The demography of American Indian families

This paper uses data from the decennial censuses to examine family structure and changes in family structure over time among American Indians. The information about the national Indian population indicates that the trends in family structure among American Indians are parallel in many respects to those in the general US population. That is, the percentage of young American Indian women who have never married has increased over time, the percentage of American Indian women who are divorced has increased over time, and the percentage of American Indian children who reside with a single parent has increased as well. The percentage of American Indian women who have never married and who are divorced and the percentage of American Indian children who live with a single parent are higher than those among the general population. The incidence of children living with single parents is especially high on some reservations which also have high levels of poverty and unemployment. Family patterns, however, vary considerably across reservations in ways that are not easily explained by differences in other demographic characteristics. These variations may be due to cultural and historical differences that are not captured in data collected in the censuses.     

American Indian household structure and income

We use the 1980 Public-Use Microdata Sample to consider the relationship between household structure and economic well-being among American Indians. We focus on the total U.S. Indian population and on the residents of 19 "Indian states" where there has been relatively little growth in the Indian population by means of changes in racial self-identification. Using Sweet's (1984) scheme of household types, we find that the prevalence among Indians of female-headed households with children is intermediate between that among blacks and whites, but the prevalence of couple-headed households with children is highest among Indians. Racial differences in the distribution of household types and differences in average household size are important determinants of black-white and Indian-white differences in average household income.     

The growing American Indian population, 1960–1990: Beyond demography

Since 1960, the Native American population has exhibited explosive growth, increasing from 552,000 to 1,959,000, or 255 percent. The average annual growth rate of 4.3 percent, extending over a 30-year period, is demographically impossible without immigration – in fact, of the 1.4 million growth only 762,000 comes from natural increase, whereas 645,000 comes from non-demographic factors. This paper expands on previous work to illustrate with demographic techniques how such extraordinary growth was achieved through changing patterns of racial self-identification on the part of people with only partial or distant American Indian ancestry, coupled with relatively high fertility and improving mortality. It also provides some basic demographic background on the size, growth, and geographic structure of the American Indian population, while exploring both demographic and geographic underpinnings of the changing population. Data on race from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 Censuses are based on self-identification. A person choosing the American Indian racial response does not have to provide any substantiation or documentation. While this method aids overall census taking by permitting respondents to fill out their own census forms, self-identification adds a temporal component to the data because responses elicited from the same individual (or group of individuals) may change over time in reaction to social, political, or economic conditions or variations in question wording. New identities may emerge or old ones may disappear. This effect has had a noteworthy impact on data for American Indians. Analysts and other data users must be aware of underlying response patterns to interpret changes correctly.     

Who are American Indians? Some observations about the perils and pitfalls of data for race and ethnicity

The data for race and ethnicity published from the 1980 Census are based on racial and ethnic self-identification of respondents. Selfidentification of race and ethnicity is problematic mainly because analysts are frequently inclined to treat this information as immutable. However, as this paper suggests, for some groups such as American Indians, racial and ethnic identity is an extremely complex phenomenon which has the potential to be highly variable. American Indians present an ideal case to demonstrate the possible problems facing analysts who do not recognize the potentially variable meanings of race and ethnicity data. This paper shows that, depending on how American Indians are defined, population estimates can range from less than 1.0 million to nearly 7.0 million. Furthermore, it is possible to isolate three types of American Indian identities in 1980 Census data, and each of these groups have different socioeconomic profiles.     

Changes in racial identification and the educational attainment of American Indians, 1970–1990

We use data from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 census public-use files to assess the impact of newly identified Indians on the educational attainment of American Indians who were at least 25 years old in 1970. We test the hypotheses that this impact was limited to metropolitan areas and to states with small Indian populations. We find that educational attainment for American Indians rose sharply between 1970 and 1990 and that changes in racial identification were an important component of this increase in 1980 but not in 1990. Increases in educational attainment were concentrated in metropolitan areas and occurred in states with large and small Indian populations.     

