Alternative measurements of Indian Country: understanding their implications for economic, statistical, and policy analysis

The term “Indian Country” is often used to mean either the demographic group of Native Americans in the United States or the geographic, tribal communities in which many Native Americans live. This double meaning has led to various treatments of the socioeconomic measures describing Indian Country. Unfortunately, some of these treatments can potentially lead to inaccurate or misleading analyses of Indian Country, for two reasons. First, because socioeconomic data on Indian Country are sparse, analysts frequently do not have the ideal data for their studies, and they have to make do with the only information they can obtain that is close to the concept being analyzed. Second, some previous studies have already mistakenly “mixed apples and oranges” with regard to Indian Country data (as suggested above) and, in so doing, have set a precedent for others to follow. This article addresses this problem by offering a reality check on the alternative definitions of Indian Country and on how different they truly are. The article then provides a taxonomy of these definitions, offering guidance on when they should be applied in efforts to promote the most accurate and reliable findings possible.