The Socioeconomic Attainments of Single-Racial and Multi-Racial Native Americans

Kimberly R. Huyser, University of Texas at Austin
Isao Takei, University of Texas at Austin

Using data from the 2000 U.S. Census, this study investigates the schooling and wages of single-racial and multi-racial Native Americans. Our analysis distinguishes between single-race Native Americans, biracial White Native Americans, biracial Hispanic-White Native Americans, biracial Black Native Americans, and whites who report Native American ancestry. Our findings show significant variation in socioeconomic attainments across these different Native American groups. In general, however, most of these Native American groups have lower levels of schooling and/or wages relative to non-Hispanic whites for both men and women. Furthermore, most of these Native American groups have lower wages than comparable non-Hispanic whites after taking into account schooling, age, place of residence, and other demographic characteristics. Single-race Native Americans are the most disadvantaged, but socioeconomic differentials across the groups are not clearly consistent with traditional assimilation theory, and suggest the significance of the socioeconomic selectivity of whites who choose to report Native American ancestry.