Native without a Tribe: Patterns and Trends from 1970 to 2010

Carolyn A. Liebler, University of Minnesota

In recent censuses, a substantial proportion of American Indians have not reported a tribe in the area provided in the race question. This is a surprising omission because cultural details such as language, land base, and traditional practices are tribe-specific. Reasons for non-response may have changed substantially since tribe information was first collected in 1970. Alternatively, reasons for non-response may be stable while the number of people fitting the non-response profile has increased. I use full-count decennial census data from 1970-2010 (housed in a Census Bureau Research Data Center) to show patterns in the location, household composition, age, sex, and Hispanic origin of the tribal non-response group as compared to those who do report a tribe. Using the long form data from 1970-2000 (about 17% of the population in each year), I model tribal non-response using logistic regression analyses.