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FACTBOX-Domestic violence, abuse plague Native Americans

by Ellen Wulfhorst | @EJWulfhorst | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 24 June 2016 14:14 GMT

The percentage of homes that are overcrowded on reservations is three to six times higher than those in the United States as a whole

By Ellen Wulfhorst

TAOS PUEBLO, New Mexico, June 24 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - F ather and son John Tsosie and Ernest Tsosie Jr. travel the American Southwest, promoting awareness of domestic violence and abuse on Indian reservations and aiming their message at Native American men.

Here are some facts about Indian communities in the Southwest and elsewhere in the United States.

- The Taos Pueblo is considered the oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States, and it is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Taos Pueblo has about 3,000 enrolled tribal members, and fewer than half live on the reservation. A few families live in the ancient adobe dwellings with no electricity or running water.

- Throughout the state of New Mexico, there are 19 Pueblo Indian reservations.

- To the west, the Navajo Nation is the largest sovereign Indian territory in the United States. It is more than 27,000 square miles (70,000 square km) - about the size of Ireland and larger than 10 of the U.S. states - with a population of about 180,000.

- Unemployment in the Navajo Nation is 42 percent, and 43 percent of residents live below the official poverty line, according to U.S. Census data.

- Native Americans have the lowest employment rate of any racial or ethnic group in the United States, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

- High school graduation rates among Native Americans are among the lowest of any racial or ethnic population, according to the Civil Rights Project, a research and policy think tank.

- The percentage of homes that are overcrowded on reservations is three to six times higher than those in the United States as a whole, according to the Housing Assistance Council, a non-profit advocacy group.

- As of 2011, more than 120,000 tribal homes lacked access to basic water sanitation services, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

- About one in 10 American Indian homes is without safe and reliable water, according to the Indian Health Service.

(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst, Editing by Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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