Introduction to American Studies: Topics in
Culture:
Weeks 9 & 10:
“Vanishing into Visibility”: Perspectives on
Native American Issues
1
Leitmotif of the “Vanishing Race”
 One of the major themes in Western culture concerning
indigenous peoples is that of the “Vanishing Race”, unable to
adapt to “civilization” and therefore doomed to extinction
 Fine Arts
 Literature
 Photography
 Popular culture
 Political and military spheres
 Scholarship
What are the images of “discovery”?
America (1598)
“Americus rediscovers
America”
“He called her but once
and thenceforth she was
always awake”
Jan van der Staet
(Stradanus)
b. 1523, Flanders
d. 1605, Florence
What are the images of “discovery”?
Discovery of the New
World (1621)
Wolfgang Kilian
b. 1581, Germany
d. 1662, Germany
What are the images of “discovery”?
[Columbus discovering
America].
Etching In Antonio de
Herrerra y Tordesillas,
Historia general de las
Indias Occidentales, 1728.
What are the images of “discovery”?
Landing of Columbus
(1847)
John Vanderlyn
b. 1775, New York
d. 1852, New York
This painting is in the
rotunda of the U.S.
Capitol building
What are the images of “discovery”?
Columbus Taking
Possession of the New
Country (1893)
Lithograph by L. Prang &
Co.
End of the Trail (1915), James Earle Fraser (1876-1953)
This twice life-size plaster
original was first
displayed at the PanamaPacific
International
Exposition in San
Francisco, California
Now on display at the
National Cowboy &
Western Heritage
Museum in Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma
Dimensions:
5.2 m x 4.3 m x1.5 m
How may the sculpture be understood?
 A period
description of the
sculpture quoted
in the book The
Sculpture of
James Earle
Fraser by A. L.
Freundlich, 2001
9
The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis
 This twenty-volume series
was published between
1907 and 1930.
 Northwestern University
Digital Library Collections
 http://curtis.library.northwes
tern.edu/index.html
10
“Vanishing Race - Navajo” (1904) by Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952),
The North American Indian, Vol. 1, Plate No. 1.
19th century American literature
 James Fennimore Cooper
(1789-1851)
 The Last of the Mohicans
(1826)
 Chingachgook [Čingačgúk] and
his son Uncas [Unkas]
Noble Savage
Jean Jacques Rousseau’s term
for an idealized primitive man
 Magua
Ignoble Savage
 Poslední Mohykán (1st Czech
translation: 1852)
 Josef Vojáček
 “The Burial of Uncas,” 1919
edition
19th century European literature
 Karl F. May (1842-1912)
 Winnetou I-III (1893)
 1st unabridged English translation:
2008
George A. Alexander (Preposterous
Press)
 1st Czech translation: 1901
Oskar Flögl (1861-1938)
 Winnetou, Apache chief
 Noble savage
 Kiowa, Comanche, et al.
 Ignoble Savage
 Zdeněk Burian, 1939
 Sascha Schneider, Winnetous
Himmelfahrt, 1904
 Cover of Winnetou III
Literature, film and advertising
Poster for 1925 film version of Zane Grey’s
(1872-1939) serialized novel (1922-23)
originally published in Ladies Home Jourmal
1950s advertisement
14
American Cinema
 Dances With Wolves, 1990, directed by Kevin Costner
 Lakota vs. Pawnee
Eliminating indigenous peoples
through cultural assimilation
 Richard Henry Pratt (1840-1924), founder of the Carlisle Indian
Industrial School (1879), Pennsylvania:
 “A great general* has said that the only good Indian is a dead one,
and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous
factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the
sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race
should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”
 Official Report of the Nineteenth Annual Conference of Charities
and Correction (1892), 46–59. Reprinted in Richard H. Pratt, “The
Advantages of Mingling Indians with Whites,” Americanizing the
American Indians: Writings by the “Friends of the Indian” 1880–
1900 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1973), 260–
271.
