to care and health outcomes. Approximately half of non-Indigenous health care workers reported witnessing racist or discriminatory actions toward Indigenous patients and nearly 30% of Indigenous people reported hearing racist comments regularly.

Such discrimination often takes various forms but included such things as:

• Denial of service
• Poor communication
• Minimizing problems
• Assuming drug or alcohol use
• Poor pain management
• Lack of respect for cultural protocols

"The overall tone of what I can only describe as ‘disdain’ that was shown to my family day in and day out for taking up space in the hospital. The glances, the glares, the apathy was heavily noted by many of us, as it seemed they would prefer that we not be there," explained one First Nations woman of her family's ICU experience while her father was dying.

Indigenous patients also report that health care workers are often resistant to even hearing about cultural health practices. Thirty percent of respondents reported that requests to follow cultural practices with regards to events such as birth and death were often denied.

Because of the serious detrimental effects of racism, finding ways to reduce discrimination and its impact are important to the health and well-being of Indigenous communities. There are a number of other factors that can be helpful in mitigating the mental health impacts of racism.

Indigenous worldviews can serve as a protective force. Many Indigenous cultures throughout the world hold worldviews that emphasize the importance of family, social bonds, and connectedness. Such connections and supportive relationships can play an important role in bolstering the mental health and well-being of Indigenous communities. 

The American Psychiatric Association reports that protective factors that can reduce the risk of negative mental health effects and promote increased well-being include:

• Adaptability
• Appreciation for the wisdom of elders
• Connections to the past
• Strong identification with culture
• Traditional health practices  

Some programs that offer mental health resources for Indigenous communities include:

• One Sky Center : Offered by the American Indian/Alaska Native National Resource Center for Health, Education, and Research, One Sky Native has resources related to mental health, substance use, and suicide prevention.
• StrongHearts Native Helpline : This service offers a national helpline that people can call (1-844-762-8483) for anonymous and culturally sensitive help with dating and domestic violence.
• WeRNative : Aimed at and created by Native youth, this site offers information on mental health, culture, relationships, and LGBTQ/Two Spirit issues.

There is an abundance of research demonstrating the profound negative effects that racism can have on Indigenous communities. The widespread prevalence of continued racism demonstrates that such issues need further intervention that seeks to end discrimination. 

Because of the prevalence and impact of racism, addressing it over the course of treatment can be important for recovery. However, research suggests that racism and its effects are rarely discussed by mental health professionals during treatment.

The mental health effects of racism on Indigenous communities points to the need for both policy and social changes that can help reduce stereotypes and discrimination while addressing the economic, health, and social inequalities that continue to reinforce the lingering impact of colonization and racial trauma.

Paradies Y, Ben J, Denson N, Elias A, Priest N, Pieterse A, Gupta A, Kelaher M, Gee G. Racism as a determinant of health: a systematic review and meta-analysis . PLoS One . 2015;10(9):e0138511. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0138511

American Medical Association. New AMA policy recognizes racism as a public health threat .

Findling MG, Casey LS, Fryberg SA, et al. Discrimination in the United States: experiences of Native Americans .  Health Serv Res . 2019;54(S2):1431-1441. doi:10.1111/1475-6773.13224

Localities Embracing and Accepting Diversity (LEAD). Mental health impacts of racial discrimination in Victorian Aboriginal communities .

U.S. Census Bureau. QuickFacts: United States .

Cave L, Shepherd CCJ, Cooper MN, Zubrick SR. Racial discrimination and the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: Does the timing of first exposure matter? SSM Popul Health . 2019;9:100492. doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2019.100492

Indian Health Service. Behavioral health .

Skewes MC, Blume AW. Understanding the link between racial trauma and substance use among American Indians .  Am Psychol . 2019;74(1):88-100. doi:10.1037/amp0000331

Statistics Canada. Suicide among First Nations people, Métis and Inuit (2011-2016): Findings from the 2011 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort (CanCHEC) .

Whitbeck LB, Adams GW, Hoyt DR, Chen X. Conceptualizing and measuring historical trauma among American Indian people . Am J Community Psychol . 2004;33(3-4):119-30. doi: 10.1023/b:ajcp.0000027000.77357.31

Brave Heart MY, Bird DM. Historical trauma and suicide . Indian Health Service.

Association on American Indian Affairs. Indigenous peoples and violence .

American Psychiatric Association. Mental health disparities: American Indians and Alaska Natives .

Duran E. Multicultural foundations of psychology and counseling series. Healing the soul wound: Counseling with American Indians and other native peoples.  Teachers College Press; 2006.

In plain sight: addressing indigenous-specific racism and discrimination in B.C. health care .

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

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The Health and Wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples around the Globe: Ensuring and Promoting Best Practice in Research

Kalinda griffiths.

1 Centre for Big Data Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia; [email protected]

2 Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin 0810, Australia; [email protected] (A.D.); [email protected] (L.J.W.)

3 Centre for Health Equity, University of Melbourne, Melbourne 3010, Australia

4 School of Public Health, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia

Lisa J. Whop

5 National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra 2601, Australia

Joan Cunningham

1. introduction—why this special issue.

Indigenous and Tribal peoples account for approximately 6.2% of the world’s population, comprising over 476 million people across 90 countries [ 1 ]. They have unique cultures, languages, knowledge systems, and traditions, maintain a special relationship with the land, and are guided by their own collectivist worldviews [ 1 ]. Indigenous and Tribal peoples across the world continue to be adversely affected by the ongoing impacts of colonization and dispossession, past and present racism and discrimination, socioeconomic disadvantage, and reduced access to services, all of which are manifested in disparities across a range of outcomes [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Research can be a tremendous force for good, provided it reflects the needs and priorities of Indigenous and Tribal peoples, is conducted in ways that empower Indigenous and Tribal people and communities, and privileges Indigenous and Tribal ways of knowing, being, and doing. All too often, this has not been the case [ 5 , 6 ].

In recent years, we have witnessed encouraging developments, such as an increase in research led by Indigenous and Tribal scholars and a gradual shift in how research is conceptualised and undertaken. Our aim for the Special Issue was to showcase best practice in research relating to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal peoples, as a way of recognising excellence and encouraging and supporting further advancement. The focus of the Special Issue was on research conducted by, with, and for the benefit of, Indigenous and Tribal peoples. In keeping with our focus on Indigenous and Tribal peoples, our definition of health and wellbeing was a holistic one, incorporating physical, mental, social, emotional, spiritual, and cultural aspects, as well as family and community and connection to land and waters across time. We called for papers that reflected the values of respect, reciprocity, and partnership and that addressed the priorities, needs, and aspirations of Indigenous and Tribal peoples.

The resulting Special Issue includes 31 papers in total, with 21 from Australia [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ], 4 from the United States [ 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ], 3 from Aotearoa/New Zealand [ 32 , 33 , 34 ], 1 from Canada [ 35 ], and 2 from authors in multiple countries [ 36 , 37 ]. This represents a substantial body of research on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal peoples, possibly the largest collection ever published.

2. Special Requirements for Papers in the Special Issue

In keeping with the ethos of the Special Issue, all submissions were required to address three key points: (a) the nature of the engagement, involvement, and leadership by Indigenous/Tribal people and communities in the project; (b) ethics and governance considerations in relation to Indigenous/Tribal peoples; and (c) whose priorities are reflected in the work. Aside from details about institutional ethics approval, which represents a relatively small component of point (b), this information is not typically reported in academic manuscripts, despite it being central to Indigenous and Tribal peoples’ research paradigms as well as a practical step towards decolonising research. Some authors appeared to struggle with this requirement, perhaps because of a lack of any model to follow. The ways in which the points were addressed varied across the included papers, as described in the following sections.

2.1. Engagement, Involvement, and Leadership

The engagement, involvement, and leadership of Indigenous and Tribal people is an essential requirement for ensuring that research is consistent with the rights of Indigenous and Tribal peoples (including the right to self-determination) [ 38 ], is culturally safe [ 39 ], and reflects Indigenous and Tribal people’s understandings, values, and aspirations and elevates and amplifies their voices [ 5 , 39 ]. This is relevant across the entire research process, from identifying and articulating a research question to designing and conducting the study, making meaning of the results, and communicating and implementing the findings.

Authorship is perhaps the most obvious indicator of engagement, involvement, and leadership. It is a formal and public recognition of an individual’s contribution to the work, although it must be noted that the level of inclusion and influence implied by authorship does not always match the reality. Of the 31 papers in the Special Issue, there were 128 Indigenous/Tribal authors listed, representing 110 individuals after accounting for authors with multiple papers. Indigenous/Tribal authors represented just over half of all authors (51.2%). The number of Indigenous/Tribal authors on an individual paper ranged from 1 to 16 (median = 4), and Indigenous/Tribal authors as a proportion of all authors on a paper ranged from 8% to 100%. Fifteen papers (48.4%) included an Indigenous/Tribal person as first author, and an additional eight had an Indigenous/Tribal person as last author (which is commonly used in health research to indicate senior authorship). At least eight first authors were known to be students, five of whom identified as Indigenous/Tribal. These figures represent substantial involvement, engagement, and leadership by Indigenous/Tribal people across a broad range of career stages.

Engagement, involvement, and leadership beyond authorship are also important. A range of mechanisms across the life of the research project or program, from setting research priorities to ongoing communication to dissemination of results, were described. These included: membership of Indigenous and Tribal people on advisory groups, working groups, steering committees, and governance committees [ 7 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 23 , 25 , 27 , 30 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 37 ]; involvement of community Elders, other community leaders, and Tribal health centres [ 19 , 25 , 28 , 35 ]; formal and informal partnerships with Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Organisations, Tribal health services and other community organisations [ 8 , 10 , 14 , 19 , 20 , 22 , 25 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]; hiring and training Indigenous research staff, especially from the relevant community/ies [ 7 , 9 , 10 , 13 , 16 , 18 , 23 , 35 ]; the use of community-based participatory research approaches, co-design, and consumer engagement and involvement [ 12 , 19 , 20 , 23 , 25 , 32 , 33 , 35 ]; and the involvement of existing Indigenous/Tribal expert groups with a remit beyond the project or program, such as an American Indian Data Community of Practice [ 31 ] and the International Group for Indigenous Health Measurement [ 26 ]. For example, in a project described by Wright and colleagues [ 19 ], decolonising research methodologies and co-design were used to develop health service evaluation tools based on First Nations worldviews. This enabled an Aboriginal evaluation framework that was seen as relevant, credible, effective, and meaningful to clients, carers, and mental health services alike. A total of 22 community Elders were involved as co-researchers; 11 of these ‘Aunties’ and ‘Uncles’ (terms of respect used for Aboriginal Elders) were authors on the resulting paper.

Developing relationships of trust between academic researchers and Indigenous and Tribal people, communities, and organisations is critical. Credo and Ingram [ 30 ] presented their perspectives on developing successful collaborative research partnerships with Native American communities in Arizona and noted a tension between the time needed to develop and maintain these relationships and the academic pressure on researchers to produce outputs. Overcoming the structural disincentives to invest the time and effort needed to engage meaningfully with Indigenous and Tribal people will require funding agencies and academic institutions to appropriately value this foundational work. The need for flexibility was also highlighted by many authors. For example, Rock and colleagues [ 29 ] described their experiences with different approaches to dissemination of research findings to Navajo communities and noted the importance of getting information to people in ways that suit them.

2.2. Ethics and Governance

A range of policies, approaches, and processes have been developed to guide the conduct of research on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal peoples. For example, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia’s primary funder of health and medical research, published updates in 2018 for two complementary guidelines for the ethical conduct of research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities [ 40 , 41 ]. These documents link into broader national research ethics guidelines and are complemented by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies’ (AIATSIS) Code of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research 2020 [ 42 ]. Funding from the NHMRC is contingent on adherence to these guidelines, which provides a level of structural support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research that is conducted ‘in the right spirit, with integrity and with respect for Country and for all living things’ [ 42 ] (p. 11). Similar national or regional guidelines exist for research on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal peoples in Canada and New Zealand, although the extent to which adherence to these are expected/demanded varies (see, for example, [ 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ]).

In addition to approval by Human Research Ethics Committees and Institutional Review Boards, which are embedded within Western academic institutions, a range of other mechanisms for ensuring appropriate Indigenous and Tribal governance in research were described in the papers included in the Special Issue, such as: approval by a Tribal government, an Indigenous Ethics Committee (e.g., the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council’s ethics committee in New South Wales, Australia), or an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 16 , 18 , 19 , 22 , 23 , 25 , 28 , 29 , 31 , 35 ]; the use of cultural reference groups and governance committees [ 11 , 13 , 16 , 19 , 23 , 25 , 27 , 33 , 34 ]; and having formal agreed Terms of Reference and/or Resolutions of Support [ 10 , 20 , 29 ].

An important element of research governance is ensuring the quality of the research, one aspect of which is using an appropriate research methodology. Several papers noted the use of culturally specific approaches, such as Kaupapa Māori research [ 32 , 34 ] and Indigenist research methods [ 8 , 10 , 13 , 16 ]. For example, Adcock and colleagues [ 34 ] used Kaupapa Māori research principles [ 5 , 47 ] to examine the experiences of preterm birth and neonatal intensive care for families of Māori infants. Importantly, the research team sought information about both experiences and the cultural meanings ascribed to those experiences, which together can inform appropriate service transformation. Garvey, Anderson, and colleagues [ 13 , 16 ] conducted a large multi-phase study to identify and understand the foundations of wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, from their own perspectives and in their own words. Using an approach based on the core principles of Rigney’s Indigenist research methodology [ 48 ], the study team conducted Yarning Circles with hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from across Australia. The data were analysed by an Indigenous researcher group and an Indigenous Project Advisory Group using a collaborative yarning process to ensure the cultural coherence of the resulting conceptual model.

