Nations & Tribes

The First Peoples

Discover the unique histories, traditions, and living cultures of Native American nations. Each tribe has its own story, language, and spiritual practices that continue to thrive today.

Southwest

Navajo (Diné)

The Navajo Nation is the largest Native American tribe in the United States. Known as Diné, meaning 'The People,' they have inhabited the Four Corners region for centuries. Their rich culture includes intricate weaving, silversmithing, and sand painting traditions.

~400,000Navajo

Arizona, New Mexico+2

Southeast

Cherokee

The Cherokee are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands. They developed their own writing system, the Cherokee syllabary, created by Sequoyah. Despite the tragedy of the Trail of Tears, the Cherokee Nation thrives today as a sovereign nation.

~370,000Cherokee

North Carolina, Tennessee+2

Great Plains

Sioux (Lakota, Dakota, Nakota)

The Great Sioux Nation, comprising the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people, are renowned warriors and buffalo hunters of the Great Plains. Their spiritual traditions, including the Sun Dance, remain central to their cultural identity.

~170,000Lakota

South Dakota, North Dakota+3

Southwest

Apache

The Apache are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States. Known for their fierce resistance to Spanish and American expansion, legendary leaders like Geronimo and Cochise led their people with unwavering courage.

~111,000Apache languages

Arizona, New Mexico+2

Northeast

Iroquois (Haudenosaunee)

The Haudenosaunee, or 'People of the Longhouse,' formed one of the world's oldest participatory democracies. The Iroquois Confederacy's Great Law of Peace influenced the United States Constitution and continues to govern the Six Nations today.

~125,000Mohawk

New York, Pennsylvania+3

Southeast

Choctaw

The Choctaw Nation is one of the Five Civilized Tribes. They were the first to walk the Trail of Tears. During the Irish Potato Famine, despite their own hardships, the Choctaw people sent aid to Ireland—a gesture of compassion remembered to this day.

~200,000Choctaw

Mississippi, Alabama+2

Southeast

Seminole

The Seminole emerged as a distinct people in Florida, welcoming escaped slaves and other refugees. They are the only tribe never to sign a peace treaty with the United States, earning them the name 'The Unconquered.'

~18,000Creek

Florida, Oklahoma

Great Lakes

Ojibwe (Anishinaabe)

The Ojibwe are one of the largest Indigenous groups in North America. Masters of birch bark canoe construction and wild rice harvesting, they are keepers of the sacred Midewiwin Lodge and the Seven Fires Prophecy.

~170,000Ojibwe

Michigan, Wisconsin+4

Great Plains

Crow (Apsáalooke)

The Apsáalooke, meaning 'Children of the Large-Beaked Bird,' are skilled horsemen and buffalo hunters of the Northern Plains. Their culture emphasizes warrior traditions, clan systems, and the preservation of their homeland in Montana.

~13,000Crow

Montana, Wyoming

Southwest

Hopi

The Hopi, whose name means 'peaceful people,' have continuously inhabited their mesa villages for over a thousand years, making Old Oraibi one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in North America. Their rich ceremonial life includes the Kachina traditions.

~18,000Hopi

Arizona

Northern Plains

Blackfeet (Niitsitapi)

The Blackfeet Confederacy, known as Niitsitapi or 'The Real People,' are renowned warriors and buffalo hunters whose territory once stretched from the Rocky Mountains to the Saskatchewan River. Their sacred Backbone of the World (Rocky Mountains) remains central to their spirituality.

~35,000Blackfoot

Montana, Alberta

Southwest

Pueblo Peoples

The Pueblo peoples comprise 19 distinct communities in New Mexico and Arizona. Their ancestors built the magnificent cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon. Today, they maintain vibrant cultures centered on corn agriculture and ceremonial traditions.

~60,000Keres

New Mexico, Arizona

Northeast

Wampanoag

The Wampanoag Confederacy have stewarded the shores of southeastern New England for thousands of years, surviving epidemics, war, and displacement while preserving their identity and reclaiming their language.

~5,000Wopanaak

Massachusetts, Rhode Island+1

Southeast

Muscogee (Creek)

The Muscogee, or Este Mvskokvlke, are descendants of the Mississippian mound builders and one of the historic Five Civilized Tribes. Despite forced removal, they rebuilt a sovereign nation in Indian Territory and maintain vibrant ceremonial grounds.

~90,000Muscogee

Alabama, Georgia+2

Plateau

Nez Perce (Nimiipuu)

The Nimiipuu, or Nez Perce, are Plateau horse people renowned for breeding the Appaloosa and for their deep salmon traditions. They maintained seasonal rounds across the Columbia Plateau and resisted forced removal with courage and strategy.

~3,500Nez Perce

Idaho, Oregon+1

Pacific Northwest

Tlingit

The Tlingit are maritime people of Southeast Alaska whose clan houses, totem poles, and Chilkat weaving reflect a sophisticated matrilineal society tied to salmon, cedar, and the sea.

~16,000Tlingit

Southeast Alaska, Yukon

Pacific Northwest

Haida

The Haida are famed carvers and navigators of the North Pacific, known for monumental cedar poles, ocean-going canoes, and deep stewardship of the islands they call Haida Gwaii.

~4,500Haida

Haida Gwaii, Prince of Wales Island

California

Yurok

The Yurok people live along the Klamath River and Pacific Coast, guided by salmon cycles and redwood forests. They maintain ceremonies that restore balance between people, river, and ocean.

~6,300Yurok

Klamath River, Redwood Coast+1

Great Basin

Ute

The Ute people have long ranged across the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin, adapting between foothills, plateaus, and plains while maintaining deep horse traditions and the Bear Dance.

