The Top 10 States With the Largest American Indian Populations

More than 6 million Indigenous Americans live in the United States, and they account for around 2 percent of the American population. However, less than 15 percent of Native Americans live on reservations. What are the top 10 states with the largest American Indian populations?

Alaska has the largest percentage of Indigenous Americans in the United States at almost 20 percent of its population. However, it earned the eleventh spot on our list based on the total number of people who identify as American Indian.

South Dakota’s Oglala Lakota County has the nation’s highest density of Indigenous Americans at almost 94 percent. Despite this, South Dakota holds the twentieth spot on our list.

For this article, we’ve ranked states by the number of self-identified individuals living in each state. This means that these states are not ranked by population density, but rather by the number of residents who identify as American Indian.

10. Michigan

A bit over 148 thousand Michigan residents are American Indian, representing a little less than one and a half percent of the state’s population. There are 12 federally recognized tribes in Michigan today, and the three largest tribes in the state include the Odawa, the Potawatomi, and the Ojibwe. Around 50 thousand Native Americans live in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties alone.

9. Florida

Florida’s population is less than 1 percent Indigenous American. However, over 178 thousand American Indians still reside in the state.

The federally recognized Seminole Tribe of Florida is known as the Unconquerable because they never signed a peace treaty with the United States. They are the only tribe in America that can make this claim.

8. New York

New York hosts over 200 thousand Indigenous Americans which makes up just over 1 percent of the state’s population. However, almost all of these Native Americans reside in New York City. NYC is home to over 180 thousand American Indians, though this population is only around 2 percent of the total number of city residents.

7. North Carolina

North Carolina has over 208 thousand citizens who identify as American Indians which represents just under 3 percent of the state’s total population. One recognized tribe is the Lumbees, a mix of Siouan, Iroquoian, and Algonquian-speaking Native American groups.

During the 1700s, the indigenous ancestors of today’s Lumbee intermarried with African Americans and white settlers. This kind of race mixing happened in several indigenous demographics during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. North Carolina has recognized the Lumbee Tribe since 1885, though they still do not have federal recognition.

6. Washington State

Over 223 thousand Native Americans live in Washington State. These individuals make up about 2 and three-quarters of the state’s population.

The Quinault Indian Nation is the largest reservation in the state with over 208 thousand acres of land. This land is located on the Olympic Peninsula along the Pacific Coast.

5. New Mexico

There are almost 230 thousand indigenous residents in New Mexico. This equates to almost 11 percent of the state’s population. 23 tribes exist within New Mexico’s boundaries including part of the Navajo Nation.

Nineteen of the tribes present in New Mexico are Pueblos. Their names are the Zia, Zuni, Tesuque, Taos, Santo Domingo, Santa Clara, Santa Ana, San Ildefonso, San Felipe, Sandia, Pojoaque, Picuris, Owingeh, Ohkay, Nambe, Laguna, Jemez, Isleta, Cochiti, and the Acoma.

There are also 3 Apache tribes. Their names are the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, the Mescalero Apache Tribe, and the Jicarilla Apache Nation.

4. Texas

Texas has over 370 thousand American Indian residents. However, only a bit more than 1 percent of the state’s population are Indigenous Americans.

The exact number of residents identifying as Native American is hard to pinpoint and changes dramatically every year. In 1900, less than 500 people identified as indigenous. In 1990, over 65 thousand were identified as American Indians. Today, this number may have swelled to over 700 thousand people though this remains unverified.

3. Arizona

Almost 5 and a half percent of all Arizonans are Native Americans with a population count of over 400 thousand people. There are 22 recognized tribes in the state.

The most famous of these is the Navajo Nation in the northeast corner of the state. This reservation extends into Utah and New Mexico, and it covers over 27 thousand square miles of land. This means it’s bigger than all of West Virginia.

The Navajo Nation is by far the largest American Indian reservation in the United States with over 330 thousand tribal members nationwide. Over 169 thousand Native Americans live on the reservation itself.

The Tohono O’odham Nation south of Tucson extends into Mexico. This means that over 62 miles of the Mexican border lie within the reservation. The tribe has about 34 thousand members, and over 2000 of those members live in Mexico.

2. Oklahoma

Oklahoma is home to approximately 535,675 American Indians. This population represents over 13 percent of state residents.

Native population centers, like the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma’s southeast corner, are keeping the state’s rural economy going. The Choctaw Nation has over 200,000 members with a little less than 85 thousand of those members living in Oklahoma. This reservation is the third largest in the United States, and its creation predates the establishment of Oklahoma’s statehood.

1. California

California hosts over 800 thousand people who identify as Native American. Over 233 thousand Indigenous Americans live in Los Angeles County alone. This means the LA region has the highest concentration of Native Americans in the state.

American Indian Populations Ranked by State

According to the World Population Review, the following statistics reflect how states in the US ranked by American Indian population in January 2023:

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