American Indians are those peoples who were on the North American continent before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. There were hundreds of different tribes native to both North and South America. Historically we have called these Native peoples Indians by mistake - Columbus thought he had reached the Continent of India. Today we use the term American Indian because that is the term used in the Constitution. Indian tribes call themselves by many names. They might be known by both an English name and a name in their tribal language. The Navajo call themselves Dine' which means "the People." The Tohono O'odham (People of the Desert) were known for many years by the name Papago.

The Constitution of the United States specifically refers to Indian tribes where it says that "Congress shall have the power to regulate Commerce with foreign nations, among the several states, and with the Indian tribes."

There are over five hundred and fifty American Indian tribes that have tribal governments that are recognized by the United States in a government to government relationship. There are also approximately 300 federal Indian reservations in the United States. On an Indian reservation the tribal government performs many of the same functions that State governments do. There are tribal court systems, departments of justice and police forces on most reservations.

Indian reservations are usually lands that the tribes kept when they entered into treaties with the federal government. Indian Treaties have the same recognition under federal law as do treaties with foreign governments such as France or Germany. Some Indian Reservations are land bases that are larger than some states. The Navajo Reservation is approximately 14,000,000 acres of land. The State of Massachusetts is only 5,284,480 acres. The Wind River Reservation in Wyoming is 1,888,000 acres. The State of Rhode Island is 776,960 acres. There are twelve Indian Reservations that are larger than Rhode Island and nine reservations larger than Delaware (1,316,480 acres). The Navajo Reservation, which is the largest, is larger than nine States (Maryland, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Hawaii, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island).