List of Native American Politicians

This is a list of Native American politicians in the United States. These are Native Americans who served in the federal, state, or municipal governments.

Native American identity is a complex and contested issue. The Bureau of Indian Affairs defines Native American as having American Indian or Alaska Native ancestry. Legally, being Native American is defined as being enrolled in a federally recognized tribe or Alaskan village. These entities establish their own membership rules, and they vary. Each must be understood independently. Ethnologically, factors such as culture, history, language, religion, and familial kinships can influence Native American identity.

All individuals on this list should have Native American ancestry. Historical figures might predate tribal enrollment practices and may be included based on reliable sources that document ethnological tribal membership. Any contemporary individuals should either be enrolled members of federally recognized tribes, or have cited Native American ancestry and be recognized as Native American by their respective tribes(s). Contemporary individuals who are not enrolled in a tribe but are documented as having tribal descent are listed as being "of descent" from a tribe.

For tribal leaders, please go to that tribe's article.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Read more about List Of Native American Politicians:  Names

Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, native, american and/or politicians:

    My list of things I never pictured myself saying when I pictured myself as a parent has grown over the years.
    Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)

    Lastly, his tomb
    Shall list and founder in the troughs of grass
    And none shall speak his name.
    Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)

    I never see that man without feeling that he is one to become personally attach’d to, for his combination of purest, heartiest tenderness, and native western form of manliness.
    Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

    We talked about and that has always been a puzzle to me
    why American men think that success is everything
    when they know that eighty percent of them are not
    going to succeed more than to just keep going and why
    if they are not why do they not keep on being
    interested in the things that interested them when
    they were college men and why American men different
    from English men do not get more interesting as they
    get older.
    Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)

    Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water until he had learnt to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever.
    Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)