THE 1990 CENSUS COUNT OF AMERICAN-INDIANS - WHAT DO THE NUMBERS REALLY MEAN

Despite self-identification of race, the 1970 and 1980 United States c ensuses each contain overcounts of the American Indian population. Thi s paper examines the 1990 count in order to determine if such error pe rsists. Several sources of demographic data are employed in finding ev idence of an overcount that varies by age and geographic region, but n ot sex. Available evidence suggests international migration, changing racial identification, and inconsistent reporting of race on birth cer tificates, death certificates, and the census are responsible for this disagreement between the enumerated and estimated American Indian pop ulation.