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The very first person to be counted this month for the 2020 U.S. Census was 90-year-old Lizzie Chimiugak, a Yup’ik woman from Toksook Bay Alaska. The Census Bureau started the process in the country’s largest state where it’s historically difficult to get an accurate count. Language, geography and mistrust of revealing personal information to the federal government are among the reasons Alaska Natives and Native Americans are often undercounted. Census numbers are the main way officials determine election boundaries and the allocations of trillions of federal dollars for public services. We’ll talk with census experts about why they think this year’s census is the most important one yet.
Guest:
Donna Bach (Orutsararmiute Native Council) – tribal partnership specialist for the U.S. Census Bureau
Dr. James Tucker – vice chair of the National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic and Other Populations for the U.S. Census
Jessica Imotichey (Chickasaw Nation) – partnership coordinator for the Los Angeles Regional Office of the U.S. Census Bureau
Nicole Borromeo – Executive Vice-President and general counsel for the Alaska Federation of Natives
Break 1 music: This Land (song) Keith Secola (artist) Native Americana – A Coup Stick (album)
Break 2 music: Tanokumbia (feat. El Dusty & Black Bear) (song) A Tribe Called Red (artist) Tanokumbia (feat. El Dusty & Black Bear) (single)
A small portion of the audio from this recording has been edited out at the request of the U.S. Census Bureau because it violated federal law concerning Census employees’ disclosure of Census respondents’ personal information. In this case, we feel the disclosure is not necessarily a privacy breach and removing it does not at all change the meaning of the show. But keeping it in could have incrementally detracted from the primary thrust of the show for our audience, which is to inform people about the importance of Native American participation in the Census process.
