Confederated Tribes of Net Natives
444 Computer Science - 3425 UCI, Irvine, California 92697-3425
Feather Martin,
Tribal Secretary
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is an Indian?
No single federal or tribal criteria establishes a person's identity as an Indian.
To be eligible for Bureau of Indian Affairs services, an Indian must (1) be a member of a tribe recognized by the federal government and (2) must, for some purposes, be of one-fourth or more Indian ancestry.
What is an Indian Tribe?
Originally, an Indian tribe was a body of people bound together by blood ties that were socially, politically, and religiously organized, who lived together in a defined territory and who spoke a common language or dialect.
The establishment of the reservation system created some new tribal groupings when two or three tribes were placed on one reservation, or when members of one tribe were spread over two or three reservations.
What is a reservation?
An Indian reservation is land a tribe reserved for itself when it relinquished its other land areas to the U.S. through treaties.
Are Indians required to stay on reservations?
No. Indians are free to move above like all other Americans.
Are Indians wards of the government?
No. The federal government is a trustee of Indian property, it is not a guardian of individual Indians. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized by law, in many instances, to protect the interests of minors and incompetents, but this protection does not confer a guardian-ward relationship.
Are Indians U.S. citizens?
Yes. Before the U.S. Congress extended American citizenship in 1924 to all Indians born in the territorial limits of the United States, citizenship had been conferred upon approximately two-thirds of the Indian population through treaty agreements, statutes, naturalization proceedings, and by "service in the Armed Forces with an honorable discharge" in World War I. Indians are also members of their respective tribes.