Of the nation's nearly 56,000 Indian farmers, more than one in five is a Navajo. The five counties with more than 500 Indian-operated farms - San Juan and McKinley in New Mexico; and Coconino, Navajo and Apache in Arizona - each include a good chunk of the Navajo Nation, and San Juan County in Utah, which contains the Utah portion of the rez, is not far behind with between 251 and 500 Native farms.
Arizona and New Mexico are the two states with the highest proportion of Native agriculturalists, and Natives - Navajos, mostly - operate more than half of Arizona's farms and ranches.
If anything, the numbers are low, according to a USDA official familiar with the new farm census. The National Agricultural Statistics Service says it did its best to count Indian farmers, meeting with tribal leaders and advertising the census in local media, but the report itself concedes it probably missed more than a few.