Out of Sight,Out of Mind: Including Group Quarters Residents With Household Residents Can Change What We Know About Working-Age People With Disabilities

Information about residents of institutional and noninstitutional group quarters (GQ), particularly those with disabilities, has been limited by gaps in survey data, and statistics based on data that exclude some or all GQ residents are biased as estimates of total population statistics. We used the 2006 and 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) to identify the distribution of working-age populations with and without disabilities by major residence type and to assess the sensitivity of disability statistics to GQ residence. Our findings show that (1) of those with disabilities, about 1 in 13 males and 1 in 33 females live in GQ; (2) GQ rates are higher for individuals reporting mental, self-care, or go-outside-the-home disabilities than for those reporting sensory, physical, or employment disabilities; (3) younger males with disabilities are more likely to reside there, particularly at institutional GQ, reflecting their relatively high incarceration rate; (4) individuals with and without disabilities who are black, American Indian, were never married, or have less than a high school education have higher GQ residence rates; (5) 40% of male and 62% of female GQ residents have a disability; (6) adding GQ residents to household residents increases estimated disability prevalence for males by 6%, and the estimated difference between disability prevalence rates by gender nearly disappears; and (7) inclusion of the GQ population substantially lowers employment rate estimates for young males, blacks, and American Indians.     

Changing identification among American Indians and Alaska natives

The census-enumerated American Indian population dispersed rapidly between 1930 and 1990. Changes in ethnic classification account for most of the change. In the 1980 count, 10 states with historically large Indian populations account for 53% of births of Indians between the ages of 10 and 80, compared with 72% of the first enumerations of the same cohorts. Migration further reduced the share of these states to 46% of Indian residents in these cohorts. Study of the dispersal of the Indian population should focus primarily on the new emergence of the expression of Indian identity, rather than on migration from former population centers.     

Estimates of vital rates for the Canadian Indians, 1960–1970

The present paper is an attempt to evaluate the registered data on Canadian Indians collected by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and to prepare vital rates for 1960–1970 using the adjusted data. A cursory examination of registered data for the purpose of developing various demographic indices and for making future estimates of population indicates certain anomalies that call for a careful appraisal of the data. The main problem is the inconsistency in the reporting of births, due largely to the late registration of births. One plausible reason for late registration may be the increased outward movement of Indians from their reserves. Indirect methods are used to adjust the number of births and infant deaths reported annually since 1960. On the basis of the adjusted data, vital rates for the Canadian Indians are calculated for the period 1960–1970. The crude death rate decreased from 10.9 in 1960 to 7.5 in 1970. The infant mortality rate registered a drastic decline, from 81.5 deaths per 1,000 births in 1960 to 34.9 in 1970. During this same time period the birth rate also declined, from 46.5 to 37.2.     

The Income and Health Effects of Tribal Casino Gaming on American Indians

The legalization of American Indian casino gaming in the late 1980s allows examination of the relationship between income and health in a quasi-experimental way. Revenue from gaming accrues to individual tribes and has been used both to supplement tribe members’ income and to finance tribal infrastructure. We assembled annual data from 1988–2003 on tribal gaming, health care access (from the Area Resource File), and individual health and socioeconomic characteristics data (from the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System). We use this information within a structural, difference-in-differences framework to study the effect of casino gaming on tribal members’ income, health status, access to health care, and health-related behaviors. Our difference-in-differences framework relies on before-after comparisons among American Indians whose tribe has at some time operated a casino and with-without comparisons between American Indians whose tribe has and those whose tribe has not initiated gaming. Our results provide identified estimates of the positive effect of gaming on American Indian income and on several indicators of American Indian health, health-related behaviors, and access to health care.     

Why was the berdache ridiculed?

Several anthropological explanation of why North American Indian berdaches were riduculed are considered and rejected in favor of the proposal that berdaches were laughed at largely in the context of traditional joking relationships. Consequently, reports that Indians ridiculed berdaches need not be interpreted as evidence that they held negative views of homosexuality.     

