Abstract
Across five centuries of historical oppression, Indigenous peoples of the United States have resisted, recovered from, survived, and have even transcended oppression. Still, centuries of insidious forms of historical oppression and structural violence have undermined Indigenous people’s health. This chapter frames Indigenous health equity while situating experiences within the structural factors of historical oppression, along with recognition of the culturally specific risk, promotive, protective, resilience, and transcendence using the framework of historical oppression, resilience, and transcendence (FHORT). The chapter outlines the salient risk, promotive, and protective factors related to Indigenous health equity. Specifically, the following factors are discussed: (a) sociostructural inequities; (b) disparities in educational, employment, and incarceration; (c) physical health inequities, along with the promotive factors of connection to place, subsistence, and foodways; (d) mental health inequities, with the promotive factors of enculturation and cultural traditions; (e) and the psychosocial health inequities of violence against Indigenous women and maternal child health, along with the promotive factors of family kinship bonds, spirituality, faith, and cultural healing.
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This work was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R01AA028201).
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McKinley, C.E. (2023). Health Equity Among US Indigenous Peoples: Understanding the Intersections of Historical Oppression, Resilience, and Transcendence. In: Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Social Sciences and Global Public Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25110-8_128
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