A sweeping national study led by University of Washington and Drexel researchers reports that Indigenous people in the United States face a sharply elevated risk of being killed by police on or near reservation land. The team mapped 203 police killings of American Indian and Alaska Native people and found that roughly three out of four happened on reservations or within 10 miles of them, a pattern the authors connect to overpolicing, racial profiling and chronic underinvestment in tribal communities.
Study tracked 203 deaths from 2013 through 2024
The peer-reviewed analysis, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined 203 American Indian and Alaska Native deaths listed in the Mapping Police Violence database between 2013 and 2024. According to PNAS, researchers geocoded each incident, overlaid those coordinates on reservation maps and used quasi-Poisson models with population offsets to see whether risk clustered in relation to reservation boundaries. The authors say this approach helps separate the impact of reservation geography from factors such as rural location or population density.
Disproportion concentrated on reservations
The study found that about 73% of the deaths occurred on or within 10 miles of reservations, even though only about 39% to 51% of American Indian and Alaska Native people live in those areas. As reported by UW News, that imbalance persisted even after the team adjusted for local demographics and other community characteristics. “These are the sorts of stories that Native people are already telling,” co-author Theresa Rocha Beardall said, according to UW News, suggesting the numbers are catching up with long-standing lived experience.
Who holds the power
The mix of law enforcement agencies involved shifted depending on distance from reservations. On reservations, federal, state and tribal officers together made up a majority of the killings. Farther away, municipal and county departments dominated. PNAS reports that local and municipal agencies were responsible for roughly 62% of deaths that took place more than 10 miles from reservations and about 77% of those within five miles. The authors argue that this jurisdictional patchwork can make oversight and accountability for fatal encounters far more complicated.
Researchers point to profiling and disinvestment
The team contends the concentration of deadly encounters is not a statistical fluke. They argue it reflects overpolicing in and around reservations, racial profiling of people traveling to and from tribal lands, and long-standing underinvestment in services that might prevent crises from turning into police encounters. As outlined by Drexel University, the researchers call for Indigenous-led prevention strategies, stronger accountability across overlapping jurisdictions and sustained public health investment in Indian Country. Lead author Gabriel Schwartz links the current pattern to a longer history, saying that colonial policies that shaped reservation geographies still shape who faces lethal policing today.
What advocates and officials are saying
Community advocates say the national dataset backs up what they have been warning about for years: that policing near reservations is tougher, more frequent and less accountable. UW News reports that researchers hope the findings will guide federal and state reforms, as well as tribal and local strategies to reduce deadly encounters. Tribes and advocates say the results add urgency to demands for tighter oversight of cross-deputization agreements and greater investment in non-police crisis response options.
Data limits and next steps
The analysis relies on the Mapping Police Violence database, a widely used tracking tool for police killings, and the authors caution that some incidents may still be missing and that more detailed tribal-specific data are needed. According to Mapping Police Violence, the database includes deaths from shootings, restraints, tasers and other uses of force. The research team says future work will need to dig into the health consequences of exposure to policing and test which specific interventions are most effective at reducing deaths in and around reservations.
