American Indian Population Recovery in the Twentieth Century

Although the general public is not widely aware of this trend, the American Indian population has grown phenomenally since 1900, their demographic nadir. No longer a vanishing race, Indians have rebounded to 1492 population estimates in nine decades. Until now, most research has focused on catastrophic population decline, but Nancy Shoemaker studies how and why American Indians have recovered. Her analysis of the social, cultural, and economic implications of the family and demographic patterns fueling the recovery compares five different Indian groups: the Seneca Nation in New York State, Cherokees in Oklahoma, Red Lake Ojibways in Minnesota, Yakamas in Washington State, and Navajos in the Southwest. Marshaling individual-level census data, Shoemaker places American Indians in a broad social and cultural context and compares their demographic patterns to those of Euroamericans and African Americans in the United States.