This report provides a portrait of the American Indian and Alaska Native population in the United States and discusses the largest specified tribal groupings, reservations, Alaska Native village statistical areas (ANVSAs), and areas outside reservations and ANVSAs (outside tribal areas) at the national level. It is part of the Census 2000 Special Reports series that presents demographic, social, and economic characteristics collected from Census 2000.
In Census 2000, 4.3 million people, or 1.5 percent of the total U.S. population, reported that they were American Indian and Alaska Native. This number included 2.4 million people, or 1 percent, who reported only American Indian and Alaska Native as their race. Table 1 shows the number of people reporting a single detailed tribal grouping and a tally of the number of times the grouping was reported.
Census 2000 reported on six major race categories: White, Black or African American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and Some Other Race.3 The term “American Indian or Alaska Native” refers to people having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment. It includes people who reported American Indian and Alaska Native or wrote in their principal or enrolled tribe. When the terms “American Indian” and “Alaska Native” are used separately in this report, they refer to two distinct populations.
