Today in MA

Many aspects of African-American freeperson communities in Massachusetts are in parallel with neighboring states. Saxon Woods is a former African-American Freeperson enclave in the south of affluent Westchester County, New York, just twenty minutes outside New York City. In the 20th century, much of Saxon Woods was taken in a series of purchases, seizures and power leveraging to build a posh gold course and create a small conservation area along the Mammaroneck River.

My departed grandmother-in-law was a child of Saxon Woods. Her paternal family had been freepersons for more than 250 years, according to Grace Peterson Lane. The Peterson family, she said, descends on one side from an early Swedish immigrant who married a Lenape resident in what would become New Jersey. The family later became intergrated with freeperson African-American families, part of a pattern of African and Indigenous marriage that is frequent through the Colonial period. Her departed husband, Herman Lane, descended from Cherokee and African parentage, and whose Cherokee ancestor is documented as a cavalryman from Tennessee.

Grace Peterson Lane later owned an apartment building in Mammaroneck, down river from Saxon Woods, and lived out her later life in Mount Kisco, in central Westchester. Like many Saxon Woods families, their fortunes carried them to greater heights. New York Times featured Saxon Woods in a 1978 retrospective, but Ms Lane noted, "They didn't tell the whole story, the real story," and went on to explain that Scarsdale wanted to build a golf course at Saxon Woods. The African-American presence was removed by what Lane called "dirty tricks." Today the area is pricey "mcmansions" and African-Americans are few.

Across the USA, there is a pattern of de-landing African-Americans. African-American communities suffer destruction and erasure, frequently by slow attrition and lack of investment by towns and cities, sometimes by direct attack by Euroamerican neighbors. While archaeology and preservation of Colonial structures and communities is avidly pursued, Saxon Woods is a case pointing to neglect regarding African-American historical archaeology.

To date, it does not appear that preservation or archaeology have been performed at Saxon Woods. It appears that only informal history has been collected on the community.

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Oral History of Saxon Woods

Three bungalows are grouped on small plots near a larger Victorian cottage. At dusk, without street lights, these treeshrouded houses evoke a sense of mystery—the past.

The Petersons are one of three families that still owned houses - referred to as "bungalows" in reports - and a Victorian home at Saxon Woods in 1978. There were no street lights, unlike the rest of town, and the road was an unpaved dirt path. The four picturesque houses were mostly built around 1920; three of them still housed descendants of Scarsdale African-American Freepersons since before the Civil War.

Granny Johnson, at 80 the was the oldest living resident of Saxon Woods Road, in 1978 :
“Mother Johnson,” she said, referring to Esther Johnson, her late mother-inlaw, “gave this location to my husband, Meredith, and me for $100. We had to pay her in $10 installments, and the land was swampy. We built a house in 1924. should remember; I carried more concrete than anybody. Mother Johnson used to work for white people up on the hill who, I think, gave her the land when they moved out sometime after the Civil War. She also gave little plots to the Petersons and the Pitts, who are all related and interrelated by marriage. They still live here in houses next‐to me.”

Mrs. Johnson remembers that her husband hauled coal in a truck, and that during the Depression he “worked over at the Cadillac place on Mamaroneck Avenue, washing cars for 25 cents apiece. But we all pitched in. Mostly we worked over the washboards, day and night, washed and ironed and washed. There were little gardens and things like that then, but don't remember any big farms along the road.”

According to Mrs. Johnson “I heard in the old days that the underground railroad was in the old, old Houston house next door that was torn down. And a runaway slave came here to the road and didn't leave like the others. He lived in a cave or a barn.” Some claim the person's name was Purdy. “I never heard of a black Purdy,” Granny says. “I heard of a white Purdy, the one that lived on the hill and owned slaves.”

Mr. Parnell claims Purdy was Meredith's ancestor. The census records for 1850 list black family by the name of Purdy. Old Elijah, who was 86, was listed ‘gentleman,’ while Robert Purdy, 30 years old, was a laborer. And there was a Bella Johnson. She was a servant.”

Then Mr. Parnell tells of an old cemetery that is little known but still exists in Scarsdale. “Drive about a mile on Mamaroneck Road. Turn tight at Colonial. Go as far as you can. You'll find it.”

The postage-stamp-size graveyard is hidden in a wood of tall trees, so dense that the ground below is damp and shadowy, even on a cloudless day. sparrow is the sole mourner. Here lies “Ruth Merritt who departed this life Jan. 2, 1822 in the 85th year of her age” and John Cornell, 1781‐1869. A few steps away is a Purdy, Jane, wife of William Purdy, born 1822, died 1855.

Ms. Johnson's story of the underground railroad is confirmed by a tale told in Hansen's history of Scarsdale. According to this account, abolitionist sentiment ran high in Scarsdale during the Civil War and pre‐Civil War era, and the Quakers in East Scarsdale (near Saxon Woods Road) helped escaped slaves find their way to the North.

In 1971, there were still families like the Parnells moving into Saxon Woods. Mrs. Parnell recalls how astonished white neighbor's child was when she brought her black baby to school one day. Because the white child had so little contact with black people, he thought blacks were born as full‐grown maids and butlers. As far back as the 60's, Mr. Parnell was a vocal representative of both his road and his race. One year, the jockeys got to him. Driving around Scarsdale, he became more and more annoyed at seeing effigies of black jockeys standing on front lawns pointing to the back door.

Mr. Parnell said, “I didn't like their big red lips and the direction in which the jockeys were pointing. I brought it to the attention of some people, and The Daily News ran a story about it. The next thing I knew, high‐school students were volunteering to paint the jockeys light- brown or white for anyone who wanted done. A lot of jockeys were painted that year.”

When Scarsdale started to build sewers next to the Saxon Woods area, the old residents requested tie‐ins. The village refused, saying it would be inconvenient and expensive. Later, the village tried to tax these residents for sewer lines that serviced houses other than theirs. Ms. Johnson, the Parnells and my late gradnmother-in-law,made all the papers in vociferous denunciations of taxes that would literally put the old families out on their doorsteps.

Since 1978, the neighborhood has been acquired to build Saxon Woods Golf course and a conservation area along Mammaroneck River in otherwise built-up and busy southern Westechester. Grace Peterson Lane recounted that sepculators bought out land from some descendants without consent of others in the family, and without stating their intentions to remove the whole neighborhood. After that, there were legal challenges to other residents, and what she called "dirty tricks." On the other hand, the neighborhood was slowly becoming depopulated as resident's children spread out around the county and the region.

Once-Forgotten Revolutionary Fighters Were Also Slaves and Later Free, But Marginal

Parting Ways community was the home of four African-American Revolutionary War veterans: Prince Goodwin, Cato Howe, Quamony Quash, and Plato Turner, who were most or all slaves during that war. Quamony Quash served in the war from 1780-1783, but was not emancipated by Theophilus Cotton until 1781. Quash’s patterns and more of Turner’s family also lived there. at Parting Ways is named for the fork in the road leading from Plymouth to either Plympton or Carver. In 1792 the Town of Plymouth granted approximately 94 acres those four former slaves and veterans of our independence – in return for clearing the land. The early community apparently grew to 106 acres. The place was, in fact called New Guinea at that time, which James Deetz notes is a common racial tag applied to African-American freeperson communities. According to Hutchins-Keim, the location was earlier occupied by Euro-Americans in the Fuller family.

Cato Howe enlisted as a private in Colonel John Bailey’s regiment and fought under Colonel Prescott at the iconic Battle of Bunker Hill, but there is little record of him even so. African-Americans in Massachusetts lived as “chattel and property” of Euro-American owners, without rights of any kind. Slavery was the status of 572 African-American soldiers and veterans, leaving one to wonder at the depth of their patriotism.

From 1783 to 1792, there are no records yet found about Howe, but on March 12 of that year, Plymouth
council granted land “about 20 rods wide and about a mile and a half long on the easterly side of the sheep pasture, to such persons as will clear the same in the term of three years.” Howe, Goodwin, Turner and Quamany took up that task.

Here, the question of Quamony’s origins must be called forth. Quamany Quash is a name that escapes documentation on origin so far. Quamany/Quamony/Quameny/ Quaman is a surname that attaches to mostly African-American individuals as far as my searches have found; people in Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, (Cherokee) Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts from Revolutionary times until the late 1800s. More than one person first or last name of Quamony served in the Revolutionary War. Quaman may be a separate name as opposed to a cognate of Quamony, but it is grouped by genealogists. The Quaman surname clearly clusters around Indigenous communities.

https://lancasteronline.com/news/fought-died-forgotten/article_df5557dd-9cf9-57f5-8d8e-82a79c0621d3.html

https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/cen_1880/?name=_Quamany

Another person named Quash and noted as a slave appears in records in the North Quabbin area of Western Massachusetts. Quamany fits a form applied historically to some Indigenous Lenape names, where the ending “-manend” is changed to “many” as in Tamanend = Tamany. This person may or may not be of mixed Indigenous and African origin, a question that has also been raised in regard to Crispus Attucks, another Revolutionary hero of possibly mixed origin.

At The Turner-Burr house, the footprint of Yoruba legacy appears to manifest. The cellar was designed according to the African custom of 12-foot-square modules, Deetz said. The above-ground areas of the home, meanwhile, displayed quintessential New England features, including a 16-foot-square dimension.
Compare the floor plans of the houses appearing at the head of this article:

The first, at right, is the floor plan of a contemporaneous Yoruba house of present-day Nigeria; middle is a Shotgun house in Haiti; left is the Turner-Burr house foundation. By contrast, typical contemporaneous Anglo-American house has a central hall-and-parlor floor plan.

We could perhaps learn a great deal more if we preserved and studied more historically black communities of this period. Detailed studies of diet and social life can tell us more about legacy connections. Preservation of these spaces are needed to provide a physical archive and experience.

The lives of veteran former slave freepersons at New Guinea-come-Parting Ways was not easy. There were few options available to non-Whites, a situation that has persisted until recently.

From the Deetz investigation come details of Howe’s material life:

[Howe’s] life at Parting Ways seems to have been a difficult one. In 1818 he applied to the government for a pension, based on reduced circumstances. The pension was granted, and in 1820 he apparently was asked to prove that he had not purposely reduced his circumstances to qualify for the support. His personal property at that time was listed as follows:

Real Estate: None.

Personal Property: 1 cow, 1 pig, 5 chairs, 1 table, 2 kettles, 3 knives and forks, 3 plates, 2 bowls, ax, hoe.

Total Value: 27 dollars.

He stated his occupation as farmer in his deposition. If so, wresting a living from the land where he lived was a taxing job. Today, over a century later, the soil on this tract of land is gravelly and singularly unfertile. To complicate matters even further, he was troubled with rheumatism, and his bedridden wife, Althea, was seventy years old and unable to feed herself. Both had been given assistance by the town before he received his federal pension. Although it is not recorded, Althea Howe must have died shortly thereafter, since Cato married Lucy Prettison of Plymouth in 1821. Three years later, he died, and his estate was probated. His inventory has survived, and attests to his most modest circumstances, as follows:
1 Fire Shovel 8¢ 1 Table 20¢ 1 Table 100 3 Chests $2.12 1/2 2.50 1/2
4 Chairs $1 Bed, Bedstead and bedding $5.80 6.80
1 Spinning Wheel 25¢ 1 pr. Handirons 50¢ 1 Iron Kettle 50¢ 1.25
1 Iron Pot $1 1 Dish Kettle 20¢ 1 Tea Kettle 30¢ 1 Spider 20¢ 1.70
2 Lamps 12 1/2¢ Tin Ware 25¢ Wooden Ware 25¢ 6 Junk Bottles 30¢ .92 1/2
1 Coffee Mill 12 1/2¢ 1 Mortar 12 1/2¢ Knives, forks, spoons 17¢ .42
1 Flat Iron 20¢ 1 Skillet 15¢ Family pictures 12 1/2¢ .47 1/2
1 Ax 50¢ Crockery and Glass Ware in cupboard $4 Wash Tub 25¢ 4.75
1 Rooster Cock 20¢ 4 Hens 80¢ 1.00
1 Dwelling House $15 1 Barn $15 1 Cow $12 42.00
61.82 1/2

Like many freeperson communities, New Guinea, aka Parting Ways, was slowly abandoned. Some sources say this took place in the 1940s, while others say that the last resident was named James Burr, who is believed to have returned to the property in 1861 to be closer to the burial site of his grandfather, Plato Turner. One source claims the last house on the property burned down in 1905. “Burned down” is the oft-reported fate of last houses in African-American communities or the whole community itself. That fact is important to highlight.

Partly, the attrition of the community may reflect movement of African-Americans toward manufacturing centers in that time and after after World War II. Parting Ways was largely ignored until 1974, when Plymouth Bicentennial Commission member Marjorie Anderson brought attention to the site not only to preserve a significant moment in the nation’s history, but to prevent the acreage from being turned into a town cemetery.

The Plymouth Bicentennial Advisory Committee on Black History and Culture emerged as a subcommittee, and the site soon attracted donations, academic support, and interest from celebrities such as “Roots’’ author Alex Haley, boxer Marvin Hagler, and activist-comedian Dick Gregory. In 1975 and 1976, excavations were led by Deetz, a Brown University archaeologist and Plimoth Plantation’s assistant director.

Movements to create a museum and full intrepretative site have a history of being shelved.

Resources –

James Deetz investigation and report at University of Illinois -
http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/parting.html

Parting Ways Revisited: Archaeology at a Nineteenth-Century African-American Community in Plymouth, Massachusetts Karen Hutchins-Keim -
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/2161944115Z.00000000025?journalCode=yjaf20

Cultural Relations and Independent Development at Parting Ways, also Hutchins- Keim-
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41636-017-0077-4

Efforts to build a museum at Parting Ways to remember the community and African-American soldiers from the community who served in the Revolutionary War:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/2161944115Z.00000000025?journalCode=yjaf20

The National Register of Historic Places recognizes the Fitch-Hoose House, an 1846 structure that was almost seized by the Town of Dalton for taxes in 2004. Standing as the last of an historic free African-American enclave known as The Gulf, the place also known as the Charles Hoose house is an important embodiment of Black History in Western Massachusetts. The Gulf refers to a local term for a low area between hills elsewhere often called a hollow, or ‘holler.’ The Crane family had earlier purchased the land that Hoos in turn purchased. In 2015, Dalton Historical Commission began renovation of the Hoose house.

