Cancer Prevention and Early Detection in American Indian and Alaska Native Populations

Approximately one million Native Peoples were on the continent at the time of Columbus; at the turn of the 20th century, there were only 200,000 (Russell, 1992). Today, the “American Indian” (which includes all tribes and clans of people who are indigenous to the continental United States) has the smallest number of people among identified racial groups in the United States. Approximately 2.3 million, or 0.9% of the U.S. population, self-identify as American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIANs). This “smallest racial group” should be considered in perspective—although more than 700 tribes of American Indians originally inhabited this land, at least 200 have become extinct. In 1988, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Federal Register listed and recognized approximately 500 tribes of Native Peoples in the United States. Each of the surviving federally recognized tribes has its own unique and diverse culture, and many are acknowledged by the U.S. Congress as “Sovereign Nations.” In addition, hundreds of additional tribes are recognized only by individual states, not the federal government. Many tribes no longer possess reservation or trust lands, and several tribes share a single reservation.