Counting America's First Peoples

Abstract

The descendants of the First Peoples of the Americas (labeled "American Indians and Alaska Natives" in the federal definition) are a particularly challenging group to count in censuses. In this review, I describe some enumeration issues and then outline what we have learned about American Indians and Alaska Natives from efforts that rely on individuals' answers to census questions on race, ancestry, ethnicity, and tribe. Those who do not report a tribe and those who change their race response from one census to another complicate these efforts. Tribal self-enumeration and indigenous data sovereignty may improve data about some portions of the population. Census and survey enumeration efforts should continue to separate the concepts of race, ancestry, and tribe lest the various sub-populations become indistinguishable in the data, making the data much less useful and possibly misleading.

Keywords: American Indians and Alaska Natives; Indigenous; Self-Identification; Tribe; U.S. Census.

Figure 1

Who is “American Indian/Alaska Native”?

Figure 2

Among those who report AIAN race, reporting a tribal affiliation is not guaranteed * Note: Tribal non-response is less common among single-race respondents than multiple-race respondents (18% versus 30% in 2000 and 29% versus 37% in 2010).