The U.S. Census Bureau has announced that Keshia Buffalo and Darwyn Standing Bear, both of Eagle Butte, S.D., were grand-prize winners in a student art contest to promote the 2006 Census Test on the Cheyenne River Reservation.

     Buffalo, 12, won for her artwork depicting the theme “Respect Privacy,” while Standing Bear, 9, won for the theme “Everybody Counts.” Both were presented with $100 U.S. savings bonds and other prizes at a public awards ceremony Nov. 15 at the Census Field Office on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota.

     Students in kindergarten though high school were invited to participate in the contest designed to showcase their artistic talent and help their community learn more about the 2006 Census Test under way on the reservation. The Census Bureau will use the grand-prize winning artwork to create posters based around the two contest themes to promote the Census Test.

     Amber Bowker, 9, and Royce Bowker, 7, each were named a second-place winner in the “Everybody Counts” category and received $50 U.S. savings bonds. Wambli Ducheneaux, 7, and Keysha Guajardo, 7, each placed third and received $25.

     Harold Frazier, tribal chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, attended the ceremony and congratulated the children for their creative work.

     The Census Bureau selected the Cheyenne River Reservation as one of only two sites for testing new methodologies and operations designed to improve the accuracy and completeness of the 2010 Census. The other 2006 Census Test is taking place in part of Travis County, Texas, near Austin.

     “We are committed to working with reservations as we seek input in how to best count American Indians,” said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon. “The Census Bureau must become better aware of tribal and cultural issues that can affect census operations on the local level.”

     “As we celebrate National American Indian Heritage Month to honor and recognize the original peoples of this land, it is important to remember American Indians who don’t get counted in the next census may lose out on billions of federal funds distributed each year,” said Donald Loudner, vice chair of the Census Bureau’s Advisory Committee on the American Indians and Alaskan Native Populations.

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