ustxtxb_obs_1981_10_09_50_00001-00000_000.pdf

TEXAS October 9, 1981 A Journal of Free Voices 75 Almost Invisible: The Uncertain Fate of American Indians in Dallas By Alan Govenar Dallas Indians in Dallas? Surely not. They must be almost invisible. Indeed they are. Since 1957 when the Bureau of Indian assistance office in Dallas, there has been a steady influx of Indians into the Alan Govenar is an anthropologist and folklorist working on a Ph.D. in the Arts and Humanities at The University of Texas at Dallas. city. According to the 1980 census there are 3,732 Indians here now, but a 1975 survey, conducted by the Dallas Interfrom Indian Health Services, reported that there were from 15,000 to 18,000 Indians in the metroplex. Rick Lucero, executive director of the DIC health program, maintains that the DIC has more than 5,000 clients and speculates that there are at least 25,000 Indians in Dallas. “Indians are reluctant to fill out census forms,” Lucero says. “They’ve been conditioned that way. They’ve learned to mistrust government agencies. They are used to relating to people on a personal level, but when they get to the city they find out that it’s highly impersonal.” The Dallas Indian population is some what migratory to and from reservations and various home states, and it is likely now, with the economy as it is and with the closing of the BIA office in October, 1980, that migrations into Dallas will de crease. The BIA office had operated a relocation service, which was designed to “move the rural Indian into the city, assist him with employment, and help him adapt to the city environment.” Re located Indians received funds for