~11,000Ute

Colorado, Utah+2

Great Plains

Pawnee

The Pawnee are Caddoan-speaking Plains people once living in large earth lodge towns along Nebraska rivers. Their sky knowledge, farming, and buffalo hunts shaped seasonal life.

~3,500Pawnee

Nebraska, Kansas+1

Southeast

Lumbee

The Lumbee of North Carolina are one of the largest tribes east of the Mississippi, with roots among Siouan, Algonquian, and African ancestors. They maintain a unique dialect and culture despite incomplete federal recognition.

~55,000English

North Carolina

Southwest

Tohono O'odham

The Tohono O'odham, Desert People of the Sonoran borderlands, sustained vibrant communities through dry farming, saguaro harvesting, and salt pilgrimages even as a border split their homelands.

~34,000Tohono O'odham

Arizona, Sonoran Desert

Southwest

Zuni (A:shiwi)

The A:shiwi people have lived along the Zuni River for millennia, renowned for dryland farming, inlay jewelry, and the sacred mesa Dowa Yalanne that anchors their cultural life.

~12,000Zuni

New Mexico

Great Plains

Osage

The Wahzhazhe (Osage) people are a Dhegiha Siouan nation who moved west to the tallgrass prairies, later rebuilding sovereignty and wealth in Oklahoma after forced removals and the painful Reign of Terror.

~20,000Osage

Missouri, Arkansas+2

Great Plains

Cheyenne

The Cheyenne, Algonquian speakers of the Plains, include the Northern Cheyenne and the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, keepers of the Sacred Arrows and resilient survivors of massacres and removals.

~23,000Cheyenne

Montana, Wyoming+1

Great Plains

Comanche (Numunuu)

The Comanche, or Numunuu, rose as master horse people of the Southern Plains, shaping the era of Comancheria before war, treaties, and allotment confined their range.

~17,000Comanche

Texas, Oklahoma+2

Northeast

Lenape (Delaware)

The Lenape, original peoples of the Delaware River valley, were pushed west by colonial pressure yet maintain vibrant communities in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario while keeping stories of the Lenapehoking homeland.

~20,000Lenape

Delaware, New Jersey+2

Pacific Northwest

Coast Salish

Coast Salish nations across the Salish Sea are cedar and salmon people with deep village networks, longhouses, and resurgent canoe journeys linking families from Puget Sound to Vancouver Island.

~65,000Lushootseed

Washington, British Columbia+1

California

Chumash

The Chumash are maritime peoples of the Santa Barbara Channel, renowned for plank canoes (tomols), shell bead currency, and rock art connecting coastal villages with the islands.

~5,500Chumashan languages

Central California Coast, Channel Islands

Great Basin

Shoshone-Bannock

The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall continue traditions of buffalo harvests, salmon and camas gathering, and the handgame while navigating treaties that constrained their vast homelands.

~6,000Shoshoni

Idaho, Wyoming+2

Arctic

Inupiat

The Inupiat of Alaska's Arctic coast are sea ice people whose lifeways revolve around bowhead whale hunts, caribou, and communal drumming that sustain villages across the tundra.

~20,000Inupiaq

Arctic Alaska, North Slope

Arctic

Yup'ik (Central Alaskan Yup'ik)

The Yup'ik of western Alaska are salmon and seal people whose qasgiq (communal house) life, dance masks, and subsistence cycles remain central despite epidemics and colonial pressure.

~25,000Central Alaskan Yup'ik

Western Alaska, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta

Pacific Northwest

Tsimshian

The Tsimshian people are matrilineal coastal nations known for carved poles, formline art, and clan feasts that link villages along the Pacific in Alaska and British Columbia.

~12,000Sm'algyax

Southeast Alaska, British Columbia

Northeast

Abenaki

The Abenaki are Wabanaki people of the northern woodlands, living between the Green Mountains and the St. Lawrence, known for birch bark canoes, sweetgrass baskets, and maple traditions.

~10,000Abenaki

Vermont, New Hampshire+1

Southeast

Catawba

The Catawba Nation of the Carolina Piedmont are river people famed for their clay pottery, rebuilding sovereignty after land loss and a long fight to restore federal recognition.

~3,300English

South Carolina, North Carolina

Great Lakes

Potawatomi

The Potawatomi, Keepers of the Fire among the Anishinaabe, maintained villages around the Great Lakes before removals west; today multiple sovereign Potawatomi nations steward culture and land.

~30,000Potawatomi

Michigan, Indiana+3

Great Basin

Paiute

Paiute peoples of the Great Basin are expert irrigators and gatherers of pine nuts, seeds, and roots across deserts and alpine valleys, navigating treaties and water conflicts.

~17,000Northern Paiute

Nevada, Utah+1

Great Plains

Kiowa

The Kiowa are renowned Plains horse people and allies of the Comanche, keepers of the Ten Grandmother Sun Dance poles and ledger art traditions.

~12,000Kiowa

Oklahoma, Texas+1

Southwest

Akimel O'odham (Gila River)

The Akimel O'odham, River People of the Gila, engineered canals and farming systems that sustained desert life, later forming the Gila River Indian Community with Maricopa neighbors.

~23,000Akimel O'odham

Arizona, Gila River Valley

Pacific Northwest

Puyallup

The Puyallup are salmon and cedar people of the southern Salish Sea, signatories to the Medicine Creek Treaty and central to modern fishing rights victories.

~6,000Lushootseed

Washington, Puget Sound

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