Native Americans in the United States

Comanche Indians Chasing Buffalo with Lances and Bows, by George Catlin
The Cultural areas of pre-Columbian North America, according to Alfred Kroeber
This map shows the approximate location of the ice-free corridor and specific Paleoindian sites (Clovis theory).
A Folsom point for a spear
Artists conception of Ohio Hopewell culture Shriver Circle with the Mound City Group to the left
Cahokia, the largest Mississippian culture site
Map showing the approximate locations of the Native American nations circa 16th century
Discovery of the Mississippi by William Henry Powell (1823–1879) is a Romantic depiction of Spanish explorer de Soto's seeing the Mississippi River for the first time. It hangs in the United States Capitol rotunda.
1882 studio portrait of the (then) last surviving Six Nations warriors who fought with the British in the War of 1812
Early Native American tribal territories color-coded by linguistic group
The Treaty of Penn with the Indians by Benjamin West, painted in 1771
Yamacraw Creek Native Americans meet with the Trustee of the colony of Georgia in England, July 1734. The painting shows a Native American boy (in a blue coat) and woman (in a red dress) in European clothing.
Benjamin Hawkins, seen here on his plantation, teaches Creek Native Americans how to use European technology, painted in 1805
Native-controlled territories in the West, 1836
Tecumseh was the Shawnee leader of Tecumseh's War who attempted to organize an alliance of Native American tribes throughout North America.
The Rescue sculpture stood outside the U.S. Capitol between 1853 and 1958. A work commissioned by the U.S. government, its sculptor Horatio Greenough wrote that it was "to convey the idea of the triumph of the whites over the savage tribes".
Mass grave for the dead Lakota following the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, which took place during the Indian Wars in the 19th century
Ely Parker (of the Seneca people) was a Union Civil War general who wrote the terms of surrender between the United States and the Confederate States of America.
Republican Charles Curtis, of Kaw, Osage, Potawatomi, French and British ancestry from Kansas, was 31st vice president of the United States, 1929–1933, serving with Republican Herbert Hoover.
General Douglas MacArthur meeting Navajo, Pima, Pawnee and other Native American troops
A Navajo man on horseback in Monument Valley, Arizona, United States
Byron Mallott, an Alaskan Native, was the lieutenant governor of Alaska.
Proportion of Indigenous Americans in each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico as of the 2020 United States Census
This Census Bureau map depicts the locations of differing Native American groups, including Indian reservations, as of 2000. Note the concentration (blue) in modern-day Oklahoma in the South West, which was once designated as an Indian Territory before statehood in 1907.
Indian reservations in the continental United States
Native peoples are concerned about the effects of abandoned uranium mines on or near their lands.
National Indian Youth Council demonstrations, Bureau of Indian Affairs Office
A discriminatory sign posted above a bar. Birney, Montana, 1941
Chief Plenty Coups and seven Crow prisoners under guard at Crow agency, Montana, 1887
Protest against the name of the Washington Redskins in Minneapolis, November 2014
Secotan Indians' dance in North Carolina. Watercolor by John White, 1585
Sandia Casino, owned by the Sandia Pueblo of New Mexico
Three Native American women in Warm Springs Indian Reservation, Wasco County, Oregon (1902)
Geronimo, Chiricahua Apache leader. Photograph by Frank A. Rinehart (1898).
Pre-contact: distribution of North American language families, including northern Mexico
Oklahoma Cherokee language immersion school student writing in the Cherokee syllabary
The Cherokee language taught to preschoolers as a first language, at New Kituwah Academy
Maize grown by Native Americans
Ojibwe baby waits on a cradleboard while parents tend wild rice crops (Minnesota, 1940).
Frybread, made into an Indian taco.
Makah Native Americans and a whale, The King of the Seas in the Hands of the Makahs, 1910 photograph by Asahel Curtis
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the patron of ecologists, exiles, and orphans, was canonized by the Catholic Church.
Baptism of Pocahontas was painted in 1840 by John Gadsby Chapman, who depicts Pocahontas, wearing white, being baptized Rebecca by Anglican minister Alexander Whiteaker (left) in Jamestown, Virginia. This event is believed to have taken place either in 1613 or 1614.
Susan La Flesche Picotte was the first Native American woman to become a physician in the United States.
Jim Thorpe—gold medalist at the 1912 Olympics, in the pentathlon and decathlon events
Ball players from the Choctaw and Lakota tribe in a 19th-century lithograph by George Catlin
Billy Mills crosses the finish line at the end of the 10,000-meter race at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Fancy Dancer at the Seafair Indian Days Pow-Wow, Daybreak Star Cultural Center, Seattle, Washington
Jake Fragua, Jemez Pueblo from New Mexico
Lillian Gross, described as a "Mixed Blood" by the Smithsonian source, was of Cherokee and European-American heritage. She identified with the Cherokee culture in which she was raised.
The 1725 return of an Osage bride from a trip to Paris, France. The Osage woman was married to a French soldier.
Five Indians and a Captive, painted by Carl Wimar, 1855
Charles Eastman was one of the first Native Americans to become certified as a medical doctor, after he graduated from Boston University.
Buffalo Soldiers, 1890. The nickname was given to the "Black Cavalry" by the Native American tribes they fought.
Ben Nighthorse Campbell, one of only four Native Americans elected to the U.S. Senate
Sharice Davids became one of the first two Native American women elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Deb Haaland became one of the first two Native American women elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Yvette Herrell became the first Cherokee woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Ada E. Brown, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation with mixed-African-American heritage, nominated by President Donald Trump in 2019 to be a federal judge in Texas
Members of the Creek (Muscogee) Nation in Oklahoma around 1877; they include men with some European and African ancestry.

