The indigenous people of North America, also known as Native Americans or American Indians, are the first inhabitants of what is now known as the United States. The ancestors of today’s living Native Americans are believed to have settled on the land about 15,000 years ago. The term excludes Native Hawaiians and some Alaskan Natives.
Following the European colonization of the Americans, starting in 1492, the Native American population began to rapidly decline due to slavery, ethnic cleansing, warfare, and diseases brought by the settlers. Additionally, Native Americans have been forced off their ancestral lands and faced discriminatory government policies into the 20th century.
One of these government policies included the Indian Appropriation Act of 1871, which ended the recognition of independent native nations and treated them as “domestic dependent nations,” making them subject to federal law. In 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born in the U.S. who had not yet obtained it. This allowed natives to vote in state and federal elections and extended the Fourteenth Amendment protections to them while also emptying the “Indians not taxed” category. Despite this, some states denied voting rights to Native Americans for several decades.
Today, there are over five million Native Americans in the United States, 78% of whom live outside of reservations. There are 574 federally recognized Native American tribes in the country, about half associated with Indian reservations. The tribes listed below were the first to settle the land where each current state is located.
Native American Tribes by State
Alabama
- The Alabama Tribe
- The Biloxi Tribe
- The Cherokee Tribe
- The Chickasaw Tribe
- The Choctaw Tribe
- The Koasati Tribe
- The Muskogee (Creek) tribe
Alaska
- The Ahtna tribe
- The Aleut tribe
- The Aluutiq tribe
- The Eyak tribe
- The Gwich'in tribe
- The Haida tribe
- The Han tribe
- The Holikachuk tribe
- The Ingalik tribe (Degexit'an)
- The Inupiaq (Inuit)
- The Kolchan tribe
- The Koyukon tribe
- The Tanacross tribe
- The Tanaina tribe
- The Tanana tribe
- The Tlingit tribe
- The Tsimshian tribe
- The Yup'ik tribe
Arizona
- The Akimel O'odham (Pima) Indians
- The Apache Indians
- The Cocopah tribe
- The Halchidhoma tribe
- The Havasupai, Yavapai, and Hualapai tribes
- The Hopi Indians
- The Jocme and Jano tribes
- The Maricopa tribe
- The Mohave tribe
- The Navajo tribe
- The Southern Paiute tribe
- Tohono O’odham (Papago) tribe
- The Yaqui tribe
- The Yuma tribe
- The Zuni tribe
Arkansas
- The Caddo Indians
- The Chickasaw Indians
- The Osage Indians
- The Quapaw Indians
- The Tunica Indians
California
- 58 tribes were the original inhabitants of the area is that is now California. A complete list can be found here.
Colorado
- The Apache nation
- The Arapaho nation
- The Cheyenne nation
- The Pueblo Tribes
- The Shoshone tribe
- The Ute nation
Connecticut
- The Mahican tribes
- The Minisink tribes
- The Mohegan tribes
- The Pequot tribes
- The Nipmuc tribes
- The Quiripi tribes
Delaware
- The Lenni Lenape tribe
- The Nanticoke tribe
Florida
- The Apalachee tribe
- The Calusa tribe
- The Choctaw tribe
- The Creek tribe
- The Miccosukee tribe
- The Tequesta, Jeaga, and Ais tribes
- The Timucua tribe
Georgia
- The Apalachee Indians
- The Cherokee Indians
- The Hitchiti, Oconee, and Miccosukee Indians
