Tribal Nations and Reservations
How 575 sovereign Native nations fit on the U.S. map
The United States recognizes 575 Native American and Alaska Native tribes as sovereign nations, each with its own government, laws and relationship with Washington. The number rose from 574 in January 2026, when the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina was added after Congress recognized it in December 2025. About 326 areas are administered as federal Indian reservations, a category that includes pueblos, rancherias and other communities, and the federal government holds about 56.2 million acres in trust for tribes and individual Native people. The largest by far is the Navajo Nation, at roughly 16 million acres in the Bureau of Indian Affairs count.
Today's reservation map is the product of shifting federal policy. Treaties and executive orders created most reservations in the 1800s, then allotment broke many into private parcels. The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 ended allotment, and the termination policy of 1953 to 1964 dissolved federal recognition of more than 100 tribes and bands before it was repudiated. The Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975 let tribes run their own programs. Alaska took a different path: the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 created Native-owned corporations rather than reservations, leaving Annette Islands Reserve as the state's only reservation.