 *General Philip Sheridan (1831-1888), who always denied saying it
Possible Origins of the phrase
17
Carlisle Indian School in 1884
18
A group of Ciracahua Apache children on their arrival at Carlisle in
1886 and after 4 months
19
L: Daily program for Indian Schools, ca. 1920-1925
R: A young girls sewing class, Albuquerque Indian School (ca. 1910)
20
Eliminating indigenous peoples through military conflict
 By the second half of the
19th century, American
political and military
leaders came to consider
the Indians to be an
insurmountable barrier to
the civilizing of the
American continent
Ghost Dance movement
 Wovoka/Jack Wilson, 1856-1932 (Paiute) (left)
 Had a vision on January 1, 1889 during a solar eclipse
 If Indians abandoned white ways and performed a series of
rituals and dances (center) the Earth would be restored, the
dead rise and the whites driven away. Shirts with magical
symbols would protect warriors from bullets (right).
Ghost Dance Songs (Sioux) 1893. Reprinted in The Heath Anthology of American
Literature, Vol. II, Lauter, et al., pp. 743-745.
I
My children[1], when at first I liked the whites,
My children, when at first I liked the whites,
I gave them fruits,
I gave them fruits.
II
Father, have pity on me,
Father, have pity on me;
I am crying for thirst,
I am crying for thirst;
All is gone – I have nothing to eat.
All is gone – I have nothing to eat.
III
My son, let me grasp your hand,
My son, let me grasp your hand,
Says the father,
Says the father.
You shall live,
You shall live,
[1] The songs are sung as a dialogue, with the Sun (“Our Father”)
addressing the Indians (“my children”).
Says the father,
Says the father.
I bring you a pipe,[2]
I bring you a pipe,
Says the father,
Says the father.
By means of it you shall live,
By means of it you shall live,
Says the father,
Says the father.
IV
My children, my children,
I take pity on those who have been taught,
I take pity on those who have been taught,
because they push on hard,
because they push on hard.
Says the father,
Says the father.
[2] That is, “a vision.” The pipe was smoked to put one in
prayerful contact with the sacred. Here “a pipe” functions as a
symbol for the vision which smoking the pipe would induce.
23
V
The whole world is coming,
A nation is coming, a nation is coming,
The Eagle has brought the message to the tribe.
The father says so, the father says so.
Over the whole earth, they are coming.
The buffalo are coming, the buffalo are coming.
The Crow has brought the message to his tribe,
The father says so, the father says so.
VI
The spirit host is advancing, they say,
The spirit host is advancing, they say,
They are coming with the buffalo, they say,
They are coming with the buffalo, they say,
They are coming with the new earth, they say,
They are coming with the new earth, they say.
VII
He’ yoho’ ho! He’ yoho’ ho! [3]
The yellow-hide, the white skin
I have now put him aside –
I have now put him aside –
I have no more sympathy with him,
I have no more sympathy with him,
He’ yoho’ ho! He’ yoho’ ho!
VIII
I’ yehe! my children – Uhi ‘yeye ‘heye!
I’ yehe! my children – Uhi ‘yeye ‘heye!
I’ yehe! we have rendered them desolate – Eye’ ae ‘yuhe’
yu!
I’ yehe! we have rendered them desolate – Eye’ ae ‘yuhe’
yu!
The whites are crazy – Ahe ‘yuhe’ yu!
[3] The words are vocables, with no referential significance.
The final massacre: Wounded Knee (South Dakota)
 On December 29, the U.S.
Army’s 7th Cavalry surrounded a
band of Ghost Dancers under
Big Foot (top), a Lakota Sioux
chief, near Wounded Knee
Creek and demanded they
surrender their weapons.
 As that was happening, a fight
broke out between an Indian
and a U.S. soldier and a shot was
fired, although it’s unclear from
which side.
 Between 150 and 300 Lakota
were killed, half of them women
and children, who were then
buried in a mass grave.
