In March 2018, the NAACP sued the Census Bureau for being ill-prepared for the 2020 survey, citing canceled field tests and a lack of funding that could lead to a “dramatic undercount” of racial and ethnic minorities. The lawsuit, which is still pending in U.S. District Court in Maryland, said the Census Bureau has been operating “on the cheap.”

The lawsuit notes the bureau was set to execute a practice census in 2017 on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which straddles North and South Dakota, in order to test areas with a high Native American population. But the practice was canceled because of funding issues, the bureau said.

Now at Standing Rock, Cheryl Keepseagle, the census liaison, and Ira Taken Alive, the vice chairman of the tribe and head of the Complete Count Committee, have kick-started their own efforts to get a correct count.

Keepseagle, a member of the tribe, said she’s going to use newspaper, radio and TV ads as well as posters and word-of-mouth to inform people of the upcoming survey. In each of the districts across the 2.3 million acre reservation, she plans on having a set location where people can fill out the census and enter to win door prizes if they attend. Plus, she said the tribe will hire trusted local people to be door-to-door census takers when the time comes.