"Indians were not born vulnerable; they were made vulnerable." Examining why American Indians and Alaska Natives have been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Abstract

The primary aim of this thesis is to examine why American Indians and Alaska Natives have been disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 pandemic; both in terms of disease incidence and mortality. The main contention of this study is that structures of settler colonialism have both historically and contemporaneously affected the health security of indigenous American peoples, which has made them more vulnerable to epidemics and pandemics. Although a great deal of research has been undertaken into how the structures of European settler colonialism affected indigenous health security from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, far less scholarly attention has been paid to investigating the impact of federal policies implemented by the American settler state on American Indians and Alaska Natives, and how these policies continue to affect present-day indigenous health security. This thesis therefore examines how, in the United States, disruptions in land, place, sovereignty and culture have tangibly affected indigenous health security. This thesis uses the concept of contrapuntal reading – pioneered by Edward Said in 1993 – as its main conceptual framework. To achieve this, primary sources created by American Indians and Alaska Natives have been utilised to the greatest extent possible. Such sources amplify indigenous perspectives – viewpoints that have been marginalised for far too long – whilst simultaneously challenging the dominant narrative surrounding indigenous health security. By closely analysing the way federal policies have intersected with epidemics and pandemics – including Covid-19 – and how the concursions of key events have negatively affected indigenous health security, this thesis presents a novel way of understanding why American Indians and Alaska Natives have been unduly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in comparison with the white American population.