Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans(also calledAmerican Indians,First Americans, orIndigenous Americans) are theIndigenous peoplesof theUnited States, particularly of thelower 48 statesandAlaska. They may also include any Americans whose origins lie in any of the indigenous peoples of North or South America. TheUnited States Census Bureaupublishes data about "American Indians andAlaska Natives", whom it defines as anyone "having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America ... and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment".Thecensusdoes not, however, enumerate "Native Americans" as such, noting that the latter term can encompass a broader set of groups, e.g.Native Hawaiians, which it tabulates separately.
TheEuropean colonization of the Americasfrom 1492 resulted in aprecipitous decline in the size of the Native American populationbecause ofnewly introduced diseases, including weaponized diseases and biological warfare by colonizers,wars,ethnic cleansing, andenslavement. Numerous scholars have classified elements of the colonization process as comprisinggenocideagainst Native Americans. As part of a policy ofsettler colonialism, European settlers continued to wage war and perpetrated massacres against Native American peoples,removedthem from theirancestral lands, and subjected them toone-sided government treatiesand discriminatory government policies. Into the 20th century, these policies focused on forcedassimilation.
When the United States was established, Native American tribes were considered semi-independent nations, because they generally lived in communities which were separate from communities of white settlers. The federal government signed treaties at a government-to-government level until theIndian Appropriations Act of 1871ended recognition of independent Native nations, and started treating them as "domestic dependent nations" subject to applicable federal laws. This law did preserve rights and privileges, including a large degree oftribal sovereignty. For this reason, many Native American reservations are still independent of state law and the actions of tribal citizens on these reservations are subject only to tribal courts and federal law. TheIndian Citizenship Actof 1924 granted US citizenship to all Native Americans born in the US who had not yet obtained it. This emptied the "Indians not taxed" category established by theUnited States Constitution, allowed Natives to vote in elections, and extended theFourteenth Amendmentprotections granted to people "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States. However, some states continued to denyNative Americans voting rightsfor decades. Titles II through VII of theCivil Rights Act of 1968comprise the Indian Civil Rights Act, which applies to Native American tribes and makes many but not all of the guarantees of theU.S. Bill of Rightsapplicable within the tribes.
Since the 1960s,Native American self-determinationmovements have resulted in positive changes to the lives of many Native Americans, though there are still manycontemporary issues faced by them. Today, there are over five million Native Americans in the US, about 80% of whom live outside reservations. As of 2020, the states with the highest percentage of Native Americans areAlaska,Oklahoma,Arizona,California,New Mexico, andTexas.
Beginning toward the end of the 15th century, themigration of Europeans to the Americasled to centuries of population, cultural, and agricultural transfer and adjustment betweenOldandNew Worldsocieties, a process known as theColumbian exchange. Because most Native American groups had preservedtheir historiesby means oforal traditionsand artwork, thefirst written accounts of the contact were provided by Europeans.
Ethnographersclassify theIndigenous peoples of North Americainto ten geographical regions which are inhabited by groups of people who share certainculturaltraits, called cultural areas.The ten cultural areas are:
At the time of the first contact, the Indigenous cultures were different from those of the proto-industrial and mostlyChristianimmigrants. Some Northeastern and Southwestern cultures, in particular, werematrilinealand they were organized and operated on a more collective basis than the culture which Europeans were familiar with. Most Indigenous American tribes treated their hunting grounds and agricultural lands as land that could be used by their entire tribe. Europeans had developed concepts of individualproperty rightswith respect to land that were extremely different. The differences in cultures, as well as the shifting alliances among different nations during periods of warfare, caused extensive political tension, ethnic violence, and social disruption.
Native Americans suffered high fatality rates fromcontact with European diseasesthat were new to them, and to which they had not acquiredimmunity.Smallpox epidemicsare thought to have caused the greatest loss of life for Indigenous populations. "The decline of native American populations was rapid and severe, probably the greatest demographic disaster ever. Old World diseases were the primary killer. In many regions, particularly the tropical lowlands, populations fell by 90 percent or more in the first century after the contact."
Estimates of pre-Columbian population of the United States vary from 4 to 18 million.Jeffrey Ostler writes: "Most Indigenous communities were eventually afflicted by a variety of diseases, but in many cases this happened long after Europeans first arrived. When severe epidemics did hit, it was often less because Native bodies lack immunity than because European colonialism disrupted Native Communities and damaged their resources, making them more vulnerable to pathogens."
After thethirteen British coloniesrevolted againstGreat Britainand established the United States,PresidentGeorge WashingtonandSecretary of WarHenry Knoxconceived the idea of "civilizing" Native Americans in preparation for their assimilation as U.S. citizens.Assimilation, whether it was voluntary, as it was with theChoctaw,orforced, was consistently maintained as a matter of policy by consecutive American administrations.
During the 19th century, the ideology known asmanifest destinybecame integral to the American nationalist movement. Westward expansion ofEuropean Americanpopulations after theAmerican Revolutionresulted in increasing pressure on Native Americans and their lands, warfare, and rising tensions. In 1830, theU.S. Congresspassed theIndian Removal Act, authorizing thefederal governmentto relocate Native Americans from their homelands within established states to lands west of theMississippi River, in order to accommodate continued European American expansion. This resulted in what amounted to theethnic cleansingorgenocideof many tribes, who were subjected to brutalforced marches. The most infamous of these came to be known as theTrail of Tears.
Contemporary Native Americans have a unique relationship with the United States because they may be members of nations, tribes, or bands that havesovereigntyandtreaty rightsupon which federal Indian law and a federal Indian trust relationship are based.Cultural activism since the late 1960s has increased the participation of Indigenous peoples in American politics. It has also led to expanded efforts to teach and preserve Indigenous languages for younger generations, and to establish a more robust cultural infrastructure: Native Americans have founded independent newspapers and online media outlets, includingFirst Nations Experience, the first Native American television channel;establishedNative American studiesprograms, tribal schoolsuniversities, museums, and language programs. Literature is at the growing forefront of American Indian studies in many genres, with the notable exception of fiction—some traditional American Indians experience fictional narratives as insulting when they conflict with traditional oral tribal narratives.
The terms used to refer to Native Americanshave at times been controversial. The ways Native Americans refer to themselves vary by region and generation, with many olderNative Americans self-identifying as "Indians" or "American Indians", while youngerNative Americans often identify as "Indigenous" or "Aboriginal". The term "Native American" has not traditionally includedNative Hawaiiansor certainAlaskan Natives,such asAleut,Yup'ik, orInuitpeoples. By comparison, theIndigenous peoples of Canadaare generally known asFirst Nations,InuitandMétis(FNIM).
The history of Native Americans in the United States began before the founding of the U.S., tens of thousands of years ago with thesettlement of the Americasby thePaleo-Indians. The Eurasian migration to the Americas occurred over millennia viaBeringia, a land bridge betweenSiberiaandAlaska, as early humans spread southward and eastward, forming distinct cultures and societies. Archaeological evidence suggests these migrations began 60,000 years ago and continued until around 12,000 years ago. Some may have arrived even before this time fishing in kayaks along what is known as the "Kelp Highway".  The early inhabitants by land were classified asPaleo-Indians, who spread throughout the Americas, diversifying into numerous culturally distinct nations. Major Paleo-Indian cultures included theClovisandFolsom traditions, identified through unique spear points and large-game hunting methods, especially during theLithic stage.
Around 8000 BCE, as the climate stabilized, new cultural periods like theArchaic stagearose, during which hunter-gatherer communities developed complex societies across North America. TheMound Builderscreated large earthworks, such as atWatson BrakeandPoverty Point, which date to 3500 BCE and 2200 BCE, respectively, indicating early social and organizational complexity. By 1000 BCE, Native societies in theWoodland perioddeveloped advanced social structures and trade networks, with theHopewell traditionconnecting the Eastern Woodlands to theGreat Lakesand theGulf of Mexico. This period led to theMississippian culture, with large urban centers likeCahokia—a city with complex mounds and a population exceeding 20,000 by 1250 CE.
From the 15th century onward, European contact drastically reshaped the Americas. Explorers and settlers introduced diseases, causing massive Indigenous population declines, and engaged in violent conflicts with Native groups. By the 19th century, westward U.S. expansion, rationalized byManifest destiny, pressured tribes into forced relocations like theTrail of Tears, which decimated communities and redefined Native territories. Despite resistance in events like theSioux UprisingandBattle of Little Bighorn, Native American lands continued to be reduced through policies like theIndian Removal Actof 1830 and later theDawes Act, which undermined communal landholding.
A justification for the policy of conquest and subjugation of the Indigenous people emanated from the stereotyped perceptions of Native Americans as "merciless Indian savages" (as described in theUnited States Declaration of Independence).Sam Wolfson inThe Guardianwrites, "The declaration's passage has often been cited as an encapsulation of the dehumanizing attitude toward Indigenous Americans that the US was founded on."
Native American nations on the plains in the west continued armed conflicts with the U.S. throughout the 19th century, through what were called generallyIndian Wars.Notable conflicts in this period include theDakota War,Great Sioux War,Snake War,Colorado War, andTexas-Indian Wars. Expressing the frontier anti-Indian sentiment,Theodore Rooseveltbelieved the Indians were destined to vanish under the pressure of white civilization, stating in an 1886 lecture:
One of the last and most notable events during the Indian wars was theWounded Knee Massacrein 1890.In the years leading up to it the U.S. government had continued to seizeLakotalands. AGhost Danceritual on the Northern Lakota reservation at Wounded Knee,South Dakota, led to the U.S. Army's attempt to subdue the Lakota. The dance was part of a religious movement founded by theNorthern Paiutespiritual leaderWovokathat told of the return of the Messiah to relieve the suffering of Native Americans and promised that if they would live righteous lives and perform the Ghost Dance properly, the European American colonists would vanish, the bison would return, and the living and the dead would be reunited in anEdenic world.On December 29 at Wounded Knee, gunfire erupted, and U.S. soldiers killed up to 300 Indians, mostly old men, women, and children.
Days after the massacre, the authorL. Frank Baumwrote:
In the 20th century, Native Americans served in significant numbers during World War II, marking a turning point for Indigenous visibility and involvement in broader American society. Post-war, Native activism grew, with movements such as theAmerican Indian Movement(AIM) drawing attention to Indigenous rights. Landmark legislation like theIndian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Actof 1975 recognized tribal autonomy, leading to the establishment of Native-run schools and economic initiatives. Tribal sovereignty has continued to evolve, with legal victories and federal acknowledgments supporting cultural revitalization.
