Changes in racial identification and the educational attainment of American Indians, 1970-1990

We use data from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 census public-use files to assess the impact of newly identified Indians on the educational attainment of American Indians who were at least 25 years old in 1970. We test the hypotheses that this impact was limited to metropolitan areas and to states with small Indian populations. We find that educational attainment for American Indians rose sharply between 1970 and 1990 and that changes in racial identification were an important component of this increase in 1980 but not in 1990. Increases in educational attainment were concentrated in metropolitan areas and occurred in states with large and small Indian populations.