- The Muskogee Creek Indians
- The Timucua Indians
- The Yamasee and Guale Indians
Idaho
- The Bannock tribe
- The Blackfeet tribe
- Coeur d’Alene tribe
- The Kootenai tribe
- The Nez Perce tribe
- The Paiute tribe
- The Palouse tribe
- The Kalispel and Spokane Salish tribes
- The Shoshoni tribe
Illinois
- The Chickasaw tribe
- The Dakota Sioux tribe
- The Ho-Chunk tribe (Winnebago)
- The Illinois tribe (Illini)
- The Miami tribe
- The Shawnee tribe
Indiana
- The Illini Indians
- The Miami Indians (including the Wea)
- The Shawnee Indians
Iowa
- The Dakota Sioux tribe
- The Illinios tribe (Illini)
- The Ioway tribe
- The Missouria tribe
- The Otoe tribe
Kansas
- The Arapaho tribe
- The Comanche tribe
- The Kansa tribe
- The Kiowa tribe
- The Missouria tribe
- The Osage tribe
- The Otoe tribe
- The Pawnee tribe
Kentucky
- The Cherokee tribe
- The Chickasaw tribe
- The Shawnee tribe
- The Yuchi tribe
Lousiana
- The Atakapa Indians
- The Caddo Indians
- The Chitimacha Indians
- The Choctaw Indians
- The Houma Indians
- The Natchez Indians
- The Tunica Indians
Maine
- The Maliseet tribe
- The Passamaquoddy tribe
- The Abenaki tribe
- The Penobscot Indians
Maryland
- The Lenape tribe
- The Nanticoke tribe
- The Powhatan tribe
- The Ohio Valley tribes
- The Susquehannock tribe
- The Tutelo and Saponi tribes
Massachusetts
- The Wampanoag tribes (includes the Nauset, Nantucket, Pennacook, Pokanoket, and Pocasset)
- The Mohegan tribes
- The Mohican tribe
Michigan
- The Fox and Sauk tribes
- The Kickapoo tribe
- The Menominee tribe
- The Miami time
- The Ojibwe tribe (also known as the Chippewa, Ojibway, or Ojibwa)
- The Potawatomi tribe
Minnesota
- The Dakota Sioux tribe
- The Ojibwe tribe
Mississippi
- The Biloxi Indians
- The Chickasaw Indians
- The Choctaw Indians
- The Houma Indians
- The Natchez Indians
- The Ofo Indians
- The Quapaw Indians
- The Tunica Indians
Missouri
- The Chickasaw Indians
- The Illini tribe
- The Ioway Indians
- The Missouria Indians
- The Osage Indians
- The Otoe Indians
- The Quapaw Indians
Montana
- The Assiniboine Indians
- The Blackfeet Indians
- The Cheyenne Indians
- The Crow Indians
- The Gros Ventre Indians
- The Kootenai Indians
- The Salish Indians
- The Sioux Indians
- The Shoshoni Indians
Nebraska
- The Arapaho tribe
- The Cheyenne tribe
- The Kansa tribe
- The Lakota and Dakota tribes
- The Missouria tribes
- The Omaha tribe
- The Otoe tribe
- Pawnee tribe
- The Ponca tribe
Nevada
- The Northern Paiute tribe
- The Southern Paiute tribe
- -The Ute tribe
- The Walapai tribe
- The Washoe tribe
- The Western Shoshone tribe
New Hampshire
- The Abenaki tribe
- The Pennacook tribe
New Jersey
- The Unami (Lenape) tribe
- The Minisink (Munsee) tribe
- The Unalachtigo tribe
New Mexico
- The Apache tribe
- The Comanche tribe
- The Jacome and Jano tribes
- The Pueblo tribes
- The Navajo tribe
- The Ute tribe
- The Zuni tribe
New York
- The Abenaki tribe
- The Cayuga tribe
- The Erie tribe
- The Laurentian tribes
- The Mohawk tribe
- The Mohican tribe
- The Mohegan tribe
- The Munsee tribe
- The Oneida tribe
- The Onondaga tribe
- The Poospatuck/Unkechaug tribe
- The Seneca tribe
North Carolina
- The Catawba tribe
- The Cherokee Nation
- The Creek tribe
- The Croatan tribe
- The Tuscarora tribe
- The Tutelo and Saponi tribes
- The Carolina Siouan bands (Cheraw, Chicora, and Waccamaw tribes)
