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American Indian History: 1300 to Present
An introduction to American Indian history, stressing the integrity and viability of American Indian societies; dynamic, self-directed culture change; and the clash of cultures that occurred with Native American and European contact.
Instructor: Kathryn L. MacKay, Ph.D.
- phone: 801 626 6782
- office: 244 SBS
- email: kmackay@weber.edu
The Indigenous people of the United States are commonly denoted as belonging to three primary groups: Native Hawaiians, American Indians, and Alaskan Natives. The latter two groups American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) are generally designated as “Native Americans.” An estimated 4.7 million people in the United States – or about 1.5 percent of the U.S. population – self-identify under official Census categories as American Indian or Alaska Native. Of these, 3.3 million people identify as being of single-race Native American ethnicity. Approximately 1.2 million Native Americans reside on Indian reservations (known collectively as “Indian Country”) or in Alaska Native Villages. This leaves approximately 2.1 million of those who identify themselves as single-race American Indian or Alaska Native living outside Indian Country and Alaska Native villages.These individuals contribute to sizable Native populations in such urban centers as Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and New York City, New York. The fact that more than half of the 3.3 million single-race Native Americans reside “off-rez” can be misleading: Much of the off-reservation population resides either in communities adjacent to Indian reservations or routinely migrates back and forth between “home” (the reservation) and “off-rez” places of employment and residence . (Cornell and Kalt, "American Indian Self-determination," 2010)
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