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 a political identity, based on citizenship and immediate family relationships. As culture can vary widely between the 575 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.
While some groups and individuals self-identify as Native American, self-identification on its own does not make one eligible for membership among recognized tribes. There are a number of different factors which have been used by non-Natives to define "Indianness", and the source and potential use of the definition play a role in what definitions have been used in their writings, including culture, society, genes/biology, law, and self-identity.Garroutte (2003), Paredes (1995) Peroff asks whether the definition should be dynamic and changeable across time and situation, or whether it is possible to define "Indianness" in a static way,Peroff (1997) p487 based in how Indians adapt and adjust to dominant society, which may be called an "oppositional process" by which the boundaries between Indians and the dominant groups are maintained. Another reason for dynamic definitions is the process of "ethnogenesis", which is the process by which the ethnic identity of the group is developed and renewed as social organizations and cultures evolve. The question of identity, especially Indigenous identity, is common in many societies worldwide.
Factors and terminology
Preferred terminology for Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans in the United States, or Indigenous Canadians as a whole varies regionally, as well as by age and other sociological factors. Most individuals prefer to be known as citizens or descendants of the exact tribes/nations they are from. As for general, overarching terms, the United States Census Bureau defines Native American as "all people indigenous to the United States and its territories—including Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders—whose data are published separately from American Indians and Alaska Natives".
The use of Native American or native American to refer to Indigenous peoples who live in the Americas came into widespread, common use during the civil rights era of the 1960s and 1970s. This term was considered to represent historical fact more accurately (i.e., "Native" cultures predated European colonization). In addition, activists also believed it was free of negative historical connotations that had come to be associated with previous terms. However, not all Native people accepted the change. In 1968, the American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded in the United States. In 1977, a delegation from the International Indian Treaty Council, an arm of AIM, elected to collectively identify as "American Indian", at the United Nations Conference on Indians in the Americas in Geneva, Switzerland.
Some Indigenous activists and public figures, particularly those from the Plains nations, such as Russell Means (Oglala Lakota), have preferred "Indian" to the more recently adopted "Native American". Means spoke frequently of his fear of the loss of traditions, languages, and sacred places. He was concerned that there may soon be no more Native Americans, only "Native American Americans, like Polish Americans and Italian Americans." As the number of self-reported "Indians" has grown (ten times as many today as in 1890), the number who carry on tribal traditions has reportedly shrunk (one fifth as many as in 1890), as has been common among many cultural groups over time. Means said, "We might speak our language, we might look like Indians and sound like Indians, but we won’t be Indians."Peroff (1997) p492
Between 1982 and 1993, most American manuals of style came to agree that "color terms" referring to ethnic groups, such as Black, should be capitalized as proper names, as well as Native American. By 2020, "Indigenous" was also included in these capitalization guidelines.
During the late 20th century the term "Indigenous peoples" evolved into a political term that refers to ethnic groups with historical ties to groups that existed in a territory prior to colonization or formation of a nation state. The "I" is capitalized as it refers to a group of people. In the Americas, the term "Indigenous peoples of the Americas" was adopted, and the term is tailored to specific geographic or political regions, such as "Indigenous peoples of Panama". "'Indigenous peoples' ... is a term that internationalizes the experiences, the issues and the struggles of some of the world's colonized peoples", writes Māori educator Linda Tuhiwai Smith. "The final 's' in 'Indigenous peoples' ... [is] a way of recognizing that there are real differences between different Indigenous peoples." Many younger Native Americans now prefer "Indigenous" as a unifying term, over previous options.
Blood quantum or lineal descent
Some tribes have a blood quantum requirement for citizenship. Others use other methods, such as lineal descent. While almost two-thirds of all federally recognized Indian tribes in the United States require a certain blood quantum for citizenship,Garroutte (2003) p16 tribal nations are sovereign nations, with a government to government relationship with the United States, and set their own enrollment criteria. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 used three criteria: tribal membership, ancestral descent, and blood quantum (one half).
