ABSTRACT

Nebraska Indian prisoners have served as a model for Indian inmates nationwide since they began the process of asserting their rights to religious freedom. Reprints of scholarly publications on issues of incarceration are requested by Indian inmates in a number of states, resulting in an increase in interprison communication and plans for initiating new litigation. Since states were inconsistent in the manner in which they responded to the survey, the numbers of Indian prisoners may be greatly underrepresented. Some states, such as Oklahoma, collated responses from all their institutions and provided a single summary for the entire state. Other states with relatively large Indian populations also have disproportionately large Indian prison populations, notably Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and Alaska. Alaska has the highest population of incarcerated Indians and Alaska Natives, but this is not surprising since they represent proportionately such a large percentage of the general population.