Census aiming to count Amish

CANTON — St. Lawrence County officials will reach out to Amish residents in hopes of encouraging them to participate in the 2010 census.

Alma Ransom, a former St. Regis Mohawk Tribe chief and partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau, asked lawmakers Monday to help put her in touch with Amish communities in their districts.

"We don't know their numbers," she said. "We know they buy property; we just don't know how many of them there are. To say it's going to be good for them to participate will be a hard sell. They don't care about the government. They don't want or need anything."

The Amish have been identified as a potentially difficult population to educate about the importance of census participation because they won't be exposed to most of the advertising the Census Bureau plans to conduct, said John F. Tenbusch, county planner. He said the vast majority of the advertising campaign will be on radio, television and the Internet, media the Amish do not use.

"We're not sure how much local advertising in newspapers and billboards the Census Bureau is going to do, and we think the Amish are a growing population in our county. If they are growing and they're going to be missed by most of the ads, we want to do what we can to encourage them to participate," he said.

Census numbers are the basis for redrawing legislative districts and factor into how much government funding states and local governments receive. Ms. Ransom said it's critical that as many residents as possible are counted.

"We've lost a lot of people in the north country," Ms. Ransom said.

Karen M. Johnson-Weiner, a SUNY Potsdam professor who is considered an Amish culture expert, said there is no underlying reason why the Amish would not participate.

"Even in the Bible people were participating in the census," she said. "I think understanding what it is when it comes in the mail will be key, along with understanding that it's just a count. It's not assigning numbers. It's not registering people. It's just counting. I think making that as clear as possible will be important."

Ms. Johnson-Weiner said she will provide whatever assistance she can to help educate the Amish about the census.

"The Amish pay their taxes and don't draw on government resources," she said. "A lot of people don't understand that. They don't contribute to Social Security, but they don't collect on it, either. We benefit from their presence in the census; it really doesn't help them a whole lot, but it is something the government mandates."