By the 21st century, Native Americans had achieved increased control over tribal lands and resources, although many communities continue to grapple with the legacy of displacement and economic challenges. Urban migration has also grown, with over 70% of Native Americans residing in cities by 2012, navigating issues of cultural preservation and discrimination. Continuing legal and social efforts address these concerns, building on centuries of resilience and adaptation that characterize Indigenous history across the Americas.
According to the 2020 census, the U.S. population was 331.4 million. Of this, 3.7 million people, or 1.1 percent, reported American Indian or Alaska Native ancestry alone. In addition, 5.9 million people (1.8 percent), reported American Indian or Alaska Native in combination with one or more other races.
The definition of American Indian or Alaska Native used in the 2010 census was as follows:
Despite generally referring to groups indigenous to the continental US and Alaska, this demographic as defined by the US Census Bureau includes allIndigenous people of the Americas, includingMesoamericanpeoples such as theMaya, as well asCanadianandSouth American natives.In 2022, 634,503 Indigenous people in the United States identified with Central American Indigenous groups, 875,183 identified with theIndigenous people of Mexico, and 47,518 identified with CanadianFirst Nations.Of the 3.2 million Americans who identified as American Indian or Alaska Native alone in 2022, around 45% are ofHispanic or Latinoethnicity, with this number growing as increasing numbers of Indigenous people from Latin American countries immigrate to the US and more Latinos self-identify with indigenous heritage.Of groups Indigenous to the United States, the largest self-reported tribes areCherokee(1,449,888),Navajo(434,910),Choctaw(295,373),Blackfeet(288,255),Sioux(220,739), andApache(191,823).205,954 respondents specified anAlaska Nativeidentity.
Native Hawaiiansare counted separately from Native Americans by the census, being classified asPacific Islanders. According to 2022 estimates, 714,847 Americans reported Native Hawaiian ancestry.
The 2010 census permitted respondents to self-identify as being of one or more races. Self-identification dates from the census of 1960; prior to that the race of the respondent was determined by the opinion of the census taker. The option to select more than one race was introduced in 2000.If American Indian or Alaska Native was selected, the form requested the individual provide the name of the "enrolled or principal tribe".
Censuses counted around 346,000 Native Americans in 1880 (including 33,000 in Alaska and 82,000 in Oklahoma, back then known asIndian Territory), around 274,000 in 1890 (including 25,500 in Alaska and 64,500 in Oklahoma), 362,500 in 1930 and 366,500 in 1940, including those on and off reservations in the 48 states and Alaska. Native American population rebounded sharply from 1950, when they numbered 377,273; it reached 551,669 in 1960, 827,268 in 1970, with an annual growth rate of 5%, four times the national average.Total spending on Native Americans averaged $38 million a year in the late 1920s, dropping to a low of $23 million in 1933, and returning to $38 million in 1940. TheOffice of Indian Affairscounted more American Indians than theCensus Bureauuntil 1930:
American Indians and Alaska Natives as percentage of the total population between 1880 and 2020:
Absolute numbers of American Indians and Alaska Natives between 1880 and 2020 (since 1890 according to theCensus Bureau):
78% of Native Americans live outside a reservation. Full-blood individuals are more likely to live on a reservation than mixed-blood individuals. TheNavajo, with 286,000 full-blood individuals, is the largest tribe if only full-blood individuals are counted; the Navajo are the tribe with the highest proportion of full-blood individuals, 86.3%. TheCherokeehave a different history; it is the largest tribe, with 819,000 individuals, and it has 284,000 full-blood individuals.
As of 2012, 70% of Native Americans live in urban areas, up from 45% in 1970 and 8% in 1940. Urban areas with significant Native American populations include Minneapolis, Denver, Phoenix, Tucson, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Houston, New York City, and Los Angeles. Many live in poverty. Racism, unemployment, drugs and gangs are common problems which Indian social service organizations such as the Little Earth housing complex in Minneapolis attempt to address.
Below are numbers for U.S. citizens self-identifying to selected tribal groupings, according to the 2010 U.S. census.
There are 573federally recognized tribal governmentsand 326Indian reservationsin the United States. These tribes possess the right to form their own governments, to enforce laws (both civil and criminal) within their lands, to tax, to establish requirements for membership, to license and regulate activities, to zone, and to exclude persons from tribal territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example, neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or coin money (this includes paper currency).In addition, there are a number of tribes that arerecognized by individual states, but not by the federal government. The rights and benefits associated withstate recognitionvary from state to state.
Many Native Americans and advocates of Native American rights point out that the U.S. federal government's claim to recognize the "sovereignty" of Native American peoples falls short, given that the United States wishes to govern Native American peoples and treat them as subject to U.S. law.Such advocates contend that full respect for Native American sovereignty would require the U.S. government to deal with Native American peoples in the same manner as any other sovereign nation, handling matters related to relations with Native Americans through the Secretary of State, rather than theBureau of Indian Affairs. The Bureau of Indian Affairs reports on its website that its "responsibility is the administration and management of 55,700,000 acres (225,000 km) of land held in trust by the United States for American Indians, Indian tribes, andAlaska Natives".Many Native Americans and advocates of Native American rights believe that it is condescending for such lands to be considered "held in trust" and regulated in any fashion by any entity other than their own tribes.
Some tribal groups have been unable to document the cultural continuity required for federal recognition. To achieve federal recognition and its benefits, tribes must prove continuous existence since 1900. The federal government has maintained this requirement, in part because through participation on councils and committees, federally recognized tribes have been adamant about groups' satisfying the same requirements as they did.TheMuwekma Ohloneof the San Francisco Bay Area are pursuing litigation in the federal court system to establish recognition.Many of the smaller eastern tribes, long considered remnants of extinct peoples, have been trying to gain official recognition of their tribal status. Several tribes in Virginia and North Carolina have gained state recognition. Federal recognition confers some benefits, including the right to label arts and crafts as Native American and permission to apply for grants that are specifically reserved for Native Americans. But gaining federal recognition as a tribe is extremely difficult; to be established as a tribal group, members have to submit extensivegenealogicalproof of tribal descent and continuity of the tribe as a culture.
In July 2000, theWashington State Republican Partyadopted a resolution recommending that the federal and legislative branches of theU.S. governmentterminate tribal governments.In 2007, a group ofDemocratic Partycongressmen and congresswomen introduced a bill in theU.S. House of Representativesto terminate Federal recognition of theCherokee Nation.This was related to their voting to exclude Cherokee Freedmen as members of the tribe unless they had a Cherokee ancestor on the Dawes Rolls, although all Cherokee Freedmen and their descendants had been members since 1866.
As of 2004, various Native Americans are wary of attempts by others to gain control of their reservation lands for natural resources, such ascoalanduraniumin the West.
The State ofMaineis the only State House Legislature that allows Representatives from Indian Tribes. The three nonvoting members represent the Penobscot Nation, Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians, andPassamaquoddy Tribe. These representatives can sponsor any legislation regarding American Indian affairs or co-sponsor any pending State of Maine legislation. Maine is unique regarding Indigenous leadership representation.
In the state ofVirginia, Native Americans face a unique problem. Until 2017 Virginia previously had no federally recognized tribes but the state had recognized eight. This is related historically to the greater impact of disease and warfare on the Virginia Indian populations, as well as their intermarriage with Europeans and Africans. Some people confused ancestry with culture, but groups of Virginia Indians maintained their cultural continuity. Most of their early reservations were ended under the pressure of early European settlement.
Some historians also note the problems of Virginia Indians in establishing documented continuity of identity, due to the work ofWalter Ashby Plecker(1912–1946). As registrar of the state's Bureau of Vital Statistics, he applied his own interpretation of theone-drop rule, enacted in law in 1924 as the state's Racial Integrity Act. It recognized only two races: "white" and "colored".
Plecker, asegregationist, believed that the state's Native Americans had been "mongrelized" by intermarriage with African Americans; to him, ancestry determined identity, rather than culture. He thought that some people of partial black ancestry were trying to "pass" as Native Americans. Plecker thought that anyone with any African heritage had to be classified as colored, regardless of appearance, amount of European or Native American ancestry, and cultural/community identification. Plecker pressured local governments into reclassifying all Native Americans in the state as "colored" and gave them lists of family surnames to examine for reclassification based on his interpretation of data and the law. This led to the state's destruction of accurate records related to families and communities who identified as Native American (as in church records and daily life). By his actions, sometimes different members of the same family were split by being classified as "white" or "colored". He did not allow people to enter their primary identification as Native American in state records.In 2009, theSenate Indian Affairs Committeeendorsed a bill that would grant federal recognition to tribes in Virginia.
As of 2000, the largest groups in the United States by population wereNavajo,Cherokee,Choctaw,Sioux,Ojibwe,Apache,Blackfeet,Iroquois, andPueblo. In 2000, eight of ten Americans with Native American ancestry were of mixed ancestry. It is estimated that by 2100 that figure will rise to nine out of ten.
Thecivil rights movementwas a very significant moment for the rights of Native Americans and other people of color. Native Americans faced racism and prejudice for hundreds of years, and this increased after theAmerican Civil War. Native Americans, like African Americans, were subjected to theJim Crow Lawsand segregation in theDeep Southespecially after they were made citizens through theIndian Citizenship Actof 1924. As a body of law, Jim Crow institutionalized economic, educational, and social disadvantages for Native Americans, and other people of color living in the south.Native American identity was especially targeted by a system that only wanted to recognize white or colored, and the government began to question the legitimacy of some tribes because they had intermarried with African Americans.Native Americans were also discriminated and discouraged from voting in the southern and western states.
