Edna Paisano

Edna Lee Paisano (January 1, 1948 – September 3, 2014 ) was a Nez Perce and Laguna Pueblo demographer and statistician. She was one of four children, including an older sister who died in early adulthood.

Paisano attended school in Lapwai, Idaho, and spent two years at Boise College. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1971.

Student activism

During her time at the University of Washington, she worked as part of a successful effort to found an American Indian cultural center in Fort Lawton.

Fort Lawton had not been ceded to the United States government, and when the military base was downsized, a movement of Seattle Indians sought to acquire land in accordance with treaty provisions. During their occupation of the land in 1970, dozens were arrested and briefly imprisoned, including Paisano. The building of the Daybreak Star Cultural Center was completed in 1977.

Career Paisano's first job in the federal government was working on the federal Head Start program, with Indian tribes nationally. There Paisano studied why Native American communities were being dramatically under-counted in the United States census, which caused them to receive disproportionately few government resources and services. After 20 years at the Census Bureau, Paisano took a job with the Environmental Protection Agency.

Selected works We the First Americans, US Census Bureau report, 1993 We the Americans: Pacific Islanders, US Census Bureau report, 1993 We the American-Asians, US Census Bureau report, 1993