Military defeats and new laws (Dawes Act of 1887)
resulted in Native land holdings declining by 2/3
August 29, 1911 – near Oroville, CA
Ishi (Yahi) (c. 1860-1916), “The Last Wild Indian”
Headline from the San Francisco
Call, August 31,1911
The University of California
Museum of Anthropology, San
Francisco, Ishi’s new home
Ishi spent the last five years of his life, demonstrating to visitors bow
and arrow making, archery, fire making, and other Yahi skills. Ishi dies
of tuberculosis in 1915
Flint, chert, obsidian and glass
arrowheads made by Ishi
L-R: Sam Batwi (translator), Alfred
Kroeber (anthropologist) and Ishi in
1911, San Francisco
What can be found in the Great Hall
of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago?
30
31
Dramatic population decline
 Change in the Native
American population of
the United States from
European contact through
the 1980s
 Source: From Russell
Thornton, American
Indian Holocaust and
Survival: A Population
History since 1492. 1987.
University of Oklahoma
Press.
The concept of the “Vanishing Race”
becomes increasingly accepted
Individuals “vanish” –
popular imagery remains
34
http://iroquoisbeadwork.blogspo
t.cz/2015_09_01_archive.html
American Cooking Magazine advertisement from 1915
In August 1927, Calvin Coolidge becomes the first sitting
president to visit an Indian reservation, travelling to the Pine
Ridge reservation in South Dakota
36
 Only 3 other sitting
presidents have visited
Indian reservations
 Franklin D. Roosevelt
(1936): Eastern Cherokee
Reservation, North
Carolina
 Bill Clinton (1999): Pine
Ridge, SD
 Barack Obama (2014):
Standing Rock Sioux
Reservation, North Dakota
37
The beginnings of change
 Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
(“The Indian New Deal”)
 Initiative of John S. Collier
(1884-1968), Bureau of
Indian Affairs Commissioner
from 1933-45 under FDR
 Secured important rights for
indigenous peoples in the U.S,
including
• A reversal of the Dawes
Act's privatization of
common holdings of
American Indians
• A return to local selfgovernment
on a tribal
basis (tribal
constitutions).
• Restored to Native
Americans the
management of their
assets (being mainly
land).
 Collier visiting Blackfoot chiefs in
South Dakota (1934) to discuss
the Act
First National Organizations
 National Congress of American Indians (1944)
 In Denver, Colorado, close to 80 delegates from
50 tribes and associations in 27 states came together
to establish the National Congress of American Indians
 www.ncai.org
 National Indian Youth Council (1961)
 Inspired by the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s
Direct action
 www.niyc-alb.org
 American Indian Movement (1968)
 Most visible and active of the Native American movements
Established in Minneapolis, early leaders included Clyde Bellecourt (b.
1936) from the White Earth Indian Reservation (Ojibwa), Dennis Banks
(b. 1937-2017) from the Leech Lake Indian Reservation (Ojibwa) and
Russell Means (1939-2014) from the Pine Ridge Reservation (Oglala)
 www.aimovement.org
Shared Goals
 To preserve and protect treaty rights
 To preserve and protect traditional, cultural, and religious rights
 To seek appropriate, equitable, and beneficial services and programs
 To increase political activism and participation
 To educate the public on issues of importance to Native Americans
 Below: From the organization meeting of the NCAI in 1944
Examples of activism
 “Fish-ins” (1940s-70s)
 American Northwest
 Exercising treaty-guaranteed fishing rights
 Billy Frank, Jr. (1931-2014)
First arrested at 14 and would be arrested
another 50 times
 In 1974, the Boldt Decision guaranteed the
rights of native tribes to 50% of the annual
catch
 Occupation of Alcatraz (1969-71)
 In November 1969, a group of 80 activists
occupy the abandoned federal prison on
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay
 Supplied by supporters, the occupation
would last 19 months
 New York Times headline (Nov. 22, 1972)
Bellingham Herald, March 2, 1964
Marlon Brando as activist
 In 1973, Marlon Brando is nominated for an
Academy Award (Oscar) for his role as Don
Vito Corlione in the film The Godfather
 Brando wins the award for Best Actor, but
declines. Declining on his behalf is Sacheen
Littlefeather (Apache):
Hello. My name is Sasheen Littlefeather. I’m
Apache and I am president of the National
Native American Affirmative Image
Committee.