In thesouthsegregation was a major problem for Native Americans seeking education, but the NAACP's legal strategy would later change this.Movements such asBrown v. Board of Educationwas a major victory for the Civil Rights Movement headed by theNAACP, and inspired Native Americans to start participating in the Civil Rights Movement.Martin Luther King Jr.began assisting Native Americans in the south in the late 1950s after they reached out to him.At that time the remainingCreekin Alabama were trying to completely desegregate schools in their area. In this case, light-complexioned Native children were allowed to ride school buses to previously all white schools, while dark-skinned Native children from the same band were barred from riding the same buses.Tribal leaders, upon hearing of King's desegregation campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, contacted him for assistance. He promptly responded and, through his intervention, the problem was quickly resolved.King would later make trips to Arizona visiting Native Americans on reservations, and in churches encouraging them to be involved in the Civil Rights Movement.In King's bookWhy We Can't Waithe writes:
Native Americans would then actively participate and support the NAACP, and the civil rights movement.The National Indian Youth Council (NIYC) would soon rise in 1961 to fight for Native American rights during the Civil Rights Movement, and were strong King supporters.During the1963 March on Washingtonthere was a sizable Native American contingent, including many from South Dakota, and many from theNavajo nation.Native Americans also participated thePoor People's Campaignin 1968.The NIYC were very active supporters of thePoor People's Campaignunlike theNational Congress of American Indians(NCAI); the NIYC and other Native organizations met with King in March 1968 but the NCAI disagreed on how to approach the anti-poverty campaign; the NCAI decided against participating in the march.The NCAI wished to pursue their battles in the courts and with Congress, unlike the NIYC.The NAACP also inspired the creation of theNative American Rights Fund(NARF) which was patterned after the NAACP's Legal Defense and Education Fund.Furthermore, the NAACP continued to organize to stop mass incarceration and end thecriminalization of Native Americansand other communities of people of color.The following is an excerpt from a statement fromMel Thomon May 1, 1968, during a meeting with Secretary of StateDean Rusk:(It was written by members of the Workshop on American Indian Affairs and the NIYC)
Native American struggles amidpovertyto maintain life on the reservation or in larger society have resulted in a variety of health issues, some related to nutrition and health practices. The community suffers a vulnerability to anddisproportionately high rate of alcoholism:
Recent studies also point to rising rates of stroke,heart disease,and diabetesin the Native American population.
Native Americans have been subjected to discrimination for centuries. In response to being labeled "merciless Indian savages" in the Declaration of Independence, Simon Moya-Smith, culture editor atIndian Country Today, states, "Any holiday that would refer to my people in such a repugnant, racist manner is certainly not worth celebrating. [July Fourth] is a day we celebrate our resiliency, our culture, our languages, our children and we mourn the millions — literally millions — of indigenous people who have died as a consequence of American imperialism."
In a study conducted in 2006–2007, non-Native Americans admitted they rarely encountered Native Americans in their daily lives. This is largely due to the number of Native Americans having dwindled since whitesettler colonialism, while those who survived were forcibly moved into reservations; both of these factors were referenced byAdolf Hitlerin 1928 when he admiringly stated the US had "gunned down the millions of Redskins to a few hundred thousand, and now keep the modest remnant under observation in a cage".While sympathetic toward Native Americans and expressing regret over the past, most people had only a vague understanding of the problems facing Native Americans today. For their part, Native Americans told researchers that they believed they continued to faceprejudice, mistreatment, andinequalityin the broader society.
Federal contractors and subcontractors, such as businesses and educational institutions, are legally required to adoptequal opportunity employmentandaffirmative actionmeasures intended to prevent discrimination against employees or applicants for employment on the basis of "color, religion, sex, or national origin".For this purpose, a Native American is defined as "A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains a tribal affiliation or community attachment". The passing of theIndian Relocation Actsaw a 56% increase in Native American city dwellers over 40 years.The Native American urban poverty rate exceeds that of reservation poverty rates due to discrimination in hiring processes.However, self-reporting is permitted: "Educational institutions and other recipients should allow students and staff to self-identify their race and ethnicity unless self-identification is not practicable or feasible."
Self-reporting opens the door to "box checking" by people who, despite not having a substantial relationship to Native American culture, innocently or fraudulently check the box for Native American.
The difficulties that Native Americans face in the workforce, for example, a lack of promotions and wrongful terminations are attributed to racial stereotypes and implicit biases. Native American business owners are seldom offered auxiliary resources that are crucial for entrepreneurial success.
Throughout history, settler colonialism has remained a violent and destructive tool to displace and exterminate Native American peoples. The use of sexual violence to perpetuate this is very common. Musocgee Creek law professor Sarah Deer highlights the high number of Native women who still experience this violence: "Since 1999 a variety of reports and studies have come to the same conclusion- namely, that Native women in particular suffer the highest rate of per capita rape in the United States." The continued acts of sexual violence against Native women have been perpetuated by colonization and the actions of colonizers. Native women through time have been portrayed as extremely sexual which only enforces sexual violence. Deer explains, "Dispossession and relocation of indigenous peoples on this continent both necessitated and precipitated a highly gendered and sexualized dynamic in which Native women's bodies became commodities- bought and sold for the purposes of sexual gratification (or profit), invariably transporting them far away from their homes."
American Indian activists in the United States and Canada have criticized the use of Native Americanmascotsin sports, as perpetuating stereotypes. This is consideredcultural appropriation.
There has been a steady decline in the number of secondary school and college teams using such names, images, and mascots. Some tribal team names have been approved by the tribe in question, such as the Seminole Council of Florida  approving use of their name for the teams ofFlorida State University.The NCAA allows the use even though the NCAA "continues to believe the stereotyping of Native Americans is wrong."
Among professional teams, theNBA'sGolden State Warriorsdiscontinued use of Native American-themed logos in 1971. TheNFL'sWashington Commanders, formerly theWashington Redskins, changed their name in 2020, asthe termis considered to be a racial slur.
MLB'sCleveland Guardianswere formerly known as theCleveland Indians. Their use of a caricature calledChief Wahoofaced protest for decades.Starting in 2019, Chief Wahoo ceased to be a logo for Cleveland Indians, though Chief Wahoo merchandise could still be sold in the Cleveland-area.On December 13, 2020,The New York Timesreported that Cleveland would be officially changing their name.On November 19, 2021, the team officially became theCleveland Guardians.
Native Americans have been depicted byAmerican artistsin various ways at different periods. A number of 19th- and 20th-century United States and Canadian painters, often motivated by a desire to document and preserve Native culture, specialized in Native American subjects. Among the most prominent of these wereElbridge Ayer Burbank,George Catlin,Seth Eastman,Paul Kane,W. Langdon Kihn,Charles Bird King,Joseph Henry Sharp, andJohn Mix Stanley.
In the 20th century, early portrayals of Native Americans inmoviesandtelevisionroles were first performed by European Americans dressed in mock traditional attire. Examples includedThe Last of the Mohicans(1920),Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans(1957), andF Troop(1965–1967). In later decades, Native American actors such asJay SilverheelsinThe Lone Rangertelevision series (1949–1957) came to prominence. The roles of Native Americans were limited and not reflective of Native American culture. By the 1970s some Native American film roles began to show more complexity, such as those inLittle Big Man(1970),Billy Jack(1971), andThe Outlaw Josey Wales(1976), which depicted Native Americans in minor supporting roles.
For years, Native people on American television were relegated to secondary, subordinate roles. During the years of the seriesBonanza(1959–1973), no major or secondary Native characters appeared on a consistent basis. The seriesThe Lone Ranger(1949–1957),Cheyenne(1955–1963), andLaw of the Plainsman(1959–1963) had Native characters who were essentially aides to the central white characters. This continued in such series asHow the West Was Won. These programs resembled the "sympathetic" yet contradictory filmDances With Wolvesof 1990, in which, according to Ella Shohat and Robert Stam, the narrative choice was to relate the Lakota story as told through a Euro-American voice, for wider impact among a general audience.Like the 1992 remake ofThe Last of the MohicansandGeronimo: An American Legend(1993),Dances with Wolvesemployed a number of Native American actors, and made an effort to portray Indigenous languages. In 1996,Plains CreeactorMichael Greyeyeswould play renowned Native American warriorCrazy Horsein the 1996 television filmCrazy Horse,and would also later play renowned Sioux chiefSitting Bullin the 2017 movieWoman Walks Ahead.
The 1998 filmSmoke Signals, which was set on theCoeur D'Alene Reservationand discussed hardships of present-day American Indian families living on reservations, featured numerous Native American actors as well.The film was the first feature film to be produced and directed by Native Americans, and was also the first feature to include an exclusive Native American cast.At the annual Sundance Film Festival,Smoke Signalswould win the Audience Award and its producerChris Eyre, an enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, would win the Filmmaker's Trophy.In 2009,We Shall Remain(2009), a television documentary byRic Burnsand part of theAmerican Experienceseries, presented a five-episode series "from a Native American perspective". It represented "an unprecedented collaboration between Native and non-Native filmmakers and involves Native advisors and scholars at all levels of the project".The five episodes explore the impact ofKing Philip's Waron the northeastern tribes, the "Native American confederacy" ofTecumseh's War, the U.S.-forced relocation of Southeastern tribes known as theTrail of Tears, the pursuit and capture ofGeronimoand theApache Wars, and concludes with theWounded Knee incident, participation by theAmerican Indian Movement, and the increasing resurgence of modern Native cultures since.
The most common of the modern terms to refer to Indigenous peoples of the United States areIndians,American Indians, andNative Americans. Up to the early to mid 18th century, the termAmericanswas not applied to people of European heritage in North America. Instead it was equivalent to the termIndians. As people of European heritage began using the termAmericansto refer instead to themselves, the wordIndiansbecame historically the most often employed term.
The termIndians, long laden with racist stereotypes, began to be widely replaced in the 1960s with the termNative Americans, which recognized the Indigeneity of the people who first made the Americas home. But as the termNative Americansbecame popular, the American Indian Movement saw pejorative connotations in the termnativeand reappropriated the termIndian, seeing it as witness to the history of violence against the many nations that lived in the Americas before European arrival.
The termNative Americanwas introduced in the United States in preference to the older termIndianto distinguish theIndigenous peoples of the Americasfrom the people ofIndia. It may have been coined byMohicanSachemJohn Wannuaucon Quinney, in an 1852 address to the US Congress where he argued against proposed resettlement.
The termAmerindian, aportmanteauof "American Indian", was coined in 1902 by theAmerican Anthropological Association. However, it has been controversial since its creation. It was immediately rejected by some leading members of the Association, and, while adopted by many, it was never universally accepted.While never popular in Indigenous communities themselves, it remains a preferred term among some anthropologists, notably in some parts of Canada and theEnglish-speaking Caribbean.
During World War II, draft boards typically classified American Indians from Virginia asNegroes.