Some authors specifically mentioned aspects of data governance and data sovereignty, such as Tribal/community ownership of data, approval of manuscripts for publication, establishment of a data governance committee, and reference to specific data sovereignty principles [ 10 , 11 , 20 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 30 , 35 ]. For example, Ward and colleagues [ 35 ] sought to understand the role of land in the wellbeing of Labrador Innu people. Their work used Innu knowledge and ways of knowing through community-based participatory research and was guided by OCAP ® principles [ 44 ] relating to the ownership, control, access, and possession of First Nations data. Griffiths and colleagues [ 26 ] conducted a systematic review of Indigenous data governance in health research internationally. Key aspects identified in the review were Indigenous governance, institutional ethics, socio-political dynamics, data management and stewardship, and overarching influences including human rights, capacity, and funding.

2.3. Whose Priorities

Research is inherently political; what gets researched and how and by whom research is conducted are influenced by a range of factors such as power and control as well as social values, norms, and beliefs [ 49 ]. This has meant that the priorities of Indigenous and Tribal peoples have not always been the impetus for research about their health and wellbeing [ 50 ]. This has important implications for the usefulness of research for improving policy and practice and, ultimately, outcomes.

Studies in the Special Issue arose in a variety of ways. Some were investigator-driven, based on the results of previous research and/or discussions with various stakeholders over many years [ 7 , 9 , 11 , 13 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 21 , 25 , 26 , 29 , 32 , 36 , 37 ]. Other studies reflected the priorities of government agencies, either through alignment with articulated strategies or through commissioned work [ 24 , 25 , 33 ]. Many studies reflected the expressed needs and priorities of Indigenous and Tribal communities, either directly or through community organisations, Tribal governments, and/or Indigenous/Tribal advisory committee members [ 7 , 8 , 10 , 12 , 14 , 19 , 20 , 22 , 23 , 28 , 30 , 31 , 33 , 34 , 35 ].

The question of whose priorities were being addressed was central to some of the research reported in the Special Issue. For example, Bennett-Levy and colleagues [ 25 ] presented a case study in which a top-down, government-initiated digital mental health program was shifted through community-based participatory research to a ground-up, community-guided process that better met community needs by focusing on social and emotional wellbeing more broadly. Cullen and colleagues [ 8 ] described the implementation of a model aimed at enabling trauma- and violence-informed care through decolonising interagency partnerships. This work was led by Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Organisations who were trying to work with government agencies who failed to understand the profound impact of trauma for Indigenous clients.

One especially important signal of priority is funding. Doing research requires resources, both human and otherwise, and lack of resources can be an important impediment to conducting the right research by the right people in the right way. Although we did not specifically request information about funding, this was routinely provided by authors in the Funding section of the manuscript template. For the papers included in the Special Issue, funding sources varied widely. Some papers reported no external funding for the project, while others reported project funding from highly competitive grant bodies and/or from universities, local health districts/boards, state and national government departments, charitable trusts, and non-government organisations. In addition, there was substantial ‘people support’ for many authors, including fellowships and scholarships from national research funding bodies, universities, and other organisations. Some funding bodies have explicitly made research on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal peoples a priority in recent years. For example, in Australia, the NHMRC has earmarked at least 5% of its research budget for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health research [ 51 ]. This target was reportedly met in 2008 and subsequently exceeded [ 52 ], although it must be noted that not all of the funds have been awarded to projects led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander researchers. In New Zealand, the Health Research Council (HRC) has a range of mechanisms to advance Māori knowledge, resources, and people and to support Māori sovereignty in research. For example, since 2019 all research proposals submitted to the HRC are scored on their potential to contribute to Māori health advancement, and grants are available to support communities to undertake research that meets their specific needs [ 53 ]. Initiatives such as these send a clear signal to the research community about the importance of work in this area.

3. Improving Research Practice

Achieving the vision of having ‘the right people doing the right work in the right way’ requires both incremental and transformative change.

While incremental change represents progress, it is often uneven, and the pace can be frustratingly slow. Two papers in the Special Issue argued for a more transformative approach to change in health and wellbeing research. Duke et al. [ 17 ] proposed a new Culturally Adaptive Governance framework designed to address power imbalances and improve the equity of outcomes in Indigenous health research. The framework focuses on what the authors describe as real-world ethics, adaptive governance, and critical allyship. The importance of Indigenous governance, including consideration of place, people, relationships, and process, was identified as a prerequisite for ethical conduct and practice.

Watego and colleagues [ 21 ] described their recently funded program of work to develop Indigenist Health Humanities as a new field of enquiry and research, one committed to Indigenous advancement with Indigenous intellectual sovereignty at its core. They argue that poor health must be seen as a function of ongoing colonisation rather than as a product of Indigenous deficit, and they highlight the critical importance of understanding how race operates in society and how the impacts of racism are embodied. They stress the need for researchers to ‘shift the gaze away from Indigenous incapability to consider how institutions, structures, systems, and processes operate to undermine Indigenous health and wellbeing’ [ 21 ] (p. 4).

While we believe that transformative change is ultimately required to eradicate the inequities in health and wellbeing experienced by Indigenous and Tribal peoples around the globe, we must not simply go about ‘business as usual’ while we wait for radical overhaul to occur. Instead, we must continually improve our research practices within existing systems and hold researchers and institutions to an ever-higher standard of practice while also working to achieve transformative change. In addition to a growing number of guides on ethics and governance such as those mentioned above, recent attention has been given to how best to report [ 54 ] and evaluate [ 55 ] research with a focus on Indigenous and Tribal peoples. For example, Gopalani and colleagues [ 31 ] described the development and implementation of an HPV vaccination survey in the Cherokee Nation using the Consolidated Criteria for Strengthening the Reporting of Health Research involving Indigenous Peoples (CONSIDER) statement, which covers eight domains: governance; relationships; prioritisation; methodologies; participation; capacity; analysis and findings; and dissemination [ 54 ]. In Australia, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Quality Appraisal Tool has been developed to assess the quality of research from an Indigenous perspective. The 14-point check list covers aspects such as Indigenous research leadership and governance, community engagement, whose priorities are reflected, and whether the approach is strengths-based [ 55 ]. The ideas behind these guides are not new. Two decades ago, for example, researchers in Aotearoa/New Zealand were urged to engage in critical self-reflection of how their work addressed key considerations, including initiation, benefits, representation, legitimation, and accountability [ 56 ]. In order to achieve positive incremental change, researchers, academic institutions, and research funders alike must take all necessary steps to ensure that research relating to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal peoples adheres to the principals, processes, and practices articulated in documents such as these.

