Urban Indians

SIGNIFICANCE: More than half of the US Indigenous American population resides in a metropolitan area for most or all of the year; in many cities, urban Indigeneous people go unnoticed by other ethnic groups.

The term “urban Indians” is problematic for most non-Indigenous Americans. Whether thinking of Indigenous Americans brings forth positive, negative, or neutral images, many members of other ethnic groups do not imagine Indians as members of an urban, technological society, and this lack of urban image has led to a blindness regarding the presence and needs of Indigenous Americans in cities. Identification of the urban Indigenous American has therefore been one of the central problems surrounding government policy regarding Indigenous Americans since the early 1960s.

Relocation and Migration

All members of a federally recognized tribe in the United States, according to the US Constitution, are due certain benefits and services by right of their heritage. This unique legal relationship with the US government was never meant to end once an individual moved to a metropolitan area, but in effect, that is what has happened. In the mid-1950s, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), in accord with Congress, began the Voluntary Relocation Program. BIA officers on each reservation were instructed to “sell” the idea of city living to likely candidates. Individuals, and sometimes families, were given a one-way ticket to the chosen city, where housing and employment awaited, all arranged by the BIA. Subsistence money was guaranteed for six weeks, after which these newest immigrants were on their own.

Most Indigenous Americans who arrived in cities under the relocation program left as soon as they got a good look at their new way of life. Many of the offered jobs were unskilled, and Indigenous Americans found they were able to afford only the worst housing available in the city. Under these conditions, transition to city dwelling was, for many, impossible. Yet the BIA did not recognize the shortcomings of its multimillion-dollar program and continued to relocate as many Indigenous Americans as possible. Noticing that many of their clients were returning to their reservations, the BIA began relocating people as far away from their reservations as could be managed, to make it as difficult as possible to return. Part of the plan was to terminate the reservations eventually. The Voluntary Relocation Program was a failure according to its own goals. This program was based on the prejudiced notion that Indigenous American culture and lifeways would, and should, disappear. The BIA and the US Congress of the 1950s counted on America’s cities to speed that process.

Most Indigenous Americans living in urban areas did not arrive through the relocation program but migrated independently, usually looking for employment, and settled near relatives or friends from their reservation or hometown. Many are permanent residents, but an approximately equal number are transient—relocating within the city, going from city to city, or spending part of the year in the city and part on the reservation. There is no known “typical” pattern of migration; tribal nations, families, and individuals differ according to their needs. A family may live in the city during the winter so the children can stay in school, then leave for the reservation in the summer. Construction workers are often busy in the cities during the warm months and leave in the winter. The powwow season and harvests also draw many urban Native Americans back to the reservations. The frequent moving to and from reservations and within the city is one factor in the invisibility of and difficulty in quantifying urban Indians.

Urban Indian Identity

Another factor complicating the urban presence of Indigenous Americans has been the reluctance of some urban residents to identify themselves as Indigenous Americans to non-Indigenous Americans in the city. The urban Indigenous Americans’ attempts to remain unidentified, coupled with the tremendous mobility of individuals and families, have made it impossible in past years for the US census to come close to an accurate count in the cities. In the 1990 US census, however, there was a huge increase in people identifying themselves as Native Americans or Alaska Natives. According to a 2008 report by the National Urban Indian Family Coalition (NUIFC), by 2000 the total number of people identifying as American Indian or Alaska Native reached 4.3 million, with 61 percent living somewhere other than a reservation or other Indigenous land. This illustrated a clear population shift, as only 38 percent lived off of reservations in 1970. The 2010 census saw the trend increase, with 78 percent of Native Americans and Alaska Natives living outside tribal areas. Still, the issues with defining "urban Indians" made accurate quantitative studies difficult. A decade later, around 70 percent of Native Americans and Alaska Natives continued living outside their Nation’s area.

According to the 2010 census, a handful of cities had the largest populations of Native Americans and Alaska Natives. New York City had the largest, with 111,749 people, followed by Los Angeles, California; Phoenix, Arizona; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Anchorage, Alaska. Indigenous Americans have arrived in cities all over the United States for many reasons; work opportunities and education are the most commonly cited. Some cities, such as Chicago, operate high-quality schools for Indigenous American children as further insurance against losing traditions and ways of thinking. However, according to NUIFC, social conditions for urban Indians lag behind the general population, and sometimes even behind those of Indians on reservations. For example, in 2008, urban Indigenous Americans' poverty rate was just over 20 percent, while the national urban poverty rate average was 12.7 percent. This trend continued in the 2019 census, with poverty rates among Indigenous Americans living in rural areas reaching 29.6 percent. Those living in urban areas had a poverty rate of 19.4 percent, compared to around 8 percent for White individuals. Urban Indians also faced higher rates of child abuse, homelessness, unemployment, and alcohol-related deaths.

Urban Indigenous populations continued to grow into the twenty-first century, and a majority of Indigenous American and Alaska Native people lived outside their nation’s land or other tribal areas. Urban Indigenous communities still experience disproportionately high rates of poverty, homelessness, and health disparities compared with the general urban population, even as Indigenous-led organizations and coalitions expanded efforts in areas such as cultural revitalization, urban Indigenous health services, and advocacy for better data collection and visibility.

Bibliography

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Fixico, Donald Lee. The Urban Indian Experience in America. U of New Mexico P, 2000.

National Urban Indian Family Coalition. Urban Indian America: The Staus of American Indian & Alaska Native Children & Families Today. Urban Indian Family Coalition, 2008. Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Pym, Kelsae-Marie. "National Urban Indian Family Coalition." National Voter Registration Day, 6 Sept. 2024, nationalvoterregistrationday.org/nuifc. Accessed 26 Jan. 2026.

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Schwartzkopf, Sarah. "Top 5 Cities with the Most Native Americans." Indian Country Today Media Network, 29 July 2013, ictnews.org/archive/top-5-cities-with-the-most-native-americans. Accessed 26 Jan. 2026.

"2010 Census Shows Nearly Half of American Indians and Alaska Natives Report Multiple Races." US Census Bureau, 26 Jan. 2012, 2010-2014.commerce.gov/blog/2012/01/26/2010-census-shows-nearly-half-american-indians-and-alaska-natives-report-multiple-ra.html. Accessed 26 Jan. 2026.