Chickasaw Nation conducting a census

ADA, Okla. (AP) -- The Chickasaw Nation will mail 28,000 envelopes to tribal members across the country as part of a census.<br/><br/>An Oklahoma City mail house, working on a tribal contract, will mail

Friday, September 23rd 2005, 1:10 pm

By: News On 6

ADA, Okla. (AP) -- The Chickasaw Nation will mail 28,000 envelopes to tribal members across the country as part of a census.

An Oklahoma City mail house, working on a tribal contract, will mail census forms to every citizen on the tribe's Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood database. The form also will be available on the tribe's Web site.

Tribal officials expect to find more Chickasaws than what the 2000 census reported. In that census, 20,887 people said they were Chickasaws. Also, 23,901 said they were a combination of Chickasaw and other tribes. Finally, 38,351 said they were a combination of Chickasaw and other races.

Knowing where members live will allow the tribe to plan for future needs, Gov. Bill Anoatubby wrote in an open letter in the September tribal newspaper.

"With the very basic information you submit with the census, we can produce plans that will account for our future generations of Chickasaws," Anoatubby wrote.