Recent health trends in the Native American population

This paper reviews the changes in the health status of Native Americans since the mid-1950s, how the disease pattern differs from non-Natives, and regional differences within the Native American population. Despite some limitations, data from the Indian Health Service indicate that substantial decline in the infant mortality rate and mortality from such infectious diseases as tuberculosis and gastroenteritis has occurred. With the exception of cardiovascular diseases and cancer, the risk of death from most causes are higher among Native Americans than the total US population. Geographic variation in disease rates can be demonstrated, most notable in diabetes. The unique pattern of diseases among Native Americans reflect the interaction of environmental and genetic factors. Genetic susceptibility plays a significant role in some diseases, such as diabetes, while for others, the generally lower socioeconomic status, higher prevalence of certain health risk behaviors and lower utilization of preventive services in the Native American population are important determinants.     

Measuring the extent, depth, and severity of food insecurity: an application to American Indians in the USA

Within the extensive food insecurity literature, little work has been done regarding (a) the depth and severity of food insecurity and (b) the food insecurity of American Indians. This paper addresses both these topics with data from the 2001 to 2004 Core Food Security Module of the Current Population Survey. To measure food insecurity, three axiomatically derived measures of food insecurity are used. As expected, given the worse economic conditions facing American Indians, their food insecurity levels are generally higher than non-American Indians. However, the magnitude and significance of these differences differ depending on the choice of food insecurity measure.

Estimation of demographic measures for India, 1881-1961, based on census age distributions

Abstract India is one of the very few developing countries which have a relatively long history of population censuses. The first census was taken in 1872, the second in 1881 and since then there has been a census every ten years, the latest in 1971. Yet the registration of births and deaths in India, even at the present time, is too inadequate to be of much help in estimating fertility and mortality conditions in the country. From time to time Indian census actuaries have indirectly constructed life tables by comparing one census age distribution with the preceding one. Official life tables are available for all the decades from 1872-1881 to 1951-1961, except for 1911-1921 and 1931-1941. Kingsley Davis(1) filled in the gap by constructing life tables for the latter two decades. He also estimated the birth and death rates ofIndia for the decades from 1881-1891 to 1931-1941. Estimates of these rates for the following two decades, 1941-1951 and 1951-1961, were made by Indian census actuaries. The birth rates of Davis and the Indian actuaries were obtained basically by the reverse survival method from the age distribution and the computed life table of the population. Coale and Hoover(2), however, estimated the birth and death rates and the life table of the Indian population in 1951 by applying stable population theory. The most recent estimates of the birth rate and death rate for 1963-1964 are based on the results of the National Sample Survey. All these estimates are presented in summary form in Table 1.     

Fijians and Indians in Fiji

Fiji is peculiar in having within its population a component population of immigrant origin which has remained ethnically distinct from all other groups and which, in recent years, has become numerically predominant in the population. The other major component is the indigenous Fijian population and between them Fijians and Indians constituted more than 92% of the total population enumerated in the 1956 census. The Indian component is increasing more rapidly than is the Fijian and the factors contributing to these differential rates of increase have been analysed and are presented in this paper. The changes which have occurred over the last ten years in the patterns of mortality and fertility in each group are examined, and the likelihood of further changes are discussed in relation to the economic implications of the present age structure of the populations.     

Sexual orientation and differences in mental health, stress, and academic performance in a national sample of U.S. college students

This study examined the relationships of mental health issues and sexual orientation in a national sample of college students. Using the Fall 2009 American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment, responses from heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and unsure students (N = 27,454) relating to mental health issues and impact of these issues on academics were examined. The findings indicate that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and unsure students consistently reported higher levels of mental health issues and a more frequent impact on academics because of these issues than heterosexual students. Bisexuals frequently reported higher levels than students identifying as gay, lesbian, and unsure.     

