United Tribes News
UTTC hosts Census Road Tour
22 February 2010
BISMARCK (UTN) - If you take to new technology, then a traveling exhibit about the census will interest you. It captured the imagination of students and staff at United Tribes when the college played host to the 2010 Census Road Tour.
The tour is a tech-centered traveling exhibit that features LCD screens, information kiosks and a computer that takes photos and records messages from those who want to participate in the exhibit’s “Portrait of America.”
The exhibit was on display February 19 courtesy of the Denver Regional Census Center and Jeff Baker, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, who works as the agency’s tribal partnership specialist. Baker is the liaison between the census and tribes in North Dakota.
The computer with the camera and recorder was clearly the most popular feature of the exhibit. It allowed United Tribes staff members and students to become part of the census promotional information that is toured around the country and posted on the agency’s website.
Harriett Skye, United Tribes VP of Intertribal Programs, looked earnestly into the lens and praised the census for having American Indians in their own ethnic category rather than being lumped in the category of “other” as they once were.
Others who commented mentioned the “under-count” of American Indians in previous censuses and the need for tribes to promote a thorough and accurate count in 2010.
Baker has scheduled one-day 2010 Census Road Tour events at four North Dakota reservations in early April: Three Affiliated on April 8; Turtle Mountain on April 9; Spirit Lake on April 10; and Standing Rock on April 12.
The reservation road tour events will contain tribal specific information and exhibits that were specially prepared to encourage American Indian participation in the census.
Included with the traveling exhibit are numerous handout and giveaway items with the 2010 Census logo and information pieces that feature prominent American Indians. One poster included the image of the chairman of the Standing Rock Tribe and two women tribal ambassadors: Miss Indian Nations and Miss Standing Rock.
The United Tribes event included a public program that featured songs from a drum group and a song and exhibition by a junior grass dancer, and talks by Baker, United Tribes Technical College President David M. Gipp, North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission Executive Director Scott Davis and Bismarck Mayor John Warford.
The exhibit was on display in the college’s Lewis Good House Wellness Center and was sponsored by the college administration, the wellness center, Chemical Health Center, and the Strengthening Lifestyles Program.
For information about the road tour and the census, visit the website www.census.gov/regions/denver/.
