n reservations of land designated by treaties of agreements with the government within the last 70 - 200 years. American Indians have lost 98 percent of their land in 500 years and today own only two percent.
* Urban Indians - American Indian people who have been living in America for at least 30,000 years who today live in Americas' urban areas. The Urban Indian population totals approximately 70 percent of the total Indian population. Today's urban areas have always been inhabited by American Indians.
According to 1990 Census Bureau information, of the total United States Population which consists of 248,709,873 people, American Indians comprise 1,937,392 individuals or about 7.79 percent of the American population. When compared to the total population of the country (all races), American Indians have: a younger median age (27.0 versus 33.0 percent), more female-headed, father-absent households (26.2 versus 16.0 percent), less high school graduates (63.2 versus 76.5 percent), lower median family incomes ($21,619 versus $35,225), lower median household incomes ($19,900 versus $30,056), and substantially more people living below the poverty line (31.20 percent versus 13.01 percent).
2. Tuberculosis in the Native American population - According to Mahoney and Michalek (1998), the health status of American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) tends to be poorer than that of the general population, and tuberculosis is cited as a major factor effecting this disparity. In this regard, the authors state that:
Mortality data reveal excess overall mortality among AI/ANs, as well as excesses for specific causes of death, including accidents, diabetes, liver disease, pneumonia/influenza, suicide, homicide, and tuberculosis. (p. 190)
In a study conducted by Rhodes (1990), it was reported that thee most prominent respiratory diseases of American Indian adults are pneumonia, cancer of the lung, chronic obstructive pulmonary d...