parents was Indian; some were recorded as white births. Yet some of the people who were considered Indian at birth have never identified themselves as Chickasaws in censuses or elsewhere, while some of those who were not recorded as Indian at birth have always identified themselves as Chickasaws. Others have changed their self-identification back and forth over the years in different censuses.

Further, census data on these individuals will reveal only some features of their family and kinship relationships. The data will show with whom they are currently living and some characteristics of their households and families. But the data will not reveal the relatively recent experience of polygamy in this family, the complexity of kinship networks beyond the nuclear family, or the extent of intermarriage in previous generations.

Many contemporary American Indians can tell similar and in many cases more complicated stories about their family histories and their current family situations. Clan systems, relationships with non-nuclear family members, and ritualistic adoptive relationships play very important roles in the family lives of many contemporary Native Americans. Many American Indians have ancestors who were members of two or more Native American groups and/or ancestors who were not Indian. For these reasons, many American Indians and students of American Indians see census data as inadequate for describing and understanding contemporary American Indian families, households, and kinship systems.

Nonetheless, we assert that one can learn a good deal about contemporary American Indian families by examining census data. In fact, census data provide information that is relevant to consideration of the implications of healthcare reform for Native Americans—the purpose of organizing the workshop at which this paper was originally presented. Information on household size and composition and trends in these over time provide useful background information for this purpose. The aims of this chapter are to examine the trends in these characteristics among American Indians over time, as they are currently, and across subgroups of the American Indian and Alaska Native populations. These subgroups include the national population of American Indians and those people living on reservations and trust lands (shortened here to "reservations"), in Alaska Native Village Statistical Areas (Alaska NVSAs), in Oklahoma Tribal Jurisdiction Statistical Areas (Oklahoma TJSAs), and on 1990's ten most populated reservations.

Table 9-1 contains selected characteristics of the groups that are examined in this chapter. The purposes of this table and this section of the

Front matter (R1-R12)

1 Introduction (1-14)

I Overview of Demographic and Health Conditions (15-16)

2 The Size and Distribution of the American Indian Population: Fertility, Mortality, Residence, and Migration (17-52)

3 Recent Health Trends in the Native American Population (53-76)

II Indentification: Indications and Consequences (77-78)

4 The Growing American Indian Population, 1960-1990: Beyond Demography (79-102)

5 Tribal Membership Requirements and the Demography of (103-112)

6 Problems in Sampling the Native American and Alaska Native Populations (113-130)

III Social and Economic Conditions (131-132)

7 The Individual Economic Well-Being of Native American Men and Women During the 1980s: A Decade of Moving Backwards (133-171)

8 American Indian Poverty on Reservations, 1969-1989 (172-195)

9 The Demography of American Indian Families (196-217)

10 Demography of American Indian Elders: Social, Economic, and Health Status (218-232)

IV Health Issues and Health Care Access and Utilization (233-234)

11 Overview of Alcohol Abuse Epidemiology for American Indian Populations (235-261)

12 Diabetes Mellitus in Native Americans: The Problem and Its Implications (262-288)

13 Health Care Utilization, Expenditures, and Insurance Coverage for American Indians and Alaska Natives Eligible for the Indian Health Service (289-314)