To celebrate the holiday, Social Explorer is reprising last year’s Thanksgiving post.  Enjoy the data and holiday.

Counting Native Americans: Census Terminology and History (plus Cher)

by Sydney Beveridge

On Thanksgiving, Social Explorer is taking a look at the site of the first famous feast—Plymouth County, MA.  Here, as legend has it, pilgrims from England and local Wampanoag Indians first dined together in 1621.

Whether “Civilized Indians,” “Half-breeds,” “American Indians” or absent, Social Explorer can give you insight into how the census counted and categorized Native Americans over the decades.

Historical demographic data reveal that Native Americans were not counted for the first 60 years of the census.  The constitutional language that mandates the census specifically excludes “Indians not taxed” from the count.

Over time, some Native Americans were also living in areas with settlers, and the census rules articulated how to count them:

Indians not in tribal relations, whether full-bloods or half-breeds, who are found mingled with the white population, residing in white families, engaged as servants or laborers, or living in huts or wigwams on the outskirts of towns or settlements are to be regarded as a part of the ordinary population of the country for the constitutional purpose of the apportionment of Representatives among the States, and are to be embraced in the enumeration.

Starting in 1860, the census collected data on Native Americans, but it did not always report it fully or consistently.  According to census data from 1860, there were 43,562 of these so-called “Civilized Indians” (plus 459 “Half-breeds”), accounting for 0.1% of the population.  (Ten years later, 24 “Civilized Indians” appear in the Plymouth County data.)

In 1960, the Census reported “Indians” separately again and found 142 in Plymouth County and 523,591 nationwide.  Just ten years later, the “Indian” race data disappeared from common census reports once again.

While hidden in the census, Native American terminology hit the top of the billboard charts with the song “Half-breed.”

A 1973 Number One Hit

Cher sings “The Indians said I was white by law/The White Man always called me Indian Squaw.”

Meanwhile, in 1970, the Census would have reported a woman struggling with “Half-breed” identity as either “White” or “Other.”

Did the Census Bureau’s 1970 omission of “Indian” inspire Cher’s “Half-breed”?  Did Cher’s song prompt the Census Bureau to reintroduce Native American race data?

A few years after the song,  the Native American race category returned to the census under the new more detailed option of “American Indian/Eskimo/Aleut.”  With the addition of the ability to specify multiple races starting with the 2000 census, demographic information on Native American populations has become much more complete, with more detailed information on mixed-race individuals and tribe affiliations in the common census reports.  Now the “Half-breed” identity Cher sings about could be categorized as “White,” “American Indian” and “Cherokee.”

Social Explorer users can dig deeper into how Native Americans have been counted with the report tools.

On Veterans Day we honor those who served in the US armed forces.  Social Explorer took a look at the most recent American Community Survey data to see learn more about veterans in the US.

In 2010, there were 21,798,077 veterans, representing 9.3 percent of the adult civilian population.  By comparison, in 1970, 21.1 percent of the adult civilian population had served.

The American Community Survey also details veteran status by war fought.

Subscribers can explore this map to see where veterans live, and use Social Explorer’s report tools to trace the veteran population through the decades and by location.

Map of Veteran Population (2010 American Community Survey)

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  Before ever reaching the Americas, on his first voyage he landed in the Bahamas.

With Columbus Day approaching, Social Explorer is taking a look at Bahamians in the US.

In 1880, the Census reported that there were 9,484 West Indians living in the U.S. (0.02 percent of the total population). 

Today, according to the 2010 American Community Survey, there are 2,375,201 West Indians in the U.S. (people who claimed West Indian as their first reported ancestry).  

This data on ancestry is broken down further by country, and 38,704 of these West Indians are from the Bahamas.  Adding the number of people who reported West Indian as a second ancestry, a total of 48,043 people in the U.S. are West Indian. 

To see where the ancestors of the first people to interact with Columbus in the region of the Americas, check out this interactive  map of the West Indian population.

West Indians in the U.S.

(2005-09 American Community Survey, census tract level)

Users of the free edition can take a look at map of 2000 data.

To celebrate July 4th, Social Explorer is taking a break from fireworks and red, white and blue revelry to look back at an analysis we did of very early America.

A Look at the Capital on Independence Day

by Sydney Beveridge

As the United States celebrates the anniversary of its founding, using Social Explorer, I took a look at the nation’s first capital city of Philadelphia, then and now.  The first Census, conducted in 1790–the early years of the United States’s history–reveals some of the changes Philadelphia, along with the rest of the nation, has experienced.

Slideshow: Slavery in Philadelphia 1790-1840

The early censuses split race into two categories “white” and “nonwhite.”  Native Americans were not counted in the Census and blacks were counted for the apportionment of political representatives.  For allocating representation to states and counties based on population, a “nonwhite” counted as three fifths of a person.  (Blacks and women did not have the same voting rights as white men until the 20th century.  Women got the right to vote after the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920.  Voting for African Americans was granted by the 14th Amendment, ratified after the Civil War, but blacks were kept off the voting rolls in the South until after the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965.)

