It's official: 2010 Census is underway on Navajoland

Some 900 enumerators for the U.S. Census Bureau are now going door to door across the Navajo Nation gathering information for the 2010 Census.

"It's going well," said Jamie Gloshay, manager of the Census Bureau office in Window Rock.

This year's count began March 22 and is expected to take up to May 29 as the enumerators go to the 40,000 to 50,000 homes on the reservation and encourage people to participate in this year's count.

So far, most people are cooperating, Gloshay said. Only a few have flat-out refused to answer the 10 questions being asked this year.

When people refuse, the census taker tries to find out the answers to the questions by asking neighbors. "But it's more accurate if the person answers the questions himself," she said.

Some census takers have discovered the hard way that a lot of reservation residents ignore tribal laws that require dogs to be chained or kept in an enclosure.

"We have had a few enumerators get bitten so far and are asking dog owners to make sure that their pets are chained," Gloshay said.

The Census Bureau is apparently not getting as many refusals as it has in the past.

Part of the reason for the increased cooperation is believed to be that this year's questionnaire is not as invasive as some in the past, which asked how many toilets were in the home and about living arrangements.

It's also shorter - the long form in 2000 took an hour or more to fill out.

This year, it's just 10 questions and can be done within 10 minutes, Gloshay said.

In the past, groups of elderly Navajos living in remote areas of the reservation would refuse to give out information because they didn't trust the federal government, pointing to the 1930s-era stock reductions. They wouldn't budge even when assured the Census Bureau would not turn over any information to the BIA or other federal agency.

That situation seems to be very rare this time around, and tribal and chapter officials are stressing to tribal members the importance in cooperating with census takers since every person who is counted means thousands more dollars in federal funding to the tribe over the next decade.

The local census office has been preparing for months, with workers traveling along all the roads on the reservation, even the tiny paths for off-road vehicles, looking to make sure that every dwelling was noted on the map.

The office has also tried to find enumerators who are from each chapter since they would most likely know the terrain and the location of homes. Also, census officials are hoping that having enumerators from the community will make people more willing to talk to them.

There is some fear - more in urban areas than on the reservation - that crooks will take advantage of the count to try and get personal information which could be used to steal personal identities.

For this reason, Gloshay stressed that legitimate census takers carry identification and never ask for personal information like social security numbers.

Even with 900 employees, the local census office is still looking for more people, said Gloshay, and applications are still being accepted for enumerators, who earn about $12 an hour and 50 cents a mile in travel reimbursements.

People can work full time or part time, she said. "If you have a full-time job, you can work at night or on weekends," she said, adding that the training takes four days. To apply, call 928-810-4000.

The Census Bureau has been getting a lot of response from young people and Gloshay said that while being able to speak Navajo is not required, it is preferred since some of the families who would be interviewed are elderly and may not be fluent in English.

One reason for the push for more employees is that many people don't show up after being hired. For example, the Window Rock office originally hired 1200 enumerators but only 900 have showed up for work.

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