Indians in Mason County Michigan 1880 Census

The following 355 people were identified as Indians (I) in column 4 (color) of the 1880 census for Mason County Michigan.

The instructions to enumerators for conducting the 1870 census were essentially the same as those for the 1860 census:

Indians not taxed are not to be enumerated. The families of Indians who have renounced tribal rule, and who under state or territory laws exercise the rights of citizens, are to be enumerated. 1

In the 1880 instructions the phrase “Indians not taxes” was expanded to:

By the phrase “Indians not taxed” is meant Indians living on reservations under the care of Government agents, or roaming individually, or in bands, over unsettled tracts of country.

Indians not in tribal relations, whether full-bloods or half-breeds, who are found mingled with the white population, residing in white families, engaged as servants or laborers, or living in huts or wigwams on the outskirts of towns or settlements are to be regarded as a part of the ordinary population of the country for the constitutional purpose of the apportionment of Representatives among the States, and are to be embraced in the enumeration. 2

So the following 355 people identified in the 1880 Mason County Michigan census are believed to either have renounced tribal rule, and under state law, exercised their rights as citizens to be enumerated; or because they mingled with the white population of these Michigan towns were enumerated under the expanded definitions.

I noticed when compiling these results that the population of those being identified as Indians in Mason County increased from 229 in 1860, to only 355 in 1880, but still did not match the 409 who were enumerated in 1860. This follows a recognized statewide pattern of increased Native American population for Michigan from 1870 to 1880.

The records below contains only those in a household who were identified by an I for their color. There may be others in the household who are not identified below and that will be on the actual census images.

1. Eighth Census, United States—1860. Instructions to U.S. Marshals, p. 14.[↩]
2. Bureau of the Census, 200 Years of U.S. Census Taking: Population and Housing Questions, 1790–1990, 1989, p. 30.[↩]