South Salt Lake • The blessing was pronounced in Goshute. Part of a speech was in Samoan. Asian and Polynesian dancers and musicians performed. Some officials in charge were Latino. About every possible local racial or religious minority seemed to have a representative.
They gathered Tuesday to officially open the U.S. Census Bureau’s new Salt Lake County office and launch its efforts to count all residents in next year’s census — especially often hard-to-count minorities.
“It gives us voice,” said Virgil Johnson, former tribal chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation, before he blessed Utah’s census efforts.