Category talk:Native American tribes

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Isn't this category misnamed? Shouldn't it be Native American nations? Tribes are a subset of a nation, such as the Lake Superior Tribe of the Chippewa Nation. Therefore the subcategories should be either, e.g., Ojibwa Nation or simply Ojibwa. - Banyan Tree 00:33, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Maybe this should be split into "Native American tribes" and "Native American peoples" catagories. They're two different things - the former implies political status (federal recognition in the US) and the other is an ethnic grouping. This category currently includes articles on both ethnic and political entities which is confusing.

Substituting "nation" for "people" might falsely imply a political hierarchy. It might also introduce US-centricity - I belive the term "nation" has equivalent meaning to "tribe" in Canada.

Finally quite a few tribes include members from different peoples (e.g. Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe). So having one "Nation" category with a bunch of "Tribe" sub-categories wouldn't work well for those tribes. Toiyabe 21:27, 16 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It's worth bearing in mind that the political recognition is a matter of dispute for some tribes. A local example for me is the Snoqualmie who only in 1999 regained their status independent of the Tulalip. Need to be careful not to open a can of dispute worms about these sorts of political vs. cultural classifications. wac 01:18, 6 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

This category should NOT be used for Canadian First Nations

The appropriate category is First Nations, or by province/terr, First Nations in British Columbia, First Nations in Yukon etc. Government and tribal council organizations should be First Nations governments in British Columbia/Yukon/Alberta etc.Skookum1 18:16, 17 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Problems with this category

We really need to straighten out this category. Some of the entries refer to languages that the tribes spoke rather than tribes themselves. Furthermore, some tribes, such as the Ojibwa and the Cherokee, are not unified political entities, but rather are in separate groups, such as the Cherokee Nation, The Eastern Cherokee Band, The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, and so forth. Subcategories need to be made and the separate entitites need to be in each category. Furthermore, some of the groups here aren't even tribes, they are confederations, such as the Iroquois, which are a confederation of six separate tribes. This also needs to be addressed. Not to mention the fact that some of the articles refer to ethnic groups instead of tribes, such as the article about Muskhogean stock, Algonquian peoples, and so on. I propose renaming this category to "Native American peoples", moving the articles on languages into another category entirely, and putting subcategories for confederations and tribes that divide into separate political entities. Suggestions? Comments? Asarelah 03:21, 7 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Canadians have every right to call themselves First Nations; that should be respected. The term Native American applies not only to AMERICAN INDIANS, but also Native Hawaiians and othergroups according to the US Govt and census. An American of any decent if Native born is a Native American if born in the USA, even though they might be 100% Irish. See articles on the net regarding this by Dennis Banks and the American Indian Movement, AIM. They pefer the term American Indian for all American Indian groups. Wikipedia could use AMERICAN INDIAN as a general title from which all others flow. Whether a person or group is an American Indian tribe an American Indian Band, a member of an Indian Nation, or a confedertaion; it should not make any differance, as they have a right to use those terms in conjunction with thier name. Many tribal elders and tribal members see the term Native American as a way to diminish thier sovereignty.

Also it would important if persons editing or contributing to pages on American Indians would indicate if they were a member of an American Indian Tribe.67.49.253.255 19:58, 20 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Why is it important that someone editing an page on American Indians indicate whether or not they're tribal members? Asarelah 22:20, 20 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]