Indian population in the United States and Alaska. 1910 - RootsWeb

Number and proportion in the general divisions of
occupations.—Table 104 shows, for both sexes and for
each sex separately, the number of gainfully occupied
Indians in the United States in 1910, distributed by
general divisions of occupations.
Table 104
SEX AND GENERAL DIVISION OF OCCUPATIONS.
All occupations.
Both Sexes.
Agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry.
Ertraction of minerals
Manufacturing and mechanical industries
Transportation
Trade
Public service (not elsewhere classified)
.•
Professional service
Domestic and personal service
Clerical occupations
All occupations
.
MALE.
Agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry.
Extraction of minerals
Manufacturing and mechanical industries
Transportation
Trade
Public service (not elsewhere classified)
Professional service
Domestic and personal service
Clerical occupations
All occupations.
FEMALE.
Agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry.
Extraction of minerals
Manufacturmg and mechanical industries
Transportation
Trade
Public service (not elsewhere classified)
Professional service
Domestic and personal service
Clerical occupations
Number:
1910.
73,916
51,070
S63
11,960
1,930
1,385
752
1,260
4,609
387
59,206
OCCUPATIONS. 255
46,621
553
6,799
1,909
1,269
733
902
1,118
302
14,710
4,449
10
6.161
21
116
19
358
3,491
Per cent
distribution.
100.0
69.1
0.8
16.2
2.6
1.9
1.0
1.7
6.2
0.5
100.0
7a 7
0.9
9.8
3.2
2,1
1.2
1.5
1.9
0.5
100.0
30.2
0.1
41.9
0.1
0.8
0.1
2.4
23,7
0,6
According to Table 104, almost seven-tenths (69.1
per cent) of the gainfully occupied Indians in the
United States in 1910 were engaged in agriculture,
forestry, and animal husbandry; and almost onesixth
(16.2 per cent) of them were engaged in manufacturing
and mechanical industries. Thus 85.3 per
cent of the gainfully occupied Indians were engaged
in these two general divisions of occupations. Transportation
gave employment to 2.6 per cent of the total,
and domestic and personal service to 6.2 per cent, no
other general division of occupations giving employment
to as many as 2 per cent of the Indian workers.
For the males, as for both sexes combined, agriculture,
forestry, and animal husbandry gave employment
to the largest proportion of the Indians, 78.7 per
cent, and manufacturing and mechanical industries
ranked second, with 9.8 per cent. Manufacturing and
mechanical industries were the most important field
of employment for the female Indian workers in 1910,
41.9 per cent of them being engaged in this branch of
occupations, as compared with 30.2 per cent in agri-
culture, forestry, and animal husbandry, and 23.7
per cent in domestic and personal service.
Occupations, by sex.— ^Table 105 shows, for the
United States and for Alaska, the number and sex of
the Indians 10 years of age and over engaged in
specified occupations and occupation groups in 1910.
Table 105 shows that in 1910 the Indians of the
United States were employed in a rather large number
of occupations. Their occupations also were quite
diversified, ranging all the way from unskilled labor to
some of the highest proprietary, official, skilled, and
professional pursuits, such as manufacturers, bankers,
United States officials, mechanical engineers, locomotive
engineers, telegraph operators, actors, artists,
clergymen, college professors, lawyers, and physicians
and surgeons. But notwithstanding this diversity
of the Indian occupations, it is nevertheless true that
the great mass of the Indian workers in the United
States were engaged in a comparatively small num-
ber of occupations. Almost 7 out of every 10
(69.1 per cent) of the gainfully occupied Indians in
1910 were engaged in agriculture, forestry, and animal
husbanchy. Of the 225 occupations and occupation
groups shown in Table 105, there were only 39 that
were pursued by lOf or more Indians. Ten of these
occupations gave employment to 82.3 per cent of the
Indians in gainful occupations, and 85.4 per cent of
the total were employed in one of seven different large
occupation groups: Agricultural laborers (35.5 per
cent), farmers and stock raisers (29.2 per cent), lumbermen,
raftsmen, and woodchoppers (2.4 per cent),
laborers in manufacturing and transportation (6.3
per cent), basket makers and weavers (7.4 per cent),
launderers and laundresses (1.9 per cent), and servants
and waiters (2.6 per cent).
For Alaska, Table 105 shows that while the gain-
fully occupied Indians in 1910 were engaged in 85
different occupations and occupation groups, ranging
all the way from fishermen and hunters to manufac-
turers, Federal officials, clergymen, and school teachers,
9 out of every 10 (90.1 per cent) were engaged
in one of nine different occupations and occupa-
tion groups: Fishermen (24.1 per cent), reindeer
herders and keepers (2.7 per cent), gold and silver
mine operatives (2.2 per. cent), laborers in the building
'and hand trades (3.2 per cent), laborers and
semiskilled operatives in fish curing and packing (5.2
per cent), basket and moccasin makers (1.5 per
cent), retail dealers (1.5 per cent), hunters, trappers,
and guides (47.8 per cent), and servants (1.9 per
cent). Thus in 1910 fishing, hunting, trapping, and
guiding still gave employment to over seven-tenths
(71.9 per cent) of the gainfully employed Indians of
Alaska.