THE DEMOGRAPHY OF AMERICAN-INDIAN FAMILIES

This paper uses data from the decennial censuses to examine family str ucture and changes in family structure over time among American Indian s. The information about the national Indian population indicates that the trends in family structure among American Indians are parallel in many respects to those in the general US population. That is, the per centage of young American Indian women who have never married has incr eased over time, the percentage of American Indian women who are divor ced has increased over time, and the percentage of American Indian chi ldren who reside with a single parent has increased as well. The perce ntage of American Indian women who have never married and who are divo rced and the percentage of American Indian children who live with a si ngle parent are higher than those among the general population. The in cidence of children living with single parents is especially high on s ome reservations which also have high levels of poverty and unemployme nt. Family patterns, however, vary considerably across reservations in ways that are not easily explained by differences in other demographi c characteristics. These variations may be due to cultural and histori cal differences that are not captured in data collected in the censuse s.