In 1790, Philadelphia was less than five percent nonwhite.  In 2007, over 43 percent of Philadelphians were black.  Of those nonwhite residents, 373 were slaves (15 percent).  Meanwhile, neighboring areas in New Jersey (Gloucester and Burlington) had more than twice as much of the nonwhite population enslaved. By the 1830 Census, there were 20 slaves left in Philadelphia, and by the 1840 Census, there were just two slaves left.

In the early decades of the United States, most Philadelphians came from Germany and Great Britain.  Today, those groups are small in number, with just 4.6 percent of Philadelphians identifying, another 0.1 percent identifying as Pennsylvania German, and less than one percent of Philadelphians identified as British, Welsh or Scottish.

If you want to find out more about your own area, back as far as 1790 or whenever it joined the union, and up through 2007, you can do so easily with Social Explorer.

On Thanksgiving, Social Explorer is taking a look at the site of the first famous feast—Plymouth County, MA.  Here, as legend has it, pilgrims from England and local Wampanoag Indians first dined together in 1621.

Whether “Civilized Indians,” “Half-breeds,” “American Indians” or absent, Social Explorer can give you insight into how the census counted and categorized Native Americans over the decades.

Historical demographic data reveal that Native Americans were not counted for the first 60 years of the census.  The constitutional language that mandates the census specifically excludes “Indians not taxed” from the count.

Over time, some Native Americans were also living in areas with settlers, and the census rules articulated how to count them:

Indians not in tribal relations, whether full-bloods or half-breeds, who are found mingled with the white population, residing in white families, engaged as servants or laborers, or living in huts or wigwams on the outskirts of towns or settlements are to be regarded as a part of the ordinary population of the country for the constitutional purpose of the apportionment of Representatives among the States, and are to be embraced in the enumeration.

Starting in 1860, the census collected data on Native Americans, but it did not always report it fully or consistently.  According to census data from 1860, there were 43,562 of these so-called “Civilized Indians” (plus 459 “Half-breeds”), accounting for 0.1% of the population.  (Ten years later, 24 “Civilized Indians” appear in the Plymouth County data.)

In 1960, the Census reported “Indians” separately again and found 142 in Plymouth County and 523,591 nationwide.  Just ten years later, the “Indian” race data disappeared from common census reports once again.

While hidden in the census, Native American terminology hit the top of the billboard charts with the song “Half-breed.”

A 1973 Number One Hit

Cher sings “The Indians said I was white by law/The White Man always called me Indian Squaw.”

Meanwhile, in 1970, the Census would have reported a woman struggling with “Half-breed” identity as either “White” or “Other.”

Did the Census Bureau’s 1970 omission of “Indian” inspire Cher’s “Half-breed”?  Did Cher’s song prompt the Census Bureau to reintroduce Native American race data?

A few years after the song,  the Native American race category returned to the census under the new more detailed option of “American Indian/Eskimo/Aleut.”  With the addition of the ability to specify multiple races starting with the 2000 census, demographic information on Native American populations has become much more complete, with more detailed information on mixed-race individuals and tribe affiliations in the common census reports.  Now the “Half-breed” identity Cher sings about could be categorized as “White,” “American Indian” and “Cherokee.”

Social Explorer users can dig deeper into how Native Americans have been counted with the report tools.

A federal district court ruling will compel Westchester County to address housing segregation.  Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge provided expert testimony for reports and depositions.

As stated in the New York Times article covering the case, Beveridge found that, “racial isolation is increasing for blacks, falling slightly for whites” and that “income level has very little impact on the degree of residential racial segregation experienced by African-Americans.”

Sam Roberts wrote that, “Judge Cote concluded that Westchester had made little or no effort to find out where low-income housing was being placed, or to finance homes and apartments in communities that opposed affordable housing.”

According to the settlement, Westchester County will have to create 750 units of affordable housing in the next seven years, at least 630 of which will have to be in the most segregated neighborhoods of the county.

For more information on the case and Beveridge’s testimony, please visit the Anti-Discrimination Center.

Shortly after founding the United States, the framers wanted to count up who was in it. At the second session of the first congress, representatives created the Census, and five months later, the counting began. Specifically, the government sought population data to decide how to allocate political power and money.

The Constitution states “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct (Article 1, Section 2).”

This first Census offered a snapshot of the 3.9 million inhabitants of the new nation and even their surnames. The six components of the first Census were:

1) The names of the heads families

2) Free White males of 16 years and upward

3) Free White males under 16 years

4) Free White females

5) All other free persons (by sex and color, but “Indians not taxed” were not included in the counts)

6) Slaves

In August of 1790, marshals and their assistants set out on the nine-month task of surveying their parts of the country. Marshals earned up to $500 for their work, and their assistants were paid one dollar for every 150 people surveyed.

The data revealed information about the different states, such as the fact that in 1790, Vermont and Massachusetts were the only two states without any slaves.

Social Explorer has taken the raw data from this and every census and added it to our database, allowing premium users to explore and compare data from 1790 to the present all in one easy-to-use system.