I’m representing Marlin Brando this evening,
and he has asked me to tell you in a very long
speech which I cannot share with you
presently, because of time, but I will be glad to
share with the press afterwards, that he very
regretfully cannot accept this very generous
award.
And the reasons for this being are the
treatment of American Indians today by the film
industry -- excuse me -- and on television in
movie re-runs, and also with recent happenings
at Wounded Knee.
I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon
this evening, and that we will in the future, our
hearts and our understandings will meet with
love and generosity.
Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando.
The Alacatraz Proclamation
To the Great White Father and All His People:
We, the native Americans, re-claim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American
Indians by right of discovery.
We wish to he fair and honorable in our dealings with the Caucasian inhabitants of this land, and
hereby offer the following treaty:
We will purchase said Alcatraz Island for twenty-four dollars ($24) in glass beads and red cloth, a
precedent set by the white man’s purchase of a similar island about 300 years ago. We know
that $24 in trade goods for these 16 acres is more than was paid when Manhattan Island was
sold, but we know that land values have risen over the years. Our offer of $1.24 per acre is
greater than the 47 cents per acre the white men are now paying the California Indians for
their land.
We will give to the inhabitants of this island a portion of that land for their own, to be held in
trust by the American Indian Government — for as long as the sun shall rise and the rivers go
down to the sea — to be administered by the Bureau of Caucasian Affairs (BCA). We will
further guide the inhabitants in the proper way of living. We will offer them our religion, our
education, our life-ways, in order to help them achieve our level of civilization and thus raise
them and all their white brothers up from their savage and unhappy state. We offer this
treaty in good faith and wish to be fair and honorable in our dealings with all white men.
We feel that this so-called Alcatraz Island is more than suitable for an Indian Reservation, as
determined by the white man’s own standards. By this we mean that this place resembles most
Indian reservations, in that:
1. It is isolated from modern facilities, and without adequate means of transportation.
2. It has no fresh running water.
3. It has inadequate sanitation facilities.
4. There are no oil or mineral rights.
5. There is no industry so unemployment is great.
6. There are no health care facilities.
7. The soil is rocky and non-productive; and the land does not support game.
8. There are no educational facilities.
9. The population has always exceeded the land base.
10. The population has always been held as prisoners and kept dependent upon others.
Further, it would be fitting and symbolic that ships from all over the world, entering the Golden
Gate, would first see Indian land, and thus be reminded of the true history of this nation. This
tiny island would he a symbol of the great lands once ruled by free and noble Indians.
44
Political Activism
 The Trail of Broken Treaties (1972)
 In October 1972, activists from across the
U.S. converge on Washington, D.C.
 There they will present their Twenty
Points Position Paper
www.aimovement.org/ggc/trailofbrokentr
eaties.html
 They arrive on November 1, but
government officials refuse to meet them
 In response, they occupy BIA
headquarters for 6 days
 Vine Deloria, Jr. (1933-2005),
Standing Rock Sioux. Behind the Trail
of Broken Treaties: An Indian
Declaration of Independence, 1974
 Front page coverage from the New
York Times, November 2, 1972
Wounded Knee (1973)
 On the night of February 27, 1973, fifty-four cars
rolled, horns blaring, into a small hamlet on the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Within hours,
some 200 Oglala Lakota and American Indian
Movement (AIM) activists had seized the few
major buildings in town and police had cordoned
off the area.
 Their demands included wanting a U.S. Senate
Committee to launch an investigation into the
BIA and the Department of the Interior regarding
their handling of the affairs of the Oglala Sioux
Tribe. They also demanded an investigation into
the 371 treaties between the Native Nations and
the Federal Government, all of which had been
broken by the United States.
 After 71 days, the Siege at Wounded Knee had
come to an end; with the government making
nearly 1,200 arrests. Two AIM members had
been killed, thirteen injured and twelve were
missing. Two federal officials were injured.
 Pictured is Russell Means at the press conference
at the end of the siege.
