Working Papers

The Sociological Studies of American Indians Project has accumulated and made available on this website several working papers. These working papers are not finished projects but are “works in progress” and are made available here for two purposes. The first purpose is to disseminate the information contained in the papers to people interested in the topics covered. The second purpose is to solicit comments, criticisms and suggestions concerning the material contained in these working papers, with the goal being to improve the presentation of results and the validity and usefulness of the interpretations and explanations provided. We invite readers to email such feedback to the author(s) of particular working papers.

• Arland Thornton and Linda Young-DeMarco. “Federal Decennial Census Data for Studying American Indians.” SSAI Working Paper 2021-01. March 2021.
• Arland Thornton, Linda Young-DeMarco, and Lindsey Willow Smith. “The Identification of American Indians in the Federal Decennial Censuses.” SSAI Working Paper 2021-02. March 2021. Paper also presented at the annual meetings of the American Society of Ethnohistory, Lawrence, Kansas, September 7-10, 2022.
• Linda Young-DeMarco. “A Review of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Annual Census Program and its Protocols as a Source of Information about American Indians, 1885-1940.” SSAI Working Paper 2021-03. March 2021. Paper also presented at the annual meetings of the American Society of Ethnohistory, Lawrence, Kansas, September 7-10, 2022.
• Arland Thornton and Linda Young-DeMarco. “Literacy Among American Indians: Levels and Trends from 1900 to 1930 and Across Birth Cohorts from 1830 to 1920.” SSAI Working Paper 2021-04. April 2021. Paper also presented at the annual meetings of the Social Science History Association, Philadelphica, November 11-14, 2021.
• Arland Thornton, Alphonse Pitawanakwat, Eric Hemenway, Lindsey Willow Smith, Linda Young-DeMarco. “Anishinaabe Geography in the 1930 Decennial Census—and the Use of this Geography in Studying the 1900-1940 Attributes of Anishinaabe People.” SSAI Working Paper 2022-01. May 2022.
• Arland Thornton and Linda Young-DeMarco. “American Indian Schools and Student Enrollment: 1819 to 1940.” SSAI Working Paper 2023-01. October 2023. Paper also scheduled for presentation at the annual meetings of the American Society of Ethnohistory, Tallahassee, Florida, November 2-4, 2023.
• Arland Thornton, Linda Young-DeMarco, C. Matthew Snipp. “Historical Influences on American Indian Literacy.” SSAI Working Paper 2024-01. October 2024.