Native Americans, also known as First Americans, Indigenous Americans, American Indians, and other terms, are the Indigenous people of the United States, including Hawaii and territories of the United States, and other times limited to the mainland.

- Native Americans in the United States

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Indian removal

Routes of southern removals
Representatives of the Five Civilized Tribes: (clockwise from upper left) Sequoyah, Pushmataha, Selecta, Osceola, and a typical Chickasaw

Indian removal was the United States government policy of forced displacement of self-governing tribes of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the eastern United States to lands west of the Mississippi River – specifically, to a designated Indian Territory (roughly, present-day Oklahoma).

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Landmark law in the United States signed into law by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during the King assassination riots.

President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968
This shows what accessible housing looks like and some of the changes residents might make under the Fair Housing Act to make their living units accessible

Titles II through VII comprise the Indian Civil Rights Act, which applies to the Native American tribes of the United States and makes many but not all of the guarantees of the U.S. Bill of Rights applicable within the tribes.

Indian reservation

Most Indian reservations, like the Laguna Indian reservation in New Mexico (pictured here in March 1943), are in the western United States, often in regions suitable more for ranching than farming.
Paul Brodie's Map Showing the Location of the Indian Reservations within the Limits of the United States and Territories, 1885
Wagon loaded with squash, Rosebud Indian Reservation, ca. 1936
Spring roundup of Paiute-owned cattle begins at Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation, 1973.
Fort Stanwix, New York
The reservations of the Five Civilized Tribes that were the subject of McGirt v. Oklahoma
Red Cliff Indian Reservation in Wisconsin during their annual pow wow

An Indian reservation is an area of land held and governed by a federally recognized Native American tribal nation whose government is accountable to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and not to the state government in which it is located.

Slavery among Native Americans in the United States

Engraving of Spaniards enslaving Native Americans by Theodor de Bry (1528–1598), published in America. part 6. Frankfurt, 1596.
Statue representing Sacagawea (ca. 1788–1812), a Lemhi Shoshone who was taken captive by the Hidatsa people and sold to Toussaint Charbonneau
The Pequot War resulted in the enslavement of some of the surviving Pequot by English colonists in New England.
L to R: Mrs. Amos Chapman, her daughter, sister (all Cheyenne), and an unidentified girl of African-American descent. 1886

Slavery among Native Americans in the United States includes slavery by and slavery of Native Americans roughly within what is currently the United States of America.

