{"id":10656,"date":"2020-09-03T07:38:01","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T12:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/indian-country-census-woes-mount\/"},"modified":"2020-09-03T07:38:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T12:38:02","slug":"indian-country-census-woes-mount","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/indian-country-census-woes-mount\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian country census woes mount"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rock The Native Vote 2020 set up census support stands, including this one at Norman First American United Methodist Church in Oklahoma. PHOTO COURTESY \/ RTNV<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

NORMAN, Oklahoma \u2014 After an August federal directive to shorten the 2020 Census outreach period jarred the nation, Indian organizations redoubled efforts to make sure constituents are counted in the decennial population survey that has been handicapped by the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, especially in Native communities.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 3, U.S. Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham announced the decision to end the census\u2019 national field response operation one month earlier than the Oct. 31 deadline. His agency previously had asked Congress to extend the period until 2021 due to difficulties arising from mobilization during the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

The first-ever Urban Indian Civic Engagement Project, funded by the National Urban Indian Family Coalition and its partners, responded to the latest of several census schedule adjustments, saying, \u201cLet\u2019s be clear of what\u2019s at stake for American Indian and Alaska Natives: An undercount could lead to losing as much as $1 billion per year nationally in resources that our Native communities rely on for healthcare, schools, roads, and other essential programs and services.\u201d<\/p>\n

The advocacy groups are sponsoring a petition, urging constituents to contact their federal elected officials with a demand to \u201coppose this obvious tactic to steal resources our communities need,\u201d Rock The Native Vote 2020 said. The organization set up census support stands in Norman and other places.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a deliberate act to try to draw resources away from American Indians, Alaska Natives, and other hard-hit communities of color, while we\u2019re focused on responding to and recovering from the pandemic,\u201d it said. \u201cWe will not be erased. We will be visible, and we will be heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

American Indians and Alaska Natives were the most undercounted population group in the 2010 census at 4.9%, more than twice the rate of the next undercounted group. In 1990, the undercount was even more dismal at 12%. In the 2020 edition of the survey, the field operation was launched late on some reservations due to lockdowns and other pandemic related complications.<\/p>\n

By the end of August, a sampling of Northern Great Plains reservations\u2019 household response rates, conducted by the Native Sun News Today, revealed the following approximate percentages of completed returns: Ft. Belknap, Pine Ridge, and Rosebud at 20 percent; Ft. Berthold at 22; Blackfeet, Cheyenne River and Crow Creek at 25; Ft. Peck at 33; Standing Rock at 35; Lake Traverse at 40; Yankton at 42; Flandreau and Wind River at 50.<\/p>\n

This compared with the national rate of nearly 65 percent of households responding, via internet, telephone or postal service. Given the contrast, petition promoters proclaimed, \u201cThe decision to shorten the census timeline is an attack on Indian country. Contact your legislators and make noise on social media to demand that the U.S. Census Bureau give communities enough time to be counted,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Natalie Landreth, senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund\u00a0 joined the battle cry, saying that the reduced field operation time for census workers to follow up on this year\u2019s novel self-reporting period, \u201censures a historic, devastating undercount for Native Americans. We\u2019re not guessing. We\u2019ve run all the numbers, and we know it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Director Dillingham did not explain the reason for the schedule change. Four days later his agency and the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC, released a joint statement to the effect that, \u201cParticipation in 2020 Census interviews should present a low risk of transmission of Covid-19.\u201d Census takers are trained to rigorously and universally follow CDC recommendations to mitigate risk of transmission.<\/p>\n

In June, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) called on the CDC to share coronavirus data with the nation\u2019s 12 Tribal Epidemiology Centers, warning that its refusal was hampering Native Americans\u2019 ability to respond to the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy not allowing Native communities access to this data, your agency is playing a role in widening the health disparities that are already running rampant in areas that are ill-equipped to contain the spread and the outcomes of this pandemic,\u201d he wrote in a letter to Director Robert R. Redfield.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 19, the CDC released a report that examines how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI\/AN), which it recognizes as \u201cone of the racial and ethnic minority groups at highest risk from the disease.\u201d<\/p>\n

CDC found that in 23 selected states, the cumulative incidence of laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 cases among AI\/AN was 3.5 times that of non-Hispanic whites.<\/p>\n

The data also showed that AI\/AN who tested positive for the virus form tended to be younger than white non-Hispanic individuals with the infection. Compared to whites, a higher percentage of cases among AI\/AN individuals were in people under 18 years of age (12.9 percent AI\/AN; 4.3 percent white), and a smaller percentage of cases were among AI\/AN 65 years or older (12.6 percent AI\/AN; 28.6 percent white).<\/p>\n

The study identified \u201cthe need to prioritize improved data collection as a key strategy to understand and improve health outcomes. Persisting racial inequity and historical trauma have contributed to disparities in health and socioeconomic factors between AI\/AN and white populations that have adversely affected tribal communities,\u201d the CDC said in releasing the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe elevated incidence within this population might also reflect differences in reliance on shared transportation, limited access to running water, household size, and other factors that might facilitate community transmission,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

The CDC has provided more than $200 million in Covid-19 funding to Indian country to support tribes and tribal organizations in carrying out pandemic preparedness and response activities, including surveillance, epidemiology, laboratory capacity, infection control, and mitigation.<\/p>\n

Director Redfield said the \u201cfunding approach will broaden access to Covid-19 resources across tribal communities.\u201d The CDC funding to date exceeds the $165 million directed by Congress through the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriation Act, 2020, which supported health institutions and small business, and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or CARES Act, which supported tribal and local governments. It provides:<\/p>\n