4. Next Steps

Moving away from colonial practices of research to those embodying Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, and being is urgently needed to maximise the benefits of health and wellbeing research for Indigenous and Tribal peoples around the globe. This Special Issue has highlighted examples of how this has been and can be achieved. However, the structural barriers to doing so and the potential for high personal and academic costs must be acknowledged. There is a critical role for funders, institutions, and research teams in ensuring ‘the right people are doing the right work in the right way’ by recognising, valuing, and supporting the principles, processes, and practices that underpin high quality, culturally safe, and priority-driven research over the metrics that typically define success and impact from a colonial perspective. This is critical to advancing the self determination of Indigenous and Tribal peoples within and beyond research and to supporting the pursuit of transformative change.

In the meantime, as part of shifting the culture and changing expectations about research on the health and wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal peoples around the globe, we urge journals to require authors to explicitly address: (1) the nature of the engagement, involvement, and leadership by Indigenous/Tribal people and communities in the project; (2) ethics and governance considerations in relation to Indigenous/Tribal peoples; and (3) whose priorities are reflected in the work. We also strongly encourage journals to include among their recommended research and reporting guidelines those that have been designed specifically for Indigenous and Tribal peoples’ health research (such as the CONSIDER framework [ 54 ]), to ensure the appropriate conduct and reporting of research in this area. These simple steps could help to promote incremental improvement in research practice and enhance the value of the research while we work towards transformative change.

Author Contributions

The Special Issue on The Health and Wellbeing of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples around the Globe was edited jointly by J.C., K.G., A.D. and L.J.W. This editorial was written jointly by the editors and reflects their shared vision. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

K.G. was funded by the Scientia Program at the University of New South Wales. A.D. was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)-funded Centre of Research Excellence in Targeted Approaches To Improve Cancer Services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians (TACTICS; #1153027) and a University of Queensland Faculty of Medicine Research Fellowship. L.J.W. was funded by an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (#1142035). J.C. was funded by an NHMRC Research Fellowship (#1058244).

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

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Spheres of Influence

Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines

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Content Warning: Police and military brutality

In the early hours of December 30, 2020, Filipino police and military soldiers raided several Indigenous communities on the western island of Panay, killing nine people and arresting ten. The individuals killed and arrested in the attacks were known protestors of the military and objectors of the Jalaur River Dam Project, which will forcibly relocate thousands of Indigenous Peoples and entire communities. 

Representative Arlene Brosas, a member of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, remarked that this horrific event, referred to as the Tumandok massacre, was a “chilling conclusion of a year marred by bloody attacks on rights defenders and ordinary citizens amid the pandemic.” The attacks represent an escalation of violence towards land defenders and the targeting of the country’s most marginalized communities. 

Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines 

There are around 11.3 million Indigenous people and 110 unique ethno-linguistic Indigenous groups in the Republic of the Philippines. It is estimated that Indigenous people account for 11-12% of the population, but this number could be as high as 20% . The Philippines is a country made up of over 7,000 islands, so the lifestyles, livelihoods, and languages across Indigenous groups vary greatly. Groups that reside in the northern mountainous region of Luzon are known as the Igorot. In the south, members of eight Indigenous groups from the island of Mindoro are known as the Mangyan . The Tumandok People reside in Central Panay, an island southwest of Manila, the country’s capital. 

The Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines are “ranked among the poorest and most disadvantaged [in the country]” according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). They lack legal land rights and have higher rates of illiteracy, mortality, and unemployment than the rest of the population. On top of these disadvantages, they are disproportionately impacted by environmental damage caused by dams and other industrial activities across the country and have been violently targeted by government officials for defending their own territory. 

Historical Context 

The Tumandok, and other Indigenous communities across the Philippines, have had a long history of resisting dam construction projects that threatened their way of life on Panay island. In the 1970s , emphasis was placed on the country’s natural resources as “the national economy became increasingly foreign-dominated and export-oriented.” Many foreign and domestic corporations took advantage of these resources by increasing activity in export-based industries, such as logging, mining, and agriculture. As a result, the military forcibly relocated many Indigenous communities to avoid confrontation or opposition towards improper land use.

Jalaur River Dam Project 

Tumanduk Farmers in Defense for Land and Life, also known as TUMANDUK, is an organization that opposes environmentally destructive development projects. The group has strongly opposed the Jalaur River Multi-Purpose Project (JRMPP), in which the government has proposed construction of a dam across the Jalaur River to generate “hydroelectric power … and eco-tourism” revenue. TUMANDUK is concerned about the potential flooding that could occur as a result of this dam. The potential flooding would displace an estimated 17,000 residents of Indigenous communities along the river. 

The dam is also set to be built just 11 kilometers from the West Panay Fault line, which saw several destructive earthquakes in 2012 and 2013. Despite legitimate concerns regarding the safety of the project, there has been a rise in the criminalization of environmental activists who oppose it. 

Red-Tagging and the Criminalization of Indigenous Activists 

Today, the political situation under President Rodrigo Duterte has heightened the violent attacks against Indigenous groups in the Philippines. In response to resistance from organizations such as TUMANDUK, the government has resorted to criminalizing them in what is known as “Red-Tagging.” Red-Tagging is a classification given by the government to those they believe are aligned with the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed division, the New People’s Army. In most cases, government officials have little evidence that individuals are actually engaged in criminal activity. 

More importantly, as Amnesty International points out , belief in communist ideology “cannot be … used as a justification to target any individual or group.” This classification has led to many arbitrary arrests of peaceful protestors, including attacks and killings. The Tumandok massacre was a devastating example of this classification, as targeted Indigenous activists were “victims of red-tagging.”

  On July 3, 2020, President Duterte signed a bill entitled the “Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.” The law further expands the legal definition of terrorism and allows those who are “likely to join considered terrorist groups” to be targeted by the government. This law gives the government more power to deem peaceful protests and legitimate criticism of the government as “terrorism.” Under Duterte’s presidency, laws such as the Anti-Terrorism Act have been used to violently target and silence people who speak out against government policies and environmental destruction, particularly Indigenous communities who are directly impacted by these actions. 

Public Support of Duterte and Upcoming 2022 Elections

Despite Duterte’s harsh policies and targeting of Indigenous groups, the president’s approval rates have remained relatively high in the Philippines. Nearing the end of his term and in the midst of a pandemic, Duterte received a 58% approval rating and a 55% trust rating in July according to a survey conducted by Publicus Asia. These findings are significant, as while under the constitution Duterte cannot run for a second term, he will be running for Vice President in the upcoming May 2022 elections. Some experts have proposed that Duterte’s high approval ratings are thanks to his tactics of fear-mongering as well as a divided and inadequate opposition. 

