The Present Situation

Abstract

Between 1980 and 1990, the number of Americans self-reporting as American Indian in the United States Census increased by an extraordinary 31 percent, with a further increase of 26.4 percent by 2000 and 26.7 percent beyond that by 2010. While the number of those who identified themselves only as Indian increased from 1,959,234 in 1990 to 2,475,956 in 2000 and 2,932,248 in 2010, an even more remarkable phenomenon appeared as a result of the adoption, for the 2000 Census, of the opportunity for individuals to list multiple racial or ethnic identities: 4,119,301 claimed to be at least partially Indian in 2000, rising to 5,220,579 in 2010. Thus, while those self-identified as only Indian were 0.9 percent of the US population in 2010, those claiming some Indian ancestry were 1.6 percent in 2010.¹