Native Americans,sometimes called American Indians,First Americans,or Indigenous Americans,are the Indigenous peoples native to portions of the land that the United States is located on. At its core,it includes peoples indigenous to the lower 48 states plus Alaska;it may additionally include any Americans whose origins lie in any of the Indigenous peoples of North or South America. The United States Census Bureau publishes data about "American Indians and Alaska Natives",which 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." The census does not,however,enumerate "Native Americans" as such,noting that the latter term can encompass a broader set of groups,e.g. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islander Americans,which it tabulates separately.
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was signed into law on May 28,1830,by United States President Andrew Jackson. The law,as described by Congress,provided "for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories,and for their removal west of the river Mississippi". During the presidency of Jackson (1829–1837) and his successor Martin Van Buren (1837–1841) more than 60,000 Native Americans from at least 18 tribes were forced to move west of the Mississippi River where they were allocated new lands. The southern tribes were resettled mostly in Indian Territory (Oklahoma). The northern tribes were resettled initially in Kansas. With a few exceptions,the United States east of the Mississippi and south of the Great Lakes was emptied of its Native American population. The movement westward of indigenous tribes was characterized by a large number of deaths occasioned by the hardships of the journey.
Wilma Pearl Mankiller was a Native American activist,social worker,community developer and the first woman elected to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. Born in Tahlequah,Oklahoma,she lived on her family's allotment in Adair County,Oklahoma,until the age of 11,when her family relocated to San Francisco as part of a federal government program to urbanize Indigenous Americans. After high school,she married a well-to-do Ecuadorian and raised two daughters. Inspired by the social and political movements of the 1960s,Mankiller became involved in the Occupation of Alcatraz and later participated in the land and compensation struggles with the Pit River Tribe. For five years in the early 1970s,she was employed as a social worker,focusing mainly on children's issues.
The Métis are an Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces. They have a shared history and culture,deriving from specific mixed European and Indigenous ancestry,which became distinct through ethnogenesis by the mid-18th century,during the early years of the North American fur trade.
A 19th century community of the Métis people of Canada,the Anglo-Métis,more commonly known as Countryborn,were children of fur traders;they typically had Scots,or English fathers and Indigenous mothers,often Cree,Anishinaabekwe,Nakoda,amongst others. They were also known as "English halfbreeds." Some Anglo-Metis still identify by this name. Their first languages were generally those of their mothers:Cree,Saulteaux,Assiniboine,etc. and English. Some of their fathers spoke Gaelic or Scots,leading to the development of the creole language known as "Bungee". Some scholars have started spelling Métis as "Metis" to acknowledge the presence and contributions of the Anglo-Métis and the complex history of the Métis people overall.
Native American studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that examines the history,culture,politics,issues,spirituality,sociology and contemporary experience of Native peoples in North America,or,taking a hemispheric approach,the Americas. Increasingly,debate has focused on the differences rather than the similarities between other ethnic studies disciplines such as African American studies,Asian American studies,and Latino/a studies.
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is an American historian,writer,professor,and activist based in San Francisco. Born in Texas,she grew up in Oklahoma and is a social justice and feminist activist. She has written numerous books including Blood on the Border:A Memoir of the Contra Years (2005),Red Dirt:Growing up Okie (1992),and An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (2014). She is professor emeritus in Ethnic Studies at California State University.
The Cherokee Nation,formerly known as the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma,is the largest of three federally recognized tribes of Cherokees in the United States. It includes people descended from members of the Old Cherokee Nation who relocated,due to increasing pressure,from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who were forced to relocate on the Trail of Tears. The tribe also includes descendants of Cherokee Freedmen,Absentee Shawnee,and Natchez Nation. As of 2023,over 450,000 people were enrolled in the Cherokee Nation.
A Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood or Certificate of Degree of Alaska Native Blood is an official U.S. document that certifies an individual possesses a specific fraction of Native American ancestry of a federally recognized Indian tribe,band,nation,pueblo,village,or community. They are issued by the Bureau of Indian Affairs after the applicant supplies a completed genealogy with supporting legal documents such as birth certificates,showing their descent,through one or both birth parents,from an enrolled Indian or an Indian listed in a base roll such as the Dawes Rolls. Blood degree cannot be obtained through adoptive parents. The blood degree on previously issued CDIBs or on the base rolls in the filer's ancestry are used to determine the filer's blood degree. Information collected for the filing is held confidential by privacy laws,except if the CDIB is related to assigned duties.
The Cherokee Freedmen controversy was a political and tribal dispute between the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma and descendants of the Cherokee Freedmen regarding the issue of tribal membership. The controversy had resulted in several legal proceedings between the two parties from the late 20th century to August 2017.
David Cornsilk is a professional genealogist and served as the managing editor of the Cherokee Observer,an online news website founded in 1992. He founded of the grassroots Cherokee National Party in the 1990s,seeking to create a movement to promote the Nation as a political entity. While working as a full-time store clerk at Petsmart,he "took on America’s second-largest Indian tribe,the Cherokee Nation,in what led to a landmark tribal decision. Cornsilk served as a lay advocate,which permits non-lawyers to try cases before the Cherokee Nation’s highest court." Cornsilk had worked for the nation as a tribal enrollment research analyst and for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a genealogical researcher. He also has his own genealogical firm. He ran in the 2023 Cherokee Nation principal chief election. He lost the election to incumbent principal chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.
Native American identity in the United States is a community identity,determined by the tribal nation the individual or group belongs to. While it is common for non-Natives to consider it a racial or ethnic identity,for Native Americans in the United States it is considered to be a political identity,based on citizenship and immediate family relationships. As culture can vary widely between the 574 extant federally 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.
Native American recognition in the United States,for tribes,usually means being recognized by the United States federal government as a community of Indigenous people that has been in continual existence since prior to European contact,and which has a sovereign,government-to-government relationship with the Federal government of the United States. In the United States,the Native American tribe is a fundamental unit of sovereign tribal government. This recognition comes with various rights and responsibilities. The United States recognizes the right of these tribes to self-government and supports their tribal sovereignty and self-determination. These tribes possess the right to establish the legal requirements for membership. They may form their own government,enforce laws,tax,license and regulate activities,zone,and exclude people 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.
The Choctaw Freedmen are former enslaved Africans,Afro-Indigenous,and African Americans who were emancipated and granted citizenship in the Choctaw Nation after the Civil War,according to the tribe's new peace treaty of 1866 with the United States. The term also applies to their contemporary descendants.
Kim TallBear is a Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate professor at the University of Alberta,specializing in racial politics in science. Holding the first ever Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples,Technoscience and Environment,TallBear has published on DNA testing,race science and Indigenous identities,as well as on polyamory as a decolonization practice.
The ownership of enslaved people by indigenous peoples of the Americas extended throughout the colonial period up to the abolition of slavery. Indigenous people enslaved Amerindians,Africans,and —occasionally—Europeans.
Bonita Lawrence is a Canadian writer,scholar,and professor in the Department of Equity Studies at York University in Toronto,Canada. Her work focuses on issues related to Indigenous identity and governance,equity,and racism in Canada. She is also a traditional singer at political rallies,social events,and prisons in the Toronto and Kingston areas.
Cherokee descent,"being of Cherokee descent",or "being a Cherokee descendant" are all terms for individuals with some degree of documented Cherokee ancestry but do not meet the criteria for tribal citizenship. The terms are also used by non-Native individuals who self-identify as Cherokee despite lacking documentation or community recognition.
Pretendian is a pejorative colloquialism describing a person who has falsely claimed Indigenous identity by professing to be a citizen of a Native American or Indigenous Canadian tribal nation,or to be descended from Native American or Indigenous Canadian ancestors. As a practice,being a pretendian is considered an extreme form of cultural appropriation,especially if that individual then asserts that they can represent,and speak for,communities from which they do not originate. It is sometimes also referred to as a form of fraud,ethnic fraud or race shifting.