Nevertheless, a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations also found that “60% of 1,200 respondents believed his move [to run as VP] violates the intention of the constitution.” These findings show that Duterte does not have blind support from the public, but they still indicate a frightening trend towards the rise of extreme right-wing politicians around the world who build platforms based on fear and “othering” certain groups. This can be seen clearly in the criminalization of Indigenous populations in the Philippines.

More Media Attention is Needed

Despite violent attacks made by the government, organizations such as TUMANDUK continue to fight against improper land use. Many human rights groups have condemned Duterte’s government for the Tumanduk killings and called for an official investigation of the event. Nine months later and with little accountability, the issue of violence against Indigenous communities in the Philippines needs much more international attention and media exposure. 

Edited by Bethlehem Samson and Chase Kelliher

Toko peters.

Toko is from Vancouver, BC, and was born in Hamamatsu, Japan. After obtaining her B.A. in International Relations at UBC, she continued to pursue her passion and affinity for writing, politics, and world... More by Toko Peters

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India faces a difficult challenge in respecting its commitment to the world. There is no doubt that attempts are being made to focus on the issues of Dalits and Adivasis. Central government and State governments have made specific programmes for dalits and adivasi groups and also some provisions in the budgetary allocations. But it is yet to be seen how adequate these allocations or supports are. The Government of India report on Millennium Development Goals does mention here and there about the Dalits and Adivasis, but hardly addresses the need of dovetailing the developmental programme to achieve these goals. Though India Country Report on MDGs says that India is currently ‘on track’ in terms of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger with sustainable access to safe drinking water in the country and basic sanitation in urban areas, but it is also important that whether Government this is also true for Dalits and Adivasis.

tui A journal on Tribal life & Culture

GENDER DEVELOPMENT AND THE STATUS OF TRIBAL WOMEN: A STUDY OF TRIPURA By SUMON ALI & TASLIM AKTER ABSTRACT The scheduled tribes (Tribal) constitute about 31.8% of the total population in Tripura. Moreover, this tiny north-eastern state presents a bewildering collection of tribal groups. Out of the 19 enlisted tribes found in the state, eight (i e, Tripuri, Riang, Noatia, Jamatia, Halam, Kuki, Chaima and Uchai) are regarded as the original settlers. In tribal communities, the role of women is substantial and crucial. They constitute about half the total population but in tribal society women are more important than in other social groups, because they work harder and the family economy and management depends on them. Even after industrialization and the resultant commercialization swamped the tribal economy, women continued to play a significant role. Mostly women and children do collection of minor forest produce. Many also work as laborers in industries, households and construction, contributing to their family income. However, tribal women are still marginalized and deprived group in Tribal society. Gender equality among tribal groups is a complex phenomenon that needs to be addressed in the context of various issues of tribal life. Gender dimension of tribal communities of India also has a bearing on the need for tribal development. This paper focuses on the nature and dimensions of change in the lives and status of tribal women in Tripura. The paper also focuses how the Socio-economic changes during the last few decades have introduced new gender and class issues into the purportedly egalitarian society of the Tribal’s. The present study will based on secondary source of data collecting from various source.

Abhishek Kumar

CHUNNU PRASAD NAG

The Hindu social order, particularly its main pillars: the caste system and untouchability, presents a unique case. As a system of social, economic and religious governance it is founded not on the principle of liberty or freedom, equality and fraternity, the values which formed the basis of universal human rights, but on the principle of inequality in every sphere of life. It leaves no difference between legal philosophy (law) and moral philosophy (morality).

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Essay on Tribal Empowerment – 200, 500 Words

Table of Contents

Essay on Tribal Empowerment in 200 Words

Empowerment of tribal communities is crucial for fostering inclusive and sustainable development. These indigenous groups, often residing in remote and marginalized regions, have faced historical injustices, socio-economic disparities, and cultural marginalization. However, empowering tribal communities can lead to positive outcomes for both them and the society as a whole.

Firstly, tribal empowerment enables economic growth. By providing access to education and skill development programs, tribal members can acquire knowledge and expertise that will boost their employability in various sectors. Equipped with these capabilities, they can contribute to local economies, enhancing productivity and reducing poverty within their communities.

Secondly, empowering tribes preserves their unique cultural heritage. Indigenous cultures hold valuable knowledge about sustainable living, traditional medicines, and conservation practices. Empowering these communities ensures the preservation of their customs and traditions, enriching humanity’s cultural diversity.

Moreover, tribal empowerment promotes social cohesion and inclusivity. By encouraging their participation in decision-making processes and providing them with platforms to voice their concerns, society can benefit from the wisdom and insights of these ancient communities. This inclusivity fosters social harmony and reduces conflicts between different segments of society.

In conclusion, tribal empowerment is an essential step towards achieving sustainable development. By addressing the historical injustices and providing opportunities for education, skill development, and active participation, tribal communities can contribute significantly to their own well-being and the progress of society at large. Through such initiatives, we can create a more equitable and harmonious world, embracing the rich diversity of cultures and traditions that enrich our global community.

How to celebrate Women’s Day

Essay on Tribal Problems

Introduction.

Tribal communities have a rich cultural heritage and have been an integral part of societies across the globe for centuries. They inhabit diverse regions and have their unique social, economic, and political systems. Despite their cultural significance, these indigenous communities face a myriad of challenges that threaten their traditional way of life, social cohesion, and economic stability. In this essay, we will delve into some of the major tribal problems, their underlying causes, and potential solutions to address these issues.

Land Rights and Displacement

One of the most pressing problems faced by tribal communities is the loss of their ancestral lands due to land encroachments, resource exploitation, and government-sponsored development projects. Displacement from their traditional territories leads to the erosion of their cultural identity and disrupts the delicate balance between nature and their way of life. Ensuring secure land rights for tribal communities and recognizing their collective ownership of these lands is crucial to safeguard their existence.

Poverty and Lack of Access to Basic Services

Tribal populations often face higher poverty rates compared to non-tribal communities. Limited access to education, healthcare, clean water, and sanitation contributes to their marginalization and perpetuates the cycle of poverty. Governments and NGOs must prioritize the provision of basic services to these communities to bridge the gap and uplift their living conditions.

Cultural Erosion and Identity Crisis

Globalization and urbanization exert immense pressure on tribal cultures, leading to cultural erosion and an identity crisis. Traditional practices, languages, rituals, and art forms are at risk of disappearing, which can have detrimental effects on their social fabric. Efforts to preserve and promote indigenous languages, art, and customs are vital to safeguard their unique cultural heritage.

