Feds using tribal enrollment numbers from 2005

WASHINGTON – Federal officials say the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) compiled list of population, enrollment and workforce statistics for Indian Country has not been updated since 2005.

The figures reflect a federal lapse in knowing where current tribal enrollments stand. With a looming fiscal cliff, accurate numbers on American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) come into sharp focus since funding subsidies for tribes are often determined using population figures.

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) spokeswoman, Nedra Darling, said the agency does not internally keep a list of tribal numbers and relies on the OMB figures for reference. An economist for the BIA, Steve Payson, said the federal Indian totals separate self-governance tribes from other tribes and should not be considered inclusive. Payson said he could not give projections on how tribal growth may have varied from 2005 to 2012 for the nation’s roughly 562 tribes.

“The information is based on what the tribes tell us,” he said.

Finding current reliable numbers has been an inexact process. New surveys meant to gather information on population are going out across Indian Country and an updated version of the OMB report will be released in 2013. Recent attempts to draft a 2010 Indian population (enrollment) survey fell short of federal expectations, officials said.

Two notices to tribal leaders from then-BIA Undersecretary Del Laverdure went out in July and September 2012, inviting leaders to consultation sessions for new data gathering.

Laverdure told tribal leaders in the July memo that it would not send out the 2010 Indian Population and Labor Force Report “because of methodology inconsistencies.” He allowed that these measurements “have always been difficult to obtain” in Indian Country.

Funding for tribes in their jurisdictions or “service areas” include monies for housing, health care, transportation and government-funded initiatives that tribal members receive in their jurisdictions.  The BIA and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) received about $2.5 billion in federal monies in 2012.

Relying on other federal numbers, like the U.S. Census, to determine Indian size by population is not entirely sound.  Figures vary because one tabulates self-reported Indian identity data not actual tribal enrollment figures.  Payson points out the two sources (OMB and Census) are not comparable.

According to the 2010 Census Summary, more people said they were Cherokee out of the 5.3 million Americans who claimed American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) heritage.  Cherokee census totals show 819,105 people saying they were Cherokee - 500,000 more than the tribe’s approximately 300,000 enrolled citizens.

At the same time, the 2010 Census Summary figures show that the Navajos, self-identified at 332,129 while those who claimed Choctaw numbered 195,764 and 170,742 people said they were Chippewa with no band distinction as is reflected in the OMB report.

Erny Zah, director of communications for the Navajo Nation’s Office of President and Vice President, said the Navajo Nation updates its enrollment information almost daily due to deaths and other factors. Right now, he puts the Navajo Nation at 350,000 members, entrenching its position as the nation’s largest tribe.

“So keeping accurate populations is both needed and challenging,” he said.

Meanwhile, getting new numbers on tribal population totals for the 2013 OMB report will involve cooperation from tribes to report internal figures and federal officials who will read the survey data, BIA officials said. The end result should be a clearer picture of size by population regardless of self-identification.

Oklahoma is home to six of the nation’s largest tribes, according to a 2005 federal list of the top 15 tribes. The figures from the OMB show the country’s largest tribe by enrollment is Arizona/New Mexico/Utah’s Navajo Nation with 273, 872 members and the Oklahoma-based Cherokee Nation coming in second with 257,824 enrollees.

Following the big two, the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma reported 174,68, Muscogee (Creek) Nation had 55,955 and Oglala Sioux of Pine Ridge Reservation with 43,146, rounding out the top five, the 2005 list notes. At seven years old, the top 15 tribes list doesn’t account for how many may have enrolled in each group since 2005, officials said.

The rest of the top 15 tribes are: Chickasaw Nation; Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa; Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa; Tohono O’ odham; Rosebud Sioux Tribe; Citizen Potawatomi Nation; Central Council Tlingit & Haida; Gila River Community; Osage Nation and the White Earth Band of Chippewa.