Notably, as in other cases, this free African-American community was situated at the north margins of town, at some distance from the main population. Present address is 6 Gulf Road, where the site was home to generations of the Fitch and Hoose families. Dozens of African-American families lived here before and after the Civil War. Up to the 1940s, local residents say there were many African-American families living at the Gulf.

The home was humble for its time at about 158 square feet of floor space and an 8’ x 8’ bedroom, with two low-ceiling rooms upstairs, a total of five spaces, no insulation and one wood stove. The Hoose home appears as a variation on the African-American style recognized as the 12-foot house, at bit extended with added features. What might that express in the thoughts of the Hoose parents?

Available documents give only partial information on Hoose descendants. In general, the voices of Gulf community descendants is lacking in avialable narratives and reports. It appears from our search that a number of descendants could be identified and their narratives sought.

Black enclaves historically received little infrastructure support or other support from the towns to which they ostensibly belong. Structured poverty and social segregation, as well as physical, are common features of such communities. The lack of census and other records, but the collection of taxes, both speak to the dilemma facing African-American communities. Recent records do show that two grandchildren of Charles A. Hoose, Charlyne and Jean, lived in the house in 1988. Ellen Hamilton raised at least a dozen children with Charles in that house, such as Charles, junior (1896 - 1970). There are, however, few records of the other children or their descendants. Information about women in the family is also thin.

Charles Hoose was the grandson of Philip Hoos, and Charles was farming in Hancock when he bought the new lot at the age of 20. 1830 census records show Charles as a farmer. Hoos and Philip are both names that connect to early Dutch Colonial presence in the Taconic and Berkshires region, which predates English presence, suggesting perhaps this family has longstanding status as freepersons.

Articles in the Berkshire Monthly from 1903 and 1905 describe residents of the Gulf in unforgivably stereotyped, fictional, general and demeaning terms. Reflecting fictions of those times that are sometimes echoed by political factions still, the Berkshire Monthly named fictional residents using typical racist trope names from the book of Jim Crow South and pinned on the residents and the Gulf literal whitewashed tropes of an idyll in willing submissiveness and happy ignorance for African-Americans.

Though slavery was abolished in Massachusetts in 1783, residents claim that the Gulf was located along the Underground Railroad and was home to both freepersons and those who had escaped slavery. In 1868, Charles A. Hoose bought the property for $150 and remained there until after WWII, reaching his 90s. The Hoose family occupied the home for more than 120 years. Henry Fitch, listed as a farmer in the 1850 U.S. Census, lived in the house.

In 2008 the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail supported the significance of this home, joining local and regional volunteers to push for its preservation. After much effort, the home was recognized in 2010 in National Register of Historic Places.

A 1926 essay mentioned the "Negro cabins" that had popped up in a place called the Lanesborough Gulf, referring to the next town west over Gulf Road – now in the woods. The restoration project's application to the Massachusetts Historical Commission reads, "the settlements of these African Americans had been restricted to this and other marginalized areas by the white community rather than them choosing these mountainous waste areas as hiding places."

Longtime residents remember the Gulf community. James Schilling-Cachat, of Native and European descent, whose family has resided in Dalton for more than ten generations, recalled some of the later residents of the Gulf. "The Caesars were part of what people saw as 'the Black part of town.' The Caesars owned a landscaping and tree care company. They lived up by Gulf Road. Some of my family worked with them. They were friends of ours. " There were also dark moments: "Back in the '60s, someone burned a cross on the Caesar's lawn. I think it was the KKK. But the Caesars didn't go anywhere. Pretty much the whole town came to give them support when that happened. They had a mansion there, a huge house, close on the road."

Samuel L. Caesar has conflicting biographies, one which attributes his origin to Quebec about 1848, and claims he was "full-blooded" Native, the other which says he was born in Dalton and does not assert a single racial origin. Caesar married Hannah Hoose, connecting these legacies. Caesar is also said to have lied about his age to fight in the Civil War, and that his father was "a runner in the war of 1812." Caesar claimed to have been one of the first Union sodiers to enter Richmond, Virginia upon its recovery. He and Hannah operated an ice business together. Descendant Samuel L. Caesar, tree care professional, passed in 2007 in Pittsfield and was a Korean War veteran.

Further work can be done documenting the personal histories of the residents and former residents, as well as further archaeology.

Because of such preservation projects, we are able to see and experience marginalized history and archaeology that allows us to see past the curtains of racism and erasure into the great expanse of American experience not contained in the mainstream narrative.

More information:

https://www.preservationmass.org/single-post/2018/08/08/a-dedication-the-fitch-hoose-house

Article on the 2015 Renovation of the Hoose house by Dalton Historical Commission:

https://www.iberkshires.com/story/48946/Dalton-Historical-Commission-Prepares-for-Hoose-House-Dig.html


nohham r. cachat-schilling

Lucy Foster represents a chapter in the untold and unrecorded history of Black Slavery and post-Slavery struggles in Massachusetts. Lucy's life straddles the emancipation of African-Americans in Massachusetts, speaks to perpetuated servitude and systemically-structured poverty, de-landing of free African-Americans, and neglect of African-American history. Lived out in Andover, Massachusetts, Lucy's home provides an early example of historical archaeology and archaeology of African-Americans.

First investigated by Adelaide and Ripley Bullen in 1943, the place inappropriately known and cited as "Black Lucy's Garden" was extensively reinvestigated and described by Vernon Baker in the 122-page work, "Historical Archaeology at Black Lucy's Garden: Ceramics from the Site of a Nineteenth Century Afro-American." The reference to Lucy Foster needs to be corrected to show respect and to remove the racist tag, since we at no time describe others as "White So-and-So."

You can read the full report here:

https://archive.org/details/historicalarchae08vern/mode/2up

Other than inappropriate labeling, the report is thorough and revealing. One element missing from the investigation that could be richly informative about cultural continuity would be an inventory of dietary plant remains on site. Insight into what grew in Lucy's garden could give us knowledge of possible traditions in herbs and food stuffs, connecting in some cases perhaps to Africa and/or African-American community tradition.

It is not known whether Lucy was born in Africa or America. What is known is that Lucy was born in 1757, living 88 years, the last 30 of those years in her own home - at last. July 14, 1771 provides a baptismal record showing Lucy, described as a child, and Sarah, her own child, described as “given to Job” Foster, an upper-class farmer in Andover. The father of the child is never named, but the case is suspicious as Lucy would have been just 13 years of age at the time. Given her status as “a slave of Boston given to Job Foster,” it is unlikely that Lucy had unsupervised access to the outside world. In the pattern of those times, this alarming scenario is ignored both then, and in the 20th century report.

It appears that Lucy continued as a servant within the Foster home after emancipation of slaves in Massachusetts in 1780. Of course, there would be little option for a freed African-American woman without education, money, or significant contacts in the outside world. After the decease of Job Foster, Lucy remained with Foster’s widow, Hannah. It must be called out here that Foster imprisoned Lucy those many years within slavery and may have raped her as a child, while Lucy’s own child was never acknowledged by a father nor recognized in an estate.

Hannah Foster received 1/3 of her spouse’s unmovable possessions, including that portion of the house, while Lucy continued to reside and apparently serve Mrs. Foster there. Upon Hannah Foster’s decease, Lucy received an acre of land, a cow, 150 dollars in personal money, and sundries as bequeath. With the sum received and help from some others in the nearby community, Lucy built herself a home where she lived free another 30 years until her own passing. It is not clear how Lucy managed to support herself except that her possessions indicate she may have accomplihed a large degree of self-sufficiency. She was nonetheless in need at least some of the time.

Despite finally being free and landed, Lucy’s status remained impoverished, as indicated by records from the local church regarding assistance given to Lucy. It is not known is Lucy was able to emply herself. This pattern of low economic opportunity, locational marginality, and persistent poverty repeats at many historic places of individuals and enclave communities of Freemen African-Americans. There are some cases that illustrate in more detail why that is so, such as the Saxon Woods, New York case, which will be posted here soon.

What Lucy’s home does show, according to Vernon, is a continuity with an apparent African-American tradition of the 12-foot home, and commonality in diet and lifestyle with many Euroamerican overseers and poor folks. Vernon suggests that similarities between Black and White poor folks in the late Slavery and post-Slavery periods reflect economic status and exigencies more than cultural tradition. Vernon also suggests that Lucy’s lifestyle does reflect patterns seen in African-American communities. We will have a look at that in regard to the Parting Ways community soon.

Nohham R. Cachat-Schilling

Euroamericans have repeatedly imposed fictional, shallow images of Indigenous Americans on this land. Early Colonials painted Indigenous people as recent arrivals, a trope used as a lever to rebuke our rights to the land. Fictional early dates for arrival of Indigenous people in this hemipshere persist and correction of that myth continues to meet resistance from a mostly non-Indigenous body of archaeologists.

The ready possibility of coastal migration and settlement through ice-free passges of the North Pacific archipelagos has been ignored or talked-down for decades. Increasingly, evidence supports coastal migration earlier than the Bering land bridge as archaeology. Very early dates in South America, Mexico, and British Columbia have long stood predating 12,000 years.

Undersea archaeology is a nascent discipline that promises to unlock the potentially many pre-Beringia Indigenous places of early habitation, now submerged under seas that have risen continually since the last glaciation.

One case that shatters the early habitation date records for North America is Bluefish Caves in the Yukon. These are atypical caves in that they are more like grottoes. Here, Quebecois archaeologist Jacques Cinq-Mars found extinct wooly mammoth and paleo horse bones that showed human butchering marks, along with butchering tools. Radio carbon dates of 24, 000 years ago returned, but the archaeological profession reacted by being personally abusive of Cinq-Mars, publicly bullying him and his research, suppressing funding, and finally choking off their research. Cinq-Mars' career was sacrificed for the sake of a change in dogma, but they persisted in pushing the facts in evidence.

“When Jacques proposed [that Bluefish Caves was] 24,000, it was not accepted,” says William Josie, director of natural resources at the Vuntut Gwitch'in First Nation in Old Crow. Many traditional narratives of Indigenous nations suggest that our presence is much older, or that we came into being right here.

But this is not the only case of finds predating accepted early dates for Indigenous America. Meadowcroft Cave in Pennsylania places Indigneous people thousands of miles from the Bering Sea 2,000 years before we supposedly arrived. Monte Verde similarly places Indigenous people deep into Chile thousands of years before most sources continue to say we arrived. This sort of resistance to evidence, instead of flowing with the evidence in a positive way and correcting as needed, manifests the basic racism ingrained in Euroamerican archaeology, where a continual credit in doubt is afforded - lavished really - upon origins European and Middle Eastern cultures, while doubt is always deducted pre-emptively against Indigenous cultural evidence.

Get the peer-reviewed professional facts about this amazing Bluefish Caves legacy at PlosOne here:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0169486

Smithsonian article about the ugly history of an amazing discovery and oppression of its story:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/jacques-cinq-mars-bluefish-caves-scientific-progress-180962410/

Racial disparity in Massachusetts historical preservation is staggering. Visit Massachusetts historical locations preserved by the Commonwealth and its partners, and you will find a rich collection of lands, houses, churches, cemeteries and more that describe Colonial history in detail. You will find little about 12,000 years or more of Indigenous history. Interpretation of Indigenous legacy at state sites is even worse: there is little to no effort to provide any detail other than the most generalized tropes on Native Americas. Indigenous sites are being erased for development year after year and pace of destruction is accelerating. While there are still significant archaeological and historical sites left, it’s time to plan preservation for a representative collection of Indigenous sites.

Westchester County Parks and New York State Parks included a number of Indigenous archaeological and historical sites within just one county. While providing recreation and other activity, preservation has been accommodated in cases like Pound Ridge Reservation, Croton Point Park and Senasqua, Muscoot Park, Indian Hill and Danner Family Preserve, and others. Many of these places co-preserve Indigenous archaeological and historical sites alongside Colonial historical sites. It's not what it could or should be, as remnants of an extensive and largely untold legacy. Indigenous people have no voice in the process.

Since 1993, Connecticut has encoded regulations that led to a preservation plan that became the Connecticut State Archaeological Preserve Program. Today, that system comprises 37 state archaeological preserves, but sadly, only about 5 center on Indigenous archaeology even though there are 12,000-plus years of Indigenous archaeology and only about 400 years of Colonial history.
Still, the state archaeological preserve program serves as a first step toward equalizing historical and archaeological preservation. The next step is to assure that system is proportionally representative of the actual history.

Connecticut General Statute Sec. 10-384 establishes a preliminary procedure for the designation of state archaeological preserves. While this statute directs a state Indigenous committee to be notified in the case of evidence for Indigenous presence on a site in question that is considered historically significant, it does so only by accident and not by design. Section 10-385 provides regulations for the establishment and management of archaeological preserves and Section 10-386 restricts all activity to permission from the State Archaeologist through the Department of Economic and Community Development. There is however, no provision that any Indigenous organization or entity be notified of possible disturbances, except at the discretion of the State Archaeologist.

These preserves come backed with penalties for damage to archaeological sites. While this is encouraging, there remains the issue of not systematic prioritizing of sites. Intelligent preservation requires us to assess where our sites are, when they are from, to form a method of ranking their importance, and a method of determining which sites most need preservation.

There are some cases of collateral site preservation, like Native sites in the Blue Hills Reservation west of Boston. There is not, however, an assessment of sites across periods paired with an assessment of their importance to Massachusetts history and archaeology, or a system for their inclusion in acquired lands for conservation.

Preserved Indigenous archaeological sites like Snake Mound, in Ohio, Cahokia in Illinois, other Hopewell, Anasazi, Mississippian sites receive masses of visitors and stand as some of the best-known sources of direct experience with Native American history. Sites that were once destroyed can now be interpreted and understood in ways that are less destructive. Sensing technology will soon allow us to view archaeological sites underground, image them for public view, and interpret them through living Indigenous voices, inclusive and authentic, without damaging anything. We can design development and construction methods that accommodate both present needs and pan-generational heritage.