Summary statistics on indenture and associated migration affecting the West Indies, 1834-1918

Abstract This paper presents summary statistics of immigration into the West Indies, under indenture or government sponsorship, during the period 1834-1918. The sources reveal a few discrepancies, but are sufficiently consistent to permit the construction of a series for each of the ethnic groups introduced. Most of the problems involved in constructing these series centre around the fact that a variety of sources have to be utilised. Immigration figures of East Indians, Portuguese, Chinese, Europeans and others into the several West Indian colonies have been prepared for each calendar year or season, but to conserve space are presented here in summary form. In the case of African immigration it is possible to give their country of origin. The only group of immigrants who were involved in return movements of any consequence are the East Indians.     

Fertility decline and female chances of marriage in Malaya

A feature of the demographic pattern of post-World War II Malaya has been its high rate of natural growth, which reached 31/2 per cent per annum in the mid-1950s. However, the average age at marriage of the female population has been rising for most of this period, and since 1956 there has been a considerable and sustained fall in the birth rate.

In this paper simple models are developed to show that in a closed population a continuing high rate of population growth is incompatible with a pattern of universal female marriage, monogamy and a culturally imposed age difference of considerable size between spouses. The demonstration provided by the models is then offered as at least a partial explanation of the fertility and female marriage trends in contemporary Malaya. Discrepancies between the population of Malaya and the models have to be taken into account. A pattern of polygamous and unstable marriage does exist amongst the Malaysians and, to a much lesser extent, in the Chinese community. Furthermore, recent years have witnessed the passing of the large surplus of single males built up in the Chinese sector of the population during the years oflarge scale immigration. Such a transition is well under way in the Indian community too.

It is suggested that a substantial average age gap between spouses may be an aspect of many contemporary societies which reacts against the persistence of extremely high rates of natural increase. Even where demographic pressures in the ‘marriage market’ act towards a lessening of this gap, there is a cultural lag, during which period many females are forced to marry late or not at all.

Most of the study was made on a pan-Malayan basis (i.e. combining the Federation of Malaya and the State of Singapore) to achieve comparability with earlier censuses and as a recognition that with unrestricted migration between these areas they still form a single demographic unit. The terms Malaya and Malayans will be used when referring to this area or its inhabitants. The so-called major races of the country are Malaysians, Chinese and Indians. The first will be used in accordance with the census definition to cover the indigenous inhabitants of Malaya or the Malay Archipelago (Indonesia, British Borneo and the Philippines). As most of these people are either indigenous or have been in Malays for some generations they are usually called Malays (except for the aborigines). However, the all-embracing census term will be used here. Indians, in conformity with most local usage, will be used for the groups classified as Indians and Pakistanis at the 1957 censuses of the Federation of Malaya and Singapore. The group was very small.     

Native American kids: American Indian children’s well-being indicators for the nation and two states

American Indian/Alaska Native well-being, survival-based data are rare. This study explores the question of whether or not it is possible to produce such well-being information using secondary data sources. The answer is yes, with some limitations. Hence, Native American data for 10 well-being indicators nationally and for New Mexico and South Dakota, using a model like Kids Count (Annie E. Casey Foundation: 2003a, 2001 KIDS COUNT Data Book: State profiles of child well-being (Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore, MD)) are reported; thereby reducing the gap in survival indicators for U.S. Indigenous children and youths. Comparisons between all children and American Indian children demonstrate that Native American children have comparatively worse well-being rates at the national level and in South Dakota, whereas New Mexico Native kids compare favorably to their non-Native peers. Policy recommendations conclude the paper. This research was funded by Casey Family Programs (Seattle, Washington) and the Annie E. Casey Foundation (Baltimore, Maryland) with partnership from the National Indian Child Welfare Association (Portland, Oregon). Charlotte Goodluck, Ph.D. collaborated with me on previous work that this study builds upon. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments, this paper is much improved because of their efforts. Angela A. A. Willeto is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation.