(STACKER) – More than 5 million Native Americans live in the United States as members of 574 federally recognized and 63 state-recognized tribes. That number is projected to rise to 10 million by 2060.
A federally recognized tribe is a sovereign entity with a government-to-government relationship with the United States, as well as the rights of self-governance in such areas as tribal law and taxation.
Just 13% of Native Americans live within 324 recognized reservations. Land held in trust by the U.S. government for Native American settlement is roughly 56 million acres. The 16 million-acre Navajo Nation Reservation in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah is the largest, and the 1.32-acre Pit River Tribe cemetery in California is the smallest.
Stacker ranked the states with the largest Native American populations using data from the Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey. The Census Bureau’s definition of Native Americans includes Alaskan Natives but excludes Native Hawaiians.
Compared with other U.S. races, Native Americans have a life expectancy that is shorter by more than five years. The suicide rate among Native American youth is 2.5 times higher than among youth in the rest of the country. Native Americans are also 2.5 times more likely to experience violent crimes than the national average, and more than four out of five Native American women will experience violence in their lifetimes.
Holistically, these issues can be seen as symptoms of several larger issues, including access to social services, educational opportunities, nutritional food, and health care.
Property rights pose more significant problems, insomuch as residents who don’t have deeds to the land on which they live struggle to build credit, which throws a significant barrier in front of upward mobility. Meanwhile, tribal lands are tough sells for franchises and other commercial developers that would bring jobs to reservations, as these companies are often resistant to negotiating contract terms under tribal law.
One effort to mitigate the aforementioned statistics came with the 1968 establishment of the “American Indian” Movement in Minnesota, which advocated for sovereignty and rights. The group famously occupied the Wounded Knee battle site at the Pine Ridge Reservation for more than two months in 1973.
Rep. Deb Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico, has since been tapped to head the U.S. Department of Interior for President Joe Biden’s administration, becoming the first Indigenous Cabinet secretary in the nation. Among her responsibilities will be the underfunded Bureau of Indian Education and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the latter of which oversees all tribal land under U.S. trust.
#51. Vermont
– Native American population: 1,234
#50. District of Columbia
– Native American population: 1,281
#49. New Hampshire
– Native American population: 1,550
#48. West Virginia
– Native American population: 2,277
#47. Rhode Island
– Native American population: 3,297
#46. Delaware
– Native American population: 3,385
#45. Maine
– Native American population: 4,770
#44. Hawaii
– Native American population: 4,837
#43. Wyoming
– Native American population: 10,356
#42. Kentucky
– Native American population: 10,357
#41. Connecticut
– Native American population: 12,238
#40. Iowa
– Native American population: 15,288
#39. Mississippi
– Native American population: 15,648
#38. Massachusetts
– Native American population: 15,835
#37. Arkansas
– Native American population: 17,058
#36. Tennessee
– Native American population: 18,070
#35. Indiana
– Native American population: 19,174
#34. South Carolina
– Native American population: 19,948
#33. Ohio
– Native American population: 20,594
#32. Kansas
– Native American population: 21,670
#31. Missouri
– Native American population: 22,046
#30. Pennsylvania
– Native American population: 22,765
#29. Nebraska
– Native American population: 23,547
#28. Louisiana
– Native American population: 23,926
#27. Idaho
– Native American population: 23,990
#26. Alabama
– Native American population: 24,830
#25. Maryland
– Native American population: 25,208
#24. Utah
– Native American population: 32,622
#23. New Jersey
– Native American population: 35,727
#22. North Dakota
– Native American population: 35,955
#21. Virginia
– Native American population: 37,018
#20. Wisconsin
– Native American population: 42,107
#19. Nevada
– Native American population: 44,661
#18. Minnesota
– Native American population: 48,309
#17. Michigan
– Native American population: 51,188
#16. Georgia
– Native American population: 53,642
#15. Oregon
– Native American population: 56,281
#14. Colorado
– Native American population: 60,377
#13. Florida
– Native American population: 63,540
#12. Montana
– Native American population: 63,896
#11. South Dakota
– Native American population: 73,115
#10. Illinois
– Native American population: 84,713
#9. Alaska
– Native American population: 100,397
#8. Washington
– Native American population: 100,624
#7. North Carolina
– Native American population: 116,742
#6. New York
– Native American population: 119,692
#5. New Mexico
– Native American population: 197,031
#4. Texas
– Native American population: 227,815
#3. Arizona
– Native American population: 294,658
#2. Oklahoma
– Native American population: 297,937
#1. California
– Native American population: 535,468
