Here’s a look at tribal lands in the U.S. before there was forced removal

Tribal lands

Monday, October 14 is Columbus Day and Indigenous People’s Day.

There are around 326 tribal land areas in the U.S., compared with 574 federally-recognized tribes. Of the federally recognized tribes, 229 are found in Alaska. California has the second-highest number of federally recognized tribes, with 109, as well as the largest Native American population of any state.

Historically, about 500 distinct Native languages were spoken in North America.

Relocation

In 1786, the United States established its first Native American reservation and approached each tribe as an independent nation. This policy remained intact for more than 100 years.

The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830, authorizing the president to grant lands west of the Mississippi in exchange for Indian lands within existing state borders.

By 1900, the “Indian Wars” had been declared to be over, and large-scale relocations of Native American populations were no more.

The Indian Citizenship Act was signed into law by President Calvin Coolidge on June 2, 1924. Some Native Americans were already considered U.S. citizens because of the 1887 Dawes Act, which granted citizenship to those who accepted land grants.

From 2010 to 2020

The Alaska Native alone population grew 10.9% to 133,311, while the Alaska Native alone or in any combination population increased 45.6% to 241,797.

The American Indian alone population grew 11.6% to 2,159,802, while the alone or in any combination population nearly doubled, increasing to 6,363,796.

The Latin American Indian alone population rose 344.7% to 766,112, while the Latin American Indian alone or in any combination population went up 390.4% to 1,319,523.

Aztec and Maya, which were added as new examples on the questionnaire for the AIAN category for the 2020 census, made up 74% of the Latin American Indian alone population and 67.1% of the Latin American Indian alone or in any combination population.

This map below is called Early Native American tribes, culture areas and linguistic stocks

William C. Sturevant

Smithsonian Institution, 1967

You can see a close-up version of the map at the Library of Congress here.

Oldest democracy

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois Confederacy by the French) was formed by five tribal nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca. Some researchers believe it was founded in 1142, and it is considered one of the oldest participatory democracies on Earth.

The nations are united by the Great Law of Peace (Kaianere’ko:wa), which serves as their political constitution. A sixth nation, the Tuscarora, joined the Confederacy in the 18th century.

Code talkers

During World War I and World War II, a variety of American Indian languages were used to send secret military messages. A few of the tribes:

World War I: Cheyenne, Osage, Cherokee, Choctaw

World War II: Navajo, Crow, Apache, Hopi Sioux, Seminole, Chippewa, Mohawk

The Navajo Nation (reservation), the largest in the U.S., is almost 25,000 square miles — an area about the size of West Virginia, and more than twice as large as Maryland. The nation extends into Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The majority of native speakers in the U.S. are Navajo.

Navajo is not what the Navajo used to refer to themselves. The word used by the Navajo refer to themselves is “Diné,” which just means “people.” They call their language “Diné bizaad,” which means “language of the people.”

The Uintah and Ouray reservation is located in Northeastern Utah approximately 150 miles east of Salt Lake City. It is the second-largest Indian Reservation with over 4.5 million acres.

Relocation 1830-1850

Between the 1830 Indian Removal Act and 1850, the U.S. government used forced treaties and/or U.S. Army action to move about 100,000 American Indians living east of the Mississippi River westward to Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma.

Among the relocated tribes were the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole. The Choctaw relocation began in 1830; the Chickasaw relocation was in 1837; the Creek were removed by force in 1836; and the Seminole removal triggered a seven-year war that ended in 1843.

Sources: Language magazine, Smithsonian, Library of Congress, History.com, National Museum of the American Indian, Alpha Omega Translations, U.S. Census, National Park Service