Lack of Education and Skill Development

Education is a powerful tool for empowerment and progress, but tribal communities often face obstacles in accessing quality education. Inadequate infrastructure, lack of trained teachers, and cultural insensitivity in educational systems hinder their learning opportunities. Initiatives that integrate traditional knowledge with formal education can empower tribal youth and equip them with skills necessary to improve their livelihoods.

Health Issues and Healthcare Disparities

Tribal communities are susceptible to various health issues due to limited access to healthcare facilities and inadequate health awareness. Communicable diseases, malnutrition, and inadequate maternal and child care are common concerns. Strengthening healthcare infrastructure in tribal areas and sensitizing healthcare providers to their unique needs can mitigate these challenges.

Exploitation and Discrimination

Tribal communities are often subjected to exploitation, discrimination, and violence. Land grabbing, forced labor, and human rights violations are rampant in some regions. Legal measures, awareness campaigns, and support from civil society organizations are crucial to combat these injustices and protect the rights of tribal populations.

Environmental Degradation

Tribal communities have been living in harmony with nature for generations. However, modern development and resource extraction activities disrupt the ecological balance, leading to environmental degradation. Recognizing the traditional ecological knowledge of tribal communities and involving them in sustainable development planning can contribute to a more eco-friendly approach.

The challenges faced by tribal communities are deeply interconnected and require multi-faceted solutions. Governments, civil society organizations, and the international community must work collaboratively to address the root causes of these problems and ensure the protection of the rights and well-being of tribal populations. Preserving their unique cultural heritage, providing access to education and healthcare, securing land rights, and promoting sustainable development can empower these communities to thrive while preserving their rich traditions and way of life. By addressing tribal problems with sensitivity and inclusivity, we can create a more equitable and harmonious world for all.

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Essay on Tribal Empowerment

Students are often asked to write an essay on Tribal Empowerment in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Tribal Empowerment

Introduction.

Tribal empowerment refers to the enhancement of tribal communities’ socio-economic status. It involves improving their access to resources, rights, and opportunities.

Empowering tribal communities is crucial. They often live in isolation, lack basic amenities, and face discrimination. Empowerment can help them lead better lives.

Tribal empowerment can be achieved through education, providing healthcare, and creating job opportunities. Also, preserving their culture and traditions is important.

Tribal empowerment is an essential step towards equality and justice. It ensures that tribal communities can contribute to society while maintaining their unique cultural identity.

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• 10 Lines on Tribal Empowerment

250 Words Essay on Tribal Empowerment

Tribal empowerment refers to the process of enhancing the social, economic, and political strength of tribal communities. It involves providing these communities with the resources and opportunities necessary to make decisions that affect their lives.

The Need for Tribal Empowerment

Historically, tribal communities have been marginalized and subjected to social exclusion, economic deprivation, and political disenfranchisement. Empowerment is crucial to address these injustices, ensuring that tribal communities can exercise their rights and participate fully in society.

Strategies for Tribal Empowerment

A multi-pronged approach is necessary for tribal empowerment. It includes ensuring access to quality education, healthcare, and livelihood opportunities. Legal and policy reforms are also vital to safeguard tribal rights and promote their socio-economic development.

Role of Education

Education is a powerful tool for empowerment, providing tribal communities with the knowledge and skills to advocate for their rights and improve their living conditions. It is essential to make education culturally relevant and accessible to tribal communities.

Challenges and Future Directions

Despite efforts to empower tribal communities, they continue to face numerous challenges, including discrimination, poverty, and lack of access to basic services. Moving forward, it is necessary to address these issues through inclusive policies, community engagement, and sustained commitment to tribal empowerment.

In conclusion, tribal empowerment is a crucial aspect of social justice and sustainable development. It requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders, including the government, civil society, and the tribal communities themselves.

500 Words Essay on Tribal Empowerment

Tribal empowerment refers to the process of enhancing the social, economic, political, and cultural strength of indigenous communities. It is a comprehensive approach that involves addressing historical injustices, ensuring the preservation of cultural heritage, and creating opportunities for sustainable development.

Historical Context and Current Challenges

Historically, tribal communities have faced systemic discrimination and marginalization. They have had their lands confiscated, been subjected to forced labor, and had their cultural practices suppressed. Today, these communities often face challenges such as poverty, lack of access to quality education and healthcare, and cultural erosion.

The Importance of Tribal Empowerment

Tribal empowerment is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, it is a matter of justice. Indigenous communities have a right to self-determination, cultural preservation, and equitable access to resources. Secondly, it is a matter of sustainability. Indigenous knowledge systems often contain valuable insights for managing natural resources sustainably. Finally, it is a matter of diversity. The cultural richness of indigenous communities is an invaluable part of our global heritage.

There are several strategies that can be employed to empower tribal communities. These include:

1. Legal Recognition: This involves acknowledging the rights of indigenous communities to their lands, resources, and cultural practices. It also means ensuring that these rights are protected by law and enforced by government institutions.

2. Educational Initiatives: Education can play a vital role in tribal empowerment. This includes not only improving access to quality education for tribal communities but also incorporating indigenous knowledge and perspectives into mainstream curricula.

3. Economic Opportunities: Creating economic opportunities for tribal communities can help alleviate poverty and promote self-reliance. This can involve initiatives such as supporting indigenous entrepreneurship and promoting fair trade in indigenous products.

4. Political Participation: Ensuring that tribal communities have a voice in the political process is key to their empowerment. This can involve measures such as ensuring representation in government bodies and promoting the participation of indigenous individuals in political leadership.

In conclusion, tribal empowerment is a complex and multifaceted issue that requires concerted efforts from various stakeholders. It is not only a matter of justice for marginalized communities but also a key component of sustainable development and cultural diversity. By adopting strategies such as legal recognition, educational initiatives, economic opportunities, and political participation, we can make significant strides towards empowering tribal communities and ensuring their rightful place in society.

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Guest Essay

It’s Time to End the Quiet Cruelty of Property Taxes

By Andrew W. Kahrl

Dr. Kahrl is a professor of history and African American studies at the University of Virginia and the author of “The Black Tax: 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America.”

Property taxes, the lifeblood of local governments and school districts, are among the most powerful and stealthy engines of racism and wealth inequality our nation has ever produced. And while the Biden administration has offered many solutions for making the tax code fairer, it has yet to effectively tackle a problem that has resulted not only in the extraordinary overtaxation of Black and Latino homeowners but also in the worsening of disparities between wealthy and poorer communities. Fixing these problems requires nothing short of a fundamental re-examination of how taxes are distributed.

In theory, the property tax would seem to be an eminently fair one: The higher the value of your property, the more you pay. The problem with this system is that the tax is administered by local officials who enjoy a remarkable degree of autonomy and that tax rates are typically based on the collective wealth of a given community. This results in wealthy communities enjoying lower effective tax rates while generating more tax revenues; at the same time, poorer ones are forced to tax property at higher effective rates while generating less in return. As such, property assessments have been manipulated throughout our nation’s history to ensure that valuable property is taxed the least relative to its worth and that the wealthiest places will always have more resources than poorer ones.

