chapter are to provide some contextual information about these different groups that can aid in interpreting differences in family patterns and to introduce evidence that might be related to these differences.

The U.S. Indian population includes all individuals who identified themselves or were identified by a respondent in their households as American Indians, Eskimo, or Aleuts on the ''race" question in the census. The reservation Indian population includes all of the first category who resided on an American Indian reservation or trust land as defined by the federal or a state government. The Oklahoma TJSA population includes all American Indians who live in areas delineated by federally recognized tribes in Oklahoma without reservations (only the Osage in Oklahoma officially have a reservation), for which the Census Bureau tabulates data. The population of the Alaska NVSA includes American Indians, Eskimo, or Aleuts residing in tribes, bands, clans, groups, villages, communities, or associations in Alaska that are recognized pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1972, Public Law 92-203.²

Each of these populations is diverse. The U.S. Indian population, for example, contains individuals who have lived on isolated reservations for their entire lives and those whose families left their traditional tribal areas two or more generations ago. The population residing on reservations includes individuals who live on reservations where most of the other residents are Indians and those who live on reservations where the majority of the population is non-Indian. The Oklahoma TJSAs include those of tribes, such as the Cherokee and Choctaw, that were removed to Oklahoma in the 1830s, along with those of tribes, such as the Comanche and Kiowa, that have been in parts of Oklahoma for hundreds of years. The Alaska NVSAs include Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut areas, containing several distinct cultural groups.

To examine some groups that are more homogeneous, we also look at the ten largest reservations in the United States. These range in size from the Navajo reservation, which contains over one-quarter of the total U.S. reservation population, to the Blackfoot reservation, with a population of 7,025.

As one can see from Table 9-1, the American Indian population differs substantially from the total U.S. population in many respects. The U.S. Indian population is younger, poorer, and more likely to be unemployed and has larger families on average than does the U.S. population in general. This is especially true of the reservation population, whose