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Introduction
DESPITE ATTENDING TO SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE ISSUES, CRIMINOLOGISTS have said little about environmental justice (Zilney,McGurrin,andZahran, 2006), especially among underrepresented populations such as Native Americans (for an exception, see Seis, 1996). ' This review examines the social, economic, and environmental injustices Native Americans face by drawing on health and medical literature.2
Environmental injustice occurs when minority groups and/or the poor are excluded from environmental decision-making (including methods of production), or are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards (Stretesky and Hogan, 1998). Environmental injustice against Native Americans occurs, in part, because of social and economic injustice . Brooks ( 1 998) argues that contemporary injustice against Native Americans is an extension of the historical process of genocide, and should be understood within that framework.3 The health care and medical literature provides considerable support for Brooks' contention. This review focuses on five examples of environmental injustice against Native Americans, using as empirical documentation the Akwesasne Nation, Church Rock (New Mexico), the Four Corners Region of the United States, the upper West or Plains area, and Prince William Sound (Alaska). To put that injustice in context, we begin with a review of some general information on Native American populations and then summarize general indicators of social and economic well-being.
Native American Lands and Population
Native populations exist throughout the United States, living both inside and outside reservations, and are extensively surveyed by The Harvard Project on American Indian Development (Taylor and Kalt, 2005) . The 2000 Census indicates there were 310 reservations and 40 Indian statistical areas (ISA) in the continental United States, which were home to 5 1 1 ,000 American Indians, or 21 .3 percent of the estimated 2.4 million self-identified American Indian/Native Americans (Ibid.: 2). An additional 97,000 Native Americans live in Alaska, 3,000 in Hawaii, and 229,000 in Indian Statistical Areas (IS As). The population of Native Americans living outside reservations and IS As is significantly larger (1.6 million) than the Native populations living on reservations and IS As (0.8 million). The majority of America Indians living on reservations and ISAs (66 percent) live on non-gaming reservation, which are typically the most economically and socially disadvantaged (Ibid.).
Social and economic inequality is widespread among Native Americans. That inequality helps to explain the degree and...