In 1995, a plurality of Indigenous Americans, however, preferred the termAmerican Indianand manytribesinclude the word Indian in their formal title.
Criticism of theneologismNative Americancomes from diverse sources.Russell Means, an Oglala Lakota activist, opposed the termNative Americanbecause he believed it was imposed by the government without the consent of Native people.
A 1995 U.S. Census Bureau survey found that more Native Americans in the United States preferredAmerican IndiantoNative American.Most American Indians are comfortable withIndian,American Indian, andNative American.That term is reflected in the name chosen for theNational Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004 onthe MallinWashington, D.C..
Other commonly used terms areFirst Americans,First Nations, andNative Peoples.
Colonial ecological violence, defined by sociologist J. M. Bacon as the result of eco-social disruptions that "generate colonial ecological violence, a unique form of violence perpetrated by the settler-colonial state, private industry, and settler-colonial culture as a whole."The relocation and displacement of Native peoples is a result of the colonizer mindset that land is a commodity. By removing these communities from their Native land, settlers are preventing the ways of life and the use of culture-affirming resources. Gilio-Whitaker, highlights some of the ways in which these practices are reinforced, with the concept of environmental deprivation – "historical processes of land and resource dispossession calculated to bring about the destruction of Indigenous lives and cultures." The reason these lands are so important to Native populations is because, “Since a strong component of many Indigenous cultures is a robust relationship to place, it serves to reason that forced removals, settler resource appropriation, and the ecological damage perpetuated by US settle colonial society contribute to significant "conflict" between "traditional cultural values" and "those of majority culture".
The Karuk tribe in Klamath, California are one of the many victims to colonial ecological violence. One of the major ways of life to the Karuk tribe is the use of fires to maintain and regulate their environment. Sociologist Kari Marie Norgaard goes into detail about how colonialism disrupted these ways of life. These fires were also used to correct travel routes and optimized hunting, which is a major part of Karuk life. In 1905, the Klamath National Forest was established which prevented the burning of fires on Karuk land- "Fire exclusion, then, has simultaneously produced indigenous exclusion, erasure, and replacement." Norgaard explains that this land is one of the most economically wealthy spots due to the establishment of the forest, which only further demonstrates the ways in which settler-colonialism enables and continues to negatively impact the land that Indigenous people live(d) on.
The Potawatomi tribe had long occupied the Great Lakes region of Northern America, up until they were displaced and spread out around the US. They had previously lived on 30 million acres of land, building cultural, familial, and other-than-human relationships for generations. (Whyte, 2016) Citizen Potawatomi environmental philosopher Kyle Powys Whyte highlights the ways in which this displacement has had violent and detrimental impacts on the tribe. “The consequences of capitalist economics, such as deforestation, water pollution, the clearing of land for large scale agriculture and urbanization, generate immediate disruptions on ecosystems "rapidly" rendering them very different from what they were like before, undermining Indigenous knowledge systems and Indigenous peoples' capacity to cultivate landscapes and adjust to environmental change.”
TheMiami tribe, which now occupies Oklahoma, once resided in Oxford, Ohio, where Miami University now is placed. Historian Jeffrey Ostler provides insight into the forced movement of the Miami tribe off their land. In 1818, the tribe agreed to give up a large amount of land to U.S. officials (enough to create twenty-two Indiana counties. It was not until 1826 that Lewis Cass informed them and nearby Potawatomi, "You must remove or perish."This plan did not work, but the officials persisted and eventually the Miami tribe would be forced off their land in 1846. Miami University has a land acknowledgement document and a center dedicated to working with the Miami tribe of Oklahoma, though this is the only tribe from the original Miami tribe that is accredited by the U.S. government.
BecauseIndian reservationshavetribal sovereignty, states have limited ability to forbid gambling there, as codified by theIndian Gaming Regulatory Actof 1988. Tribes runcasinos,bingohalls, and othergamblingoperations, and as of 2011, there were 460 such operations run by 240 tribes,with a total annual revenue of $27 billion.
Numerous tribes around the country have entered the financial services market including theOtoe-Missouria,Tunica-Biloxi, and theRosebud Sioux. Because of the challenges involved in starting a financial services business from scratch, many tribes hire outside consultants and vendors to help them launch these businesses and manage the regulatory issues involved.
Similar to the tribal sovereignty debates that occurred when tribes first entered the gaming industry, the tribes, states, and federal government are currently in disagreement regarding who possesses the authority to regulate these e-commerce business entities.
Prosecution of serious crime, historically endemic on reservations,was required by the 1885 Major Crimes Act,18 U.S.C. §§1153, 3242, and court decisions to be investigated by the federal government, usually theFederal Bureau of Investigation, and prosecuted byUnited States Attorneysof theUnited States federal judicial districtin which the reservation lies.
A December 13, 2009New York Timesarticle about growinggang violenceon thePine Ridge Indian Reservationestimated that there were 39 gangs with 5,000 members on that reservation alone.Navajocountry recently reported 225 gangs in its territory.
As of 2012, a high incidence of rape continued to impact Native American women and Alaskan native women. According to the Department of Justice, 1 in 3 Native women have suffered rape or attempted rape, more than twice the national rate.About 46 percent of Native American women have been raped, beaten, or stalked by an intimate partner, according to a 2010 study by theCenters for Disease Control.According to Professor N. Bruce Duthu, "More than 80 percent of Indian victims identify their attacker as non-Indian".
Today, other than tribes successfully running casinos, many tribes struggle, as they are often located on reservations isolated from the main economic centers of the country. The estimated 2.1 million Native Americans are the most impoverished of all ethnic groups. According to the2000 census, an estimated 400,000 Native Americans reside on reservation land. While some tribes have had success with gaming, only 40% of the 562 federally recognized tribes operatecasinos.According to a 2007 survey by theU.S. Small Business Administration, only 1% of Native Americans own and operate a business.
The barriers toeconomic developmenton Native American reservations have been identified by Joseph KaltandStephen Cornellof theHarvard Project on American Indian Economic DevelopmentatHarvard University, in their report:What Can Tribes Do? Strategies and Institutions in American Indian Economic Development(2008),are summarized as follows:
A major barrier to development is the lack of entrepreneurial knowledge and experience withinIndian reservations. "A general lack of education and experience about business is a significant challenge to prospective entrepreneurs", was the report on Native Americanentrepreneurshipby the Northwest Area Foundation in 2004. "Native American communities that lack entrepreneurial traditions and recent experiences typically do not provide the support that entrepreneurs need to thrive. Consequently, experiential entrepreneurship education needs to be embedded into school curriculum and after-school and other community activities. This would allow students to learn the essential elements of entrepreneurship from a young age and encourage them to apply these elements throughout life".
Some scholars argue that the existing theories and practices ofeconomic developmentare not suitable for Native American communities—given the lifestyle, economic, and cultural differences, as well as the unique history of Native American-U.S. relations.Little economic development research has been conducted on Native American communities. The federal government fails to consider place-based issues of American Indian poverty by generalizing the demographic.In addition, the concept of economic development threatens to upend the multidimensionality of Native American culture.The dominance of federal government involvement in Indigenous developmental activities perpetuates and exacerbates thesalvage paradigm.
Native land owned by individual Native Americans sometimes cannot be developed because of fractionalization. Fractionalization occurs when a landowner dies, and their land is inherited by their children, but not subdivided. This means that one parcel might be owned by 50 different individuals. A majority of those holding interest must agree to any proposal to develop the land, and establishing this consent is time-consuming, cumbersome, and sometimes impossible.
Another landownership issue on reservations ischeckerboarding, where tribal land is interspersed with land owned by the federal government on behalf of Natives, individually owned plots, and land owned by non-Native individuals. This prevents Tribal governments from securing plots of land large enough for economic development or agricultural uses.Because reservation land is owned "in trust" by the federal government, individuals living on reservations cannot build equity in their homes. This bars Native Americans from getting loans, as there is nothing that a bank can collect if the loan is not paid. Past efforts to encourage land ownership (such as the Dawes Act) resulted in a net loss of Tribal land. After they were familiarized with theirsmallholder status, Native American landowners were lifted of trust restrictions and their land would get transferred back to them, contingent on a transactional fee to the federal government. The transfer fee discouraged Native American land ownership, with 65% of tribal-owned land being sold to non-Native Americans by the 1920s.Activists against property rights point to historical evidence of communal ownership of land and resources by tribes. They claim that because of this history, property rights are foreign to Natives and have no place in the modern reservation system. Those in favor of property rights cite examples of tribes negotiating with colonial communities or other tribes about fishing and hunting rights in an area.Land ownership was also a challenge because of the different definitions of land that the Natives and the Europeans had.Most Native American tribes thought of property rights more as "borrowing" the land, while those from Europe thought of land as individual property.
State-level efforts such as theOklahoma Indian Welfare Actwere attempts to contain tribal land in Native American hands. However, more bureaucratic decisions only expanded the bureaucracy. The knowledge disconnect between the decision-making bureaucracy and Native American stakeholders resulted in ineffective development efforts.
Traditional Native American entrepreneurship does not prioritizeprofit maximization; rather, business transactions must align with Native American social and cultural values.In response to Indigenous business philosophy, the federal government created policies that aimed to formalize their business practices, which undermined the Native American status quo.Additionally, legal disputes interfered with tribal land leasing, which were settled with the verdict againsttribal sovereignty.
Often, bureaucratic overseers of development are far removed from Native American communities and lack the knowledge and understanding to develop plans or make resource allocation decisions.The top-down heavy involvement in developmental operations, does not mitigate incentives for bureaucrats to act in their self-interest. Such instances include reports that exaggerate results.
While Native American urban poverty is attributed to hiring and workplace discrimination in a heterogeneous setting,reservation and trust land poverty rates are endogenous to deserted opportunities in isolated regions.
Historical traumais described as collective emotional and psychological damage throughout a person's lifetime and across multiple generations.Examples of historical trauma can be seen through theWounded Knee Massacreof 1890, where over 200 unarmed Lakota were killed,and theDawes Allotment Actof 1887, when Native Americans lost four-fifths of their land.
Native American youth have higher rates of substance and alcohol use deaths than the general population.Many Native Americans can trace the beginning of their substance and alcohol use to a traumatic event related to their offender's own substance use.A person's substance use can be described as a defense mechanism against the user's emotions and trauma.For Native Americans, alcoholism is a symptom of trauma passed from generation to generation and influenced by oppressive behaviors and policies by the dominant European-American society.Boarding schools were made to "Kill the Indian, Save the man".Shame among Native Americans can be attributed to the hundreds of years of oppression and annihilation.
