American Indian dancers. Photo by LeeTravathan via Pixabay.com.
Also see: American Indian & Alaska Native by City and Community
and 2000 Census Figures
Although Los Angeles County is home to the largest concentration of persons in the United States claiming to be fully or partly of American Indian descent, it is only the second largest population in the United States claiming to be fully American Indian and Alaska Native. Maricopa County, Arizona, ranks first. Los Angeles County, however, is home to the largest U.S. populations of ethnically indigenous people from Mexico, Central and South America.
Tribe | 2010 Census Number | 2018 Census Estimate Number** |
---|---|---|
American Indian or Alaska Native | 71,471 | 70,527 |
American Indian, Tribe Specified | 36,404 | 45,373 |
Apache | 2,316 | 2,613 |
Arapaho | 69 | 89 |
Blackfeet | 420 | 402 |
Canadian and French American Indian | 140 | 49 |
Central American Indian | 1,349 | 1,760 |
Cherokee | 2,608 | 3,051 |
Cheyenne | 120 | 204 |
Chickasaw | 181 | 125 |
Chippewa | 427 | 240 |
Choctaw | 866 | 588 |
Colville | 42 | 24 |
Tribe | 2010 Census Number | 2018 Census Estimate Number** |
Comanche | 211 | 183 |
Cree | 44 | 125 |
Creek | 378 | 179 |
Crow | 33 | 0 |
Delaware | 76 | 42 |
Hopi | 295 | 166 |
Houma | 3 | 18 |
Iroquois | 288 | 198 |
Kiowa | 93 | 41 |
Lumbee | 81 | 74 |
Menominee | 20 | 0 |
Mexican American Indian | 13,885 | 20,577 |
Navajo | 2,338 | 2,112 |
Tribe | 2010 Census Number | 2018 Census Estimate Number** |
Osage | 92 | 67 |
Ottawa | 42 | 21 |
Paiute | 174 | 569 |
Pima | 327 | 255 |
Potawatomi | 141 | 75 |
Pueblo | 746 | 946 |
Puget Sound Salish | 31 | 16 |
Seminole | 114 | 73 |
Shoshone | 173 | 199 |
Sioux | 851 | 634 |
South American Indian | 476 | 746 |
Spanish American Indian | 929 | 1,322 |
Tohono O'Odham | 413 | 369 |
Tribe | 2010 Census Number | 2018 Census Estimate Number** |
Ute | 90 | 64 |
Yakama | 23 | 102 |
Yaqui | 1,045 | 1,231 |
Yuman | 209 | 106 |
All other American Indian tribes | 4,245 | 5,718 |
American Indian, Tribe Not Specified | 3,769 | 4,094 |
Alaska Native, Tribe Specified | 271 | 450 |
Alaskan Athabascan | 59 | 52 |
Aleut | 42 | 58 |
Inupiat | 58 | 223 |
Tlingit-Haida | 79 | 62 |
Tsimshian | 14 | 0 |
Yup'ik | 19 | 55 |
Alaska Native, Tribe Not Specified | 37 | 33 |
American Indian or Alaska Native, Tribe Not Specified | 30,990 | 19,264 |
* Here we use the term American Indian, versus Native American, because the U.S. Census Bureau uses this to refer to most indigenous people of the Americas. According to a 1995 Census Bureau study, 50% of people identifying themselves as indigenous preferred the term American Indian, 37% preferred Native American, and the remainder either preferred other terms or had no preference. The Census Bureau uses American Indian to include indigenous people of all the Americas (North and South America and the Carribbean) who are not Alaska Native or Hawaiian. In addition, the local indigenous people groups native to Los Angeles County use the term "Indian."
** 2014-2018 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau