[Red State] Here’s a fun one for you. According to the latest U.S. Census, the Native American population in the United States grew by 86.5 percent between 2010 and 2020.Yep, you read that right. Eighty-six percent!
But how could this be possible? In a piece for The Conversation, Circe Sturm, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts wrote that this is a rate of growth that "demographers say is impossible to achieve without immigration."
Well, it’s not likely that more Native Americans are entering the U.S. right? So, there has to be another explanation.
But, according to Sturm, this increase is occurring because "individuals who previously identified as white are now claiming to be Native American."
She also explains that "[t]his growing movement has been captured by terms like ’pretendian’ and ’wannabe.’"
The author refers to this phenomenon by what she calls "racial shifting."
Insert Elizabeth Warren and Rachel Dolezal jokes here.
But what is interesting is that the author points out that those choosing to identify as Native American are trying to move further from "whiteness." The author says that in her 14 years of researching this issue and interviewing "dozens of race-shifters" for her book, "Becoming Indian," she "learned that while some of these people have strong evidence of Native American ancestry, others do not."
She continued: