While over the last several years massive efforts have been made to promote equality, gender and racial, all across the publishing industry. However, Native Americans don’t seem to be the focus of these efforts in most cases.
This report will look at the status of Native American authors and writers in the United States, how they compare to their colleagues, and how big a part of the writing community they are in relation to their representation in the American workforce.
How many Native American authors are in the US?
As of 2020, around 837 authors of Native American origin are officially registered in the United States.
This is a 7% drop compared to the 2019 figures, when there were over 900 Native American authors in the US.
The number of Native American authors has been declining for the second year in a row, dropping from 980 in 2018.
Since 2014, the number of Native American authors in the US has grown by 14.66%, from 730 to 837.
However, Native American authors are showing the slowest growth among all minorities in the United States, trailing Black authors, as well as Asian and Latine & Hispanic authors.
Year
Number of Native American authors
Change
2020
837
-7.00%
2019
900
-8.16%
2018
980
27.77%
2017
767
2.13%
2016
751
19.78%
2015
627
-14.11%
2014
730
Since 2014
14.66%
These 837 Native American authors represent only 0.49% of all authors registered in the US as of 2020.
The share of Native American authors among their US colleagues had declined in 4 out of the last 6 years, with the biggest drop coming in 2015, when Native American authors accounted for only 0.42% of all US authors.
Overall, since 2014, the share of writers and authors of Native American origin has declined by 2.65%, and now they account for less than a half percent of all authors in the US.
This also means that the Native American authors are the minority group that suffered the biggest decline among all US authors.
Year
Share of Native American authors
Change
2020
0.490%
-7.84%
2019
0.532%
-8.88%
2018
0.584%
22.86%
2017
0.475%
-0.36%
2016
0.477%
14.65%
2015
0.416%
-17.40%
2014
0.503%
Since 2014
-2.65%
As of 2020, the US workforce has over 1.3 million Native Americans which account for 0.88% of the total country’s workforce.
At the same time, when it comes to writers and authors, this share of Native Americans drops to 0.49%, which means that the average Native American is 44% less likely to become an author compared to the average US citizen.
In 2014, the average Native American author was 39% less likely to become an author or writer compared to the average American.
Along with Asian and Black Americans, Native Americans are another minority group that decreased their chance of becoming an author or writer over the past 6 years.
While Native Americans increased their presence in the US workforce by 5.87% since 2014, writers and authors of Native American origin decreased their presents among their colleagues by 2.65% over the same period.
