Threatening Indigenous peoples: Julisa J. Lopez, Tyler Jimenez, Stephanie A. Fryberg, ‘The cyclical nature of Indigenous identity threat’, European Review of Social Psychology, 2025 | settler colonial studies blog

Threatening Indigenous peoples: Julisa J. Lopez, Tyler Jimenez, Stephanie A. Fryberg, ‘The cyclical nature of Indigenous identity threat’, European Review of Social Psychology, 2025

19May25

Abstract: Indigenous identity threats are fostered and reified through a cyclical process wherein sources of threat for Indigenous people are simultaneously strategies non-Indigenous people employ to manage threat. One contemporary threat for Indigenous people is the omission of their existence and experiences from the public consciousness. Omission threatens Indigenous identity by undermining well-being and fostering intergroup biases. Indigenous people respond by engaging in collective action to address such pernicious representations. As historical and contemporary wrongdoings impacting Indigenous people become visible, non-Indigenous people are confronted with the reality that their group is responsible for and/or benefits from Indigenous oppression. An unintended consequence of Indigenous collective action is that it may further threaten non-Indigenous people’s identity. To mitigate this threat, non-Indigenous people omit Indigenous people’s existence, which recreates threats for Indigenous people. Interrupting this cycle requires that we actively change the processes embedded in our social institutions and practices that reify Indigenous omission.

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