It’s a matter of what we choose and how much we respect the seven coming generations.

More details on the Connecticut Archaeological Preserves Program, see Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of Connecticut, Numer 80, 2018 Special Thematic Issue.

Black History and Archaeology in My Small Town

Calvin T. Swan was born a free person of African-American origin in 1779 and lived as a carpenter and sawmill operator until his passing in 1875. Swan and their family lived and worked in present-day Northfield, building some of the homes included in the town’s historic district. The family’s resting place with a family monument stands in the town cemetery. Swan’s home sits just below the high ridge on Brushy Mountain, a place of Indigenous spiritual importance. Two stone foundations (one 24’ x 28’ and the other 10’ x 30’), referred to as cellar holes, remain on the site, alongside the spring that served as the family’s well and continues to flow today. Swan apprenticed through Calvin Stearns, known regionally as part of the Stearns Brothers builders. Along with Samuel Dyke, Swan built today’s Montague Grange Hall, formerly a church.

An active abolitionist, Swan served as a member of the Greenfield abolitionist group and as secretary for the Mountain Chapter of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. The Swan family children ostensibly attended the No. 6 School, the remains of which are located quite near the home. Swan was also active in the local Methodist Church and a trustee.

The community where Swan lived is notably separate and at some distance from town center, where the main population of Northfield lived. Brushy Mountain and environs supported a small mountain community separated by distance and woodlots from the farming plots of the main town. Locational marginality is a feature of enclaves and homes of period African-American freemen.
MEAS supports comprehensive ethnohistorical narrative of African-American Massachusetts and the its archaeological heritage.

Nohham R. Cachat-Schilling

Colonial narratives and historical documents identify at least 27 Indigenous peoples in Massachusetts, represented each by their own leaders as agents for their land. Today, there are at least 17 entities petitioning for recognition as Indigenous nations in Massachusetts. Not all claims are the same, but we also don't have a transparent, democratic or socially just system for recognizing Indigenous nations. The system for recognition at federal and state levels are designed and formed by outsiders, the Colonial powers. Because the right to have a voice on the disposition of Indigenous heritage sites relies on recognition, this is a critical central issue in Massachusetts archaeology.

So, what happens when an archaeological site is found on land that is not part of a recognized tribe's homeland? Who speaks for the land is pre-empted by the politics of recognition. In Massachusetts, one tribe obtained federal recognition under the Clinton Administration, only to be "rescinded" by the next. Another tribe was "rescinded" at the onset of 2020, leaving just one "federal tribe" and one "state tribe" in Massachusetts.

Restoration of "rescinded" tribes is a central priority if we are to approach racial justice in Massachusetts. since there are historically many nations across Massachusetts whose descendants are unrepresented, we need a system that acknowledges unrepresented Indigeneity and form an inclusive and equal method for talking about heritage sites. As it stands at the federal level, recognition is a closed and opaque process where a small panel of political appointees decides on the sovereignty of nations. We hope for a day when policy on archaeology will arise from a public, democratic and inclusive process of discussion and negotiation.

The following list has not been updated, and it is not an attempt to assess claims.

Unrepresented Nations and Unrecognized Nations of the Northeast

UN Council on Unrepresented Nations, Nations without State or Federal Recognition, with dates of letters of intent to petition to Office of Federal Recognition, BIA.
Massachusetts
• Assonet Band of Wampanoags[48]
• Chappaquiddic Band of Massachusetts[48] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/31/2007.[4]
• Chappquiddick Tribe of the Wampanog Indian Nation[48] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/21/2007.[4]
• Chaubunagungamaug Band of the Nipmuck Nation, Webster/Dudley. Letter of Intent to Petition 04/22/1980 as part of Nipmuc Nation; separate letter of intent 5/31/1996; proposed finding was in progress.[3][6] Declined to acknowledge on 6/25/2004, 69 FR 35664; Reconsideration request before BIA (not yet effective)[4][48]
• Council of Seven/Royal House of Pokanoket/Pokanoket Tribe/Wampanoag Nation[49]
• Cowasuck Band-Abenaki People, also known as Cowasuck Band of Pennacook Abenaki People.[8][21] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/23/1995.[3][4][48]
• Federation of old Plimoth Indian Tribes, Inc.[48] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/16/2000.[4] Receipt of Petition 05/16/2000.[5]
• Historical Nipmuc Tribe[48][50]
• Narragansett Tribe of Indians[6][7][8][48]
• Nashawe Nipmuk of Massachusetts and Quebec[48]
• Natick Nipmuc Indian Council[48]
• New England Coastal Schaghticoke Indian Association and Tribal Council[8]
• Pocasset Wampanoag Indian Tribe.[8][48] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/01/1995[3][4]
• Pokanoket Tribe of the Wampanoag Nation.[4] Also in Rhode Island.
• Ponkapoag Tribal Council[48]
• Quinsigamond Band of the Nipmucs[8]
• Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe[48]
• United American Indians of New England[8][48]
• Mattakeeset Tribe of the Massachuset Nation[51]
Connecticut
• Algonquian Confederacy of the Quinnipiac Tribal Council[31]
• Grasmere Band of Wangunk Indians of Glastonbury, Connecticut (formerly the Pequot Mohegan Tribe, Inc.). Letter of Intent to Petition 4/12/1999.[4]
• The Mohegan Tribe & Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/06/1992.[3][4][8]
• Native American Mohegans, Inc. Letter of Intent to Petition 9/19/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 9/19/2002.[10]
• The Nehantic Tribe and Nation.[31] Letter of Intent to Petition 9/5/1997.[3][4][8]
• New England Coastal Schaghticoke Indian Association[31]
• Nipmuc Indian Bands[6][8]
• Paugussett Tribal Nation of Waterbury, Connecticut. Letter of Intent to Petiton 7/3/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 7/3/2002.[10]
• Poquonnock Pequot Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 7/7/1999.[4]
• The Southern Pequot Tribe (a.k.a. The Southern Pequot Tribal Nation of Waterford). Letter of Intent to Petition 7/7/1998.[3][4]
• The Western Pequot Tribal Nation of New Haven. Letter of Intent to Petition 11/27/2000.[4]
Maine
• Maliseet Tribe[7]
• Wesget Sipu Inc. Letter of Intent to Petition 6/4/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 6/4/2002.[10]
New Hampshire
• Abenaki Indian Center, Inc.[8]
• Abenaki Nation of New Hampshire[6][7][8]
• Pennacook New Hampshire Tribe[8]
Rhode Island
• Aquidneck Indian Council[8]
• Pokanoket Tribe of the Wampanoag Nation.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 10/05/1994 for Federal Recognition.[4] State recognition attempted for the tribe with the introduction of State of Rhode Island House Bill 2006--H 7236, but the bill was never passed.[74] Also in Massachusetts.
• Pokanoket-Wampanoag Federation: Wampanoag Nation/Pokanoket Tribe and Bands. Letter of intent to petition 1/5/1998.[4]
• Rhode Island Indian Council[8]
• Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/29/1998.[4]
• Wappinger Tribal Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 7/7/2003.[4]
• Wiquapaug Eastern Pequot Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 09/15/2000.[4] Receipt of Petition 09/15/2000.[5]
Vermont
• Koasek Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation.[4][15][16][21][35][86] (formerly Northern New England-Coos Band, Independent Clans of the Coos United, Cowasuck of North America and Cowasuck-Horicon Traditional Band; a.k.a. Cowasuck Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation

The City of Northampton and Mass Dept. of Transportation still plan to proceed with demolition of a unique "once in a lifetime" ancient Native heritage site - for a traffic circle. Declared unique and recommended for National Registry of Historic Places status by the archaeologist who first investigated, yet another Nayyag heritage treasure is to be destroyed. Nayyag is an area dense with Indigenous heritage, but this is being erased year after year. Just a year ago, another ancient site, about 8,000 years old, was demolished for another traffic circle.

The archaeologist for this site states in their report in regard to the two main loci of retrieval: "both loci were likely occupied during the Early Archaic. A total of 566 pre-colonial Native American artifacts were recovered, as well as 209 historical-period artifacts. The Early Archaic site is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places . . . ." The problem is, that same person then signs off on a process that ignores recommendations and almost always ends up in erasure of the site. While outsiders may be content with data, descendants of those who lived there need a place where they can visit their heritage. Colonial heritage is preserved across the state with physical places to visit, held intact, paid for with taxpayer monies, and to which projects are deferred. Many towns protect their Colonial spaces with "historic district" designation that attaches many restrictions and prioritizes preservation. The same cannot be said for Indigenous places of heritage.

There is no overall plan to assess and prioritize Native sites for preservation. Meanwhile, the state and municipalities have together preserved most Colonial historic sites. Massachusetts equal preservation says that there must not be discrimination based on race, yet there is a completely opposing situation
regarding historic and archaeological preservation that runs strictly along racial lines.

Because Western Massachusetts in undergoing intensive growth and development, Native sites are being destroyed one after another all up and down the river and along the main tributaries. None of the destroyed sites contain interpretative signage, nor is there public interpretation of any detail available to
educators, nor does Massachusetts protect these sites.

As it stands, a person of Norwottuck descent would wander the city of Northampton finding almost no mention of their people and no physical trace of their legacy. They would find almost nothing on the internet to learn about their past. They would have no representation and no rights as Norwottuck to their legacy. They would have no voice in the disposition of their sites and artifacts. And with the serial demolition of sites in recent history, they would be hard-pressed to find a heritage site that is unviolated and open to them to visit and even offer a bit of tobacco for the Ancestors.

Sadly, Massachusetts has not preserved any sites along the Valley so far that we can document. The only sites that have been preserved have been by private efforts and private funds. There are a few cases where towns chose to preserve a particular Native site, including sacred sites.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ancient Context of Nayyag and Its Archaeology:

Some 12,000 years ago, the last glaciation of Northeast America came to an end. Mishemachepog, the
"great badwater lake" had filled the Kwenitekwuk (Kwenitekw - Long River +uk, CT Valley) since before
memory. For the next several thousand years, Kwenitekwuk was tundra-like, moving toward seasonally dry
savannah. During this time, the People hunted megafauna, which quickly evolved to the caribou, moose
and beaver of today.

There are a surprising number of ancient Native villages along the Kwenitekw dating back 10,000 -12,000
years. The lower Hudson, some of the near-shore islands, and this valley are the focus of the earliest
people we know in our region. Most of these sites have been badly compromised and none of them are
protected by the state. Today, their disappearance has greatly accelerated.

From 10,000 years ago to 8,000 years ago, this land underwent and uneven but rapid transition from
savannah to early pine forest. This is the time during which the People began to diversify greatly in their
tools and ways of living. The Northeast has a rich local diversification of its People. Many Native people
seem to have relied mostly on caribou that migrated twice yearly through their lands, beaver, and fish. We
know this from the few food remains found.

Ancient Native clans kept close to river valleys where they could rely on the passage of caribou herds in
season, while accessing wetlands for beaver and fish at other times. Most very ancient sites are found in
such places where there is a nearby vantage to observe movements of both game and people along the river.

Also necessary is a freshwater spring, since the presence of beaver contaminates surface water with a
devastating parasite. This same template occurs at most other known ancient sites in Massachusetts and
nearby states, like Amiskwunoag (South Deerfield), Agawam, Wampanucket, Bull Run, etc.

There is a distinct preference in all periods from this point to the Contact period for Native peoples of this
region to locate villages and camps at bends in rivers, usually on the lee side of the current (opposite the cut bank). During caribou-hunting times, grazing is better on the bank where silt deposits. Later, the same
deposition areas became preferred planting lands. Landing misoolesh/mishoonash, dug out canoes, is easier on the lee side of the current, and a bend always provides an associated eddy, so better landings are here also. Being near an eddy makes it safe to bathe and swim, a good place to fish, and so on.

Nayyag holds the complete set of typical features found at Paleo-to-Archaic sites across near-coastal
Northeast. Nayyag also holds the set of features typical of early, middle, and late Woodland periods. So, it
should be no surprise to find out that the site in question is surrounded by an abundance of known
archaeological sites from all periods, as well as those many sites not yet known. There are habitation,
burial, and seasonal "elaithatink" ("hunting-stay-place-at") sites that have already been investigated all
within a day's walk of this site.

There is also a spiritual motivation for siting living space at bends in the flow of water; there is medicine,
energy, in places where the flow of water changes. For all these and other reasons, the same areas tend to
be layered with archaeology through the ages. Places where ancestors stayed also carry powerful medicine.

Nayyag is typical of both ancient and recent Native village sites. Non-Natives often misinterpret recent
sites of concentrated housing as a "village" and all else as camps and outlying "wilderness". Really, the
village extends to all the camps and areas of interaction that lie between one spread of wikwamak and
another. Nayyag associates with Norwottuck and means "Point Land" for the two bends in the river.
Nayyag has several excellent fishing sites for migratory fish. Just south is a place on the east side called
Willimantic - weli+ aman+ ik = good fish place (Wullamanik, and versions of that appear nearby on
Quaboag and other fishing places). Like the South Deerfield site (now under a propane company), this site
has a good overlook, a high bank on which to escape floods and bugs, abundant surrounding natural
wetlands (for beaver, and later, also for waterfowl, eggs, stillwater fish, as well as many plant food staples and home materials - like cattails for food and mats).

In the USA, a tiny panel of political appointees decides who gets federal recognition and who is left in the dark. Hundreds of historically important Indigenous nations are not recognized and hundreds more have been erased as "rescinded." The United Nations recognizes the plight of unrepresented nations around the world. Here is a list of claims for recognition that have not been fulfilled. There has not yet been an transparent, inclusive and just public discussion on what recognition should and could be. The USA and Massachusetts are not in compliance with UN Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Universal Human Rights.

Following is a list of groups known to self-identify as Native American tribes but that have been recognized neither by the federal government (Bureau of Indian Affairs) nor by any state nor tribal government.

