From 2022 to 2024, the region’s fatal overdose rate declined by over 40 percent, with Indigenous communities experiencing an especially strong 47 percent decline. One severe racial disparity, which at one point saw overdose mortality more than 17 times higher among Indigenous residents than among the region’s white residents, has thus decreased. However, Indigenous mortality remained six times higher at the end of 2024. The study analyzes 967 overdose death records from 36 Minnesota counties from 2022 through 2024, as reported by the Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office. “If you’re native and don’t have tribal ID on you, they count you as white,” Purchase explained.