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Working with 1930 Census of the Indian Population and I have thoughts
First, the happy news: the end of Carlisle Indian School. Indian population in the county has gone from over 1,000 to 3.
1/x
First, the happy news: the end of Carlisle Indian School. Indian population in the county has gone from over 1,000 to 3.
1/x
Many friends will be fascinated to learn they are Mexican and Canadian tribes.
This is terrible data visualization on a micro level. On a macro level, who can publish this table on "Mixture of Blood" in 1937 and not get how fascistic it looks?
Here, they're missing the category of Know How to Get Pesky Enumerators to Leave Them Alone.
What's a "gainful worker"?
Men doing housework
Kids doing chores
Women doing housework
Men doing housework
Kids doing chores
Women doing housework
Nothing quite like reading race science in US govt docs from 1937 to give you the creeps.
"An admixture of the blood of other races is usually accompanied by a breakdown of tribal customs, and by adoption, in whole or in part, of the habits and manner of life of another race."
"An admixture of the blood of other races is usually accompanied by a breakdown of tribal customs, and by adoption, in whole or in part, of the habits and manner of life of another race."
If I'm being generous, it sounds like they're saying there's no such thing as pure blood. But it sure reads like they're saying the actual problem is that many Indians are concealing their impure blood.
Yes, official govt policy that if you want to be Indian, you can't be too Black.
And always read the footnotes, because they offer some of the best hints of debates concealed by placid, technical prose. In this case, there was definitely not a consensus on Zuni and Makah enumerations.
Moving on to 1910 Census of Indian Population: it's striking how strongly they stress the junkiness of BIA data collection to date. Meaning Census is flying blind in its own enumeration strategy. This assessment of BIA data is in line with the Meriam Report, of course.
This gem about FL Seminole: "The majority of the tribe.... are very hostile still towards the whites, allowing no persons into their territory. The number of Seminoles thus unenumerated is estimated by a competent observer"
And from AK: enumerating Alaska Natives from villages when Census *doesn't even know where the village is.* Examples:
Census rejected tribal practices wrt "mixed-bloods“: "As different tribes employ different methods this threatened to involve serious confusion.” In culture-free framework, “an arbitrary rule was adopted of counting... mixed-tribal blood as members always of the father’s tribe.”
When Census says if you were cool enough you wouldn't need their help:
They "publish the list of Indians with tribe not reported.... Anyone, however, who is familiar with the location of these various tribes will be able to make his own assignment of these miscellaneous groups."
They "publish the list of Indians with tribe not reported.... Anyone, however, who is familiar with the location of these various tribes will be able to make his own assignment of these miscellaneous groups."
To put 1910 &1930 Censuses of Indian Population in a more favorable view: they implicitly present the varying federal legal status of tribes as arbitrary. Native peoples living on and off reservations are fundamentally indistinct.
