"Native Headcount Up in 2020 Census Despite Pandemic," by Talli Nauman at Buffalo’s Fire

This is amazing. Despite the Pandemic, relative to 10 years ago, there was a 160 percent increase in people identifying as Native American, adding 9.7 million Indigenous people to the count. Interesting story on how this happened that you can read about below.  

I like the National Congress of American Indians CEO, Dante Desiderio's comments below, “We hope these data inform efforts to ensure that our schools teach more American Indian and Alaska Native history,” he added.

As I think of Native Americans and the U.S. Census, I am forever reminded of the important work by Stiffarm and Lane* who make a cogent case of the U.S. Census being a tool of what they term, "statistical genocide." Shrinking numbers have the impact of reinscribing the false myth of the "vanishing Native American," allowing for further incursions on tribal lands and sovereignty.  These are really great news.

-Angela Valenzuela

#IndigenousRevival

#NativeAmericanStudies

Reference

Stiffarm, L.A. & Lane Jr., P. (1992). Demography of Native North America: A suestion of American Indian survival,” in M. Annette Jaimes, ed., The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization and Resistance. Boston: South End Press.

Native Headcount Up in 2020 Census Despite Pandemic: The Leap is More than a Little Bit Due Novel Question Novel Question Formulation in the More Recent Survey, Bureau Says

Talli Nauman
Buffalo’s Fire Contributing Editor 

American Indian and Alaska Native population figures jumped in the U.S. Decennial Census report released in August – a report originally slated for release in April. The outcome quelled fears that pandemic protocol restrictions would doom Native America to be even more undercounted than in previous national surveys. 

Census authorities credited improved methodology for a 160-percent increase in people identifying as Indigenous. Their data reflects unprecedented tribal and community mobilization that helped overcome 2020’s heightened odds against inclusive results. From 2010 to 2020, the American Indian and Alaska Native in-combination population increased by 160 percent, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report and findings announced Aug. 12. That is a whopping rise of 9.7 million people. It brings the tally to 2.9 percent of the U.S. population – up from a previous 1.7 percent, or 5.2 million, recorded in the previous Decennial Census of 2010. The leap is more than a little bit due to novel question formulation in the more recent survey, explains Nicholas Jones, Race and Ethnicity Research and Outreach director for the Census Bureau. 

Specifically he notes “significant changes from 2010 Census for race and ethnicity question designs, data processing, and coding.” These changes help improve answers to the survey’s Question 7, “What is this person’s race?” 

For the first time ever, the checkbox for reporting American Indian and Alaska Native identities included examples. They were: “Navajo Nation, Blackfeet Tribe, Mayan, Aztec, Native Village of Barrow Inupiat Tribal Government, Nome Eskimo Community, etc.” Also for the first time, this checkbox category included a dedicated write-in area to submit such heritage specifics. As in the past, the survey item enabled each respondent to mark an “x” by more than one category. So, for example, an individual could answer Question 7 with White, Black, and American Indian, if desired. Also as in the past, individuals’ responses were based upon self-identification. 

Another self-identification point, Question 6 — “Is this person of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin?” — did not concern race, rather origin. So, respondents could identify themselves as, for example, Hispanic and Native, census explainers instructed. 

In 2020, an additional 5.9 million people identified as American Indian and Alaska Native together with another race group, such as White or Black. Without that increase in reporting of Native multiracial inhabitants, the American Indian and Alaska Native population alone logged in at 3.7 million for the 2020 cycle. It accounted for 1.1 percent of all people living in the United States, compared with 0.9 percent, or 2.9 million, a decade ago. That’s a 27.1 percent bump, according to the Census Bureau’s calculations. 

The bureau has been asking and refining the race question since 1790, only adding the Hispanic origin question in 1970. “These data are required for federal, state, and tribal programs and are critical factors in the basic research behind numerous policies, particularly for civil rights,” it says. Analysts use the findings to evaluate policies, ensure equitable service to all racial groups, and monitor compliance. The U.S Constitution mandates the decennial survey along with legislative redistricting based on it. 

