- Native Americans have a life expectancy of 71 years, according to a recent CDC study — compared with Hispanics at 82, whites at 78.8 and blacks at 74.8.
- Heart disease was the leading cause of death for Indigenous people in 2019, followed by cancer, accidents, chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and chronic respiratory diseases.
- The study found that American Indians and Alaska Natives were also killed at five times the rate of whites, half as many blacks and twice as many Hispanics.
While in kindergarten, Erica Littlewolf of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe recalled some of her Native friends who had lost their parents.
Then she started to lose friends and classmates.
“Pretty much in high school, I lost a lot of my friends,” Littlewolf said, adding that she was startled to learn some of her white friends weren’t at the funeral either. .
