The Federal Register Notice published in June of 2000 provided the final program criteria used to designate American Indian and Alaska Native Areas for inclusion in Census 2000.
A list of federally recognized tribes can be found in the Federal Register Notice included in the current copy of the Tribal Leaders Directory.
The Census Bureau implemented the following programs prior to Census 2000 with participation from American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) partners to define their geographic areas.
Contact Information:
Ms. Jan Jacobs (301) 763-9004, or jan.n.jacobs@census.gov
Ms. Barbara Saville (301) 763-9046, or barbara.saville@census.gov
This program provided village officials and representatives the opportunity to delineate, review, and update the Alaska Native village statistical area (ANVSA) boundaries. An Alaska Native Regional Corporation (ANRC) nonprofit official was contacted if the Census Bureau could not get a response from an Alaska Native Village (ANV). Data derived from Census 2000 are available for these areas.
The Census Bureau conducts the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) yearly to update the information it has about the legal boundaries, physical features, and address ranges in the Census Bureau's geographic database. In 1995, the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding that allowed federally recognized tribes to submit their changes directly to the Census Bureau rather than through the BIA Headquarters. Beginning in 1998, the tribal review of boundaries has been incoporated into the BAS.
In 1999 and 2000 the BAS included a special component to allow officials of the Alaska Native Regional Corporations (non-profit) to review the boundaries of these areas.
The Census Bureau accepts boundary, physical features, and address range updates from federally recognized tribes with reservations and/or off-reservation trust lands. Tribes can delineate and modify their tribal subdivisions as part of the BAS.
The Census Bureau uses the updated boundary information to support various programs and surveys. Data derived from Census 2000 are available for these areas.
The Census Bureau offered the opportunity for federally recognized American Indian reservation, off-reservation trust land, and Oklahoma tribal statistical area (OTSA) participants to identify an administrative subdivision. Tribal subdivisions are internal units of self-government or administration that serve social, cultural, and/or economic purposes. Although some tribes have more than one type of subdivision, a tribe could select only one type for participation in this program. In 1980 tribal subdivisions were known as "American Indian subreservation areas". No similar entity was included in the data tabulations for the 1990 Census. Data derived from Census 2000 are available for these areas.
Tribes identified features they wanted the Census Bureau to hold as Census 2000 block boundaries. The resulting block definitions provide tribes with more meaningful data from Census Bureau tabulations. This program was not modified for Census 2000.
The Census Bureau offered tribal participants the opportunity to delineate statistical areas for tabulation in Census 2000. Statistical areas covered by this program include: tribal tracts/census tracts, tribal block groups/block groups, and census designated places (CDPs). For the first time, tribes could delineate statistical areas that crossed boundaries from the Census Bureau standard data hierarchy such as state and county. Data derived from Census 2000 are available for these areas.
The purpose of this program was to provide data to tribes where the state recognizes a land base for a tribe but the tribe is not federally recognized. A governor appointed liaison coordinated the review and update for the state reservation boundaries and names. Data derived from Census 2000 are available for these areas.
For Census 2000, the Census Bureau conducted a separate program in states that have state-recognized American Indian tribes without a land base. In 1990, state recognized tribes with no land base participated as part of the Tribal Designated Statistical Area Program (TDSA). A governor appointed liaison coordinated the review and update of the boundaries and names for these geographic areas. Data derived from Census 2000 are available for these areas.
This program provided federally recognized American Indian tribes without a land base, the opportunity to delineate an identify a land area as a Tribal Designated Statistical Area. Federally recognized tribes in Oklahoma participated in the Oklahoma Tribal Statistical Area Program (OTSA). Data derived from Census 2000 are available for these areas.
The Census Bureau, in consultation with federally recognized American Indian tribes in Oklahoma, identified and delineated statistical entities known as OTSAs. An OTSA was designated to represent the former reservation boundaries in Oklahoma. This entity was referred to as a Tribal Jurisdiction Statistical Area (TJSA) in the 1990 Census data products. Data derived from Census 2000 are available for these areas.
