Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans are the original inhabitants of the United States and its possessions, including Hawaii and the mainland, and of northern Mexico and Canada. Nearly half of the 574 officially recognised tribes in the United States are connected to Indian reservations. According to the United States Census Bureau, "Native Americans" include both indigenous peoples from the 48 contiguous states and those from Alaska. Native Hawaiians, Samoans, and Chamorros are indigenous peoples of the United States who are neither American Indians or Alaska Natives. Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander is the category used by the US Census to describe these individuals.

At least 15,000 years ago, and perhaps much earlier, the ancestors of modern-day Native Americans migrated across Asia and into what is now the United States by way of the land bridge known as Beringia. Since then, a huge spectrum of peoples, communities, and cultures have emerged. When the Europeans arrived in the Americas in 1492, they brought with them new illnesses, new battles, ethnic cleansing, and new slaves. This led to a dramatic drop in the Native American population. As part of its policy of settler colonialism, the United States continued to wage war and commit massacres against many Native American peoples after it was formed, expelled them from their ancestral lands, and subjected them to one-sided treaties and discriminatory government policies, later focusing on forced assimilation. Many Native Americans' lives have improved because to self-determination initiatives that began in the 1960s, despite the fact that modern Native Americans continue to confront a number of challenges. Over five million Native Americans call the United States home today, with the vast majority (78%) residing in areas outside than reservations. Alaska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Montana, and North Dakota have the greatest Native American populations in the United States.

Tribal groups in what would become the United States of America were often seen as different countries from the white immigrants who came later. Until the Indian Appropriations Act of 1871, the United States recognised Native American nations as sovereign entities and entered into treaties with them on a government-to-government level. After that, Native American nations were reclassified as "domestic dependent nations" and became subject to U.S. law. A substantial measure of tribal sovereignty was protected by this statute, along with the rights and advantages guaranteed by the treaties. As a result, many Native American reservations remain unaffected by state law, and tribal citizens' actions on these reservations are subject only to tribal courts and federal law, which may have different implications for tribal lands than for a U.S. state or territory due to exemption, exclusion, treaty, or superseding tribal or federal law.