WNC cut from federal census; EBCI discusses internal count
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The U.S. Census Bureau on Feb. 2 announced that it was cutting four of six 2026 nationwide test sites aimed to inform the 2030 decennial count — Colorado Springs, Fort Apache Reservation, western Texas and Western North Carolina. It will now conduct operations in only Huntsville, Alabama, and Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Each place was chosen with consideration to 13 housing and demographic standards. While all sites fulfilled only a portion of the list, together, they satisfied 100% of the criteria. The WNC site — which includes the Qualla Boundary and Cherokee, Jackson, Swain and Graham counties — met eight of 13, the most of any location. As a rural area with tribal lands, a high rate of historically undercounted populations and a historically low census self-response, nonmailable addresses and seasonally vacant housing units, this swath of Appalachia was a prime candidate for tactic evaluation and outreach among USCB officials.
In July 2024, Census Bureau approached Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians tribal council with information about the field test, and the tribe voted to approve it. As reported by The Smoky Mountain News, Principal Chief Michell Hicks asked representatives at the meeting about how the tribe might benefit from the agreement.
“An accurate count helps with funding for the tribes,” said one USCB staff member.
Neither Huntsville nor Spartanburg contain tribal land, and they meet only five of 13 criteria combined. Meanwhile, every housing and demographic standard increases the risk of an undercount, which according to the National League of Cities “can have devastating consequences.”
For example, because Texas was undercounted in the 2020 Census, by 2030, the state is expected to have lost over $25 billion in federal funding.
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But that could be the norm for many communities this time around due to federal cuts. The initial census test timeline projected outreach to begin in the respective sites by Summer 2025 and recruitment of temporary workers in the Fall in preparation for a Spring 2026 response. But by February 2026, the Trump administration doesn’t seem to have done much of those two initial — and crucial — steps.
The Feb. 2 notice indicated that Trump is testing the possibility of using US postal service workers to do the job of temporary census workers, though it didn’t indicate what USPS staff would do — or how they might do it.
Furthermore, following DOGE cuts and shutdown layoffs, the Census Bureau has 15% fewer employees than when Trump began his second term. At least a handful of department chiefs have resigned, some of whom were helping to plan the 2030 Census.
While the bureau’s 2026 test will not include any indigenous tribes, the census remains a topic of discussion among enrolled members of the EBCI. A Feb. 5 tribal council meeting saw the introduction of Ordinance 125, a resolution mandating a census to determine the voting weight of each member — which according to the 1981 Charter and Governing Document is the percentage of enrolled members living in that township — based on the community they represent.
While the 1981 document mandates a census for this purpose every 10 years, the tribe’s 2023 census was not deemed sufficient to inform voting counts, and the most recent adjustment of township representation occurred in 2001.
Immediately, council members took issue with not the census itself, but the language of the charter.
Venita Wolfe said while she’s supportive of another census, using it to establish voting power “is going to be a disadvantage to the ones who have to move off boundary because there’s no housing here, and it’s going to make it make the percentage skewed because they don’t live here, and they have no representation.”
She also mentioned that some enrolled members’ township of residency, for a variety of reasons, might not be the community to which they trace their heritage.
Wolfe’s opinion was echoed by fellow council members including Vice Chair David Wolfe, Shannon Swimmer and Mike Parker, though Parker admitted that representation is already skewed toward the most populous townships.
EBCI citizen James Bradley, whose name was added to the resolution, suggested revising district boundaries.
“If you want to talk about fair representation, maybe we go back and look at where our community lines are at and who resides in what community,” he said.
Bradley additionally acknowledged that while he shared many of the same concerns as council, the only way to address them is through a referendum vote or by changing the constitution. However, he found the latter method implausible.
“It’s kind of discouraging for me to hear that this conversation has been happening for 30 years-plus now, and we still don’t have a constitution,” he said.
In the end, the ordinance was tabled to be discussed in a future session.
