NCUIH Statement Supporting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Washington, D.C. (March 19, 2021) – Today, National Council of Urban Indian Health Chief Executive Officer Francys Crevier (Algonquin) released the following statement:

“This week, we once again bore witness to violence led by hate. In a state that has a long history of discrimination against Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC), we stand in solidarity with our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) relatives who have been subjected to centuries of violence and oppression. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of all eight victims.

According to the Stop AAPI Hate, there have been 3,795 reported incidents of hate against the AAPI community from March 19, 2020, to February 28, 2021. These incidents range from verbal harassment to civil rights violations. The primary site of reported discrimination is at a place of business. These alarming trends have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic.

This violent act, performed on the stolen land of the Muscogee Creek and the Cherokee peoples in the Atlanta metro areas, reminds us of the devastating ruling in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, where the rights of the Cherokee people were stripped and they were displaced from their land.

We condemn discrimination and violence in all forms and we ask the U.S. government to commit to eliminating the structures of racism that embolden these violent acts."