page_title: List of federally recognized tribes in the United States
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: List of federally recognized tribes in the United States / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Wisconsin tribal flags in the Wisconsin State Capitol
context_page_description: This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. As of 19 February 2020, 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the United States. Of these, 231 are located in Alaska.
context_section_description: In the United States, the Indian tribe is a fundamental unit, and the constitution grants Congress the right to interact with tribes. More specifically, the Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Sandoval, 231 U.S. 28 (1913), warned, "it is not... that                                                                                         Congress may bring a community or body of people within range of this power by arbitrarily calling them an Indian tribe, but only that in respect of distinctly Indian communities the questions whether, to what extent, and for what time they shall be recognized and dealt with as dependent tribes" (at 46).  Federal tribal recognition grants to tribes the right to certain benefits, and is largely controlled by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
  While trying to determine which groups were eligible for federal recognition in the 1970s, government officials became acutely aware of the need for consistent procedures. To illustrate, several federally unrecognized tribes encountered obstacles in bringing land claims; United States v. Washington (1974) was a court case that affirmed the fishing treaty rights of Washington tribes; and other tribes demanded that the U.S. government recognize aboriginal titles. All the above culminated in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, which legitimized tribal entities by partially restoring Native American self-determination.
  Following the decisions made by the Indian Claims Commission, the BIA in 1978 published final rules with procedures that groups had to meet to secure federal tribal acknowledgement. There are seven criteria.  Four have proven troublesome for most groups to prove: long-standing historical community, outside identification as Indians, political authority, and descent from a historical tribe. Tribes seeking recognition must submit detailed petitions to the BIA's Office of Federal Acknowledgment. Consequently, the Federal Acknowledgment Process can take years, even decades; delays of 12–14 years are not uncommon. The Shinnecock Indian Nation formally petitioned for recognition in 1978 and was recognized 32 years later, in 2010. At a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing, witnesses testified that the process was "broken, long, expensive, burdensome, intrusive, unfair, arbitrary and capricious, less than transparent, unpredictable, and subject to undue political influence and manipulation."
  In July 2018 the United States' Federal Register issued an official list of 573 tribes that are Indian Entities Recognized and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs.  The number of tribes increased to 567 in May 2016 with the inclusion of the Pamunkey tribe in Virginia who received their federal recognition in July 2015.  The number of tribes increased to 573 with the addition of six tribes in Virginia under the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017, signed in January 2018 after the annual list had been published. The Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians became the 574th tribe to gain federal recognition on December 20, 2019. The website USA.gov, the federal government's official web portal, also maintains a constantly updated list of tribal governments. Ancillary information present in former versions of this list but no longer contained in the current listing has been included here in italics print.
caption: Flags of Wisconsin tribes in the Wisconsin state capitol
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