Black people have paid the heaviest cost. Since they began acquiring property after emancipation, African Americans have been overtaxed by local governments. By the early 1900s, an acre of Black-owned land was valued, for tax purposes, higher than an acre of white-owned land in most of Virginia’s counties, according to my calculations, despite being worth about half as much. And for all the taxes Black people paid, they got little to nothing in return. Where Black neighborhoods began, paved streets, sidewalks and water and sewer lines often ended. Black taxpayers helped to pay for the better-resourced schools white children attended. Even as white supremacists treated “colored” schools as another of the white man’s burdens, the truth was that throughout the Jim Crow era, Black taxpayers subsidized white education.

Freedom from these kleptocratic regimes drove millions of African Americans to move to Northern and Midwestern states in the Great Migration from 1915 to 1970, but they were unable to escape racist assessments, which encompassed both the undervaluation of their property for sales purposes and the overvaluation of their property for taxation purposes. During those years, the nation’s real estate industry made white-owned property in white neighborhoods worth more because it was white. Since local tax revenue was tied to local real estate markets, newly formed suburbs had a fiscal incentive to exclude Black people, and cities had even more reason to keep Black people confined to urban ghettos.

As the postwar metropolis became a patchwork of local governments, each with its own tax base, the fiscal rationale for segregation intensified. Cities were fiscally incentivized to cater to the interests of white homeowners and provide better services for white neighborhoods, especially as middle-class white people began streaming into the suburbs, taking their tax dollars with them.

One way to cater to wealthy and white homeowners’ interests is to intentionally conduct property assessments less often. The city of Boston did not conduct a citywide property reassessment between 1946 and 1977. Over that time, the values of properties in Black neighborhoods increased slowly when compared with the values in white neighborhoods or even fell, which led to property owners’ paying relatively more in taxes than their homes were worth. At the same time, owners of properties in white neighborhoods got an increasingly good tax deal as their neighborhoods increased in value.

As was the case in other American cities, Boston’s decision most likely derived from the fear that any updates would hasten the exodus of white homeowners and businesses to the suburbs. By the 1960s, assessments on residential properties in Boston’s poor neighborhoods were up to one and a half times as great as their actual values, while assessments in the city’s more affluent neighborhoods were, on average, 40 percent of market value.

Jersey City, N.J., did not conduct a citywide real estate reassessment between 1988 and 2018 as part of a larger strategy for promoting high-end real estate development. During that time, real estate prices along the city’s waterfront soared but their owners’ tax bills remained relatively steady. By 2015, a home in one of the city’s Black and Latino neighborhoods worth $175,000 received the same tax bill as a home in the city’s downtown worth $530,000.

These are hardly exceptions. Numerous studies conducted during those years found that assessments in predominantly Black neighborhoods of U.S. cities were grossly higher relative to value than those in white areas.

These problems persist. A recent report by the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy found that property assessments were regressive (meaning lower-valued properties were assessed higher relative to value than higher-valued ones) in 97.7 percent of U.S. counties. Black-owned homes and properties in Black neighborhoods continue to be devalued on the open market, making this regressive tax, in effect, a racist tax.

The overtaxation of Black homes and neighborhoods is also a symptom of a much larger problem in America’s federated fiscal structure. By design, this system produces winners and losers: localities with ample resources to provide the goods and services that we as a nation have entrusted to local governments and others that struggle to keep the lights on, the streets paved, the schools open and drinking water safe . Worse yet, it compels any fiscally disadvantaged locality seeking to improve its fortunes to do so by showering businesses and corporations with tax breaks and subsidies while cutting services and shifting tax burdens onto the poor and disadvantaged. A local tax on local real estate places Black people and cities with large Black populations at a permanent disadvantage. More than that, it gives middle-class white people strong incentives to preserve their relative advantages, fueling the zero-sum politics that keep Americans divided, accelerates the upward redistribution of wealth and impoverishes us all.

There are technical solutions. One, which requires local governments to adopt more accurate assessment models and regularly update assessment rolls, can help make property taxes fairer. But none of the proposed reforms being discussed can be applied nationally because local tax policies are the prerogative of the states and, often, local governments themselves. Given the variety and complexity of state and local property tax laws and procedures and how much local governments continue to rely on tax reductions and tax shifting to attract and retain certain people and businesses, we cannot expect them to fix these problems on their own.

The best way to make local property taxes fairer and more equitable is to make them less important. The federal government can do this by reinvesting in our cities, counties and school districts through a federal fiscal equity program, like those found in other advanced federated nations. Canada, Germany and Australia, among others, direct federal funds to lower units of government with lower capacities to raise revenue.

And what better way to pay for the program than to tap our wealthiest, who have benefited from our unjust taxation scheme for so long? President Biden is calling for a 25 percent tax on the incomes and annual increases in the values of the holdings of people claiming more than $100 million in assets, but we could accomplish far more by enacting a wealth tax on the 1 percent. Even a modest 4 percent wealth tax on people whose total assets exceed $50 million could generate upward of $400 billion in additional annual revenue, which should be more than enough to ensure that the needs of every city, county and public school system in America are met. By ensuring that localities have the resources they need, we can counteract the unequal outcomes and rank injustices that our current system generates.

Andrew W. Kahrl is a professor of history and African American studies at the University of Virginia and the author of “ The Black Tax : 150 Years of Theft, Exploitation, and Dispossession in America.”

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Former civil servant says ‘racism in Cabinet Office’ forced her to resign

Rowaa Ahmar’s claims were made in the court papers of a discrimination case against the Cabinet Office

A former senior civil servant has said in court papers that “a hostile racist working environment” in the Cabinet Office meant she was “forced to resign”.

Rowaa Ahmar, who has now withdrawn a discrimination case against the Cabinet Office, said that “the racism within the Cabinet Office appeared to be unrelenting and systemic” and claimed that she was frozen out of ministerial meetings after complaining about it.

Ahmar, who is of Egyptian and French dual heritage, was head of policy at the illegal migration taskforce, which was convened to tackle the arrival of small boats across the Channel. She said that she was unwelcome at discussions about sending people to Rwanda because she was not onboard with the “racist ultra-hostility” of their policy proposals.

An employment tribunal hearing against the Cabinet Office and senior civil servants began on Monday but the case was withdrawn on Wednesday. Ahmar had lodged two claims arguing she was subject to “direct discrimination and harassment on the grounds of her sex and race” as well as “victimisation”.

The Cabinet Office said her claims were “completely unfounded” and noted that Ahmar had withdrawn the case with no payment made.

