The Native American Journalists Association in partnership with Reveal | from the Center for Investigative Reporting will hold an online discussion and Q&A June 18 at 1:30 p.m. PT/4:30 p.m. ET regarding COVID-19’s impact on the Native American census count.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the country, the 2020 U.S. Census was already at risk of undercounting many populations. Native Americans and Alaska Native nations and communities historically have some of the highest non-response rates in the census and there are many reasons for low participation: distrust of the U.S. government, non-standard mailing addresses, lack of familiarity of the census or the lack of effective efforts from the Census Bureau itself.

As states and local governments begin to loosen restrictions on businesses, restaurants, and recreational areas, the Census Bureau is also beginning to restart field operations in select cities. 

But there are many questions about how they’re going to engage with Indigenous communities: how are groups on the ground dealing with census outreach and securing an accurate count of Native Americans during the pandemic?

How can reporters across the country improve their census reporting on Indigenous communities? What does an undercount of Indigenous people mean?

We’ll be speaking with Dr. Randall Akee, Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy and American Indian Studies at UCLA and Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, and Ahtza Dawn Chavez, Executive Director of the NM Native Vote (C4) & the NAVA Education Project (C3) who is leading the New Mexico Native Census Coalition.

For the invitation, email David Rodriguez: drodriguez@revealnews.org.

We will record the session and share afterwards with everyone who has registered for the event.