Why are Canada's First Nations women dying at such an alarming rate?

In Canada, Status First Nations persons—those listed in the country’s Indian Register—are significantly more likely than the average Canadian to meet an untimely death. When it comes to wellness outcomes, disparities along racial and ethnic lines are well documented across many metrics. What is often overlooked, however, is what those data look like at the intersection of race and gender.

In a new paper (PDF) “First People Lost: Determining the State of Status First Nations Mortality in Canada using Administrative Data” with Donna Feir, we combine data from Canada’s Indian Register and the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) to identify both female and male mortality rates for the First Nations populations relative to the Canadian average. Our findings indicate that girls and women suffer from a disproportionately high rate of mortality as compared to their male and Canadian counterparts.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2018/02/28/why-are-canadas-first-nations-women-dying-at-such-an-alarming-rate/