Ahmar said that at the taskforce she tried to focus small boats policy on criminal gangs and “to add constructively to the debate and to move it away from prejudice and blame”, but managers “were onboard for the racist ultra-hostility which a boomerang (‘no returns’) policy would involve, and they saw me as [an] unwelcome visitor to their taskforce”.

She disagreed with civil service directors who she said viewed the “ultra-hostile environment” as “practical, necessary and gratifying”.

Ahmar said in her claim that she first took a secondment from the Treasury to become a chief of staff ahead of Cop26, before being ordered to leave the climate summit early after complaining of bullying and harassment.

In an internal investigation it was found that a “bullying, harassment and discrimination” complaint she brought against a manager was “partially upheld”, with behaviour that “amounted to bullying”, but that there was “no malice” and it was an issue of communication.

After being sent back early from Cop26 in November 2021, Ahmar took up a role at the illegal migration taskforce in January 2022.

It was while at the taskforce that she said she was increasingly blocked from meetings and then told that her secondment from the Treasury was ending abruptly for “poor behaviour”. She said they told her it was for bullying someone who wished to remain anonymous.

Ahmar said in the papers: “I believe that speaking up against racism was a career death sentence at the [taskforce].”

She believes her HR file was “red-flagged” in the new role as she had brought a race and bullying, harassment and discrimination complaint. The Cabinet Office argued in documents that her behaviour in the first six weeks at the taskforce was “negative and problematic, leading colleagues to feel overburdened, disrespected or undermined” and “received concerns” that the behaviour “amounted to bullying”.

The tribunal judge, Richard Nicolle, ruled on Thursday that details of the documents could be published after a successful application by news organisations led by the Guardian.

In court papers she accused the head of the civil service, Simon Case, of showing a “lack of support” and “cold-shouldering” her allegations of racism and harassment after she resigned.

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She said in the claim she was “harassed, discriminated against, victimised” and that other white staff were not subject to the same treatment.

The cabinet secretary and two of the other named officials – Alex Chisholm, the permanent secretary in the Cabinet Office, and Sarah Harrison, the chief operating officer – were all accused of being “untrustworthy” over how they dealt with her complaints. Tribunal documents show Case and the two other officials argued they played only “minor roles”, and the judge accepted this.

She said she had enjoyed her time at the Treasury and excelled there but, quoting from her resignation letter in the papers, Ahmar said she had a “terrible experience at the Cabinet Office”, where she claimed she was “racially bullied and victimised, and worked in a very hostile working environment”.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: “These allegations are completely unfounded and the Cabinet Office has always firmly denied all of the claims in this case. We were prepared to robustly defend them in court.

“The claimant has withdrawn all of these claims and we have agreed to that. No payment has been made, including in relation to the legal costs incurred.”

Ahmar’s solicitor, Lawrence Davies, of Equal Justice solicitors, said in a statement afterwards: “The claims raised important issues of public interest about alleged sexism and racism at the Cabinet Office. The department who polices the standards of the entire service and plays a central role in advising ministers.

“The claimant believes that senior management must begin to become fully accountable for their conduct. The claimant bravely brought these matters to tribunal and hoped to inspire senior management and HR change at the Cabinet Office by her action. She did not wish to litigate but was left with no other option. She stands by her allegations of race and sex discrimination as set out in her claim.”

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Who is the self-described ‘investigative researcher’ max azzarello who set self on fire outside trump trial after spewing conspiracy theories.

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GRAPHIC CONTENT

The Florida man who lit himself on fire outside the Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial was unfolding Friday is a self-described “investigative researcher” who appeared to become more erratic over the last year and spewed conspiracy theories about the “elites” in a lengthy manifesto.

Max Azzarello, 37, of St. Augustine, Fla., tossed a stack of pamphlets into the air, which included links to a Substack newsletter apparently authored by the self-immolator called “The Ponzi Papers” moments before he doused himself in gasoline and set himself ablaze in Collect Pond Park.

At the top of the site is an article with the headline “I have set myself on fire outside of the Trump Trial,” followed by a rambling manifesto riddled with conspiracy theories on everything from cryptocurrency and Hollywood actors to COVID and former President Bill Clinton.

“My name is Max Azzarello, and I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan,” the nearly 2,700-word posting begins.

“This extreme act of protest is to draw attention to an urgent and important discovery: We are victims of a totalitarian con, and our own government (along with many of their allies) is about to hit us with an apocalyptic fascist world coup.”

He also mentioned The Simpsons, the bank failures in 2023 and high-profile businessmen including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. He claimed both Republicans and Democrats have bombarded the public with different existential crises to present a doomsday scenario.

Azzarello claimed “elites” have peddled fear in a bid to “gobble up all the wealth they could and then yank the rug out from under us so they could pivot to a hellish fascist dystopia.”

Police said he made the trip up to the Big Apple sometime earlier this week, and his family had been unaware he had traveled to the city.

He was pictured outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse at 100 Centre St. just on Thursday, holding up a sign that said “Trump is with Biden and they’re about to fascist coup us.”

“Biggest scoop of your life or your money back!” he shouted at a group of reporters gathered there,  telling The New York Times  he had come over from Washington Square Park because he thought more people would be outside the courthouse due to the cold.

“Trump’s in on it,”Azzarello told the Times on Thursday, saying his beliefs were influenced by his digging into Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and big political donor. 

“It’s a secret kleptocracy, and it can only lead to an apocalyptic fascist coup.”

A 2017 blog post by the nonprofit Strong Towns, which has since been taken offline, features Max Azzarello and announces him as their new growth manager.

In his blurb, Azzarello alludes to his “childhood town” as a “charming, friendly, eclectic community in Long Island, New York.”

The civic engagement-focused organization says Azzarello’s “passions” include “chess, creative writing, and Medieval Scandinavian poetry.”

Azzarello appeared to host a podcast with another person dedicated to actress Laura Dern called “Dern After Reading Podcast” dating back to early 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed the United States.

His LinkedIn profile picture shows him posing with Bill Clinton, whom he sued last year along with 100 other influential defendants in a conspiracy theory-tinged case that was tossed out last October when he failed to follow up with required court filings.

Other defendants named in the 2023 suit in Manhattan federal court included Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, the country of Saudi Arabia, and Texas billionaire and 1992 Independent presidential candidate Ross Perot, who died in 2019. 

The meandering case — filed by Azzarello, without a lawyer — alleged “an elaborate network of Ponzi schemes” dating back to the 1990s and continuing through 2023.

At an NYPD press conference held shortly after Azzarello was stretchered into an ambulance, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny called the incident “propaganda”-based. 

“We’re looking through his social media and what he did online prior and it does appear he posted something online prior to this incident,” Kenny said.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry added: “This wasn’t targeting any particular person, right now we’re labeling it as a conspiracy theorist, the investigation will continue.” 

Additional reporting by Priscilla DeGregory, Jennie Taer and David Propper

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