Choctaw

Louisiana Indians Walking Along a Bayou Alfred Boisseau – 1847
The Willoughby Disk, a Mississippian ceremonial stone palette from Moundville Archaeological Park, housed onsite in the Jones Archaeological Museum. Photo by Jeffrey Reed.
Watercolor painting of Choctaw men, painted for war and holding scalps, and children, by Alexandre de Batz, c. mid–18th century
Choctaw Village near the Chefuncte, by Francois Bernard, 1869. (Peabody Museum – Harvard University.) The women are preparing dye to color cane strips for making baskets.
The complete Choctaw Nation shaded in blue in relation to the U.S. state of Mississippi.
Pushmataha, (c. 1764-1824)
In 1830 Mosholatubbee sought to be elected to the Congress of the United States. 1834, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Kutteeotubbee was a noted warrior. 1834, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Choctaw Eagle Dance, 1835–37, by George Catlin; Smithsonian American Art Museum
Choctaw chief Greenwood LeFlore's plantation home, Malmaison, was built in 1852 near Greenwood, Mississippi, and was described as a "palace in the wilderness."
Kindred Spirits sculpture in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland.
Jackson McCurtain, Lieutenant Colonel of the First Choctaw Battalion, CSA, late principal chief
Choctaw girls in 1868. Smithsonian Institution.
Peter Pitchlynn was the Choctaw Principal Chief from 1864–1866, and a Choctaw Delegate to Washington, DC for nearly two decades following. He is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. Painting, 1834, Smithsonian American Art Museum
Faunceway Baptiste, a Choctaw man of mixed-race ancestry. 1868, Smithsonian Institution.
Choctaw Nation senate in 1898. Oklahoma Historical Society.
From left to right, Chief Wesley Johnson, T. B. Sullivan, Culberson Davis, James E. Arnold, and Emil John.
Louisiana Choctaws in front of their cabin in 1909
Choctaws in training in World War I for coded radio & telephone transmissions
Wounded Choctaw soldier in World War I, U.S. National Red Cross Hospital No. 5, Auteuil, France
Group of Mississippi Choctaw males in the late 50s or early 60s. Photograph by Bob Ferguson.
Phillip Martin and family in the late 1950s or early 1960s
Norma Howard (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), award-winning watercolor painter, with Choctaw stickball sticks made by her son.
Image from video of Senate Indian Affairs Committee Hearing on 'Lobbying Practices Involving Indian Tribes' on September 29, 2004
Tullockchishko (Drinks the Juice of the Stones) was the greatest of Choctaw stickball players, 1834.
A Mississippian era engraved shell discovered at Eddyville, Kentucky
Modern geographic distribution of the Choctaw language.
Mississippi Choctaw group wearing traditional garb, c. 1908.

The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi.

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.

Current distribution of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (not including mixed people like mestizos, métis, zambos and pardos)
Diné boy, in the desert of Monument Valley, AZ, United States of America. The Three Sisters buttes are visible in the background.
Mapuche man, in Chile
Mayan women in Antigua Guatemala, Central America.
Language families of Indigenous peoples in North America: shown across present-day Canada, Greenland, the United States, and northern Mexico
The Kogi, descendants of the Tairona, are a culturally-intact, largely pre-Columbian society. The Tairona were one of the few indigenous American civilizations that were not fully conquered.
"The Maiden", one of the discovered Llullaillaco mummies. A Preserved Inca human sacrifice from around the year 1500.
Cultural areas of North America at time of European contact
Eight Crow Nation prisoners under guard at Crow agency, Montana, 1887
Drawing accompanying text in Book XII of the 16th-century Florentine Codex (compiled 1540–1585), showing Nahuas of conquest-era central Mexico suffering from smallpox
Indigenous people at a Brazilian farm plantation in Minas Gerais ca. 1824
A bison hunt depicted by George Catlin
Ancient mesoamerican engraving of maize, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico
Main indigenous language families of South America (except Quechua, Aymaran, and Mapuche).
Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico
Textile art by Julia Pingushat (Inuk, Arviat, Nunavut, Canada), wool, embroidery floss, 1995
Chimu culture feather pectoral, feathers, reed, copper, silver, hide, cordage, ca. 1350–1450 CE
Indigenous man playing a panpipe, antara or siku
Indigenous protesters from Vale do Javari, one of the largest indigenous territories in Brazil
A map of uncontacted peoples, around the start of the 21st century
Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and the First Men (collection of the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver). The Raven represents the Trickster figure common to many mythologies.
Some Inuit people on a traditional qamutiik (dog sled) in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Canada
Tunumiit Inuit couple from Kulusuk, Greenland
Wixarika (Huichol) woman from Zacatecas
Tenejapa Carnival with Tzeltal people, Chiapas
Rarámuri marathon in Urique.
Choctaw artist from Oklahoma
A Navajo man on horseback in Monument Valley, Arizona
Indigenous Salvadoran Pipil women dancing in the traditional Procession of Palms, Panchimalco in El Salvador
Maya women from Guatemala
A Mayan woman
Owners of a roadside cafe near Cachi, Argentina
Indigenous woman in traditional dress, near Cochabamba, Bolivia
Indigenous man of Terena tribe from Brazil
Mapuche man and woman. The Mapuche make up about 85% of Indigenous population that live in Chile.
Guambía people relaxing in Colombia
Shaman of the Cofán people from the Ecuadorian Amazon Ecuador Amazonian forest
Quechua woman and child in the Sacred Valley, Cuzco Region, Peru
A Warao family from Venezuela traveling in their canoe
Evo Morales (Aymara), former President of Bolivia
Schematic illustration of maternal (mtDNA) gene-flow in and out of Beringia, from 25,000 years ago to present

Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans, Indians, as well as Alaska Natives.

