Rocha Beardall Analyzes Data on Heightened Risk of Fatal Police Violence In and Around Reservations for AIAN People
Posted: 3/19/2026 (CSDE Research)
CSDE Affiliate Theresa Rocha Beardall’s (Sociology) published an article in PNAS on the heightened risk of fatal police violence in and around reservations for American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) peoples in the United States, and UW News posted an accompanying writeup. Please feel free to link it!Rocha Beardall, along with co-authors Gabriel L. Schwartz and Jaquelyn L. Jahn, analyzed data on all AIAN people killed by police in the US between 2013–2024 from the Mapping Police Violence database. Fatal police violence against AIAN people is strongly concentrated in and around reservations: 73% of AIAN deaths occurred on or within 10 miles of reservations, despite only 39 to 51% of the AIAN population living there. Both structural disinvestment and unique policing models appear to put Indigenous peoples in harm’s way. The authors show that the types of officers responsible for fatal police violence in these areas (mostly federal, state, and tribal) differ dramatically from those of responsible officers elsewhere (mostly municipal and county), as do the reasons police give for stops in and around reservation