Getting creative about counting everyone in the census

CONNECTING WITH NATIVE COMMUNITIES New Mexico also has a sizable population of Native Americans. As Pueblo census coordinator, Charlotte Little works with a coalition of complete-count

committees established to ensure full participation of the state's 22 tribes: 19 pueblos, two Apache tribes and the Navajo Nation. As a whole, native people compose about 10.5 percent

of New Mexico's population, and the state elected its first Native American congressional representative, Deb Haaland, in 2016. "The Census Bureau recognizes Indian Country as hard

to count,” Little says, including the pueblos, which range in size from smaller communities of about 500 to ones with populations of several thousand. Her people are from San Felipe, with

about 3,700 members. The majority of the state's Native Americans live in Albuquerque, which has 400 tribal nations represented, she says. Working with the New Mexico Native Census

Coalition, Little emphasizes the value of completing the census (whether online, by phone or via mail), explaining that the money the state gets pays for critical services such as roads,

health care and Head Start. “Undercounting by one person results in a loss of $3,000 per year for the next 10 years, so that's $30,000 for one person,” she says. “If you have a family

of five, you can see how exponentially important that becomes." Native communities began to get the word out last November, with some tribes putting notes in with their Thanksgiving

turkey and ham giveaways. They've also handed out flyers and staffed tables at powwows and other native gatherings around the state. The crisis, for the moment, has taken away their

most powerful tool: person-to-person communication. “You would visit with them,” Little says. “Elders would welcome you as a grandchild, niece or nephew. We are their children, even without

a blood tie.” Instead, each tribe, which is a sovereign nation, has taken steps to protect its members from the coronavirus. Some have closed the entrances to their communities to

nonresidents and set curfews for those who live there. Many families have an elder who is vulnerable. “There are often many generations under one roof,” Little says. She lives in

Albuquerque, but her mother, brother, sister-in-law and their children are at San Felipe.