Standing Rock Reservation (ND)
DAPL Protests April 2016 to February 2017
47
Visibility in the Arts:
The Native American Renaissance
 N. Scott Momaday (b. 1934)
– Kiowa
 Doctoral degree from Stanford
University (1965)
 House Made of Dawn (1968)
 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
 The Way to Rainy Mountain
(1969)
 Momaday received the
National Medal of the Arts in
2007
Significance: Critical Acclaim…?
 Review of Momaday’s House
Made of Dawn, in the New
York Times, June 9, 1968
Important Native American Authors
 Gerald Vizenor (b. 1937), Ojibwa
 Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles
(1978/1990)
 James Welch (1940-2003),
Blackfoot/Gros Ventre
 Winter in the Blood (1974)
 Fools Crow (1986)
 Leslie Marmon Silko (b. 1948),
Laguna Pueblo
 Ceremony (1977)
1st Czech translation: Obřad (1997),
translated by Alexandra Hubáčková
 Paula Gunn Allen (1939-2008),
Laguna Pueblo
 The Woman Who Owned The Shadows
(1983)
 Louise Erdrich (b. 1954), Ojibwa
 Love Medicine (1984)
National Book Critics Circle Award
 The Plague of Doves (2009)
Pulitzer Prize finalist
 The Round House (2011)
Winner of the National Book Award
 2015 recipient of the Library of Congress
Prize for American Fiction
 Sherman Alexie (b. 1966),
Spokane/Coeur d’Alene
 The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in
Heaven (1993)
The film Smoke Signals (1998) is based on
this collection of short stories
 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time
Indian (2007)
Winner of the National Book Award
Real Significance: “Authentic Voices”
 Native Americans’ own
voices
 Literature set in the modern
world
 Both House Made of Dawn and
Ceremony revolve around the
struggle of returning military
veterans
 Love Medicine examines the
intertwined lives of several
generations of Ojibwa
 Literary reimaginings of both
the past (Fools Crow) and
future (Bearheart)
 Literature reflecting the
Native American experience
 Urban (House Made of Dawn,
Winter in the Blood)
 Reservation (House Made of
Dawn, Ceremony, Love
Medicine, The Lone Ranger and
Tonto…)
 The absence of the “Noble
Savage” and other
stereotypical representations
Hollywood has been slow to follow:
1989 20131998
Where can increasing visibility be seen?:
In challenging cultural appropriation
 The “unauthorized”
ownership, use or display of:
 Sacred items
 Human remains
 Sacred rituals (including music
and dances)
 Recently the Karl May
Museum in Radebuel,
Germany faced demands to
return at least on scalp
identified as Ojibwa to the
tribe
Tribes Demand Return of Native Scalps
From Karl May Museum in Germany
(Indian Country Today, March 25, 2014)
In the months since the scalp situation at the Karl May Museum in Radebeul, Germany was brought to
the general attention of Indian country, by majority in the German news media, repatriation requests
have been presented with amusement at the absurdity of the idea. Alongside stereotypical quips about
“wild and excitable” Indians “being on the warpath,” these attitudes negatively reinforced public
opinion that backed the museum’s initial refusal…. (Indian Country Today, June 14, 2014)
National Museum of the American Indian:
located on the National Mall, Washington, D.C.
 The trustees of the Smithsonian’s National
Museum of the American Indian have
taken a different approach. They decided
shortly after the museum’s founding in
the early 1990s that all human remains in
their collection should be repatriated for
burial. If the remaining two dozen,
including a few scalps, cannot be
identified, they will still be given an
appropriate burial, said Kevin Gover, the
director.
 New York Times, August 17, 2014
 NMAI Mission Statement:
 The National Museum of the American Indian
(NMAI) is committed to advancing knowledge
and understanding of the Native cultures of
the Western Hemisphere—past, present, and
future—through partnership with Native
people and others. The museum works to
support the continuance of culture,
traditional values, and transitions in
contemporary Native life.