Dante Desiderio, the CEO of the National Congress of American Indians, the oldest and largest Native advocacy organization, said he is pleased the 2020 Census shows a surge in the Indigenous ranks. “We hope these data inform efforts to ensure that our schools teach more American Indian and Alaska Native history,” he added.

Native coalition effort to beat the odds against gathering representative information from Indian country. When the Covid-19 pandemic stalled census-taking just three days after its scheduled startup in March 2020, NCAI was among myriad groups and tribal governments that redoubled efforts to gather survey responses. 

Native people, especially on reservations and in Alaskan villages, have been historically underrepresented in the census. In 2010, the undercount was nearly 5 percent, more than double that of the next closest population group. In 1990, the survey left out an estimated 12.2 percent of reservation residents. About one in three Native people lives in a hard-to-count census tract, NCAI notes. In 2020, the Census Bureau proposed “count committees”, in which representatives of tribes and other government jurisdictions could partner to promote citizen participation. The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians was a trendsetter. The tribe formed a 100-percent tribal-member squad, which sent enumerators door-to-door leaving census information bags. The tribal government backed the effort with $15,000 including explanatory broadcast and internet spots. 

When pandemic protocols all but precluded reservation travel in and out of many tribal nations, enumerators donned full protective gear to make their rounds. Turtle Mountain rewarded census responders with prizes. More than 250 vehicles arrived at one tribal event for the headcount. People who stopped by the tribe’s Sky Dancer Resort in Belcourt, N.D. to answer the survey were given cash-value cards. 

Tribal representatives explained the motivation during a forum for tribes in the 12-state Denver region of the Census Bureau. “We’ve lost out on tens and tens of millions of dollars in state and federal aid, which would have come to us if the census count would have been more accurate,” Choctaw Nation Chief Gary Batton’s executive communications officer said of the 2010 exercise. At the time of the forum, in July 2020, most of the Northern Great Plains tribes had a response rate that lagged at 15 to 25 percent compared to a national average of 63 percent. Five of the region’s tribes, including the Northern Cheyenne, remained to initiate census taker visits due to pandemic lockdown. 

Then, on Aug. 3, Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham announced the decision to end the national field response operation one month earlier than its Oct. 31 extended deadline. Native Organizers Alliance lobbied to maintain the period be extended due to pandemic delays. Alarm spread throughout Indian Country when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision on Oct. 13, and the director shut down the collection two weeks early. 

The NCAI, Native American Rights Fund, and the National Urban Indian Family Coalition condemned the Supreme Court’s action. They said it favored former President Donald Trump’s effort “to suppress the count of Indigenous peoples … and the sacred trust the federal government owes to tribal nations.” 

Yet, in the end, Dillingham announced a total response of more than 99 percent. “When Covid-19 turned everyone’s plans upside down, our partners rose to the occasion with creativity and perseverance,” he said. 

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Talli Nauman is an editor at Buffalo’s Fire. To reach her, email buffalo.gal10(at)gmail.com

Census 2020: More Than 1 in 2 People Added to U.S. Population Are Latino by Rogelio Sáenz, Ph.D.

University of Texas San Antonio professor and demographer, Dr. Rogelio Sáenz weighs in on the current U.S. Census count. It provides added perspective to my two earlier posts today:

• America’s White Population Shrank for First Time in U.S. History, Census Data Show 

• People of color make up 95% of Texas’ population growth, and cities and suburbs are booming, 2020 census shows

I always think first of the children and how and whether we are taking care of their needs and well-being. I honestly believe that if we center our concerns on the youth, the rest will fall into place.

We must all do our part.

-Angela Valenzuela

Census 2020: More Than 1 in 2 People Added to U.S. Population Are Latino

By: Rogelio Sáenz

AUG 13, 2021

1:37 PM

The much-anticipated results of the 2020 Census for redistricting purposes are just in. The numbers illustrate the major changes that have been afoot in the U.S. population for some time. The nation’s population is becoming increasingly diverse due to major growth in the Latino, Asian, and multiracial populations and an aging white population that declined for the first time ever.

