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Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
January 15, 2020
Added challenge for Native
American tribes during census
Tribal Flags at Nike WHQ
Courtesy NIKE
The Nike World Headquarters is located in part on top of the Tualatin
Kalapuya village of Chakeipi, in Beaverton. ‘Chakeipi’ means the place of
the Beaver in the Tulatin Kalapuya language. When you pull up to the
main entrance, you will see the international flag court. The flag court
includes the flags of the nine tribes of Oregon. You can see the flag of
the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, second from right. The tribes
partner with Nike through the N7 program.
As is well documented—
and as we approach 2020
Census Day on April 1—
Native Americans remain the
most undercounted group on
the U.S. census. This means
tribes get significantly less of
much-needed funding from
crucial federal programs,
scant improvements on res-
ervation infrastructure and
health care.
As the current year cen-
sus is kicking off this month,
some tribes are already con-
ducting census surveys, three
months before the rest of
nation.
Alaska Native communi-
ties are at the forefront, as
residents there leave their
communities, following the
spring thaw to fish and hunt.
In 2020, the census chose
Toksook Bay, a remote
Bering Sea community com-
prised of 94 percent Yup’ik
Alaska Natives and where
walking is the primary mode
of transportation for about
two-thirds of the 661 people
who live there.
Census takers are trekking
to Alaska’s western coast for
the count, and may need to
use a bush plane, dogsled or
snowmobile to access the
area, according to the cen-
sus bureau. The event, a bu-
reau representative has said,
will set the tone for the en-
tire nation.
Natalie Landreth, a senior
staff attorney at the Native
American Rights Fund,
thinks the trip is “a lot of
PR.”
“They want to show how
remote and how far they’ll
go,” Landreth, of Anchor-
age, said, “when they don’t
do that for the rest of the
census.”
In 2010, American Indi-
ans and Alaska Natives liv-
ing on reservations were
undercounted by 4.9 per-
cent—that’s more than twice
the next undercounted group,
African Americans, who saw
an undercount rate of 2.1
percent.
In 1990, the numbers
were even more dire: 12 per-
cent of Native Americans
living on reservations were
missed.
The numbers, Landreth
said, are indicative of prob-
lems endemic to a count that
structurally isn’t written for
Native people. And as the
2020 census approaches,
groups like Landreth’s are
sounding the alarm, wor-
ried that Native communi-
ties will be undercounted
once again.
Sidra Starkovich will be
spending much of 2020 try-
ing to convince her fellow
tribe members in the Bois
Forte Band of Chippewa to
sign up for the census.
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