Alabama
• Cherokee Nation of Alabama.[2][3] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/16/1999.[4]
• Cherokee River Indian Community.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 08/03/2000.[4] Receipt of Petition 08/03/2000.[5]
• Chickamauga Cherokee of Alabama.[2]
• Chickmaka Band of the South Cumberland Plateau.[2]
• Coweta Creek Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 2/12/2003.[4]
• Eagle Bear Band of Free Cherokees.[2][6][7][8]
• The Langley Band of the Chickamogee Cherokee Indians of the Southeastern United States, aka Langley Band of Chickamogee of Cherokee Indians.[2][3][6][7][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 04/20/1994; Postal service certified letter returned 11/5/1997.[4]
• Phoenician Cherokee II - Eagle Tribe of Sequoyah.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 09/18/2001.[4]
• Principal Creek Indian Nation East of the Mississippi.[2][3][6][7][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 11/09/1971. Declined to Acknowledge 06/10/1985 50 FR 14302; certified letter returned "not known" 10/1997.[4]
• Wolf Creek Cherokee Tribe, Inc. of Florida.[2] Also in Florida.
Alaska
• Chilkoot Kaagwaantaan Clan.[3] Letter of Intent to Petition 4/22/1997.[4]
• Five Landless Alaska Tlingit communities. These Tlingit communities were omitted from the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and received neither land nor subsistence rights under the Act.[9]
• Katalla-Chilkat Tlingit Tribe of Alaska.[3] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/02/1995; certified letter returned by P.O. 10/1997.[4]
• Knugank. Letter of Intent to Petition 1/7/1999.[4]
• Qutekcak Native Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 2/13/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 2/13/2002.[10]
• Tsimshian Tribal Council.[3][7] Letter of Intent to Petition 07/02/1978.[4]
Arizona
• American Cherokee Confederacy[2]
• Arizona Cherokee Pioneers[2]
• Barrio Pascua - a village of Yaqui on the Arizona-Mexico border region.[6][8][11]
• Chiricahua Apache Ndeh Nation, Silver City, Arizona[12]
• The United Cherokee Nation (UCN) – Western National Office.[2] Also in Georgia.
• "clans" organized in these areas, often calling themselves as "Cherokee Nation of ....": Alabama, Alaska, Alberta, Arizona (Georgia, Nevada), Arkansas, California, Colorado (New Mexico, Utah), Connecticut, Cyprus, Delaware, Florida,[13] Hawaii, Idaho (Montana), Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana (Mississippi), Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri (Kansas), Nebraska (Iowa), New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin (Illinois (Chicago and Metropolis branches), Minnesota) and Wyoming.
Arkansas
• Amonsoquath Tribe of Cherokee.[2]
• Arkansas Band of Western Cherokee (formerly Western Arkansas Cherokee Tribe).[2][3] Letter of Intent to Petition 04/07/1998.[4]
• Arkansas Cherokee (also known as Chickamauga Cherokee of Arkansas).[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/21/2008.[4]
• Arkansas Cherokee Nation.[2]
• Arkansas White River Cherokee (also in Florida).[2]
• Central Tribal Council.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/21/2003.[4] Receipt of Petition 01/21/2003.[10]
• Cherokee Nation West of Missouri and Arkansas (formerly Cherokee Nation West or Southern Band of the Eastern Cherokee Indians of Arkansas and Missouri).[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 5/11/1998.[4] Also in Missouri.
• Cherokee-Choctaw Nation of St. Francis and Black Rivers.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 08/01/2006.[4]
• Confederated Western Cherokees of Arkansas.[2]
• Lost Cherokee of Arkansas and Missouri.[2][3] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/10/1999; letter returned, marked "in dispute" between two different addresses.[4][14]
o Lost Cherokee of Arkansas and Missouri (I).[2] Faction in Conway, AR.
o Lost Cherokee of Arkansas and Missouri (II).[2] Faction in Dover, AR.
• Neches Tribe – Cherokee Nation.[2]
• Northern Cherokee Nation. Dissoved into three groups:
o Chickamauga Cherokee Nation (I),[2][8][15] also known as Chickamauga Cherokee Nation MO/AR White River Band and as White River Band of Northern Cherokee Nation of Missouri and Arkansas.[15] Also in Missouri and Oklahoma. There is also a Chickamauga Cherokee Nation White River Band (II) in Oklahoma.
o Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 2/19/1992.[6][8] Also in Missouri.
 Kanasas (Awi Akta) District of NCNOLT.[2]
 Oklahoma (Ani Tsi Na) District of the NCNOLT.[2]
• Northern Cherokee Tribe of Indians of Missouri and Arkansas.[2][6][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 07/26/1985.[4] Also in Missouri.
• Old Settler Cherokee Nation of Arkansas.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 9/17/1999.[4]
• Ozark Mountain Cherokee Tribe of Arkansas and Missouri. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/19/1999.[4] Receipt of Petition 10/19/1999.[5] Also in Missouri.
• Red Nation of the Cherokee.[2] Also in Kansas.
• Revived Ouachita Indians of Arkansas and America.[3][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 04/25/1990.[4]
• Sac River and White River Bands of the Chickamauga-Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri Inc. (formerly Northern Chickamauga Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri).[2][8][16] Letter of Intent to Petition 09/05/1991.[4] Also in Missouri.
• Western Cherokee of Arkansas and Louisiana Territories.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 10/05/2001.[4] Also in Missouri.
• Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri.[2][3] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/01/1998.[4] Also in Missouri.
California
• Alexander Valley Mishewal Wappo[8]
• Amah Mutsun Band of Ohlone/Costanoan Indians (formerly Amah Band of Ohlone/Costanoan Indians).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 09/18/1990.[3][4][6][7][17][18]
• Amonsoquath Tribe of Cherokee.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition.[3] Also in Missouri.
• Ani Yvwi Yuchi (Cherokee).[2][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 7/31/1996.[3][4]
• Antelope Valley Paiute Tribe (a.k.a. Antelope Valley Indian Community).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 07/09/1976.[3][4][6]
• Atahun Shoshones of San Juan Capistrano[6][8]
• Barbareño/Ventureño Band of Mission Indians. Letter of Intent to Petition 01/17/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 01/17/2002.[10]
• Big Meadows Lodge Tribe[6][8][19]
• Calaveras County Band of Miwuk Indians.[6][7][8][19] Letter of Intent to Petition 08/31/2001.[4]
• California Indian Council/Lulapin[8]
• Callattakapa Choctaw Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 07/13/2004.[4]
• Calusa-Seminole Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 04/28/1998.[3][4]
• Cherokee Nation Heritage Organization of California.[2][8]
• The Cherokees of California.[2]
• Chilula Tribe[8]
• The Chiricahua Tribe of California. Letter of Intent to Petition 04/24/2003.[4]
• Choctaw Allen Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/20/2003.[4]
• Choinumni Council. Letter of Intent to Petition 07/14/1988.[4] Certified letter undeliverable 10/1997[3][6][19]
• Chukchansi Yokotch Tribe of Mariposa CA.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/25/1993.[3][4][6]
• Chumash Council of Bakersfield.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 10/18/2005.[4]
• Coastal Band of Chumash.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/25/1982.[3][4][6][19]
• Coastal Gabrieleño Diegueño Band of Mission Indians.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 3/18/1997.[3][4]
• Coastanoan Band of Carmel Mission Indians.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 09/16/1988.[3][4][6]
• Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe of the Colfax Rancheria[20]
• Confederation of Aboriginal Nations[8]
• Costanoan Rumsen Carmel Tribe.[21] Letter of Intent to Petition 08/24/1994.[3][4]
• Costanoan Tribe of Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista Missions. Letter of Intent to Petition 5/11/1999; Letter of Intent withdrawn 5/10/2000.[4]
• Costoanoan Ohlone Rumsen-Mutsen Tribe.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 12/07/1994.[3][4]
• Diegueño Band of San Diego Mission Indians. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/15/2003.[4]
• The Displaced Elem Lineage Emancipated Members (a.k.a. DELEMA). Letter of Intent to Petition 05/11/1998.[3][4]
• Dumna-Wo-Wah Tribal Government (formerly Dumna Tribe of Millerton Lake). Letter of Intent to Petition 01/22/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 01/22/2002 as "Dumna Tribal Council."[10]
• Dunlap Band of Mono Indians (a.k.a. Mono Tribal Council of Dunlap).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/04/1984.[3][4][6] Letter of Intent withdrawn 7/2/2002; Letter of Intent to Petition 8/9/2005.[4]
• Eshom Valley Band of Michahai and Wuksachi. Letter of Intent to Petition 05/24/2005.[4]
• Esselen/Coastanoan Tribe of Monterey County (formerly Esselen Tribe of Monterey Council).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 11/16/1992; withdrawn 11/15/1996.[3][4]
• Fernandeño/Tataviam Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 04/24/1995.[3][4]
• Gabrieleño Band of Mission Indians of California. Letter of Intent to Petition 11/03/1998.[3][4] Recognized only as band of the Gabrieliño-Tongva Tribe.
• Gabrieliño/Tongva Indians of California Tribal Council. Letter of Intent to Petition 08/14/1997.[3][4] Recognized only as band of the Gabrieliño-Tongva Tribe.
• Gabrieliño/Tongva Nation.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/21/1994.[3][4][6][7] Recognized only as band of the Gabrieliño-Tongva Tribe.
• Gabrieliño-Tongva Tribe, also known as the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians. In 1994, the State of California recognized the Gabrieliño-Tongva Tribe in Assembly Joint Resolution 96, Resolution Chapter 146 of the Statutes of 1994; however, it has no state-recognized tribes today.[22] The tribe, however, has broken into several factions, some of whom are seeking federal recognition as separate tribes. The three largest and most prominent factions are:
o Gabrieliño-Tongva Tribe[23] (or the San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians, as it was historically referred to)
o Gabrieleño/Tongva Tribal Council of San Gabriel[24]
o Gabrieleño/Tongva Nation[25] (a.k.a. Gabrieliño/Tongva Tribe of the Los Angeles Basin).[4]
In past years, bills have been introduced in the California legislature to create a Gabrieliño-Tongva Reservation for the tribe and grant the tribe gaming rights; however, these bills failed to make it to the Governor's desk. In their most recent attempt, Senate Bill 1134 introduced on January 30, 2008 would have created the Gabrieliño/Tongva Reservation without giving the tribe gaming rights. However, when the principal author, Senator Oropeza, found out that the tribe would use the reservation for leverage to obtain gaming rights, she pulled her sponsorship of the bill.[26]
• Honey Lake Maidu. Letter of Intent to Petition 06/01/2000.[4] Receipt of Petition 06/01/2000.[5]
• Hownonquet Community Association[6][8]
• Indian Canyon Band of Coastanoan/Mutsun Indians.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 06/09/1989.[4][6]
• Independence 14 (Miranda Allotment)[20]
• Indian Cultural Organization[8]
• Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation (II). (Copycat band) Letter of Intent to Petition 3/8/1996.[3][4] Decline to Acknowledge 12/03/2007 (72 FR 67951).
• Kawaiisu Tribe of the Tejon Indian Reservation[20]
• Kern Valley Indian Community.[8][27] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/27/1979.[3][4][6]
• Konkow Valley Band of Maidu. Letter of Intent to Petition 08/20/1998.[3][4]
• Maidu Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 1/6/1977[6]
• Melochundum Band of Tolowa Indians[6][8]
• Mishkanaka (Chumash)[8]
• Miwok Tribe[8]
• Monachi Indian Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/14/2004.[4]
• Mono Lake Indian Community.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 07/09/1976.[3][4][6]
• Muwekma Ohlone Tribe (formerly Ohlone/Costanoan Muwekma Tribe a.k.a. Muwekma Indian Tribe: Costanoan/Ohlone Indian Families of the San Francisco Bay).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/09/1989.[3][6][7] Declined to Acknowledge 9/17/2002 (67 FR 58631); decision effective 12/16/2002.[4]
• Nashville Eldorado Miwok Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 11/09/2004.[4]
• Nor-Rel-Muk Nation (formerly Hayfork Band; formerly Nor-El-Muk Band of Wintu Indians).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/05/1984.[3][4][6]
• North Fork Band of Mono Indians.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 09/07/1983.[3][4][6]
• North Valley Yokut Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 09/22/2000.[4] Receipt of Petition 09/22/2000.[5]
• Northern Band of Mono-Yokuts. Letter of Intent to Petition 08/22/2006.[4]
• Northern Maidu Maidu Tribe[6][7][8]
• Northfolk Band of Mono Indians[8]
• Ohlone/Costanoan - Esselen Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 12/03/1992.[3][4][6]
• Paskenta Band of Momlaki Indians[8]
• Rancho San Timoteo Band of Serrano Indians[8]
• San Cayetano Band of Cahuilla Indians or the Montoya Band of Cahuilla Indians[8]
• Salinan Nation (a.k.a. Salinan Chumash Nation).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 10/10/1989.[3][4][6]
• Salinan Tribe of Monterey & San Luis Obispo Counties.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 11/13/1993.[3][4][6]
