NEW YORK — When wildfire smoke began blanketing New York City in June, employees at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, an architecture and design firm in lower Manhattan, had a panoramic
2Centre for Indigenous Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
3Department of Family and Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States
4American Indian Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States
Throughout the Americas, most Indigenous people move through urban areas and make their homes in cities. Yet, the specific issues and concerns facing Indigenous people in cities, and the positive protective factors their vibrant urban communities generate are often overlooked and poorly understood. This has been particularly so under COVID-19 pandemic conditions. In the spring of 2020, the United Nations High Commissioner Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples called for information on the impacts of COVID-19 for Indigenous peoples. We took that opportunity to provide a response focused on urban Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. Here, we expand on that response and Indigenous and hu