Full Citation

Title: The Case of the Missing Ethnicity: Indians Without Tribes in the 21st Century

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2011

ISBN:

ISSN:

DOI:

NSFID:

PMCID:

PMID:

Abstract: Among American Indians and Alaska Natives, most aspects of ethnicity are tightly associated with the person’s tribal origins. Language, history, foods, land, and traditions differ among the hundreds of tribes indigenous to the United States. Why did almost one million of them fail to respond to the tribal affiliation part of the Census 2000 race question? We investigate four hypotheses about why one-third of multiracial American Indians and one-sixth of single-race American Indians did not report a tribe: (1) survey item non-response which undermines all fill-in-the-blank questions, (2) a non-salient tribal identity, (3) a genealogy-based affiliation, and (4) mestizo identity which does not require a tribe. We use multivariate logistic regression models and high-density restricted-use Census 2000 data. We find support for the first two hypotheses and note that the predictors and results differ substantially for single race versus multiple race American Indians.

Url: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1868523

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Liebler, Carolyn; Zacher, Meghan

Series Title: US Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies Papers

Publication Number: CES-WP-11-17

Institution: US Census Bureau

Pages:

Publisher Location:

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Race and Ethnicity

Countries: United States