• San Fernando Band of Mission Indians (formerly Ish Panesh United Band of Indians; formerly Oakbrook Chumash People a.k.a. Ish Panesh Band of Mission Indians, Oakbrook Park Chumash).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/25/1995.[3][4]
• San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 10/18/1984.[3][4][6]
• Shasta Nation.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/28/1982.[3][4][6]
• She-Bel-Na Band of Mendocino Coast Pomo Indians. Letter of Intent to Petition 03/01/2006.[4]
• Sierra Foothill Wuksachi Yokuts Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 05/11/1999.[4]
• Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation (formerly American Indian Council of Mariposa County a.k.a. Yosemite).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 04/24/1982.[3][4][6][19][28]
• Tehatchapi Tribe of the Tejon Reservation[3][6][8]
• Tinoqui-Chalola Council of Kitanemuk and Yowlumne Tejon Indians.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/16/1996.[3][4]
• Tolowa Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 01/31/1983.[3][4]
• Tolowa-Tututni Tribe.[7][8] Also in Oregon.
• Toulumne Algerine Band of Yokut. Letter of Intent to Petition 01/23/2006.[4]
• Tuolumne Band of Cherokee Indians.[2]
• Traditional Choinuymni Tribe.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/29/2000.[4] Receipt of Petition 03/29/2000.[5]
• T'Si-akim Maidu. Letter of Intent to Petition 11/16/1998.[3][4]
• Tsnungwe Council (a.k.a. South Fork Hupa).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 09/22/1992.[3][4][6]
• United Hourma Nation, Inc. Letter of Intent to Petition 3/22/1994.[6][7][29]
• United Lumbee Nation of North Carolina and America. Letter of Intent to Petition 04/28/1980; Declined to Acknowledge 07/02/1985 (50 FR 18746).[3][4][6] Also in North Carolina.
• United Maidu Nation.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/06/1977.[3][4]
• Wadatkuht Band of the Northern Paiutes of the Honey Lake Valley. Letter of Intent to Petition 01/26/1995.[3][4]
• Washoe/Paiute of Antelope Valley. Letter of Intent to Petition 07/09/1976.[3][4][6]
• Winnemem Wintu Tribe[20]
• Wintoon Indians.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 10/26/1984; certified letter returned by P.O. 10/1997.[3][4][6]
• The Wintoon Tribe of Northern California, Inc.. Letter of Intent to Petition 04/27/2005.[4]
• Wintu Indians of Central Valley, California.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 10/26/1984; certified letter returned by P.O. 10/1997.[3][4][6]
• Wintu of Shasta-Toyon[8]
• Wintu Tribe of Northern California.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 08/25/1993.[3][4][6]
• Woodfords Community Council[8]
• Wukchumni Council.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/22/1988.[4] Certified letter undeliverable 10/1997.[3][6]
• Xolon Salinan Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 09/18/2001.[4]
• Yamassee Native American Association of Nations, Van Nuys California[30]
• Yokayo Tribe of Indians.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/09/1987.[4] Certified letter returned by P.O. 10/1997[3][6]
• Yosemite Mono Lake Paiute Indian Community. Letter of Intent to Petition 12/06/2005.[4]
Colorado
• Munsee Thames River Delaware. Letter of Intent to Petition 07/22/1977; declined to Acknowledge 01/03/1983 47 FR 50109.[3][4][6][7][8]
• Council for the Benefit of the Colorado Winnebagoes. Letter of Intent to Petition 01/26/1993; certified letter returned "attempted, not known" 11/5/1997.[3][4][6][8]
Connecticut
• Algonquian Confederacy of the Quinnipiac Tribal Council[31]
• Grasmere Band of Wangunk Indians of Glastonbury, Connecticut (formerly the Pequot Mohegan Tribe, Inc.). Letter of Intent to Petition 4/12/1999.[4]
• The Mohegan Tribe & Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/06/1992.[3][4][8]
• Native American Mohegans, Inc. Letter of Intent to Petition 9/19/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 9/19/2002.[10]
• The Nehantic Tribe and Nation.[31] Letter of Intent to Petition 9/5/1997.[3][4][8]
• New England Coastal Schaghticoke Indian Association[31]
• Nipmuc Indian Bands[6][8]
• Paugussett Tribal Nation of Waterbury, Connecticut. Letter of Intent to Petiton 7/3/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 7/3/2002.[10]
• Poquonnock Pequot Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 7/7/1999.[4]
• The Southern Pequot Tribe (a.k.a. The Southern Pequot Tribal Nation of Waterford). Letter of Intent to Petition 7/7/1998.[3][4]
• The Western Pequot Tribal Nation of New Haven. Letter of Intent to Petition 11/27/2000.[4]
Delaware
• Nanticoke Indian Tribe[32]
District of Columbia
• Cherokee Tuscarora Nation of Turtle Island[2]
Florida
• Apalachicola Band of Creek Indians.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 08/17/2004[4][33]
• Arkansas White River Cherokee (a.k.a. Chickamauga Cherokee Nation - White River Band (I)).[2][16] Letter of Intent to Petition 10/22/2003.[4] Despite the Arkansas name, the group is located in Florida. There is also a Chickamauga Cherokee Nation - White River Band (II) and (III) in Oklahoma.
• Binay Tribe[13]
• Chickamauga Cherokee Indian Creek Band[2][13]
• Choctaws of Florida (a.k.a. Hunter Tsalagi-Choctaw Tribe).[2][21] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/02/2005.[4] Declined to acknowledge 2013-07-11.[34]
• Choctaw Nation of Florida.[3]
• Church of the Métis Tribe.[13]
• Creeks East of the Mississippi (a.k.a. Principal Creek Indian Nation East of the Mississippi).[3][6][7][8][33] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/21/1973 (petitioned as part of a State-recognized tribe Lower Muskogee Creek Tribe - East of the Mississippi, Inc., Georgia); declined to Acknowledge 12/21/1981 46 FR 51652, see also 47 FR 14783[4]
• Echota Cherokee Tribe of Florida[35]
• Florida Mockingbird Clan[13]
• Florida Tribe of Cherokee Indians, Inc[2]
• Florida Tribe of Eastern Creeks.[3]
• Indian Creek Band, Chickamauga Creek & Cherokee Inc.[7][33] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/19/2004.[4]
• Muscogee Nation of Florida (formerly Florida Tribe of Eastern Creek Indians).[6][7][8][36] Letter of Intent to Petition 06/02/1978;[4] awaiting Active Consideration; all documents have been filed with BAR.
o Creek-Euchee Band of Indians of Florida. Letter of Intent to Petition; Receipt of Petition 11/23/1999.[5] Letter of Intent withdrawn 10/20/2000; merged with Florida Tribe of Eastern Creek Indians[4]
• Ocali Nation[13]
• Oklewaha Band of Seminoles.[3]
• Ouachita Indians of Florida and America[13]
• Perdido Bay Tribe of Lower Muscogee Creeks[13][15]
• Rainbow Tribes[13]
• Red Nation's Intertribal[35]
• Santa Rosa County Creek Indian Tribe, Milton, Florida[37]
• Seminole Nation of Florida (a.k.a. Traditional Seminole).[33] Letter of Intent to Petition 08/05/1983; referred to SOL for determination 5/25/1990.[4]
• Sovereign Miccosukee Seminole Nation, a.k.a. Everglades Miccosukee Tribe of Seminole Indians.[21]
• Topachula Tribe[6][33][3]
• Tuscola United Cherokee Tribe of Florida, Inc. (formerly Tuscola United Cherokees of Florida & Alabama, Inc.).[2][3][7][8][15][33] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/19/1979; withdrawn at petitioner's request 11/24/1997;[4] reinstated 2005.
• Wolf Creek Cherokee Tribe, Inc. of Florida.[2][35] Also in Alabama.
Georgia
• American Cherokee Confederacy (see Southeastern Cherokee Confederacy, Inc. (SECC) below). Known Bands: Horse Band (OK).
• Broad River Band of Cherokee.[2]
• Cane Break Band of Eastern Cherokees.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/09/1979;[4] rejoined Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokees, Inc. (I), notification 7/16/1997[3][6][7][8]
• Cherokee Indians of Georgia, Inc.[2]
• Chickamauga Cherokee Band of Northwest Georgia.[2][8]
• Georgia Band of Chickasaw Indians (formerly Mississippi Band of Chickasaw Indians). Letter of Intent to Petition 9/15/1998.[4]
• Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokees, Inc.[8] (II).[2] This is an unrecognized tribe in Dahlonega, GA, that have the same name as a State-recognized tribe Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokees, Inc. (I).[3][4]
• Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokees, Inc.[8] (III).[2] This is an unrecognized tribe that have the same name as a State-recognized tribe Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokees, Inc. (I).
• Kokeneschv Natchez Nation.
• Manahoac Saponi Nation[15]
• North Georgia Cherokee Indians.
• South-Eastern Indian Nation. Incomplete Letter of Intent to Petition 01/05/1996; Incomplete Letter of Intent withdrawn at petitioner's request 11/10/1997.[3][4]
• Southeastern Cherokee Confederacy, Inc. (SECC)[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/09/1978; Declined to Acknowledge 11/25/1985 (50 FR 39047).[3][4][6][7][8] Became the American Cherokee Confederacy[2][8] on 1/31/1996, with a breakaway group Southeastern Cherokee Council, Inc. (SeCCI) forming on the same day. Bands: Northwest Cherokee Wolf Band (OR), Red Clay Intertribal Indian Band (TN).
• Southeastern Cherokee Council, Inc. (SeCCI).[2][4] Also in Michigan. Bands and Clans: Big Lake Eagle Band (AK), Black Wolf Clan (KY),[2] Blue Band (FL), Buffalo Creek Band (TN), Earth Band (PA), Enola Band (NC), Grey Wolf Clan of Ochlocknee (GA), Hummingbird Band (CA), Hummingbird Medicine Band (MO), Little Wolf Band (MI), Long Hair Band (FL), Lost Tribes Band (MI, MN), Many Waters Band (DE, MD), Mountain Band (NC), Myrtlewood Band (OR), Nighthawk Medicine Clan (FL), Northern Lights Band (MN), One Spirit Band (TN), Panther Band (GA), Patoka Valley Band (IN), Red Cedar (VA), Running Horse Band (TX), Tennessee Chota Band (TN), Turtle Band (OK), Turtle Island Band (OH), Turtle Moon Band (FL), Uwharie Band (NC), Wandering Waters Band (MI), Wee Toc Band (NC), Where Rivers Meet Band (MI), Windsong Band (DC (MD)).
• Southeastern Indian Nation.[2]
• Tama Indian Tribe[7]
• Uganawvkalvgv Kituwah Ayeli,[2] also known as Southeast Kituwah Nation.
• The United Cherokee Nation (UCN) – Eastern National Office.[2] Also in Arizona.
• The United Creeks of Georgia[15]
• The Yamassee Native American Moors of the Creek Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 4/27/1999.[4]
Hawaii
none
Idaho
• Delawares of Idaho, Inc. Letter of Intent to Petition 06/26/1979.[3][4][6][7][8]
• Lemhi-Shoshone Tribes was stripped of recognition in 1907.[7]
Illinois
• Choctaw Nation Mississippi River Clan[38]
• The People of the Mountains. Letter of Intent 6/3/2004.[4]
• Vinyard Indian Settlement of Shawnee Indians. Bill HB3217 proposed for state-recognition.[39][40]
Indiana
• Eel River Tribe Inc. of Indiana. Letter of Intent to Petition 09/13/2006.[4]
• Lone Wolf Band of Cherokee Indians.[2]
• Miami Nation of Indians of the State of Indiana, Inc.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 04/02/1980; Declined to Acknowledge 08/17/1992 57 FR 27312.[3][4][6][7]
• Northern Cherokee Tribe of Indiana.[2][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 7/26/1985[6][7]
• United Métis Tribe[15]
o Buffalo Spirit Band of the United Métis Tribe[15]
o Nimkii Band of the United Métis Tribe[15]
• Upper Kispoko Band of the Shawnee Nation.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 04/10/1991; certified letter returned undeliverable 10/30/1997.[3][4][6][7][40]
• Wea Indian Tribe. Claims re-establishment in 2000[7] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/21/2007.[4]
• Wea Indian Tribe of Indiana. Claims re-establishment in 2004[7][35] Letter of Intent to Petition 11/29/2006.[4]
• The Zibiodey / River Heart Metis Association/Band[15]
Iowa
• United People of Cherokee Heritage.[2]
Kansas
• Delaware-Muncie Tribe.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 06/19/1978.[3][4][6][7][41]
• Neutral Land Cherokee Group.[2] Also in Missouri.
• Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory.[2] Located in Arkansas and Missouri
o Kanasas (Awi Akta) District of NCNOLT.[2] – Located in Kansas
o Oklahoma (Ani Tsi Na) District of the NCNOLT.[2] – Located in Oklahoma.
• Kaweah Indian Nation, Inc.[2][7] Also in North Carolina.
• Red Nation of the Cherokee.[2] Also in Arkansas.[15]
• Swan Creek & Black River Chippewas.[6][7][8]
• United Tribe of Shawnee Indians.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 07/06/1995.[3][4][6][7][40]
• Wyandot Nation of Kansas.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/12/1994.[3][4][6][7][41]
Kentucky
• Black Wolf Clan of SE Cherokee Council, Inc.[2]
• Cherokee Tribe of Kentucky.[2]
• Kentucky Cherokee Heritage Group.[2]
• Southeastern Kentucky Shawnee[40][42]
• Southern Cherokee Nation of Kentucky.[15][21]
• Ridgetop Shawnee were first recognized by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2009[43]
Louisiana
• Apalachee Indian Tribe.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/22/1996.[3][4]
• Atakapa-Ishak Nation.[44]
• Avogel Nation of Louisiana. Letter of Intent to Petition 11/13/2000.[4]
• Avogel, Okla Tasannuk, Tribe/Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 03/19/2001.[4]
• Avoyel-Kaskaskia Tribe of Louisiana. Letter of Intent to Petition 06/20/2005.[4]
• The Avoyel-Taensa Tribe/Nation of Louisiana Inc. Letter of Intent to Petition 01/09/2003.[4] Receipt of Petition 01/09/2003.[10]
• Chahta Tribe.[44]
• Kispoko Sept of Ohio Shawnee.[7][40]
• Louisiana Choctaw Turtle Tribe.[44]
• Talimali Band, The Apalachee Indians of Louisiana (formerly Apalachee Indians of Louisiana[8]). Letter of Intent to Petition 02/05/1996.[3][4][44]
Maine
• Maliseet Tribe[7]
• Wesget Sipu Inc. Letter of Intent to Petition 6/4/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 6/4/2002.[10]
Maryland
• Accohannock Indian Tribal Association, Inc.[8][21] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/18/1995.[3][4]
