 Census numbers cloud clout
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Curtis Zunigha applauds those Americans who, for the first time, officially acknowledged their diverse racial backgrounds on their census forms.
But don’t count him as one of the 6.8 million people who did just that, even though he considers himself half-white and half-American Indian. He feared that marking both could undermine the population total and federal money for his tribe.
"In my efforts preceding the census, I kept telling people to put down ‘American Indian,’ even if you are mixed race like I am," said Zunigha, director of the Delaware Tribe Housing Authority in Bartlesville, Okla.
"I just wanted the Indian count to be as high as possible to have numbers to substantiate federal funding," Zunigha said.
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