Traditional
While traditional definitions of Native American identity can vary between Native communities, such definitions usually refer to those who observe, preserve, and teach about the community's ancestral language, culture and ceremonies,Etheridge (2007) and who protect and maintain the community's sacred sites and inherited landbase. The term is defined by Indigenous cultural standards, rather than mainstream academic and legal terminology. Language preservation in particular, and doing one's part to preserve the Native language of one's community, especially for young people, is seen as contributing to cultural survival, and is an important part of being "traditional". Those who maintain Native American traditions are often referred to as "traditional" or "traditionals".
Some Indian artists find traditional definitions especially important. Crow poet Henry Real Bird offers his own definition, "An Indian is one who offers tobacco to the ground, feeds the water, and prays to the four winds in his own language." Pulitzer Prize-winning Kiowa author N. Scott Momaday gives a definition that is less spiritual but still based in the traditions and experience of a person and their family, "An Indian is someone who thinks of themselves as an Indian. But that's not so easy to do and one has to earn the entitlement somehow. You have to have a certain experience of the world in order to formulate this idea. I consider myself an Indian; I've had the experience of an Indian. I know how my father saw the world, and his father before him."Bordewich (1996) p67
Connection to ancestral landbase
The preservation and revitalization of language, cultural and ceremonial traditions is often seen as central to Native American identity.Peroff (2002) While these ways are also maintained by urban Indians and those who live in other Native communities, residence on tribal lands is often seen as important as well, with even those who are not permanent residents returning to their homelands for ceremonies and family functions. Many Native American elders live on their ancestral land bases, which may be Indian reservations, reserves or land allotments, and may work in cultural centers in their communities. The Land Back movement, and other Native American civil rights organizations, prioritizes the protection and preservation of sacred sites, as well as the landbase that provides traditional foods, housing and cultural meaning to the people. Many Native Americans feel the connection to ancestral lands is an important part of identity.
Construction by others
European and settler conceptions of "Indianness" have influenced how some Native Americans see themselves, and have created persistent stereotypes which may negatively affect treatment of Indians. The noble savage stereotype is famous, but American colonists held other stereotypes as well. For example, some colonists imagined Indians as living in a state similar to their own ancestors, for example the Picts, Gauls, and Britons before "Julius Caesar with his Roman legions (or some other) had ... laid the ground to make us tame and civil".Quoted from Robert Johnson, promoter for the fledgling Virginia Colony in Dyar (2003), p. 819
In the 19th and 20th century, particularly until John Collier's tenure as Commissioner of Indian Affairs began in 1933, various policies of the United States federal and state governments amounted to an attack on Indian cultural identity and an attempt to force assimilation. These policies included but were not limited to the banning of traditional religious ceremonies; forcing traditional hunter-gatherer people to begin farming, often on land that was unsuitable and produced few or no crops; forced cutting of hair; coercing "conversion" to Christianity by withholding rations; coercing Indian parents to send their children to boarding schools where the use of Native American languages was met with violence and where many children died under suspicious circumstances; freedom of speech restrictions; and restriction on travel between reservations.Russell (2002) p66-67 In the Southwest sections of the U.S. under Spanish control until 1810, where the majority (80%) of inhabitants were Indigenous, Spanish government officials had similar policies.Russell (2002), p. 67
United States government definitions
Some authors have pointed to a connection between the social identity of Native Americans and their political status as members of a tribe.Ray (2007), p. 399 There are 561 federally recognized tribal governments in the United States, which have the right to establish their own legal requirements for membership.This right was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez in 1978, which is discussed in Ray (2007) p. 403; see also . In recent times, legislation related to Indians uses the "political" definition, identifying as Indians those who are members of federally recognized tribes. Most often given is the two-part definition: an "Indian" is someone who is a member of an Indian tribe and an "Indian tribe" is any tribe, band, nation, or organized Indian community recognized by the United States.