Title: Ten Things You Don’t Know About American Indians
Headings: 10 Things You Don’t Know About Native Americans
10 Things You Don’t Know About Native Americans
Ten Things You Don’t Know About American Indians
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10 Things You Don’t Know About American Indians Apr. 9, 2014 By Braudie Blais-Billie
1. We exist today and live contemporary lives.
2. There are multiple ways to address Native America.
3. We don’t all look the same.
4. There are more than 560 federally recognized tribes in the U.S.
5. And each tribe has its own identity as a nation, independent from one another.
I can’t stress it enough: Natives aren’t a unanimous culture across North America. We don’t all hunt buffalo or wear buckskin. Every tribe has its unique languages, traditions, histories, politics, economies, religions, and overall ways of life.
6. Some Natives live on reservations, some don’t.
7. There are American Indians in the U.S. that don’t speak English.
8. Land is not just property to American Indians.
9. A genocide was enacted upon Native America.
10. Native America is changing the world.

Content: We don’t all look the same. Some Natives are tall, some are short, some are fair-skinned, some are dark. We have varying highness of cheekbones, varying weights, varying hair lengths and hair color. Native American is not so much a “racial” identity. It’s more of a political one. We share the same relationship to the United States government in that we are indigenous, but are distinct nations from one another across North America. 4. There are more than 560 federally recognized tribes in the U.S.
To be federally recognized means to be legally recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs. Even still, there are thousands of tribes, bands, nations, and peoples throughout the U.S. that are not recognized on a government or legal level. They self-identify as American Indian.