California

State in the Western United States.

A map of California tribal groups and languages at the time of European contact
The coat of arms granted to the Californias by Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza
Mission San Diego de Alcalá drawn as it was in 1848. Established in 1769, it was the first of the California Missions.
Map showing Alta California in 1838, when it was a sparsely populated Mexican province
The flag used by Juan Bautista Alvarado's 1836 movement for Californian independence
The Russians from Alaska established their largest settlement in California, Fort Ross, in 1812.
The Bear Flag of the California Republic was first raised in Sonoma in 1846 during the Bear Flag Revolt.
Yokayo, a village of Pomo people in Ukiah (Mendocino County), c. 1916
Hollywood film studios, 1922
The "Birthplace of Silicon Valley" garage, where Stanford University graduates Bill Hewlett and David Packard developed their first product in the 1930s
A topographic map of California
Big Sur coast, south of Monterey at Bixby Bridge
Yosemite National Park
Cylindropuntia bigelovii in the Joshua Tree National Park
Köppen climate types in California
Death Valley, in the Mojave Desert
Five of the twenty largest wildfires in California history were part of the 2020 wildfire season.
A Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) in Joshua Tree
A forest of redwood trees in Redwood National Park
Sea otter in Morro Bay, California
Mission San Diego de Alcalá, first of the Spanish missions in California
Sunset at Venice Beach
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
Torrance High School, one of the oldest high schools in continuous use in California
The University of California, Berkeley is the first and oldest campus of the UC system.
The Claremont Colleges east of L.A. include some of the most selective liberal arts colleges in the U.S.
A tree map depicting the distribution of occupations across California
Orange Grove outside of Santa Paula
The Googleplex in Mountain View, California, is the corporate headquarters of Google. Silicon Valley is a center for the global technology industry.
Economic regions of California
Moss Landing Power Plant, located on the coast of Monterey Bay
Solar Energy Generating Systems, located in the Mojave Desert
The Golden Gate Bridge
The Judge Harry Pregerson Interchange in Los Angeles, one of California's tall "stack" interchanges
Map of California showing the primary roadways
Amtrak California train in Pinole
Aerial view of the Delta–Mendota Canal (left) and the California Aqueduct, at the Interstate 205 crossing west of Tracy
California budget 2022-2023
The California State Capitol in Sacramento
Democrats Jerry Brown and Eric Garcetti. Brown served twice as Governor of California and Garcetti is currently serving as Mayor of Los Angeles.
California GDP by sector in 2017<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |title=SAGDP2N Gross domestic product (GDP) by state |url=https://www.bea.gov/data/gdp/gdp-state |access-date=December 21, 2018 |publisher=Bureau of Economic Analysis}}</ref>
Had California been an independent country in 2021 its gross domestic product (nominal) would have been ranked fifth in the world.<ref>{{Cite web |title=5. Report for Selected Countries and Subjects |url=https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2016/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?pr.x=69&pr.y=15&sy=2018&ey=2018&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=512%2C672%2C914%2C946%2C612%2C137%2C614%2C546%2C311%2C962%2C213%2C674%2C911%2C676%2C193%2C548%2C122%2C556%2C912%2C678%2C313%2C181%2C419%2C867%2C513%2C682%2C316%2C684%2C913%2C273%2C124%2C868%2C339%2C921%2C638%2C948%2C514%2C943%2C218%2C686%2C963%2C688%2C616%2C518%2C223%2C728%2C516%2C558%2C918%2C138%2C748%2C196%2C618%2C278%2C624%2C692%2C522%2C694%2C622%2C142%2C156%2C449%2C626%2C564%2C628%2C565%2C228%2C283%2C924%2C853%2C233%2C288%2C632%2C293%2C636%2C566%2C634%2C964%2C238%2C182%2C662%2C359%2C960%2C453%2C423%2C968%2C935%2C922%2C128%2C714%2C611%2C862%2C321%2C135%2C243%2C716%2C248%2C456%2C469%2C722%2C253%2C942%2C642%2C718%2C643%2C724%2C939%2C576%2C644%2C936%2C819%2C961%2C172%2C813%2C132%2C199%2C646%2C733%2C648%2C184%2C915%2C524%2C134%2C361%2C652%2C362%2C174%2C364%2C328%2C732%2C258%2C366%2C656%2C734%2C654%2C144%2C336%2C146%2C263%2C463%2C268%2C528%2C532%2C923%2C944%2C738%2C176%2C578%2C534%2C537%2C536%2C742%2C429%2C866%2C433%2C369%2C178%2C744%2C436%2C186%2C136%2C925%2C343%2C869%2C158%2C746%2C439%2C926%2C916%2C466%2C664%2C112%2C826%2C111%2C542%2C298%2C967%2C927%2C443%2C846%2C917%2C299%2C544%2C582%2C941%2C474%2C446%2C754%2C666%2C698%2C668&s=NGDPD&grp=0&a= |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323111307/https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2016/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?pr.x=69&pr.y=15&sy=2018&ey=2018&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=512%2C672%2C914%2C946%2C612%2C137%2C614%2C546%2C311%2C962%2C213%2C674%2C911%2C676%2C193%2C548%2C122%2C556%2C912%2C678%2C313%2C181%2C419%2C867%2C513%2C682%2C316%2C684%2C913%2C273%2C124%2C868%2C339%2C921%2C638%2C948%2C514%2C943%2C218%2C686%2C963%2C688%2C616%2C518%2C223%2C728%2C516%2C558%2C918%2C138%2C748%2C196%2C618%2C278%2C624%2C692%2C522%2C694%2C622%2C142%2C156%2C449%2C626%2C564%2C628%2C565%2C228%2C283%2C924%2C853%2C233%2C288%2C632%2C293%2C636%2C566%2C634%2C964%2C238%2C182%2C662%2C359%2C960%2C453%2C423%2C968%2C935%2C922%2C128%2C714%2C611%2C862%2C321%2C135%2C243%2C716%2C248%2C456%2C469%2C722%2C253%2C942%2C642%2C718%2C643%2C724%2C939%2C576%2C644%2C936%2C819%2C961%2C172%2C813%2C132%2C199%2C646%2C733%2C648%2C184%2C915%2C524%2C134%2C361%2C652%2C362%2C174%2C364%2C328%2C732%2C258%2C366%2C656%2C734%2C654%2C144%2C336%2C146%2C263%2C463%2C268%2C528%2C532%2C923%2C944%2C738%2C176%2C578%2C534%2C537%2C536%2C742%2C429%2C866%2C433%2C369%2C178%2C744%2C436%2C186%2C136%2C925%2C343%2C869%2C158%2C746%2C439%2C926%2C916%2C466%2C664%2C112%2C826%2C111%2C542%2C298%2C967%2C927%2C443%2C846%2C917%2C299%2C544%2C582%2C941%2C474%2C446%2C754%2C666%2C698%2C668&s=NGDPD&grp=0&a= |archive-date=March 23, 2019 |access-date=December 15, 2018}}</ref>
Köppen climate types in California
The famous Tunnel tree at Yosemite National Park in May of 2022

