The Geography of Indigenous Identity in the United States

Abstract

In the 2000 census, Americans were allowed to choose more than one "racial" group for the first time. Indigenous people had a higher rate of multiracial identification than other population groups. The larger number of people who identify as partly indigenous, along with the reduction in the level of undercount compared with the 1990 census, means that the total enumerated indigenous or partly indigenous population in 2000 was more than twice the size of the reported population in 1990. The intensity of indigenous identification among American Indians (measured by the share of indigenous people who claim a single racial identity) varied geographically, with higher levels on and near reservations and in western states. The core (one-race) population was much more spatially clustered than the peripheral (multi-race) population.