About Native American Nations’ Histories

There are currently 574 federally recognized Tribes and approximately 326 reservations/Tribal land areas in the U.S. Each Tribe, each with its own distinct culture and traditions, ranges in population size, land base (if any), and governmental design. Prior to European contact these groups and their relatives’ ancestral lands spanned hundreds of acres, some as far reaching into what is now Canada and Mexico. Today each federally recognized Tribe has a formal government-to-government relationship with the US federal government and often works closely with the state governments in which their reservation lands lie. In the state of Idaho, there are five federally recognized Tribes each with their own reservations. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe in the Northwest bordering the state of Washington, the Kootenai Tribe in the North bordering British Columbia, Canada, the Nez Perce Tribe Tribe South of Coeur d’Alene near the Washing State border, the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in Southeast Idaho, and the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes in Southern Idaho crossing into Nevada.

Often, the literature concerning Native peoples uses a variety of terminology. The following terms have specific definitions and usages.

• Indigenous: a general term for the people inhabiting specific lands prior to colonization
• Aboriginal: a term used for the Indigenous peoples of Oceania
• American Indian: an early term for North American Natives, still used in legal discourse, based on the name ‘West Indies’ given to the island region in the Caribbean by Columbus who thought he found a new route to India
• Native American: a term for North American Indigenous peoples in the U.S. often used in place of ‘American Indian’ to demonstrate respect and to avoid using the terminology originating from Columbus’s mistaken naming of the West Indies.
• First Nations: a term used to identify North American Indigenous peoples in Canada
• Native: a term some Native people prefer for themselves
• Native Nation: a term preferred over ‘Tribe’ except when in the name of a Nation. ‘Native Nation’ highlights the sovereign nation status of many Tribes
• Tribal: used in the context of reference Native Nations’ governance or governmental structures.

Native Nations also frequently get lumped together under the assumption that there is one homogenous ‘Native’ culture or language. To avoid this, it is recommended to use the name specific to a Native Nation or community. Further, many Native Nations are known by their exonyms, the names given to them by outsiders, rather than their endonyms. When preferred by a particular community, using the endonym demonstrates respect for that community.