Regional Native American Community Network Program Center: Native People for Cancer Control – Bioethics Supplement
American Indians and Alaska Natives are extremely diverse in culture, residential location, and health care needs. Despite this diversity, which encompasses rural tribes and villages as well as growing urban communities, all are typically placed in a single category when national, state, and local statistics are calculated. Many published statistics do not even include an enumeration of American Indians and Alaska Natives. Yet accurate demographic data are indispensable, because government policymakers use them to make decisions about funding for education, health, and other community needs. A simple lumping of hundreds of distinct small groups under the unified heading of American Indians/Alaska Natives will likely result in a false picture of health trends, given the unique strengths, resources, histories, and concerns of these varied populations. For final product please see our Guidebook and Visual PowerPoint.