Discerning Neighborhood Characteristics as Contributing Factors to Infant Mortality in Rural Northern Plains Communities
Under the leadership of Korine Kolivras (Geography), Stacy Boyer (Geography), and Samuel Cook (American Indian Studies), I analyzed infant mortality statistics alongside many other socioeconomic and health factors in South Dakota, a context in which birth outcomes for American Indians are significantly worse than for the majority population of whites.
Abstract
American Indians are distinct in their current geographic isolation and history of exclusionary policies enacted against them. Citizenship and territorial policies from the 1700s through the early 1900s have manifested in the distinctive status of many American Indian communities as sovereign nations, a classification that no other ethnic group in the United States can claim. However, as a result of political and geographic isolation, disparities in heath and economic development have been an ongoing problem within these communities. Among the most distinctive health disparities are in infant mortality and obesity-related complications. This project will focus on South Dakota, a state that was late in its application of assimilationist policies, yet today is home to some of the least healthy reservation communities in the United States. An investigation into the making of reservation healthcare delivery systems and patterns of prenatal care utilization will hopefully reveal patterns of health and economic characteristics that predispose infant mortality.
Five Years On
It can't be emphasized enough the importance of context in analyzing these topics. Especially in a situation where American Indians have been subjected to unending violations of treaty rights, the destruction of traditional medical systems, the deconstruction of food systems, forced marriage, and the family destructon through boarding schools, the consequences of these ill-treatments simply can't be quantified. What's worse is that in the contemporary, environmental racism continues to disproportionately affect these communities. This paper is but a small slice for helping to understand the bredth of these injustices.
What this project reveals is that we can not rely solely on numbers to answer questions. The narrative of numbers tells a story of pain, but the structures that create disadvantage can easily be overlooked if not placed at the forefront of the story. The way we ask questions with quantitative answers renders invisible realities and experiences that not only can't be quantified, but few have ever valued enough to observe in the first place.To use this work, I urge you to engage with the literature review, which provides an overview of political ecological theory in health, as well as a catalog of the many injustices that have shaped the reservation experience in the Northern Plains.