A total of 331.4 million were tallied in the 2020 Census, an absolute increase of 22.7 million people in the country. The Latino population led the way with slightly more than one of every two persons added to the country’s population through birth or international migration between 2010 and 2020 being Latino (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Percentage Distribution of U.S. Population Growth, 2010-2020

Overall, the Latino population increased by 23% during the decade while the white population declined by 8.6%.

Due to its aging population, the white population continued the downward slide of its share of the nation’s overall population at 57.8%., down from 63.7% a decade earlier (Figure 2). On the other hand, the Latino population increased its share of the population from 16.3% in 2010 to 18.7% in 2020 with a total Latino population of 62.1 million. These trends are in line with U.S. Census Bureau population projections suggesting that in 2044 whites will comprise less than half of the U.S. population. People of color now make up 42.2% of the U.S. population.

Figure 2. Percentage Distribution of U.S. Population by Race/Ethnicity, 2010 and 2020

Overall, the Latino population increased by 23% during the decade while the white population declined by 8.6%.

Due to its aging population, the white population continued the downward slide of its share of the nation’s overall population at 57.8%., down from 63.7% a decade earlier (Figure 2). On the other hand, the Latino population increased its share of the population from 16.3% in 2010 to 18.7% in 2020 with a total Latino population of 62.1 million. These trends are in line with U.S. Census Bureau population projections suggesting that in 2044 whites will comprise less than half of the U.S. population. People of color now make up 42.2% of the U.S. population.

Figure 2. Percentage Distribution of U.S. Population by Race/Ethnicity, 2010 and 2020

Some noteworthy changes reflecting the significant growth of the Latino population. First, the Latino population increased in all states and the District of Columbia.

Second, one of the most dramatic alterations in the Latino population is its increasing representation in an expanding swath of states around the country. The number of states where Latinos comprised more than 10% of the population climbed from 17 in 2010 to 27 in 2020 with Massachusetts, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Maryland, the District of Columbia, North Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, Georgia, and Wyoming joining the ranks in 2020 (Figure 3). This fanning out of the Latino population contrasts greatly to an earlier time more than a half-century ago when Latinos were clustered in the Southwest, Illinois, Florida, and New York.

Figure 3. States Where Latinos Represent 10% or More of Overall Population, 2020

Third, Latinos were the largest or second largest racial/ethnic group in 24 states in 2020 (Figure 4). California has now joined New Mexico to represent the two states where Latinos are the largest racial/ethnic group. Of the 22 states where Latinos make up the second largest group, Texas stands out with whites holding a slim percentage share advantage of 39.7% versus 39.3% for Latinos. It is projected that Latinos will outnumber whites in the state in 2022.

Figure 4. Twenty-Four States Where Latinos Represent the Largest or Second Largest Racial/Ethnic Group, 2020

Final Thoughts

There is undoubtedly an undercount of Latinos and other groups in the midst of the pandemic and the Trump Administration’s attempts to insert a citizenship question and to disallow the tally of unauthorized persons in the counts used to generate redistricting. Still, kudos go out to the good people at the U.S. Census Bureau who protected the integrity of the Census, produced the most accurate count of the population, and were able to fend off Trump’s directives to manipulate the count.

There is still a lot of greater details that will emerge over the coming months on the changing U.S. population. The true reality is that the nation is becoming increasingly diverse with Latinos in the forefront of this shift alongside Asians, Blacks, and persons identifying with multiple racial categories.

But one clear message emerges from the results of the 2020 Census, as the count will be used for redistricting purposes. Trucha, raza, we know the gerrymandering and underhand tactics that Republicans will use to dilute our community’s numbers. Remember that in our nation, whites sustained a decline of nearly 9% between 2010 and 2020 with Latinos increasing by 23%, a pattern replicated in many parts of the country.

Finally, on a personal note, I have been studying the demography of Latinos intensively since 1980. It has been an incredibly rewarding journey to see first-hand these tremendous changes and cannot wait to see what lies ahead.

***

Rogelio Sáenz is a sociologist and demographer. He is professor in the Department of Demography at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Sáenz is a regular contributor to Latino Rebels. Twitter: @RogelioSaenz42.