Studies are being conducted which show Native Americans often experience higher rates of food insecurity than other racial groups in the United States. The studies do not focus on the overall picture of Native American households, however, and tend to focus rather on smaller sample sizes in the available research.In a study that evaluated the level of food insecurity among Indigenous Americans, White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian: it was reported that over the 10-year span of 2000–2010, Indigenous people were reported to be one of the highest at-risk groups from a lack of access to adequate food, reporting anywhere from 20% to 30% of households suffering from this type of insecurity. There are many reasons that contribute to the issue, but overall, the biggest lie in high food costs on or near reservations, lack of access to well-paying jobs, and predisposition to health issues relating to obesity and mental health.
The culture of Pre-Columbian North America is usually defined by the concept of the culture area, namely a geographical region where shared cultural traits occur. The northwest culture area, for example, shared common traits such as salmon fishing, woodworking, and large villages or towns and a hierarchical social structure.Ethnographers generallyclassify the Indigenous peoples of North Americainto ten cultural areas based on geographical region.
Though cultural features, language, clothing, and customs vary enormously from one tribe to another, there are certain elements which are encountered frequently and shared by many tribes. Early European American scholars described the Native Americans as having a society dominated byclans.
European colonization of the Americas had a major impact on Native American cultures through what is known as theColumbian exchange, also known as theColumbian interchange, which was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between theAmericasand Eurasia (theOld World) in the 15th and 16th centuries, followingChristopher Columbus's1492 voyage.The Columbian exchange generally had a destructive impact on Native American cultures through disease, and a 'clash of cultures',whereby European values of private land ownership, the family, and division of labor, led to conflict, appropriation of traditional communal lands and changed how the Indigenous tribes practiced slavery.
The impact of the Columbian exchange was not entirely negative, however. For example, the re-introduction of the horse to North America allowed the Plains Indians to revolutionize their ways of life by making hunting, trading, and warfare far more effective, and to greatly improve their ability to transport possessions and move their settlements.
The Great Plains tribes were still hunting the bison when they first encountered the Europeans. The Spanish reintroduction of the horse to North America in the 17th century and Native Americans' learning to use them greatly altered the Native Americans' cultures, including changing the way in which they hunted large game. Horses became such a valuable, central element of Native lives that they were counted as a measure of wealth by many tribes.
In the early years, as Native peoples encountered European explorers and settlers and engaged in trade, they exchanged food, crafts, and furs for blankets, iron and steel implements, horses, trinkets, firearms, and alcoholic beverages.
TheNa-Dené,Algic, andUto-Aztecanfamilies are the largest in terms of the number of languages. Uto-Aztecan has the most speakers (1.95 million) if the languages in Mexico are considered (mostly due to 1.5 million speakers ofNahuatl); Na-Dené comes in second with approximately 200,000 speakers (nearly 180,000 of these are speakers ofNavajo), and Algic in third with about 180,000 speakers (mainlyCreeandOjibwe). Na-Dené and Algic have the widest geographic distributions: Algic currently spans from northeastern Canada across much of the continent down to northeastern Mexico (due to later migrations of theKickapoo) with two outliers inCalifornia(YurokandWiyot); Na-Dené spans from Alaska and western Canada throughWashington,Oregon, and California to theU.S. Southwestand northern Mexico (with one outlier in the Plains). Several families consist of only 2 or 3 languages. Demonstrating genetic relationships has proved difficult due to the great linguistic diversity present in North America. Two large (super-) family proposals,PenutianandHokanhave potential. However, even after decades of research, a large number of families remain.
Words used in English have beenderived from Native American languages.
To counteract a shift to English, some Native American tribes have initiated language immersion schools for children, where an Indigenous American language is the medium of instruction. For example, theCherokee Nationinitiated a 10-year language preservation plan that involved raising new fluent speakers of theCherokee languagefrom childhood on up through school immersion programs as well as a collaborative community effort to continue to use the language at home.This plan was part of an ambitious goal that, in 50 years, will result in 80% or more of the Cherokee people being fluent in the language.TheCherokee Preservation Foundationhas invested $3 million in opening schools, training teachers, and developing curricula for language education, as well as initiating community gatherings where the language can be actively used.Formed in 2006, the Kituwah Preservation & Education Program (KPEP) on theQualla Boundaryfocuses on language immersion programs for children from birth tofifth grade, developing cultural resources for the general public and community language programs to foster the Cherokee language among adults.
There is also a Cherokee language immersion school inTahlequah, Oklahoma, that educates students from pre-school through eighth grade.Because Oklahoma's official language is English, Cherokee immersion students are hindered when taking state-mandated tests because they have little competence in English.The Department of Education of Oklahoma said that in 2012 state tests: 11% of the school's sixth-graders showed proficiency in math, and 25% showed proficiency in reading; 31% of the seventh-graders showed proficiency in math, and 87% showed proficiency in reading; 50% of the eighth-graders showed proficiency in math, and 78% showed proficiency in reading.The Oklahoma Department of Education listed the charter school as a Targeted Intervention school, meaning the school was identified as a low-performing school but has not so that it was a Priority School.Ultimately, the school made a C, or a 2.33 grade point average on the state's A-F report card system.The report card shows the school getting an F in mathematics achievement and mathematics growth, a C in social studies achievement, a D in reading achievement, and an A in reading growth and student attendance."The C we made is tremendous", said school principal Holly Davis, "[t]here is no English instruction in our school's younger grades, and we gave them this test in English."She said she had anticipated the low grade because it was the school's first year as a state-fundedcharter school, and many students had difficulty with English.Eighth graders who graduate from the Tahlequah immersion school are fluent speakers of the language, and they usually go on to attendSequoyah High Schoolwhere classes are taught in both English and Cherokee.
Historical diets of Native Americans differed dramatically from region to region. Different peoples might have relied more heavily on agriculture, horticulture, hunting, fishing, or gathering wild plants and fungi. Tribes developed diets best suited to their environments.
Iñupiat,Yupiit,Unangan, and fellowAlaska Nativesfished, hunted, and harvested wild plants, but did not rely on agriculture. Coastal peoples relied more heavily on sea mammals, fish, and fish eggs, while inland peoples huntedcaribouandmoose.Alaskan Natives prepared and preserved dried and smoked meat and fish.
Pacific Northwesttribes crafted seafaringdugout canoes40–50 feet (12–15 m) long for fishing.
In theEastern Woodlands, early peoples independently invented agricultural and by 1800 BCE developed the crops of theEastern Agricultural Complex, which include squash (Cucurbita pepossp. ovifera), sunflower (Helianthus annuusvar. macrocarpus), goosefoot (Chenopodium berlandieri), and marsh elder (Iva annuavar. macrocarpa).
TheSonoran Desertregion including parts ofArizonaandCalifornia, part of a region known asAridoamerica, relied heavily on thetepary bean(Phaseolus acutifolius) as a staple crop. This and other desert crops,mesquitebead pods,tunas(prickly pearfruit), cholla buds,saguarocactus fruit, andacornsare being actively promoted today by Tohono O'odham Community Action.In the Southwest, some communities developedirrigationtechniques while others, such as theHopidry-farmed. They filled storehouses with grain as protection against the area's frequentdroughts.
Maizeorcorn, first cultivated in what is nowMexicowas traded north into Aridoamerica andOasisamerica,southwest. From there, maize cultivation spread throughout theGreat PlainsandEastern Woodlandsby 200 CE. Native farmers practicedpolycroppingmaize, beans, and squash; these crops are known as theThree Sisters. The beans would replace thenitrogen, which the maize leached from the ground, as well as using corn stalks for support for climbing. The deficiencies of a diet heavily dependent on maize were mitigated by the common practice among Native Americans of converting maize kernels intohominyin a process calledNixtamalization.
Theagriculture gender rolesof the Native Americans varied from region to region. In the Southwest area, men prepared the soil withhoes. The women were in charge ofplanting,weeding, andharvestingthe crops. In most other regions, the women were in charge of most agriculture, including clearing the land. Clearing the land was an immense chore since the Native Americans rotated fields.
Europeans in the eastern part of the continent observed that Native Americans cleared large areas for cropland. Their fields inNew Englandsometimes covered hundreds of acres. Colonists inVirginianoted thousands of acres under cultivation by Native Americans.
Early farmers commonly used tools such as thehoe,maul, anddibber. The hoe was the main tool used to till the land and prepare it for planting; then it was used for weeding. The first versions were made out ofwoodandstone. When the settlers broughtiron, Native Americans switched to iron hoes andhatchets. The dibber was a digging stick, used to plant the seed. Once the plants were harvested, women prepared the produce for eating. They used the maul to grind the corn into a mash. It was cooked and eaten that way or baked as cornbread.
Native American religious practices, beliefs, and philosophies differ widely across tribes. Thesespiritualities, practices, beliefs, and philosophies may accompany adherence to another faith or can represent a person's primary religious, faith, spiritual or philosophical identity. Much Native American spirituality exists in a tribal-cultural continuum, and as such cannot be easily separated from tribal identity itself.
Cultural spiritual, philosophical, and faith ways differ from tribe to tribe and person to person. Some tribes include the use of sacred leaves and herbs such as tobacco,sweetgrassorsage. Many Plains tribes havesweatlodgeceremonies, though the specifics of the ceremony vary among tribes. Fasting, singing and prayer in the ancient languages of their people, and sometimesdrummingare common.
TheMidewiwin Lodgeis a medicine society inspired by the oral history and prophesies of theOjibwa(Chippewa) and related tribes.
Another significant religious body among Native peoples is known as theNative American Church. It is asyncretisticchurch incorporating elements of Native spiritual practice from a number of different tribes as well as symbolic elements fromChristianity. Its main rite is thepeyoteceremony. Prior to 1890, traditional religious beliefs includedWakan Tanka. In the American Southwest, especiallyNew Mexico, a syncretism between theCatholicismbrought by Spanish missionaries and the native religion is common; the religious drums, chants, and dances of thePueblo peopleare regularly part ofMassesatSanta Fe'sSaint Francis Cathedral.Native American-Catholic syncretism is also found elsewhere in the United States. (e.g., the NationalKateri TekakwithaShrine inFonda, New York, and theNational Shrine of the North American MartyrsinAuriesville, New York). Some Native American tribes who practice Christianity, including theLumbee, organized denominations, such as theLumber River Conference of the Holiness Methodist Church.