• Federation: Moorish Science Temple of America, Inc. Letter of Intent to Petition 01/23/96; determined ineligible to petition 5/15/1997.[4]
• Youghiogaheny River Band Of Shawnee Indians[6][7][8][40]
• Pocomoke Indian Nation[45]
• Notoweega Nation.[46] Filed with the Maryland Indian Commission, for State recognition. Oct 13, 2017.[15]"Grass Roots Legal Concepts Intentionally Forgotten in Modern Indian Law Rulings. Do Indian law rulings spell the end of federal recognition?". Indian Country Media Network. Retrieved 2017-12-12.[47] Garrett County History of Pioneer Families, by Charles E. Hoye.
Massachusetts
• Assonet Band of Wampanoags[48]
• Chappaquiddic Band of Massachusetts[48] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/31/2007.[4]
• Chappquiddick Tribe of the Wampanog Indian Nation[48] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/21/2007.[4]
• Chaubunagungamaug Band of the Nipmuck Nation, Webster/Dudley. Letter of Intent to Petition 04/22/1980 as part of Nipmuc Nation; separate letter of intent 5/31/1996; proposed finding was in progress.[3][6] Declined to acknowledge on 6/25/2004, 69 FR 35664; Reconsideration request before IBIA (not yet effective)[4][48]
• Council of Seven/Royal House of Pokanoket/Pokanoket Tribe/Wampanoag Nation[49]
• Cowasuck Band-Abenaki People, also known as Cowasuck Band of Pennacook Abenaki People.[8][21] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/23/1995.[3][4][48]
• Federation of old Plimoth Indian Tribes, Inc.[48] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/16/2000.[4] Receipt of Petition 05/16/2000.[5]
• Historical Nipmuc Tribe[48][50]
• Narragansett Tribe of Indians[6][7][8][48]
• Nashawe Nipmuk of Massachusetts and Quebec[48]
• Natick Nipmuc Indian Council[48]
• New England Coastal Schaghticoke Indian Association and Tribal Council[8]
• Pocasset Wampanoag Indian Tribe.[8][48] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/01/1995[3][4]
• Pokanoket Tribe of the Wampanoag Nation.[4] Also in Rhode Island.
• Ponkapoag Tribal Council[48]
• Quinsigamond Band of the Nipmucs[8]
• Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe[48]
• United American Indians of New England[8][48]
• Mattakeeset Tribe of the Massachuset Nation[51]
Michigan
• Genesee Valley Indian Association[8][15]
• Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians[6][7][8][52][52] (formerly Grand River Band Ottawa Council). Letter of Intent to Petition 10/16/1994.[4]
• Lake Superior Chippewa of Marquette.[6][7][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 12/13/1991.[4]
• Little Owl Band of Central Michigan Indians. Letter of Intent to Petition 11/27/2000.[4]
• Maconce Village Band of Ojibwa. Letter of Intent to Petition 03/07/2000.[4] Receipt of Petition 3/7/2000.[5]
• Maple River Band of Ottawa. Letter of Intent to Petition 01/31/2005.[4]
• Muskegon River Band of Ottawa Indians. Letter of Intent to Petition 07/26/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 07/26/2002.[10]
• Ooragnak Indian Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 12/1/1999.[4] Receipt of Petition 12/01/1999.[5]
• Southeastern Cherokee Council, Inc. (SeCCI).[2] Also in Georgia.
• The Chi-cau-gon Band of Lake Superior Chippewa of Iron County. Letter of Intent to Petition 02/12/1998.[4]
• Wyandot of Anderdon Nation.[52][53] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/21/2003.[4] Receipt of Petition 01/21/2003.[10] Also in Ontario.
Minnesota
• Kah-Bay-Kah-Nong (a.k.a. Gabekanaang Anishinaabeg/Warroad Chippewa),[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 2/12/1979;[6][7] Postal service returned certified letter 10/30/1997.[4]
• Kettle River Band of the St. Croix Chippewa of Minnesota. Currently recognized only as part of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.[7]
• Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community.[7][8][21] Letter of Intent to Petition 4/11/1996.[4]
• Ni-Mi-Win Ojibways[6][7][8]
• Rice Lake Band of Mississippi Ojibwe. Currently recognized only as part of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.[7]
• Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa,[8][15] petitioned for independent federal recognition and independent state recognition. Currently recognized only as part of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.[6][7]
• Snake and Knife Rivers Band of the St. Croix Chippewa of Minnesota. Currently recognized only as part of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.[7]
• St. Croix Chippewa of Minnesota. Currently recognized only as part of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe.[7]
Mississippi
• Grand Village Natchez Indian Tribe[6][7][8]
• Mississippi Choctaw Indian Federation[54]
• Vancleave Live Oak Choctaw. Letter of Intent to Petition 06/14/2006.[4]
Missouri
• Ahi Ni Yv Wiya, Inc.[2]
• Amonsoquath Band of Cherokee.[2]
• Amonsoquath Tribe of Cherokee.[2][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/17/1995.[4] Also in California.
• Cherokee Nation West of Missouri & Arkansas (formerly Cherokee Nation West - Southern Band of the Eastern Cherokee Indians of Arkansas and Missouri).[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 5/11/1998.[4] Also in Arkansas.
• Chickamauga Cherokee Nation.[2]
• Dogwood Band of Free Cherokees.[2][6][7][8]
• Lost Cherokee of Arkansas & Missouri.[3] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/10/1999; letter returned, marked "in dispute" between two different addresses.[4] Also in Arkansas.[14]
• Neutral Land Cherokee Group.[2] Also in Kansas.
• Northern Cherokee Nation. Dissoved into three groups:
o Chickamauga Cherokee Nation (I),[2][8][15] also known as Chickamauga Cherokee Nation MO/AR White River Band and as White River Band of Chickamauga Cherokee Nation of Missouri and Arkansas.[15] Also in Arkansas and Oklahoma. There is also a Chickamauga Cherokee Nation White River Band (II) in Oklahoma.
o Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 2/19/1992.[6][7][8] Also in Arkansas.
 Kanasas (Awi Akta) District of NCNOLT.[2]
 Oklahoma (Ani Tsi Na) District of the NCNOLT.[2]
• Northern Cherokee Tribe of Indians of Missouri and Arkansas.[2][6][7][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 07/26/1985.[4] Also in Arkansas.
• Ozark Mountain Cherokee Tribe of Arkansas and Missouri.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 10/19/1999.[4] Receipt of Petition 10/19/1999.[5] Also in Arkansas.
• Sac River and White River Bands of the Chickamauga-Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri Inc. (formerly Northern Chickamauga Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri).[2][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 09/05/1991.[4] Also in Arkansas.
• Saponi Nation of Missouri (Mahenips Band). Letter of Intent to Petition 12/14/1999.[4] Receipt of Petition 12/14/1999.[5][55]
• Southern Cherokee Indian Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 12/01/2006.[4]
• Western Cherokee.[2][15]
• Western Cherokee of Arkansas/Louisiana Territories. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/05/2001.[4] Receipt of Petition 10/05/2001.[10] Also in Arkansas.
• Western Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri.[3] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/01/1998.[4] Also in Arkansas.
• The Wilderness Tribe of Missouri.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 8/16/1999.[4]
Montana
• Ahon-to-ays Ojibwa Band (a.k.a. Rocky Boy Ojibway Band). Incomplete letter of Intent to Petition 2/1/1996.[4]
• Swan Creek & Black River Chippewa[6][7][8]
Nevada
• Pahrump Band of Paiutes, Letter of Intent to Petition 11/9/1987.[4][6][7][8]
New Hampshire
• Abenaki Indian Center, Inc.[8]
• Abenaki Nation of New Hampshire[6][7][8]
• Pennacook New Hampshire Tribe[8]
New Jersey
• Cherokee Nation of New Jersey[2][56]
• Eagle Medicine Band of Cherokee Indians, also in Pennsylvania[56]
• New Jersey Sand Hill Band of Indians (also known as Sand Hill Band of Lenape and Cherokee Indians or Sand Hill Band of Indians).[3][15] Letter of Intent to Petition 01/09/2007.[4]
• Osprey Band of Free Cherokees[2][6][7][8][15]
• Ramapough Mountain Indians, In 1978 the Ramapough Mountain Indians (RMI) filed a petition for federal recognition as a tribe. They did not submit a documented petition until April 23, 1990. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) on June 15, 1990 responded with a letter outlining the deficiencies in the petition. During the process, it repeatedly offered to have representatives meet with the tribe to review avenues of research, specifically court records and land deeds, for the period 1750-1820 in which records are scarce. The RMI submitted a partial response on January 28, 1991. A fully revised petition was determined to be ready for active consideration on March 5, 1992. The petition was placed on active consideration status on July 14, 1992. In December 1993, the BIA issued its proposed finding, rejecting the tribe's petition. It granted the tribe an opportunity to respond, including extensions. It issued its Final Determination rejecting its petition on December 11, 1995. This survived an internal BIA appeal in 1997 and a federal court appeal in 2001.
• Unalachtigo Band of Nanticoke Lenni Lenape Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 2/1/2002.[4]
• Schèjachbi Wonameys, NJ Lenni Lenape Nation.[57]
New Mexico
• Canoncito Band of Navajos,[15] petitioned for independent federal recognition 07/31/1989.[4][6][7] Note: this is a Chapter (governing unit) of the Navajo Nation.
• Genízaro. In 2007, the Genízaros received New Mexico state legislative recognition as an indigenous group.[58] Although New Mexico's Legislative Memorial bills do not have the force of law, HM 40 and SM 59 formally acknowledge the legislative desire to recognize the Genízaros as an indigenous group.[59] Some American Indian law scholars have opined that state legislative memorials and/or resolutions create official state recognition.[60] Of the 16 states that have recognized tribes by their own authority, five have recognized tribes through the enactment of state legislative resolutions/memorials, suggesting this legislative recognition process is an appropriate means for granting formal state recognition.[61]
• Piro/Manso/Tiwa Indian Tribe of the Pueblo of San Juan de Guadalupe. Letter of Intent to Petition 01/18/1971.[4][6][7][8]
• Piro/Manso/Tiwa Tribe of Guadalupe Pueblo (a.k.a. Tiwa Indian Tribe).[7] Letter of Intent to Petition 12/17/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 12/17/2002.[10]
• Tlaxkaltekah Nation - Yankwik Mexiko. www.tlaxkaltekah.org
New York
• Cherokee-Blackfeet.[2]
• The Chickamauga Notowega Creeks. Letter of Intent to Petition 03/19/2001.[4]
• Deer Council of Free Cherokees.[2][6][7][8]
• Hudson River Band (formerly Konkapot Band, Hudson Valley Band). Letter of Intent to Petition 04/19/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 04/19/2002.[10]
• Mohawk Nation Akwesasne Mohawk Territory[8]
• Mohawk Reservation[8]
• Montauk Indian Nation (a.k.a. Montaukett Indian Nation of New York).[7] Letter of Intent to Petition 07/31/1995.[4]
• Montaukett Tribe of Long Island. Letter of Intent to Petition 03/16/1998.[4]
• North-Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.[2]
• Nuy Keetoowah, Inc.[2]
• Ohatchee Cherokee Tribe of New York and Alabama.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 12/16/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 12/16/2002.[10]
• Western Mohegan Tribe & Nation of New York.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 1/27/1997.[4][15]
North Carolina
• Cherokee Indians of Hoke County, Inc. (a.k.a. Tuscarora Hoke Co.).[2][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 09/20/1983; determined ineligible to petition (SOL opinion of 10/23/1989).[4][6]
• Cherokee Indians of Robeson and Adjoining Counties.[2][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/01/1979; determined ineligible to petition (SOL opinion of 10/23/1989).[4][6]
• Cherokee Powhattan Indian Association.[2]
• Chicora-Siouan Indian People, Letter of Intent to Petition 02/10/1993.[6] Also in South Carolina.
• Coree Indians (a.k.a. Faircloth Indians).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 08/05/1978.[4][6]
• Creek-Cherokee Indians, Pine Tree Clan.[2]
• Cumberland County Association for Indian People[8]
• Eno-Occaneechi Tribe of Indians. Letter of Intent to Petition 11/24/1997.[4]
• Free Cherokee.[2]
• Four Hole Indian Organization, Letter of Intent to Petition 12/30/1976.[6] Also in South Carolina.
• Guilford Native American Association[8]
• Hattadare Indian Nation.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/16/1979.[4][6]
• Hatteras-Tuscarora Indians.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 06/24/1978: determined ineligible to petition (SOL opinion of 10/23/1989).[4][6] Merged with Tuscarora Nation East of the Mountains, 3/22/2004.[4]
• Kaweah Indian Nation, Inc.[2][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 04/28/1980; certified letter returned by P.O. 10/1997; Declined to Acknowledge 06/10/1985 (50 FR 14302).[4][6][7] Also in Kansas.
• Indians of Person County (formerly Cherokee-Powhattan Indian Association). Letter of Intent to Petition 09/07/1984.[4][6][7][8]
• Meherrin-Chowanoke (II); this has a name similar to a state-recognized tribe (see below).
• Meherrin Indian Tribe (II). Letter of Intent to Petition 06/27/1995.[4]
There is a State-recognized tribe with the same name, Meherrin Indian Tribe (I).
• Ne'Ha-Tsunii Indian Nation[35]
• Nee Tribe (a.k.a. Nuluti Equani Ehi Tribe and Near River Dwellers).[2][62][63]
• Ridge Band of Cherkees.[2]
• The Roanoke-Hatteras Indians of Dare County.[7] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/10/2004.[4]
• Santee Tribe, White Oak Community. Letter of Intent to Petition 06/04/1979[6]
• Santee Tribe[6]