Where can increasing visibility be seen?:
In challenging stereotypical representations
 Since the 1960s, public institutions
(schools, universities), businesses
and sports teams that use Native
American symbolism have come
under increasing pressure to cease.
Some of the more prominent to do
include:
 1969: Dartmouth University (NH)
 1972: Stanford University (CA)
 1973: University of Oklahoma
 1994: St. John’s University (NY),
Marquette University (WI)
 2007: University of Illinois
 According to the NCAI, at least 28
high schools have also dropped the
term over the past 25 years
Profession sports mascots
 Ice Hockey
 Chicago Blackhawks
 American football
 Kansas City Chiefs
 Baseball
Atlanta Braves
 Cleveland Indians – Chief Wahoo
56
Political cartoons
57
Chief Wahoo protest
 Protest at Cleveland’s opening day
2014.
 The American Indian Education
Center, led by its director Robert
Roche organized a protest, when
this encounter happened
 “The issue is simple,” said the 66year-old
Roche, his hair braided
with white threads. “We are not
mascots. I'm nobody's mascot. My
children are not mascots. It mocks
us as a race of people. It mocks our
religion.”
 In January 2018, the Cleveland
Indians and Major League Baseball
announce that Chief Wahoo is being
phased out and will no longer be
used after this season.
58
The Washington professional football team
 Since 1933, the professional American football
team now located in Washington, D.C. has used
the term “redskin” as its official mascot
 This term is usually considered to be offensive.
Merriam-Webster definition:
 The use of this term, and the trademarks
associated with it have been challenged by since
the early 1970s
 In June 2014, the “Redskins” trademark was
cancelled because the term is “disparaging” to
Native Americans
 In June 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a
separate case (Martal v. Tam) that trademarks
cannot be denied on the grounds of the term may
“disparage” people.
 “The invisibility of Native peoples and lack of
positive images of Native cultures may not
register as a problem for many Americans, but it
poses a significant challenge for Native youth
who want to maintain a foundation in their
culture and language. The Washington team’s
brand — a name derived from historical terms
for hunting native peoples — is a central
component to this challenge.”
- NCAI President Brian Cladoosby (Washington
Post, April 2014, Op-Ed)
Protests against the team’s name
 November 2, 2014:
 Thousands of demonstrators gathered
Sunday in Minneapolis to protest the
Washington Redskins name ahead of the
football team’s game against the Minnesota
Vikings, police said.
 The team’s owner, Daniel Snyder, has
steadfastly said he won’t change the team
name despite criticism from figures
including President Barack Obama, half of
the U.S. Senate and Native-American
activists.
 Clyde Bellecourt, a civil rights activist and
co-founder of the American Indian
Movement, said at Sunday’s event that the
team name is a reminder of the scalping and
genocide Native American people endured
throughout history, The Minneapolis StarTribune
reports.
 time.com/3553568/redskins-protest-
minneapolis/
In January 2014, the NCAI released this video. It has since been
shown several times as a public service announcement during
Washington football games.
“Proud to Be” text
 Proud
 forgotten,
 Indian,
 Navajo,
 Blackfoot,
 Inuit,
 and Sioux;
 survivor,
 spiritualist,
 patriot,
 Sitting Bull,
 Hiawatha,
 and Jim Thorpe;
 mother,
 father,
 son,
 daughter,
 chief,
 Apache,
 Pueblo,
 Choctaw,
 Chippewa,
 and Crow;
 underserved,
 struggling,
 resilient,
 Squanto,
 Red Cloud,
 Tecumseh,
 and Crazy Horse;
 rancher,
 teacher,
 doctor,
 soldier,
 Seminole,
 Seneca,
 Mohawk,
 and Creek;
 Mills,
 Will Rodgers,
 Geronimo,
 unyielding,
 strong,
 indomitable;
 Native Americans call
themselves many things,
 the one thing they
don’t…
Local examples
HC Škoda Plzeň
64
65
NATIVE AMERICAN POPULATIONS
TODAY
Native Americans Today
 Current population as of the 2010 U.S. Census:
 States with the highest percentage of American in their
populations are Alaska (15.6%), New Mexico (9.5%), South
Dakota (8.3%) Oklahoma (7.9%), Montana (6.2%) and Arizona
(5%)
 As of 2013, there are 567 federally-recognized tribes and more
than 200 unrecognized tribes (some of which are state-
recognized)
2010 Census
% of
pop.