Theeagle feather law(Title 50 Part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations) stipulates that only individuals of certifiable Native American ancestry enrolled in a federally recognized tribe are legally authorized to obtaineaglefeathers for religious or spiritual use. The law does not allow Native Americans to give eagle feathers to non-Native Americans.
Gender roles are differentiated in many Native American tribes. Many Natives have retained traditional expectations of sexuality and gender and continue to do so in contemporary life despite continued and on-going colonial pressures.
Whether a particular tribe is predominantlymatrilinealorpatrilineal, often both sexes have some degree of decision-making power within the tribe. Many Nations, such as theHaudenosauneeFive Nations and the Southeast Muskogean tribes, have matrilineal orClan Mothersystems, in which property and hereditary leadership are controlled by and passed through the maternal lines.In these Nations, the children are considered to belong to the mother's clan. InCherokeeculture, women own the family property. When traditional young women marry, their husbands may join them in their mother's household.
Matrilineal structures enable young women to have assistance in childbirth and rearing and protect them in case of conflicts between the couple. If a couple separates or the man dies, the woman has her family to assist her. In matrilineal cultures the mother's brothers are usually the leading male figures in her children's lives; fathers have no standing in their wife and children's clan, as they still belong to their own mother's clan. Hereditary clan chief positions pass through the mother's line and chiefs have historically been selected on the recommendations of women elders, who could also disapprove of a chief.
In thepatrilinealtribes, such as theOmaha,Osage,Ponca, andLakota, hereditary leadership passes through the male line, and children are considered to belong to the father and hisclan. In patrilineal tribes, if a woman marries a non-Native, she is no longer considered part of the tribe, and her children are considered to share the ethnicity and culture of their father.
In patriarchal tribes, gender roles tend to be rigid. Men have historically hunted, traded and made war while, as life-givers, women have primary responsibility for the survival and welfare of the families (and future of the tribe). Women usually gather and cultivate plants, use plants and herbs to treat illnesses, care for the young and the elderly, make all the clothing and instruments, and process and cure meat and skins from the game. Some mothers usecradleboardsto carry an infant while working or traveling.In matriarchal and egalitarian nations, the gender roles are usually not so clear-cut and are even less so in the modern era.
At least several dozen tribes allowedpolygynyto sisters, with procedural and economic limits.
Lakota, Dakota, and Nakotagirls are encouraged to learn to ride, hunt and fight.Though fighting in war has mostly been left to the boys and men, occasionally women have fought as well, both in battles and in defense of the home, especially if the tribe was severely threatened.
As of 202090% of Native American school-aged children attend public schools operated by school districts.Tribally-operated schools under contracts/grants with theBureau of Indian Education(BIE) and direct BIE-operated schools take about 8% of Native American students,including students who live in very rural remote areas.
In 1978, 215,000 (78%) of Native Americans attended school district-operated public schools, 47,000 (17%) attended schools directly operated by the BIA, 2,500 (1%) attended tribal or other schools that contracted with the BIA, and the remaining 9,000 (3%) attended missionary schools for Native American children or other private schools.
Native American leisure time led to competitive individual and team sports.Jim Thorpe,Lewis Tewanima,Joe Hipp,Notah Begay III,Chris Wondolowski,Jacoby Ellsbury,Joba Chamberlain,Kyle Lohse,Sam Bradford,Jack Brisco,Tommy Morrison,Billy Mills,Angel Goodrich,Shoni Schimmel, andKyrie Irvingare well known professional athletes.
Native American ball sports, sometimes referred to aslacrosse, stickball, or baggataway, were often used to settle disputes, rather than going to war, as a civil way to settle potential conflict. TheChoctawcalled itisitoboli("Little Brother of War");theOnondaganame wasdehuntshigwa'es("men hit a rounded object"). There are three basic versions, classified as Great Lakes, Iroquoian, and Southern.
The game is played with one or two rackets or sticks and one ball. The object of the game is to land the ball in the opposing team's goal (either a single post or net) to score and to prevent the opposing team from scoring on your goal. The game involves as few as 20 or as many as 300 players with no height or weight restrictions and no protective gear. The goals could be from around 200 feet (61 m) apart to about 2 miles (3.2 km); in lacrosse the field is 110 yards (100 m).
Chunkeywas a game that consisted of a stone-shaped disk that was about 1–2 inches in diameter. The disk was thrown down a 200-foot (61 m) corridor so that it could roll past the players at great speed. The disk would roll down the corridor, and players would throw wooden shafts at the moving disk. The object of the game was to strike the disk or prevent your opponents from hitting it.
Jim Thorpe, aSauk and FoxNative American, was an all-around athlete playing football and baseball in the early 20th century. Future PresidentDwight Eisenhowerinjured his knee while trying to tackle the young Thorpe. In a 1961 speech, Eisenhower recalled Thorpe: "Here and there, there are some people who are supremely endowed. My memory goes back to Jim Thorpe. He never practiced in his life, and he could do anything better than any other football player I ever saw."
In the 1912 Olympics, Thorpe could run the 100-yard dash in 10 seconds flat, the 220 in 21.8 seconds, the 440 in 51.8 seconds, the 880 in 1:57, the mile in 4:35, the 120-yard high hurdles in 15 seconds, and the 220-yard low hurdles in 24 seconds.He could long jump 23 ft 6 in and high-jump 6 ft 5 in.He couldpole vault11 feet (3.4 m),put the shot47 ft 9 in (14.55 m),throw the javelin163 feet (50 m), and throw thediscus136 feet (41 m).Thorpe entered the U.S. Olympic trials for the pentathlon and the decathlon.
Louis Tewanima,Hopi people, was an American two-time Olympic distance runner and silver medalist in the 10,000-meter run in 1912. He ran for the Carlisle Indian School where he was a teammate of Jim Thorpe. His silver medal in 1912 remained the best U.S. achievement in this event until another Indian, Billy Mills, won the gold medal in 1964. Tewanima also competed at the 1908 Olympics, where he finished in ninth place in the marathon.[1]
Ellison Brown, of theNarragansett peoplefrom Rhode Island, better known as "Tarzan" Brown, won two Boston Marathons (1936, 1939) and competed on the United States Olympic team in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany, but did not finish due to injury. He qualified for the 1940 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, but the games were canceled due to the outbreak of World War II.
Billy Mills, aLakotaandUSMCofficer, won the gold medal in the 10,000-meter run at the1964 Tokyo Olympics. He was the only American ever to win the Olympic gold in this event. An unknown before the Olympics, Mills finished second in the U.S. Olympic trials.
Billy Kidd, partAbenakifromVermont, became the first American male to medal inalpine skiingin the Olympics, taking silver at age 20 in theslalomin the1964 Winter OlympicsatInnsbruck,Austria. Six years later at the 1970 World Championships, Kidd won the gold medal in thecombinedevent and took the bronze medal in the slalom.
Ashton Locklear(Lumbee), an uneven bars specialist was an alternate for the2016 Summer OlympicsU.S. gymnastics team, theFinal Five.In 2016,Kyrie Irving(Sioux) also helped Team USA win the gold medal at the2016 Summer Olympics. With the win, he became just the fourth member of Team USA to capture the NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal in the same year, joiningLeBron James,Michael Jordan, andScottie Pippen.
Native American literature, composed of bothoral literatureand written literature, has a long history. Relevantly, it is considered a series of literatures reflecting the varied traditions and histories of different tribes. Modern authors cover a wide range of genres and includeTommy Orange,Joy Harjo,Louise Erdrich,Stephen Graham Jones,Rebecca Roanhorse,Tommy Pico, and many more.
Traditional Native American music is almost entirelymonophonic, but there are notable exceptions. Native American music often includesdrummingor the playing of rattles or other percussion instruments but little other instrumentation.Flutesand whistles made of wood, cane, or bone are also played, generally by individuals, but in former times also by large ensembles (as noted by Spanishconquistadorde Soto). The tuning of modern flutes is typicallypentatonic.
Performers with Native American parentage have occasionally appeared in American popular music such asRita Coolidge,Wayne Newton,Gene Clark,Blackfoot, andRedbone(members are also of Mexican descent). Some, such asJohn Trudell, have used music to comment on life in Native America. Other musicians such asR. Carlos Nakai,Joanne ShenandoahandRobert "Tree" Codyintegrate traditional sounds with modern sounds in instrumental recordings, whereas the music by artistCharles Littleleafis derived from ancestral heritage as well as nature. A variety of small and medium-sized recording companies offer an abundance of recent music by Native American performers young and old, ranging from pow-wow drum music to hard-driving rock-and-roll and rap. In the International world of ballet dancingMaria Tallchiefwas considered America's first majorprima ballerina,and was the first person of Native American descent to hold the rank.along with her sisterMarjorie Tallchiefboth became star ballerinas.
The most widely practiced public musical form among Native Americans in the United States is that of thepow-wow. At pow-wows, such as the annualGathering of NationsinAlbuquerque, New Mexico, members of drum groups sit in a circle around a large drum. Drum groups play in unison while they sing in a native language and dancers in colorful regalia dance clockwise around the drum groups in the center. Familiar pow-wow songs include honor songs, intertribal songs, crow-hops, sneak-up songs, grass-dances, two-steps, welcome songs, going-home songs, and war songs. Most Indigenous communities in the United States also maintain traditional songs and ceremonies, some of which are shared and practiced exclusively within the community.
TheIroquois, living around theGreat Lakesand extending east and north, used strings or belts calledwampumthat served a dual function: the knots and beaded designs mnemonically chronicled tribal stories and legends, and further served as a medium of exchange and a unit of measure. The keepers of the articles were seen as tribal dignitaries.
Pueblo peoplescrafted impressive items associated with their religious ceremonies.Kachinadancers wore elaborately painted and decorated masks as they ritually impersonated various ancestral spirits.Pueblo people are particularly noted for their traditional high-quality pottery, often with geometric designs and floral, animal and bird motifs.Sculpture was not highly developed, but carved stone and wood fetishes were made for religious use. Superior weaving, embroidered decorations, and rich dyes characterized the textile arts. Both turquoise and shell jewelry were created, as were formalized pictorial arts.
