Rural and Urban Omaha Indian Fertility

A 1972 survey of fertility among 98 Omaha Indian women of childbearing age living in rural and urban areas of Nebraska shows that the urban experience has not depressed either fertility levels or the desire for large numbers of children. Larger numbers of children were desired and produced by city women than by their reservation counterparts. For other socio-economic and cultural variables such as age, education, income, and preservation of cultural traditions, the populations were comparable. High fertility cannot be explained by religious background, ignorance of, or unwillingness to use birth control. Values placed upon large families are probably related to past and present experiences of high loss rates among those children conceived and born

Rural and Urban Seminole Indian Fertility

A 1972 survey of fertility among 116 Seminole Indian women aged 15 years and over living in rural and urban areas of Florida suggests that urban residence was clearly associated with lower fertility levels and the desire for smaller numbers of children. Larger numbers of children were desired and produced by rural reservation women than by their urban counterparts. Respondents were closely similar in average age (about 31) but differed strikingly in socioeconomic variables such as education and income while remaining similar in cultural variables such as language, powwow attendance, Green Corn Dance attendance, and degree of traditional dress. Approval of and use of birth control were much lower on the rural reservations. In this situation, the urban pressures toward lower family size so often reported in the literature appear to be at work: a statement not uniformly true among urbanizing American Indians, as shown in a previous study by the authors