Federal Recognition

This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United States.Federal Acknowledgment of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe
Of these, 231 are located in Alaska.

Description

In the United States, the Indian tribe is a fundamental unit, and the constitution grants Congress the right to interact with tribes. More specifically, the Supreme Court of the United States in '' United States v. Sandoval'', 231 U.S. 28 (1913), warned, "it is not... that Congress may bring a community or body of people within range of this power by arbitrarily calling them an Indian tribe, but only that in respect of distinctly Indian communities the questions whether, to what extent, and for what time they shall be recognized and dealt with as dependent tribes" (at 46). Federal tribal recognition grants to tribes the right to certain benefits, and is largely administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).

While trying to determine which groups were eligible for federal recognition in the 1970s, government officials became aware of the need for consistent procedures. To illustrate, several federally unrecognized tribes encountered obstacles in bringing land claims; ''United States v. Washington'' (1974) was a court case that affirmed the fishing treaty rights of Washington tribes; and other tribes demanded that the U.S. government recognize aboriginal titles. All the above culminated in the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, which legitimized tribal entities by partially restoring Native American self-determination.

Federal acknowledgment

Following the decisions made by the Indian Claims Commission in the 1950s, the BIA in 1978 published final rules with procedures that groups had to meet to secure federal tribal acknowledgement. There are seven criteria. Four have proven troublesome for most groups to prove: long-standing historical community, outside identification as Indians, political authority, and descent from a historical tribe. Tribes seeking recognition must submit detailed petitions to the BIA's Office of Federal Acknowledgment.

To be formally recognized as an Indian tribe, the US Congress can legislate recognition or a tribe can meet the seven criteria outlined by the Office of Federal Acknowledgment. These seven criteria are summarized as:
# 83.7(a): "Indian entity identification: The petitioner demonstrates that it has been identified as an American Indian entity on a substantially continuous basis since 1900."
# 83.7(b): "Community: The petitioner demonstrates that it comprises a distinct community and existed as a community from 1900 until the present."
# 83.7(c): "Political influence or authority: The petitioner demonstrates that it has maintained political influence or authority over its members as an autonomous entity from 1900 until the present."
# 83.7(d): "Governing document: The petitioner provides a copy of the group's present governing document including its membership criteria. In the absence of a written document, the petitioner must provide a statement describing in full its membership criteria and current governing procedures."
# 83.7(e): "Descent: The petitioner demonstrates that its membership consists of individuals who descend from a historical Indian tribe or from historical Indian tribes which combined and functioned as a single autonomous political entity."
# 83.7(f): "Unique membership: The petitioner demonstrates that the membership of the petitioning group is composed principally of persons who are not members of any acknowledged North American Indian tribe."
# 83.7(g): "Congressional termination: The Department demonstrates that neither the petitioner nor its members are the subject of congressional legislation that has expressly terminated or forbidden the Federal relationship."

The federal acknowledgment process can take years, even decades; delays of 12 to 14 years have occurred. The Shinnecock Indian Nation formally petitioned for recognition in 1978 and was recognized 32 years later in 2010. At a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing, witnesses testified that the process was "broken, long, expensive, burdensome, intrusive, unfair, arbitrary and capricious, less than transparent, unpredictable, and subject to undue political influence and manipulation."

Recent additions

The number of tribes increased to 567 in May 2016 with the inclusion of the Pamunkey tribe in Virginia who received their federal recognition in July 2015. The number of tribes increased to 573 with the addition of six tribes in Virginia under the Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2017, signed in January 2018 after the annual list had been published. In July 2018 the United States' ''Federal Register'' issued an official list of 573 tribes that are ''Indian Entities Recognized and Eligible To Receive Services From the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs''. The Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana became the 574th tribe to gain federal recognition on December 20, 2019. The website USA.gov, the federal government's official web portal, also maintains an updated list o
tribal governments
Ancillary information present in former versions of this list but no longer contained in the current listing has been included here in italic print.

Alphabetical list of federally recognized tribes

A

* Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
* Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians of the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation, California
(''previously listed as Ak Chin Indian Community of the Maricopa (Ak Chin) Indian Reservation, Arizona'')
* Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas
(''previously listed as Alabama-Coushatta Tribes of Texas'')
* Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town, Oklahoma
* Alturas Indian Rancheria, California
* Apache Tribe of Oklahoma
* Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming
* Aroostook Band of Micmac, Maine
(''previously listed as Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians'')
* Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana
* Augustine Band of Cahuilla Indians, California
(''previously listed as Augustine Band of Cahuilla Mission Indians of the Augustine Reservation'') - reportedly the smallest federally recognized tribe, with six members.

B

* Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians of the Bad River Reservation, Wisconsin
* Bay Mills Indian Community, Michigan
* Bear River Band of the Rohnerville Rancheria, California
* Berry Creek Rancheria of Maidu Indians of California
* Big Lagoon Rancheria, California
* Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley
(''previously listed as Big Pine Band of Owens Valley Paiute Shoshone Indians of the Big Pine Reservation, California'')
* Big Sandy Rancheria of Western Mono Indians of California