Navajospirituality focused on the maintenance of a harmonious relationship with the spirit world, often achieved by ceremonial acts, usually incorporatingsandpainting. For the Navajo, the sand painting is not merely a representational object, but a dynamic spiritual entity with a life of its own, which helped the patient at the center of the ceremony re-establish a connection with the life force. These vivid, intricate, and colorful sand creations were erased at the end of the healing ceremony.
It has been estimated that the Native American arts and crafts industry brings in more than a billion USD in gross sales annually, nationwide.
Native American art comprises a major category in the world art collection. Native American contributions includepottery,paintings,jewellery,weavings,sculpture,basketry, andcarvings.Franklin Grittswas a Cherokee artist who taught students from many tribes at Haskell Institute (nowHaskell Indian Nations University) in the 1940s, theGolden Ageof Native American painters. The integrity of certain Native American artworks is protected by theIndian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, which prohibits the representation of art as Native American when it is not the product of an enrolled Native American artist. Attorney Gail Sheffield and others claim that this law has had "the unintended consequence of sanctioning discrimination against Native Americans whose tribal affiliation was not officially recognized".Native artists such asJeanne Rorex Bridges(Echota Cherokee) who was not enrolled ran the risk of fines or imprisonment if they continued to sell their art while affirming their Indian heritage.
Interracial relations between Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans is a complex issue that has been mostly neglected with "few in-depth studies on interracial relationships".
European impact was immediate, widespread, and profound already during the early years of colonization and the creation of the countries which currently exist in the Americas. Europeans living among Native Americans were often called "white indians". They "lived in native communities for years, learned native languages fluently, attended native councils, and often fought alongside their native companions".
Early contact was often charged with tension and emotion, but also had moments of friendship, cooperation, and intimacy.Marriages took place in English, French, Russian and Spanish colonies between Native Americans and Europeans though Native American women were also the victims of rape.
There was fear on both sides, as the different peoples realized how different their societies were.Many whites regarded Native people as "savages" because the Native people were not Protestant or Roman Catholic and therefore the Native people were not considered to be human beings.The Native American author, Andrew J. Blackbird, wrote in hisHistory of theOttawaandChippewaIndians of Michigan(1897), that white settlers introduced some immoralities into Native American tribes. Many Native Americans suffered because the Europeans introduced alcohol. Many Native people do not break down alcohol in the same way as people of Eurasian background. Many Native people were learning what their body couldtolerateof this new substance and died as a result of imbibing too much.
Blackbird wrote:
The U.S. government had two purposes when making land agreements with Native Americans: to open up more land for white settlement,and to "ease tensions" (in other words assimilate Native people to Eurasian social ways) between whites and Native Americans by forcing the Native Americans to use the land in the same way as did the whites—for subsistence farms.The government used a variety of strategies to achieve these goals; many treaties required Native Americans to become farmers in order to keep their land.Government officials often did not translate the documents which Native Americans were forced to sign, and native chiefs often had little or no idea what they were signing.
For a Native American man to marry a white woman, he had to get consent of her parents, as long as "he can prove to support her as a white woman in a good home".In the early 19th century, theShawneeTecumseh and blonde hair, blue-eyed Rebecca Galloway had an interracial affair. In the late 19th century, three European American middle-class women teachers atHampton Institutemarried Native American men whom they had met as students.
As European American women started working independently at missions and Indian schools in the western states, there were more opportunities for their meeting and developing relationships with Native American men. For instance,Charles Eastman, a man of European andLakotaorigin whose father sent both his sons toDartmouth College, got his medical degree atBoston Universityand returned to the West to practice. He marriedElaine Goodale, whom he met in South Dakota. He was the grandson ofSeth Eastman, a military officer from Maine, and a chief's daughter. Goodale was a young European American teacher from Massachusetts and a reformer, who was appointed as the U.S. superintendent of Native American education for the reservations in the Dakota Territory. They had six children together.
The majority of Native American tribes did practice some form of slavery before the European introduction of African slavery into North America, but none exploited slave labor on a large scale. Most Native American tribes did not barter captives in the pre-colonial era, although they sometimes exchanged enslaved individuals with other tribes in peace gestures or in exchange for their own members.When Europeans arrived ascolonistsin North America, Native Americans changed their practice ofslaverydramatically. Native Americans began selling war captives to Europeans rather than integrating them into their own societies as they had done before. As the demand for labor in theWest Indiesgrew with the cultivation ofsugar cane, Europeans enslaved Native Americans for theThirteen Colonies, and some were exported to the "sugar islands". The British settlers, especially those in the southern colonies, purchased or captured Native Americans to use as forced labor in cultivating tobacco, rice, and indigo. Accurate records of the numbers enslaved do not exist because vital statistics and census reports were at best infrequent.Scholars estimate tens to hundreds of thousands of Native Americans may have been enslaved by the Europeans, being sold by Native Americans themselves or Europeans.
In Colonial America, slavery soon becameracialized, with those enslaved by the institution consisting of ethnic groups (non-Christian Native Americans and Africans) who were foreign to the Christian, European colonists. TheHouse of Burgessesdefine the terms ofslavery in Virginiain 1705:
The slave trade of Native Americans lasted only until around 1750. It gave rise to a series of devastating wars among the tribes, including theYamasee War. TheIndian Warsof the early 18th century, combined with the increasing importation of African slaves, effectively ended the Native American slave trade by 1750. Colonists found that Native American slaves could easily escape, as they knew the country. The wars cost the lives of numerous colonial slave traders and disrupted their early societies. The remaining Native American groups banded together to face the Europeans from a position of strength. Many surviving Native American peoples of the southeast strengthened their loose coalitions of language groups and joined confederacies such as theChoctaw, theCreek, and theCatawbafor protection. Even after the Indian Slave Trade ended in 1750, the enslavement of Native Americans continued (mostly through kidnappings) in the west and in theSouthern states.Both Native American and African enslaved women suffered rape and sexual harassment by male slaveholders and other white men.
African- and Native- Americans have interacted for centuries. The earliest record of Native American and African contact occurred in April 1502, when Spanish colonists transported the first Africans toHispaniolato serve as slaves.
Sometimes Native Americans resented the presence of African Americans.The "Catawaba tribe in 1752 showed great anger and bitter resentment when an African American came among them as a trader".To gain favor with Europeans, the Cherokee exhibited the strongest color prejudice of all Native Americans.Because of European fears of a unified revolt of Native Americans and African Americans, the colonists tried to encourage hostility between the ethnic groups: "Whites sought to convince Native Americans that African Americans worked against their best interests."In 1751, South Carolina law stated:
In addition, in 1758 the governor of South Carolina James Glen wrote:
Europeans considered both races inferior and made efforts to make both Native Americans and Africans enemies. Native Americans were rewarded if they returned escaped slaves, and African Americans were rewarded for fighting in the late 19th-centuryIndian Wars.
According to theNational Park Service, "Native Americans, during the transitional period of Africans becoming the primary race enslaved, were enslaved at the same time and shared a common experience of enslavement. They worked together, lived together in communal quarters, produced collective recipes for food, shared herbal remedies, myths and legends, and in the end they intermarried."Because of a shortage of men due to warfare, many tribes encouraged marriage between the two groups, to create stronger, healthier children from the unions.
In the 18th century, many Native American women married freed orrunawayAfrican men due to a decrease in the population of men in Native American villages.Records show that many Native American women bought African men but, unknown to the European sellers, the women freed and married the men into their tribe.When African men married or had children by a Native American woman, their children were born free, because the mother was free (according to the principle ofpartus sequitur ventrem, which the colonists incorporated into law).
While numerous tribes used captive enemies as servants and slaves, they also often adopted younger captives into their tribes to replace members who had died. In the Southeast, a few Native American tribes began to adopt a slavery system similar to that of the American colonists, buying African American slaves, especially theCherokee,Choctaw, andCreek. Though less than 3% of Native Americans owned slaves, divisions grew among the Native Americans over slavery.Among the Cherokee, records show that slaveholders in the tribe were largely the children of European men who had shown their children the economics of slavery.As European colonists took slaves into frontier areas, there were more opportunities for relationships between African and Native American peoples.
Native American identity is determined by the tribal community that the individual or group is seeking to identify with.While it is common for non-Natives to consider it a racial or ethnic identity, it is considered by Native Americans in the United States to be a political identity, based on citizenship and immediate family relationships.As culture can vary widely between the 574 extantfederally recognized tribes in the United States, the idea of a single unified "Native American" racial identity is a European construct that does not have an equivalent in tribal thought.
In the 2010 Census, nearly 3 million people indicated that their "race" was Native American (including Alaska Native).Of these, more than 27% specifically indicated "Cherokee" as theirethnic origin.Many of theFirst Families of Virginia claim descent from Pocahontasor some other "Indian princess". This phenomenon has been dubbed the "Cherokee Syndrome".Across the US, numerous individuals cultivate anopportunistic ethnic identityas Native American, sometimes throughCherokee heritage groupsorIndian Wedding Blessings.
Some tribes (particularly some in theEastern United States) are primarily made up of individuals with an unambiguousNative American identity, despite having a large number of mixed-race citizens with prominent non-Native ancestry. More than 75% of those enrolled in theCherokee Nationhave less than one-quarter Cherokee blood,and the formerPrincipal Chief of the Cherokee Nation,Bill John Baker, is 1/32 Cherokee, amounting to about 3%.
Historically, numerous Native Americansassimilated into colonial and later American society, e.g. throughadopting Englishandconverting to Christianity. In many cases, this process occurred throughforced assimilationof children sent off toAmerican Indian boarding schoolsfar from their families. Those who could eventuallypass for whitegained the advantage ofwhite privilege, yet often paid for it with the loss of community connections.With the enforcement ofblood quantum laws, Indian blood could be diluted over generations through intermarrying with non-Native populations, as well as intermarrying with members of tribes that also required high blood-quantum, solely from one tribe."Kill the Indian, save the man" was a mantra of nineteenth-century U.S. assimilation policies.
Native Americans are more likely than any other racial group to practiceinterracial or intertribal marriageamong the different tribes and non-Natives, resulting in an ever-declining proportion of Indigenous blood among those who claim a Native American identity (tribes often count only the Indian blood from their own tribal background in the enrollment process, disregarding intertribal heritages).Some tribesdisenrollthose with low blood quantum. Disenrollment has become a contentious issue inNative American reservation politics.