• Southeastern Cherokee Confederacy.[2]
• Southeastern Cherokee Confederacy, Silver Cloud Clan.[2]
• Summerville Indian Group.[6] Also in South Carolina.
• Tsalagi Nation Early Emigrants 1817.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 07/30/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 07/30/2002.[10]
• Tuscarora Indian Tribe (Drowning Creek Reservation).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/25/1981; determined ineligible to petition (SOL opinion of 10/23/1989).[6] Group formally dissolved and Department notified group 02/19/1997.[4]
• Tuscarora Nation of Indians of the Carolinas. Letter of Intent to Petition 12/21/2004.[4]
• Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina. Letter of Intent to Petition 11/19/1985; determined ineligible to petition (SOL opinion of 10/23/1989).[4][6][8]
• Tuscarora Nation East of the Mountains. Letter of Intent to Petition 09/08/1999.[4]
• United Lumbee Nation of North Carolina and America,[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 4/28/1980; Denied federal recognition 07/02/1985.[6] Also in California.
Not to be confused with the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, a state-recognized tribe.
North Dakota
• Christian Pembina Chippewa Indians.[6][7][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 6/26/1984.[4]
• Little Shell Band of the North Dakota Tribe (a.k.a. Little Shell Pembina Band of North America).[6][7][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 11/11/1975.[4]
Ohio
• Alleghenny Nation Indian Center (Ohio Band) (I),[6][7][8][35][41][64] also known as the Allegheny-Lenape Indian Council of Ohio. Letter of Intent to Petition 11/03/1979.[4] Supposedly had provisional State Recognition for a year, but failed to produce necessary documentation for an official State Recognition.
• Alleghenny Nation Indian Center (Ohio Band) (II). Letter of Intent to Petition 6/02/2005.[4] Possibly broke away from Alleghenny Nation Indian Center (Ohio Band) (I) located 1 mile away.
• Cherokee Delaware Indian Center.[2]
• Cherokee United Intertribal Indian Council.[2]
• Chickamauga Keetoowah Unami Band of Cherokee.[2]
• Chickamauga Keetoowah Unami Wolf Band of Cherokee Delaware Shawnee of Ohio, West Virginia & Virginia. Letter of Intent to Petition 08/28/2006.[4][40]
• Eastern Cherokee Nation, Overhill Band.[2][40]
• Etowah Cherokee Nation.[2]
• Free Cherokee, Four Direction Council.[2]
• Free Cherokee, Hokshichanklya Band.[2]
• Kispoko Sept of Ohio Shawnee (Hog Creek Reservation).[15][40][64]
• Lower Eastern Ohio Mekojay Shawnee. Letter of Intent to Petition 3/5/2001.[4][40]
• Mekoce Shawnee.[15][40][64]
• Morning Star Shawnee Nation.[15][40]
• Munsee Delaware Indian Nation—USA, formerly known incorrectly as the "Munsee-Thames River Delaware" and as "Munsee Delaware Indian Nation".[64] On June 20, 2013, Official State Recognition was granted by Governor John Kasich by authority of the State of Ohio by Gubernatorial Decree[65] and also by the Mayor of the city of Columbus, Ohio and both Ohio U.S. Senators, Members of the House of Representatives, Director of Minority Affairs, State of Ohio, USDA Reps., Directors of the Ohio Historical Society, Franklinton Historical Society and other government officials.{[66]} All commemorating and affirming the 200th anniversary of the "Friendship Treaty," also known as the Harrison-Tarhe Peace Conference (2nd Treaty of Greenville, 1814), with the tribe. The tribe is under the authority of Congress by the Greenville Treaty of 1795, the 1805 Treaty, the 1809 and 1913-14 treaties. These PRECEDE the Bureau of Indian Affairs by 13 years and have never been adjudicated and remain in force and effect.[67][68]
• North Eastern U.S. Miami Inter-Tribal Council.[6][7][8][15][64] Letter of Intent to Petition 04/09/1979.[4]
• Notoweega Nation.[46][15][64] Also known as the Ohio Woodlands Tribe.[64][69]
• The Nottoway in Ohio. Letter of Intent to Petition 07/03/2008.[4]
• Piqua Sept of Ohio Shawnee Indians.[6][7][8][15][64] Letter of Intent to Petition 04/16/1991.[4] the Piqua Shawnee Tribe - officially recognized in Alabama by the Alabama Indian Affairs Commission via the authority of the Strong-Davis Act and in Ohio by Ohio Senate Resolution 188, adopted February 26, 1991 and by the Ohio House of Representatives 119th General Assembly Resolution No. 83, adopted April 3, 1991 as presented to the Bureau of Indian Affairs Washington D.C., and in Kentucky by Governor's Proclamation dated August 13, 1991
• Saponi Nation of Ohio.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 9/25/1997.[4][40]
• Shawnee Nation, Ohio Blue Creek Band of Adams County. Letter of Intent to Petition 8/5/1998.[4][40]
• Tallige Cherokee Nation, Fire Clan.[2][41][64]
• Tutelo Nahyssan Tribal Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 7/27/2005.[4]
• Tutelo-Saponi Tribal Nation (formerly known as Pine Hill Saponi Tribal Nation). Letter of Intent to Petition 10/1/2002.[4]
• United Remnant Band of the Shawnee NationThe Ohio General Assembly held hearings and heard testimony from numerous groups.[70] This legislature passed a joint resolution in 1979-1980 recognizing the United Remnant Band as an Indian tribe descended from the historic Shawnee.[71][40][72]
Oklahoma
• Canadian River Band of the Southern Cherokee Nation.[2]
• Cataba Tribal Association[6][7][8]
• Chickamauga Cherokee Nation (I),[2][8][15] also known as Chickamauga Cherokee Nation MO/AR White River Band and as White River Band of Chickamauga Cherokee Nation of Missouri and Arkansas.[15] Also in Arkansas and Missouri. There is also a Chickamauga Cherokee Nation White River Band (II) in Oklahoma.
• Chickamauga Cherokee Nation White River Band (II).[15] There is also a Chickamauga Cherokee Nation White River Band (I) in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
• Natchez Nation of Oklahoma[16]
• Northern Cherokee Nation of the Old Louisiana Territory.[2] State-recognized in Missouri, but unrecognized in Arkansas and elsewhere.
o Kanasas (Awi Akta) District of NCNOLT.[2] – Located in Kansas
o Oklahoma (Ani Tsi Na) District of the NCNOLT.[2] – Located in Oklahoma.
• Northern Cherokee Tribe of Indians.[2]
• Northern Chickamaunga Cherokee Nation of Arkansas and Missouri.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 9/5/1991[6][7][8]
• Southeastern Cherokee Confederacy, Horse Clan.[2]
• Southern Cherokee Nation.[2][21]
• United Band of the Western Cherokee Nation.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 3/14/2003.[4]
• Yuchi Tribal Organization.[6][7][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 10/05/1990; Declined to acknowledge 3/21/2000, 64 FR 71814.[4]
• Yuchi (Euchee) Tribe of Oklahoma[8][16] located in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. It is seeking federal recognition and separation from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, which subsumed the much smaller numbers of Yuchi during Removal.
Oregon
• Celilio-Wyam Indian Community[6][7][8]
• The Cherokee Delaware Tribe of the Northwest.[2]
• Chetco Tribe[6][7][8]
• Clatsop-Nehalem Confederated Tribes[7][15]
• Confederated Tribes: Rogue, Table Rock & Associated Tribes.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 3/24/1997; properly executed Letter of Intent 6/19/1997.[4]
• Northwest Cherokee Deer Clan.[2]
• Northwest Cherokee Wolf and Paint Clan.[2]
• Northwest Cherokee Wolf Band of the Southeastern Cherokee Confederacy.[2][6][7][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/09/1978; Declined to Acknowledge 11/25/1985 50 FR 39047.[4]
• Tchinouk Indians.[6][7][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/16/1979; Declined to Acknowledge 03/17/1986, 51 FR 2437.[4]
• Tolowa-Tututni Tribe.[6][7] Also in California.[8]
Pennsylvania
• Eastern Delaware Nations.[15]
• Free Cherokee-Chickamauga.[2]
• Lena'pe Nation.[15]
• Lenape Nation (a.k.a. Eastern Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania).[8][15] Letter of Intent to Petition 05/16/2000.[4]
• Southeastern Cherokee Confederacy of Pennsylvania.[2]
• Thunder Mountain Lenapé Nation
• Tsalagi Elohi Cherokee Earth.[2]
• United Cherokee Tribe of West Virginia.[2] Also in South Carolina and West Virginia.
• White Path Society.[2]
Puerto Rico
See also: Tainos
• Concilio Taino Guatu-Ma-Cu A Boriken (Puerto Rico)[citation needed]
• Consejo General de Tainos Boricanos[citation needed]
• Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation of Boriken. (Puerto Rico).[73]
• Liga Guakia Taina ke (Our Taino Land)[citation needed]
• Maisiti Yukayeke Taino[citation needed]
• Naguake Indigenous Base Community[citation needed]
• Turabo Taino Indian Nation in Puerto Rico[citation needed]
Rhode Island
• Aquidneck Indian Council[8]
• Pokanoket Tribe of the Wampanoag Nation.[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 10/05/1994 for Federal Recognition.[4] State recognition attempted for the tribe with the introduction of State of Rhode Island House Bill 2006--H 7236, but the bill was never passed.[74] Also in Massachusetts.
• Pokanoket-Wampanoag Federation: Wampanoag Nation/Pokanoket Tribe and Bands. Letter of intent to petition 1/5/1998.[4]
• Rhode Island Indian Council[8]
• Seaconke Wampanoag Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/29/1998.[4]
• Wappinger Tribal Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 7/7/2003.[4]
• Wiquapaug Eastern Pequot Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 09/15/2000.[4] Receipt of Petition 09/15/2000.[5]
South Carolina
South Carolina recognizes some Native American entities as groups or special interest organizations, but not as tribes.[75]
Groups recognized by the state as of 2019, but not as tribes
• Chaloklowa Chickasaw Indian People.[75]
• Eastern Cherokee, Southern Iroquois & United Tribes of South Carolina, Inc.[2][75]
• Natchez Tribe of South Carolina.[75]
• Pee Dee Indian Nation of Beaver Creek.[75]
Other unrecognized tribes and groups
• American Indian Center of South Carolina.[76]
• Broad River Band of Cherokee.[2]
• Carolina Indian Heritage Association.[76]
• Cherokee Bear Clan of South Carolina.[76]
• Cherokees of South Carolina.[2]
• Chicora Indian Tribe of South Carolina (formerly Chicora-Siouan Indian People).[7][8][15][76][77][78] Letter of Intent to Petition 02/10/1993.[4] Also in North Carolina.
• The Chicora-Waccamaw Indian People. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/05/1994.[4]
• Croatan Indian Tribe of South Carolina.[76]
• Edisto Indian Organization of South Carolina (also known as Edisto Indian Tribe).[7][8][76][77][78]
• Four Hole Indian Organization, Edisto Tribal Council.[7] Letter of Intent to Petition 12/30/1976.[4] Also in North Carolina.
• Fields Indian Family – Pine Hill Indian Community.[76]
• Free Cherokee-Chickamauga[2][8]
• Horse Creek Indian Heritage Association.[76]
• Little Horse Creek American Indian Association.[76]
• Marlboro & Chesterfield Pee Dee Band (a.k.a. Upper Pee Dee Nation of South Carolina)[76][78]
• Midlands Intertribal Empowerment Group.[76]
• Paia Lower Eastern Cherokee Nation.[2]
• Pee Dee Indian Association. Letter of Intent to Petition 01/30/1995.[4]
• Pine Hill Indian Community[78]
• Santee Indian Nation.[76]
• Summerville Indian Group.[7][8] Also in North Carolina.
• Sumter Band of Cheraw Indians.[76][77][78]
• United Cherokee Tribe of West Virginia.[2] Also in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
• Waccamaw Siouan Indian Association. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/16/1992; Postal service returned certified letter 11/5/1997.[4]
Tennessee
• Central Band of Cherokee whose headquarters is in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee declined to acknowledge 2012-07-24 [34]
• Cherokee Wolf Clan whose headquarters is in Yuma, Tennessee
• Chikamaka Band whose headquarters is in Tracy City, Tennessee
• Etowah Cherokee Nation (I).[2][6][7][8] Letter of Intent to Petition 12/31/1990; certified letter returned undeliverable 10/1997.[4] The recognition of this group, which operated out of Cleveland, Tennessee, is denied by the state legislature, contesting the authority of a Proclamation of Recognition by the Governor of Tennessee of 25 May 25, 1978.[79][80]
• Remnant Yuchi Nation whose headquarters is in Kingsport, Tennessee
• Tanasi Council, whose headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee
• United Eastern Lenape Nation of Winfield, Tennessee
Texas
• American Cherokee Tribe of Texas.[2]
• Absentee Seminole Tribe of Texas,[81]
• The Arista Indian Village. Letter of Intent to Petition 05/21/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 05/21/2002.[10]
• Atakapas Ishak Nation of Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana. Letter of Intent to Petition 02/02/2007.[4]
• Cherokee Nation of Mexico, based in Dripping Springs, Texas.[82]
• Cherokee Nation of Texas, Limited.[2]
• Cherokee Nation of Texas, Tsalagiyi Nvdagi, Troup.[2]
• Chickamauga Cherokee Brushy Creek Band.[35]
• Comanche Penateka Tribe. Letter of Intent to Petition 04/03/1998.[4]
• Court of the Golden Eagle, The Oukah.[2]
• Creek Indians of Texas at Red Oak[6][7][8]
• Free Cherokee, Hummingbird Clan.[2]
• Jumano Tribe (West Texas) (formerly The People of LaJunta (Jumano/Mescalero)).[8] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/26/1997.[4]
• Nato Indian Nation (Native American Tribal Organization), Grand Prairie, Texas,[83] also in Utah
• Pamaque Clan of Coahuila y Tejas Spanish Indian Colonial Missions Inc.[15] Letter of Intent to Petition 04/23/2002;[4] Receipt of Petition 04/23/2002.[10] BAR Papers filed 2005.[3]
• Southeastern Cherokee Confederacy, Hawk Clan.[2]
• Southeastern Cherokee Confederacy, Sequoyah Clan.[2]
• Southeastern Cherokee Tribe and Associated Bands.[2]
• Sovereign Cherokee Nation Tejas[2]
• Tap Pilam: The Coahuiltecan Nation.[7][15] Letter of Intent to Petition 12/03/1997.[4]
