Urban Indians are Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 who live in urban areas. Urban Indians represent a growing proportion of the Native population in the United States. The National Urban Indian Family Coalition (NUIFC) considers the term to apply to "individuals of American Indian and Alaska Native ancestry who may or may not have direct and/or active ties with a particular tribe, but who identify with and are at least somewhat active in the Native community in their urban area."

As defined by NUIFC, urban Indians may variously be permanent residents including long term residents, forced residents, or medium and short term visitors. Long term residents are those who have been in a city for multiple generations, some of them the descendants of the people who traditionally owned land that has now become an urban center. Forced residents were forced to relocate to urban centers by government policy or by the need to access specialized health or other services. Medium and short term visitors are in a city to visit family or friends, to pursue an education, etc. The term "forced residents" is a contested term and could be considered misleading by others.

A brief history of the urbanization of Native Americans

The number of Indians living in urban settings greatly accelerated in the 1950s and 1960s, due to the Indian termination policy

Indian termination policy

Indian termination was the policy of the United States from the mid-1940s to the mid-1960s. The belief was that Native Americans would be better off if assimilated as individuals into mainstream American society. To that end, Congress proposed to end the special relationship between tribes and the...

 of that era, which encouraged Indians to leave their reservations

Indian reservation

An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...

. During that time period, the Bureau of Indian Affairs

Bureau of Indian Affairs

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...

 (BIA) developed a "relocation" program which encouraged Indian people to move to urban areas. While Indian people were not "forced" to move, the BIA was frequently misleading regarding life in urban areas. Many Indian people were simply unprepared for the experience, and many returned to the reservations. The program was abolished in the 1970s and no longer exists. Since that era, however, many Indian people have moved to urban areas on their own without any assistance from the BIA. The 1990 US Census indicated that two thirds of Native Americans lived in urban areas. The 2010 US Census should reflect an even greater increase.

Much of the scholarly literature of the 1970s and 1980s focused upon the great hardships that Indian people were experiencing in urban areas and especially the failure and abuses of the Relocation Program of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. However, more recent scholarship has demonstrated how Indian people were able to be resourceful and adapt to the demands of urban living just as poor European emigrants had done in the 19th century. This scholarship is represented by James LaGrand's INDIAN METROPOLIS, Joan Weibel-Orlando's Indian Country, L.A., and Shawnee

Shawnee

The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...

-Sac and Fox-Seminole

Seminole

The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...

-Muscogee Creek scholar Donald Fixico's THE URBAN INDIAN EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA. Speaking about prior negative stereotypes regarding adjustment, Native scholar Fixico has stated, "This downtrodden image does not accurately portray urban Indians, particularly in the 1990s when at least three generations have survived the relocation years of the 1950s and 1960s. The early image misrepresents the urban Indian population to an unfortunate degree, since many Indian citizens in cities hold professional positions and are members of the middle class in America." (p.27). Charles Wilkinson, a legal scholar and author of Blood Struggle, has stated: "Relocation fell into disfavor because of the coercion and ineffectiveness, but one bright light began to shine years later. Although relocation provided few benefits to the people it directly served, many of their children, having grown up in the cities, helped build the Indian professional middle class, which played a central role in revitalizing Indian life in the latter part of the twentieth century." (p.85)

Wilma Mankiller

Wilma Mankiller

Wilma Pearl Mankiller was the first female Chief of the Cherokee Nation. She served as principal chief for ten years from 1985 to 1995.-Early life:...

, former Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation

Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation

Principal Chief is today the title of the chief executives of the Cherokee Nation, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, the three federally recognized tribes of Cherokee. In the eighteenth century, when the people were organized by clans and...

, is a good example of the Indian professional middle class raised in an urban area. Wilma relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area with her parents in the 1950s. She states in her autobiography, "We were not forced to do anything . . . our poverty had prompted the move. In 1955, my father first started talking to the Bureau of Indian Affairs officials about the various forms of assistance for Cherokees. Relocation was a possibility." (p.68-69) Relocation was traumatic for the young Wilma, but she would later attend college at San Francisco State College and learn techniques of community organization in the political climate of the Bay Area in the 1970s. She would take these skills back to the Cherokee Nation

Cherokee Nation

The Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century, and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated voluntarily from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who...

 in Oklahoma and assist with revitalization there.

Future of Indian urbanization

As a final note, Cherokee scholar Russell Thornton, a demographer and professor at UCLA, has pointed out that Native Americans tend to intermarry with non-Indians at an increasing rate. He attributes this, partially, to the increased urbanization of the Native American population. "Continued urbanization is likely not only to result in increased intermarriage as more and more Native Americans come in contact with non-Native peoples, but also to diminish further the identity of Native Americans as distinctive tribal peoples tied to specific geographical areas."

Statistical measurements of health and quality of life

It is difficult to get a reliable number for the urban Indian population. In 1999, Kenneth Prewitt, director of the United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

 estimated that the census under counts American Indians and Alaska Natives by just over 12 percent. However, census operates by self-designation and other believe the indigenous American census numbers are inflated. Therefore, all numbers should be viewed with some caution.

It is clear that the number of urban Indians is increasing. The 1970 census showed 62 percent of people who identified as American Indians or Alaska Natives living on Indian reservations or other Native lands; the 2000 census shows that number down to 39 percent. The highest concentration of Urban Indians is believed to be in Anchorage

Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...

, Alaska, where over 10 percent of the population identify themselves in the census as having some Native ancestry, with 7.3 percent identifying that as their only ancestry.

Urban Indians suffer from many of the same health problems as Natives on the reservations. Rates of prenatal care are even lower than on reservations, and rates of infant mortality even higher. Furthermore, compared to the general population, urban Indians have:

• 38 percent higher rates of accidental deaths
• 54 percent higher rates of diabetes
• 126 percent higher rates of liver
  Liver
  The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. It has a wide range of functions, including detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion...
  
   disease and cirrhosis
  Cirrhosis
  Cirrhosis is a consequence of chronic liver disease characterized by replacement of liver tissue by fibrosis, scar tissue and regenerative nodules , leading to loss of liver function...
  
  
• 178 percent higher rates of alcohol-related deaths.

Social indicators show a similar pattern.

• A poverty rate of 20.3 percent, compared to a general urban poverty rate of 12.7 percent.
• An unemployment rate 1.7 times higher than the general urban population.
• Homeownership less than 46 percent, compared to 62 percent for non-Indians.
• Their homes (owned or rented) are significantly more likely to lack plumbing facilities (1.8 times more likely than non-Indian urban residents), kitchen facilities (2 times more likely) and telephone service (more than 3 times more likely).
• 1.7 times less likely to have a high school diploma than non-Indians.
• Three times more likely to be homeless than non-Indians.
• A higher rate of child abuse and neglect (5.7 cases per 1,000 children per year, vs. 4.2 for the total U.S. population).