A federal panel is finally looking into one of the least examined problems plaguing the US justice system: are Native Americans living on reservations disproportionately dealt harsher punishments for crimes than other Americans?

Studies on the racial breakdown of incarceration and criminal punishment in the US show Native Americans to be far overrepresented in US jails and prisons. Yet, compared to other similarly disenfranchised groups, media reportage and scholarly analyses of the issue are few and far between.

- Native Americans are incarcerated at a rate 38% higher than the national average, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
- Native American youths are 30% more likely than whites to be referred to juvenile court than have charges dropped, according to National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
- Native Americans are more likely to be killed by police than any other racial group, according to the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.
- Native American men are incarcerated at four times the rate of white men; Native American women are incarcerated at six times the rate of white women, according to a report compiled by the Lakota People’s Law Project.
- Native Americans fall victim to violent crime at more than double the rate of all other US citizens, according to BJS reports. Eighty-eight percent of violent crime committed against Native American women is carried out by non-Native perpetrators.

It’s true that the majority of serious offenses committed by Native Americans are dealt with at the federal level—and this generally entails more severe sentencing. But to claim racialized disparities in incarceration are due to a few differences between state and federal sentencing policy grossly over-simplifies the problem.