Requirements for tribal citizenship vary by tribe, but are generally based on who one's parents and grandparents are, as known and documented by community members and tribal records. Among the tribal nations, qualification for enrolling those who were not logged at birth by their parents may be based upon a required percentage of Native American "blood" (or the "blood quantum") of an individual, or upon documentedlineal descentfrom an ancestor on a specific census or register.
Tribal rules regarding the recognition of members who have heritage from multiple tribes also vary, but most do not allow citizenship in multiple tribes at once. For those that do, usually citizens consider one of their citizenships primary, and their other heritage to be "descent". Federally recognized tribes do not accept genetic ethnicity percentages results as appropriate evidence of Native American identity, as they cannot indicate specific tribe, or even whether or not someone is Native American. Unless requested for a paternity test, they do not advise applicants to submit such things.
To receive tribal services, a Native American must be a citizen of (or enrolled in) afederally recognized tribe. While each tribal government makes its own rules for the eligibility of citizens, the federal government has its own qualifications for federally-funded services. Federal scholarships for Native Americans require the student to be enrolled in a federally recognized tribeandto be of at least one-quarter Native Americanblood quantum, as attested to by aCertificate of Degree of Indian Blood(CDIB) card issued by the federal government.
Tribal membership conflicts have led to a number of legal disputes, court cases, and the formation of activist groups. One example of this is theCherokee Freedmen. TheCherokee Nationrequires documented direct genealogical descent from a Cherokee person listed in the early 1906Dawes Rolls. The Freedmen are descendants of African Americans once enslaved by the Cherokees, who were granted, by federal treaty, citizenship in thehistoric Cherokee Nationas freedmen after theCivil War. Themodern Cherokee Nation, in the early 1980s, passed a law to require that all members must prove descent from a Cherokee Native American (not Cherokee Freedmen) listed on the Dawes Rolls, resulting in the exclusion of some individuals and families who had been active in Cherokee culture for years.
Since the 2000 census, people may identify as being of more than one race.Since the 1960s, the number of people claiming Native American ancestry has grown significantly and, by the 2000 census, the number had more than doubled. Sociologists attribute this dramatic change to "ethnic shifting" or "ethnic shopping"; they believe that it reflects a willingness of people to question their birth identities and adopt new ethnicities which they find more compatible.
The authorJack Hittwrites:
Journalist Mary Annette Pember (Ojibwe) writes that non-Natives identifying with Native American identity may be a result of a person's increased interest ingenealogy, the romanticization of what they believe the cultures to be, and family lore of Native American ancestors in the distant past. However, there are different issues if a person wants to pursue enrollment as a citizen of a tribal nation. Different tribes have different requirements for citizenship. Often those who live as non-Natives, yet claim distant heritage, say they are simply reluctant to enroll, arguing that it is a method of control initiated by the federal government. However, it is the tribes that set their own enrollment criteria, and "the various enrollment requirements are often a hurdle that ethnic shoppers are unable to clear." Says Grayson Noley, (Choctaw), of theUniversity of Oklahoma, "If you have to search for proof of your heritage, it probably isn't there."In other cases, there are some individuals who are 100% Native American but, if all of their recent ancestors are from different tribes,blood quantum lawscould result in them not meeting the citizenship criteria for any one of those individual tribes. Pember concludes:
Intertribal marriage is historically common among many Native American tribes, both prior to European contact and in the present. Historically, tribal conflicts might result in the eventual adoption of, or marriages with, captives taken in warfare, with former foes becoming full members of the community. Individuals often have ancestry from more than one tribe, and this became increasingly common after so many tribes lost family members tocolonial invasionsbringing disease, war and massacres. Bands or entire tribes were often reduced to very small numbers, and at times split or merged to form stronger communities in reaction to these pressures.
Tribes with long trading histories with Europeans show a higher rate of European admixture, reflecting admixture events between Native American women and European men.
TheIndigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialismhas also said thathaplogrouptesting is not a valid means of determining Native American ancestry, and that the concept of using genetic testing to determine who is or is not Native American threatenstribal sovereignty.Author ofNative American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science,Kim TallBear(Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate), agrees, stating that not only is there no DNA test that can indicate a tribe, but "there is no DNA-test to prove you're Native American."Tallbear writes inNative American DNAthat while a DNA test may bring up some markers associated with some Indigenous or Asian populations, the science in these cases is problematic,as Indigenous identity is not about one distant (and possibly nonexistent) ancestor, but rather political citizenship, culture, kinship, and daily, lived experience as part of an Indigenous community.She adds that a person, "… could have up to two Native American grandparents and show no sign of Native American ancestry. For example, a genetic male could have a maternal grandfather (from whom he did not inherit his Y chromosome) and a paternal grandmother (from whom he did not inherit his mtDNA) who were descended from Native American founders, but mtDNA and Y-chromosome analyses would not detect them."
Given all these factors, DNA testing is not sufficient to qualify a person for specific tribal membership, as the ethnicity admixture tests cannot distinguish among Native American tribes. They cannot even reliably indicate Native American ancestry:
The only use of DNA testing by legitimate tribes is that some, such as theMeskwaki, may use DNA for paternity tests, or similar confirmation that an applicant who was not enrolled at birth is the biological child of an enrolled tribal member. It is solely about confirming or ruling out biological paternity, and has no relationship to race or ethnicity.
DNAtesting and research has provided some data about the extent of Native American ancestry among African Americans, which varies in the general population. Based on the work ofgeneticists,Harvard UniversityhistorianHenry Louis Gates, Jr.hosted a popular, and at times controversial,PBSseries,African American Lives, in which geneticists said DNA evidence shows that Native American ancestry is far less common among African Americans than previously believed.Their conclusions were that while almost all African Americans are racially mixed, and many have family stories of Native heritage, usually these stories turn out to be inaccurate,with only 5 percent of African American people showing more than 2 percent Native American ancestry.
Gates summarized these statistics to mean that, "If you have 2 percent Native American ancestry, you had one such ancestor on your family tree five to nine generations back (150 to 270 years ago)."Their findings also concluded that the most common "non-Black" mix among African Americans is English andScots-Irish. Some critics thought the PBS series did not sufficiently explain the limitations of DNA testing for assessment of heritage.Another study, published in theAmerican Journal of Human Genetics, also indicated that, despite how common these family stories are, relatively few African Americans who have these stories actually turned out to have detectable Native American ancestry.A study reported in theAmerican Journal of Human Geneticsstated, "We analyzed the European genetic contribution to 10 populations of African descent in the United States (Maywood, Illinois; Detroit; New York; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Baltimore; Charleston, South Carolina; New Orleans; and Houston) ... mtDNA haplogroups analysis shows no evidence of a significant maternal Amerindian contribution to any of the 10 populations."Despite this, some still insist that most African Americans have at least some Native American heritage.
An autosomal study from 2019 found small but detectable amounts of Native American ancestry among African-Americans, ranging from an average of 1.2% in theWest South Centralregion, to 1.9% on theWest Coast. The median amount of Native ancestry in African-Americans was found to be 1% nationwide.
AnautosomalDNA study published in 2019 found evidence of minimal Native American ancestry among non-Hispanic White Americans, ranging from an average of 0.18% in theMid-Atlanticregion to 0.93% in thePacificregion. However, the majority of White Americans were found to have no detectable Native American ancestry, with the median amount of European ancestry being 99.8% in White participants.
HispanicAmericans, on the other hand, were found to have a large and varying amount of Native American ancestry, with a median of 38% nationwide. This ancestry was the highest among Hispanics from theWest South Central Region(Texas and Oklahoma) at 43.2%, and the West Coast, at 42.6%, reflecting the predominantMexican-Americanpopulation in these regions. Hispanics from the Mid-Atlantic, on the other hand, averaged only 11.1% Native American ancestry, reflecting the predominantPuerto RicanandDominican-Americanpopulations among Hispanics from that region.
Thegenetic history of Indigenous peoples of the Americasprimarily focuses onhuman Y-chromosome DNA haplogroupsandhuman mitochondrial DNA haplogroups. "Y-DNA" is passed solely along thepatrilinealline, from father to son, while "mtDNA" is passed down thematrilinealline, from mother to offspring of both sexes. Neitherrecombines, and thus Y-DNA and mtDNA change only by chance mutation at each generation with no intermixture between parents' genetic material.Autosomal"atDNA" markers are also used, but differ from mtDNA or Y-DNA in that they overlap significantly.Autosomal DNA is generally used to measure the average continent-of-ancestrygenetic admixturein the entirehuman genomeand relatedisolated populations.Within mtDNA, genetic scientists have found specific nucleotide sequences that they have classified as "Native American markers" because the sequences are understood to have been inherited through the generations of genetic females within populations first found in the "New World". There are five primary Native American mtDNA haplogroups in which there are clusters of closely linked markers inherited together. All five haplogroups have been identified by researchers as "prehistoric Native North American samples", and it is commonly asserted that the majority of living Native Americans possess one of the common five mtDNA haplogroup markers.
The genetic pattern indicates Indigenous Americans experienced two very distinctive genetic episodes; first with the initial-peopling of the Americas, and secondly withEuropean colonization of the Americas.The former is the determinant factor for the number ofgenelineages,zygositymutations and foundinghaplotypespresent in today's Indigenous Americanpopulations.
The most popular theory is that human settlement of the Americas occurred in stages from theBering sea coast line, with an initial 15,000 to 20,000-year layover onBeringiafor the smallfounding population.Themicro-satellitediversity and distributions of the Y lineage specific to South America indicates that certainAmerindianpopulations have been isolated since the initial colonization of the region.TheNa-Dené,InuitandIndigenous Alaskanpopulations exhibithaplogroup Q-M242 (Y-DNA)mutations, however, that are distinct from other Indigenous Amerindians, and that have various mtDNA and atDNA mutations.This suggests that the paleo-Indian migrants into the northern extremes of North America andGreenlandwere descended from a later, independent migrant population.
Genetic analyses of HLA I and HLA II genes as well as HLA-A, -B, and -DRB1 gene frequencies links theAinu peopleof northernJapanand southeasternRussiato someIndigenous peoples of the Americas, especially to populations on thePacific Northwest Coastsuch asTlingit. Scientists suggest that the main ancestor of the Ainu and of some Native American groups can be traced back toPaleolithicgroups inSouthern Siberia.