Reversing Statistical Erasure of Indigenous Peoples

Abstract

American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) Peoples are diverse, but their diversity is statistically flattened in national-level survey data and, subsequently, in contemporary understandings of race and inequality in the United States. This chapter demonstrates the utility of disaggregated data for gaining, for instance, nuanced information on social outcomes such as educational attainment and income levels, and shaping resource allocation accordingly. Throughout, it explores both reasons and remedies for AIAN invisibility in large data sets. Using their personal identities as a case in point, the authors argue for more refined survey instruments, informed by Indigenous modes of identity and affiliation, not only to raise the statistical salience of AIANs but also to paint a fuller picture of a vibrant, heterogeneous First Peoples all too often dismissed as a vanishing people.