• Texas Band of Yaqui Indians
• Texas Buffalo Bayou Band of Chickamaugan Cherokee, Southern Cherokee Nation.[2]
• Texas Gulf Coast Cherokee and Associated Bands.[2]
• Tribal Council of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas. Letter of Intent to Petition 07/06/1998.[4]
• United Chickamaugan.[35]
• United Mascogo Seminole Tribe of Texas. Letter of Intent to Petition 12/31/2002.[4] Receipt of Petition 12/31/2002.[10]
• The Yanaguana Bands of Mission Indians of Texas. Letter of Intent to Petition 10/19/2004.[4]
Utah
• Cherokee Indian Descendents Organization of the Ani-Yun-Wiya.[2]
• Colorado River Band of the Southern Cherokee Nation.[2]
• Nato Indian Nation (Native American Tribal Organization), Provo, Utah,[84][85] also in Texas
• Northeast Band of Shoshone Indians[6][7][8]
• Rocky Mountain Band of Cherokee Descendents - Magna.[2]
• White Mesa Ute Council[6][7][8][15]
Vermont
• Free Cherokee, Tribal Council.[2]
• Green Mountain Band of Cherokee.[2]
• Koasek Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki Nation.[4][15][16][21][35][86] (formerly Northern New England-Coos Band, Independent Clans of the Coos United, Cowasuck of North America and Cowasuck-Horicon Traditional Band; a.k.a. Cowasuck Traditional Band of the Sovereign Abenaki NationVirginia
• Ani-Stohini/Unami Nation.[8][15] Letter of Intent to Petition 07/08/1994.[4]
• Appalachian Cherokee Nation.[2]
• Buffalo Ridge Cherokees.[2]
• Cherokee of Virginia Birdtown.[2]
• Free Cherokees Spider Clan.[2]
• Inagel Tsalagi, Cherokee of Virginia.[2]
• Northern Tsalagi Indian Nation.[2]
• Rappahannock Indian Tribe (II). Letter of Intent to Petition 01/31/2001.[4] Shares a name with a State recognized tribe Rappahannock Indian Tribe (I).
• Southern Cherokee Confederacy, Pine Log Clan.[2]
• Turtle Band of Cherokee.[2]
• United Cherokee Indian Tribe of Virginia.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 08/03/2000.[4] Receipt of Petition 07/31/2000.[5]
• Wicocomico Indian Nation (a.k.a. Historic Wicocomico Indian Nation of Northumberland County, Virginia). Letter of Intent to Petition 09/15/2000.[4] Receipt of Petition 08/28/2000.[5][88]
• Wolf Creek Cherokee Tribe, 501(c)(3) in Henrico County, Virginia
• Wolf Creek Cherokee Indian Tribe of Virginia. Failed bill introduced to Virginia for state-recognition 1/19/2015[89]
Virgin Islands
• Opia Carib Indian Tribe in U.S Virgin Islands (St. Thomas)
Washington
• Anisahani Blue Clan.[2]
• Chinook Indian Tribe of Oregon & Washington, Inc. (a.k.a. Chinook Nation)[6][7][16] Letter of Intent to Petition 07/23/1979; Declined to acknowledge 7/12/2003, 67 FR 46204.[4] Also in Oregon.
• Duwamish Indian Tribe.[6][7][8][15][16] Letter of Intent to Petition 06/07/1977; Declined to Acknowledge 05/08/2002 (66 FR 49966).[4]
• Free Cherokees, Four Directions Council.[2]
• Kikiallus Indian Nation[16]
• Marietta Band of Nooksacks[7][16]
• Mitchell Bay Band of the San Juan Islands[6][7][8]
• Noo-Wha-Ha Band[6][7][8]
• Snohomish Tribe of Indians.[6][7][8][16] Letter of Intent to Petition 03/13/1975; Declined to Acknowledge 03/05/2004 68 FR 68942.[4]
• Snoqualmoo Tribe of Whidbey Island.[6][7][8][16] Letter of Intent to Petition 06/14/1988.[4]
• Steilacoom Tribe.[6][7][8][16] Letter of Intent to Petition 08/28/1974; Proposed Finding 02/07/2000. Declined Acknowledgment effective 6/17/2008 73 FR 14833.[4]
West Virginia
• Monican Indian Nation. Letter of Intent to Petition 8/23/2007.[4]
• United Cherokee Tribe of West Virginia.[2] Letter of Intent to Petition 12/30/2005.[4] Also in Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
• Notoweega Nation.[46][15]"Grass Roots Legal Concepts Intentionally Forgotten in Modern Indian Law Rulings. Do Indian law rulings spell the end of federal recognition?". Indian Country Media Network. Retrieved 2017-12-12.
Wisconsin
• Brothertown Indians of Wisconsin.[6][7][8][21] Letter of Intent to Petition 04/15/1980.[4] declined to acknowledge 2012-12-11[34]
• Muhheconnuck and Munsee Tribes. Letter of Intent to Petition 06/04/2003.[4]
• Southern Cherokee Confederacy, Wisconsin.[2]
Wyoming
Northwestern Shoshoni[8][15][16]
1 "Office of Federal Acknowledgment (OFA) - Indian Affairs". Bia.gov.
• Bi 500nations.com. "Petitions for Federal Recognition". Retrieved 2012-06-24.
• e LIST OF PETITIONERS BY STATE (as of April 29, 2011) (Archived [1])
• Receipt of Petitions for Federal Acknowledgment of Existence as an Indian Tribe (65 FR 76663) Archived October 9, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
• y Troy Johnson. "U.S. Federally Non-Recognized Indian Tribes".
• . "U.S. Federally Non-Recognized Tribes". Archived from the original on 2014-08-20.
• n Wild Apache. "Wild Apache Native American Portal". Archived from the original on 2012-02-10.
• n Jesse Cooday. "Alaska's Landless Tlingits and Haidas". Retrieved 2007-08-29.
• R "Receipt of Petitions for Federal Acknowledgment of Existence as an Indian Tribe (68 FR 13724)". Edocket.access.gpo.gov. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
• E H. S. Choate (1997). The Yaquis: A Celebration. Archived from the original on 2007-01-12. Retrieved 2007-08-30.
• n "Chiricahua Apache Ndeh Nation". Archived from the original on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
• n Listed as pseudo-tribe in "Are there any Indian Reservations in Florida?" Archived April 20, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
• y "Lost-cherokee.com". Lost-cherokee.com.
• L 500nations.com. "Nations, Tribes, Bands". Retrieved 2008-09-28.
• R Karen M. Strom. "A Line in the Sand: Contact Information for the Tribes of the United States and Canada". Retrieved 2007-09-10.
• R Serdar Tumgoren (December 13, 2004). "The key: Petition No. 120". Gilroy Dispatch. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
• G Rosemary Cambra (Tribal Chair); et al. "The Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area". Archived from the original on 2007-08-14. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
• n Linda A Reynolds (1996), The role of Indian tribal governments and communities in regional land management (PDF), United States Geological Survey, archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-06-24, retrieved 2007-09-04
• P "HCD.ca.gov". Retrieved 2012-04-22.
• R USA.gov. "A-Z Index of Tribal Governments, on USA.gov". Retrieved 2010-09-12.
• e "State Recognized Tribes". National Conference of State Legislatures. October 2016. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
• c "Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe - A California Indian Tribe historically known as San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians". Gabrielinotribe.org.
• G tongva.com Archived 2001-09-23 at the Wayback Machine
• y "tongvatribe.net". tongvatribe.net.
• • 01/31/08 12:00 AM PST. "Oropeza drops Gabrielino bill after casino letter surfaces". Capitolweekly.net. Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
• • May be the same as another undocumented unrecognized tribe Rio Bravo Indian Rancheria, located near Bakersfield, California
• • "Traditional use agreement signed between Yosemite National Park and American Indian Council of Mariposa County". United States National Park Service. October 17, 1997.
• • May be the same as the United Houma Nation, Inc., a tribe recognized by the State of Louisiana.
• • "Yamasi Tribal Enrollment." (retrieved 20 Nov 2010)
• • Lavin, Lucianne. Connecticut's Indigenous Peoples: What Archaeology, History, and Oral Traditions Teach Us About Their Communities and Cultures. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013: xiii. ISBN 978-0-300-18664-2.
• • Design, Chief Web. "Nanticoke Indian Association". Nanticokeindians.org.
• • Listed as "Un-Recognized Florida Tribes in Florida" in Are there any Indian Reservations in Florida? Archived 2010-04-20 at the Wayback Machine
• • "DECIDED CASES: PETITIONS RESOLVED BY DOI". US Department of Indian Affairs. February 2, 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2016.
• • "Tribes & Nations: State Recognized Tribes".
• • Listed as "State Recognized Florida Tribe" in Are there any Indian Reservations in Florida? Archived 2010-04-20 at the Wayback Machine though Florida do not have any State recognized tribes.
• • "Santa Rosa County Creek Indian Tribe plans to open Native American cultural center". pnj.com.
• • "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2015-06-06. Retrieved 2014-02-28.
• • "Bill Status of HB3217: Shawnee Indian Recognition Act". Illinois General Assembly. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
• • "Tribal Directory: Shawnee". National Congress of the American Indians. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
• • NativeData.com. "Roster of State Recognized Tribes, 2006". Retrieved 2009-05-26.
• • Mills, Carol (November 1, 2011). "Shawnee tribe wants state recognition". The Sentinel Echo.
• • "09RS HJ15". Lrc.ky.gov.
• • "Louisiana Governor's Office of Indian Affairs". indianaffairs.com. Archived from the original on 2008-10-13. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
• • "Pocomoke-indian-nation.org". Pocomoke-indian-nation.org. 2012-02-18. Archived from the original on 2012-01-04. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
• • "Notoweega Nation - Sovereign Government". Notoweeganation.org.
• • "Garrett County History of Pioneer Families, by Charles E. Hoye". Mountain Democrat (Oakland, MD). April 16, 1936.
• • Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness Archived 2009-02-11 at the Wayback Machine
• • NAGPRA, National (20 October 2003). "National NAGPRA Program". Nps.gov.
• • Historical Nipmuc Tribe Archived 2009-02-11 at the Wayback Machine
• • William Francis Galvin (2007) [First published August 1986]. "Historic & Archaeological Resources of Cape Cod & the Islands - A Framework for Preservation Decisions" (PDF). Massachusetts Historical Commission.
• • Michigan Department of Civil Rights. "Michigan Indian Directory" (PDF).
• • Wyandot Nation of Kansas Website regarding members of the reaffirmed "Wendat Confederacy"
• • Brescia, William (Bill) (1982). "Chapter 3, Treaties and the Choctaw People". Tribal Government, A New Era. Philadelphia, Mississippi: Choctaw Heritage Press. pp. 21–22.
• • "The Saponi Nation of Missouri, Mahenips Band". Saponi.us.
• • "New Jersey Tribes." 500 Nations. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
• • Delaware Treaty "Lenape Treaty"
• • House Memorial 40 (HM40), "Genizaros, In Recognition" and Senate Memorial 59 (SM59), "Genizaros, In Recognition," 2007 New Mexico State Legislature, Regular Session.
• • See New Mexico Legislature: Glossary of Legislative Terms—General Legislative and Financial Terms
• • Cohen, Felix S. Cohen's Handbook of Federal Indian Law. 2005 ed. Newark, NJ : LexisNexis, c2005. KF8205 .C6 2005, Sec. 3.02(9) at 171.
• • Alexa Koenig and Jonathan Stein, "Federalism and the State Recognition of Native American Tribes: A Survey of State-Recognized Tribes and State Recognition Processes Across the United States" Archived 2012-08-01 at the Wayback Machine, University of Santa Clara Law Review, Vol. 48 (2008) pg. 107
• • "Office of the Governor, Ohio. June 20, 2013". munseedelawareindiannation-usa.us.
• • signature book of attendees
• • 1805, 1809, 1813 Treaties, Keplers Book of Treaties)
• • "Current events page", Munsee Delaware Indian Nation-USA website
• • "Grass Roots Legal Concepts Intentionally Forgotten in Modern Indian Law Rulings. Do Indian law rulings spell the end of federal recognition?". Indian Country Media Network. Retrieved 2017-12-12.
• • "American Indians in Ohio" Archived 2005-10-30 at the Wayback Machine, Ohio Memory: An Online Scrapbook of Ohio History. The Ohio Historical Society, retrieved October 10, 2006
• • "Joint Resolution to recognize the Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band" / as adopted by the [Ohio] Senate, 113th General Assembly, Regular Session, Am. Sub. H.J.R. No. 8, 1979-1980
• • "The United States Mint has learned that neither state nor Federal authorities recognize the Shawnee Nation United Remnant Band of Ohio as an official Indian tribe. US Mint. Accessed June 21, 2015
• • USA.gov Tribal Governments "Jatibonicu Taino Tribal Nation." Retrieved 9 July 2013. Archived 6 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine
• • "2006 Rhode Island Bill Status: H 7000 - 7299" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-24. Retrieved 2012-04-22.
• • "South Carolina's Recognized Native American Indian Entities". South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs. 2019. Retrieved October 21, 2019.
• • South Carolina Commission for Minority Affairs. "SC tribes and groups" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-01-02.
• • South Carolina Indian Affairs Commission. "Members". Archived from the original on 2013-01-11.
• • South Carolina Indigenous Gallery. "Visitors Center". Archived from the original on 2007-09-02.
• • Sheffield (1998) p70-71
• • Chattanooga InterTribal Association. "TN Tribal Recognition - past example".
• • Cantú, Rubén (7 June 2017). "Guarding history: Seminole Indian tribe to celebrate anniversary". Del Rio News Herald. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
• • "cherokee nation of sequoyah in mex tx & us reservation & church". 501c3 Loopup. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
• • "Ruling bodes poorly for 'tribe'". Indianz.com. 1 February 2002. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
• • Vermonters Concerned on Native American Affairs. "Tribal Sites VT". Retrieved 2011-12-28.
• • "Wicocomico Indian Nation". Wicocomico-indian-nation.com.
• "Wolf Creek Cherokee Tribe of Virginia; General Assembly of Virginia to extend state recognition. (SJ292)". Richmond Sunlight. Retrieved 19 July 2015.