Prior to European colonization, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America and contained the highest Native American population density north of what is now Mexico.

Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears memorial at the New Echota Historic Site in Georgia, which honors the Cherokees who died on the Trail of Tears
A map of the process of Indian Removal, 1830–1838. Oklahoma is depicted in light yellow-green.
George W. Harkins, Choctaw chief.
Alexis de Tocqueville, French political thinker and historian
Seminole warrior Tuko-see-mathla, 1834
Selocta (or Shelocta) was a Muscogee chief who appealed to Andrew Jackson to reduce the demands for Creek lands at the signing of the Treaty of Fort Jackson.
Historic Marker in Marion, Arkansas, for the Trail of Tears
Cherokee Principal Chief John Ross, photographed before his death in 1866
Elizabeth "Betsy" Brown Stephens (1903), a Cherokee Indian who walked the Trail of Tears in 1838
A Trail of Tears map of Southern Illinois from the USDA – U.S. Forest Service
Walkway map at the Cherokee Removal Memorial Park in Tennessee depicting the routes of the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears, June 2020
Map of National Historic trails

The Trail of Tears was a series of forced displacements of approximately 60,000 American Indians of the "Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government.

White Americans

White Americans are Americans who identify as and are perceived to be white people.

Three members of the Kennedy political dynasty, John, Robert and Ted Kennedy. All eight of their great-grandparents emigrated from Ireland.

The Census question on race lists the categories White or European American, Black or African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, Asian, plus "Some other race", with the respondent having the ability to mark more than one racial or ethnic category.

Indian Citizenship Act

President Coolidge stands with four Osage Indians at a White House ceremony

The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, (, enacted June 2, 1924) was an Act of the United States Congress that granted US citizenship to the indigenous peoples of the United States.