North Dakota
- The Arikara tribe
- The Assiniboine (Nakoda) tribe
- The Chippewa tribe
- The Hidatsa tribe
- The Lakota and Dakota Sioux tribes
- The Mandan tribe
Ohio
- The Erie tribe
- The Kickapoo tribe
- The Shawnee tribe
Oklahoma
- The Plains Apache
- The Caddo tribe
- The Comanche tribe
- The Kiowa tribe
- The Osage tribe
- The Wichita tribe
Oregon
- The Alsea tribe
- The Cayuse tribe
- The Chetco tribe
- The Chinook tribe
- The Clatskanie tribe
- The Coos tribe
- The Calice and Applegate tribes
- The Kalapuya tribe
- The Klamath and Modoc tribes
- The Molalla tribe
- The Multnomah tribe
- The Nez Perce tribe
- The Paiute tribe
- The Shasta tribe
- The Siuslaw tribe
- The Takelma tribe
- The Tillamook tribe
- The Tolowa tribe
- The Tututni and Coquille tribes
- The Umatilla tribe
- The Umpqua tribe
- The Walla Walla tribe
- The Wasco and Wishram tribes
Pennsylvania
- The Erie tribe
- The Iroquois tribes (Seneca and Oneida)
- The Lenape tribes
- The Munsee tribe
- The Shawnee tribe
- The Susquehannock tribe
Rhode Island
- The Narragansett tribe
- The Niantic tribe
- The Wampanoag tribe
South Carolina
- The Catawba tribe
- The Cherokee tribe
- The Creek tribe
- The Yuchi tribe
- The Cusabo and Edisto tribes
- The Carolina Siouan bands (Chicora, PeeDee, Waccamaw, and Santee)
South Dakota
- The Arikara tribe
- The Cheyenne tribe
- The Lakota and Dakota tribes
- The Ponca tribe
Tennessee
- The Cherokee tribe
- The Chickasaw tribe
- The Creek Tribe
- The Koasati tribe
- The Quapaw tribe
- The Shawnee tribe
- The Yuchi tribe
Texas
- The Apache tribes
- The Bidai tribe
- The Coahuiltecan and Carrizo tribes
- The Caddo tribe
- The Comanche tribe
- The Jumano, Suma, Piro, and other eastern Pueblo tribes
- The Karankawa tribe
- The Kiowa tribe
- The Kitsai tribe
- The Tawakoni tribe
- The Tonkawa tribe
- The Wichita tribe
Utah
- The Bannock tribe
- The Goshute Tribe
- The Navajo tribe
- The Paiute tribe
- The Shoshone tribe
- The Ute tribe
Vermont
- The Abenaki tribe
- The Mohican tribe
- The Massachusett tribes (Pennacook and Pocomtuc)
Virginia
- The Catawba tribe
- The Cherokee tribe
- The Croatoan tribe
- The tribes of the Powhatan Confederacy
- The Tuscarora tribe
- The Tutelo and Saponi tribes
- The Yuchi tribe
Washington
- The Cayuse tribe
- The Chehalis tribe
- The Chinook tribe
- The Colville and Okanagan tribes
- The Coeur d’Alene tribe
- The Cowlitz tribe
- The Kalispel and Spokane Salish tribes
- The Klallam tribe
- The Kwalhioqua tribe
- The Lummi and Samich tribes
- The Makah tribe
- The Nez Perce tribe
- The Nooksack tribe
- The Quileute, Hoh, and Chemakum tribes
- The Quinault tribe
- The Skokomish tribe
- The Thompson Salish tribe
- The Umatilla tribe
- The Walla Walla and Palouse tribes
- The Wasco and Wishram tribes
- The Yakima tribe
- The Puget Sound Salish tribes (Puyallup, Snohomish, Muckleshoot, Snoqualmie, Nisqually, Skagit, Suquamish, Squaxin, Swinomish, Stillaguamish, and Sauk-Suiattle tribes)
West Virginia
- The Cherokee tribe
- The Shawnee tribe
- The Tutelo and Saponi tribes
Wisconsin
- The Dakota Sioux tribe
- The Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) tribe
- The Menominee tribe
- The Ojibwe tribe
- The Potawatomi tribe
- The Fox and Sauk tribes
Wyoming
- The Arapaho tribe
- The Cheyenne tribe
- The Crow tribe
- The Shoshoni tribe
- The Ute tribe