Although police killings of African Americans have drawn considerable attention in the past year, members of a different ethnic group—Native Americans—are more likely to die at the hands of law enforcement.

According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, from 1999 to 2011, Native Americans comprise 1.9% of police killings—legal interventions in official terms—but only 0.8% of the U.S. population. The same set of statistics, analyzed by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, showed that African Americans, 26% of the population, accounted for 13% of the people killed by police.

Over the period covered by the study, 4,531 people were killed by law enforcement, 96% of them via firearms and 96% of them men.

-Steve Straehley

To Learn More:

Who Are Police Killing? (Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice)

Native Lives Matter (Lakota People’s Law Project) (pdf)