1910
Census
% of
pop.
American Indian and Alaska Native alone
or in combination
5,220,579 1.7% 291,014 0.3%
American Indian and Alaska Native alone 2,932,248 0.9% 171,497 0.2%
American Indian and Alaska Native in
combination
2,288,331 0.7% 97,310 0.1%
Ten Largest Indian Tribes according to the 2010 U.S. Census
Cherokee 819,105 Apache 111,810
Navajo 332,129 Blackfeet 105,304
Choctaw 195,764 Iroquois 81,002
Sioux 170,110
Lumbee
(not federally recognized)
73,169
Chippewa/
Ojibwe
170,742
Inupiat+
Yupik
67,249
But who is an “American Indian”
Where do Native Americans live today?
10 Most populous reservations (2010)
 Only 22% of indigenous people in the United States live on reservations or
other Indian lands today. In 1900, the figure was over 95%
 The concept of “Indian Country” is used to refer to anywhere, where there is a
sizeable Native American community
Reservation Native American Population
Navajo Nation Reservation, AZ-NM-UT 169,321
Pine Ridge Reservation, SD-NE 16,906
Fort Apache Reservation, AZ 13,014
Gila River Reservation, AZ 11,712
Osage Reservation, OK 9,920 (20.9% of total reservation pop.)
San Carlos Reservation, AZ 9,901
Rosebud Indian Reservation, SD 9,809
Tohono O’odham Nation Reservation, AZ 9,278
Blackfeet Indian Reservation, MT 9,149
Flathead Reservation, MT 9,138 (32.3%)
Native Peoples in non-reservation settings:
2010 U.S. Census Figures: “Indian Country”
U.S. cities with the largest number
of Native American residents
U.S cities with the highest proportion
of Native American residents
The American Indian and Alaska Native Population:
2010. United States Census Bureau, 2010 Census
Briefs (January 2012)
74
Native American mortality rates
75
76
Gaming
 Federally-recognized tribes have the right to open gaming
facilities (casinos, etc.)
 Must sign a compact with the state
 Currently 242 tribal governments in 28 states
 More than 494 operations
 Total revenue (2015) $30.5 billion
57% of tribes generate less than $25 million in gross
revenues per year. 20% less than $3 million
An additional $3.2 billion from hospitality and
entertainment
 Employs 770,000 people (75% non-Indian)
Most Indian gaming happens far from population centers
Net gaming revenues spent as follows
 20% of net revenue is used for education, children and elders,
culture, charity and other purposes
 19% goes to economic development
 17% to health care
 17% to police and fire protection
 16% to infrastructure
 11% to housing
 Source: National Indian Gaming Commission
 Economic development includes the opening of new businesses or
the purchase of others
 In 2006, the Seminole Nation of Florida purchased Hard Rock
International, the music-themed chain of restaurants for $965
million.
This includes the Hard Rock Café in Prague
Foxwoods Resort Casino (CT)
 Owned by the Mashantucket
Pequot Nation
 785 members
 One of the largest casinos in the
world
 32,000 m2 of gambling floor
space
380 table games
7200 slot machines
 First opened in 1992
 More than 1,400 guest rooms
 Revenue from gaming is around
$1 billion a year
 More than 22 million people live
within 150 miles of the casino
Prairie Wind Casino
 Owned by the Oglala Sioux
Nation and located in Pine Ridge,
SD
 Population of about 29,000
 254 gaming machines,
9 game tables, 150 seats for
bingo
 78 room hotel
 In 2009, the casino made no
money
 There are 14 casinos in South
Dakota, with a total of 2,200
machines and 67 tables.
 2012 revenues $124 million
 More than 66,000 Native
Americans live in the state
Most casinos make relatively small sums
82