FAQ's About American Indians and Tribes
Who is a Native American?
As a general principle an Indian is a person who is of some degree
Indian blood and is recognized as an Indian by a tribe/village
and/or the United States. There exists no universally accepted rule
for establishing a person's identity as an Indian. The criteria for
tribal membership differs from one tribe to the next. To determine
a particular tribe's criteria, one must contact that tribe
directly. For its own purposes, the Bureau of the Census counts
anyone an Indian who declares to be such. By recent counts, there
are over 2.4 million Native Americans, including Native Alaskans
and Native Hawaiians.
Why are Indians sometimes referred to as Native
Americans?
When referring to American Indians or Alaska Natives, it is
appropriate to use the terms American Indians and Alaska Natives.
These terms denote the cultural distinction between the indigenous
people of the continental United States and those of Alaska. While
the term "Native Americans" came into usage in the 1960s out of
respect to American Indians and Alaska Natives, usage of the term
has expanded to include all Native people of the United States and
its territories, including Native Hawaiians and American
Samoans.
What is an Indian Tribe?
An Indian tribe was originally a body of people bound together by
blood ties who were socially, politically, and religiously
organized, who lived together in a defined territory and who spoke
a common language or dialect. In the eyes of the U.S. government a
body of people as described above must be officially recognized in
order to be considered a tribe.
What does the term "federally recognized"
mean?
Only tribes who maintain a legal relationship to the U.S.
government through binding treaties, acts of Congress, executive
orders, etc., are officially "recognized" by the federal
government. Once "recognized" a tribe has a legal relationship with
the United States. There are currently more than 550 federally
recognized tribes in the United States, including some 200 village
groups in Alaska. However, there are still hundreds of tribes
undergoing the lengthy and tedious process of applying for federal
recognition.
What does "tribal sovereignty" mean and why is it so
important to Native Americans?
Tribal sovereignty describes the right of federally recognized
tribes to govern themselves and the existence of a
government-to-government relationship with the United States. Thus
a tribe is not a ward of the government, but an independent nation
with the right to form its own government, adjudicate legal cases
within its borders, levy taxes within its borders, establish its
membership, and decide its own future fate. The federal government
has a trust responsibility to protect tribal lands, assets,
resources and treaty rights.
What is a reservation?
In the U.S., there are only two kinds of reserved lands that are
well-known - military and Indian. An Indian reservation is a
landbase that a tribe reserved for itself when it relinquished its
other land areas to the U.S. through treaties. More recently,
Congressional acts, executive orders and administrative acts have
created reservations. Some reservations, today, have non-Indian
residents and land owners.
Are Indians U.S. citizens?
Not until 1924 were all Native Americans granted citizenship.
Before this juncture only individuals who were members of federally
recognized tribes and "naturalized" individuals were given the
rights of a United States citizen. Presently all Native Americans
born within the territorial limits of the United States are by law
citizens. Native Americans have had the privilege of voting in
national elections since 1924; however, until recently some states
prohibited Native Americans from voting in local elections. New
Mexico, for example, did not extend the vote to Native Americans
until 1962. Most native people, of course, also are members of
their respective sovereign tribes.
Are Native Americans exempt from military
service?
Native Americans, despite tribal sovereignty, have the same
obligations for military service as all other U.S. citizens.
Do Indians pay taxes?
All Indians are subject to federal income taxes. As sovereign
entities, tribal governments have the power to levy taxes on
reservation lands. Some tribes do and some don't. As a result,
Indians and non-Indians may or may not pay sales taxes on goods and
services purchased on the reservation depending on the tribe.
However, whenever a member of an Indian tribe conducts business off
the reservation, that person, like everyone else, pays both state
and local taxes. State income taxes are not paid on reservation or
trust lands.
Do Native Americans receive any special rights or benefits
from the U.S. government?
Contrary to popular belief, Indians do not receive payments from
the federal government simply because they have Indian blood. Funds
distributed to a person of Indian descent may represent mineral
lease income on property that is held in trust by the United States
or compensation for lands taken in connection with governmental
projects. Some Indian tribes receive benefits from the federal
government in fulfillment of treaty obligations or for the
extraction of tribal natural resources - a percentage of which may
be distributed as per capita among the tribes membership.
What does all this mean?
Tribes deserve to be sovereign entities imbued with the authority
of self-determination on their own land. For a healthy
government-to-government relationship to exist the U.S. government
needs to respect the binding agreements spelled out in their own
treaties. All Native Americans should demand nothing less than what
the U.S. government has promised them.