SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (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…
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