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Native Americans in the United States - Quiz
Contributed by: Howes
  • 1. What are Native Americans also known as?
A) First Nations and Inuit only
B) Aleut and Métis only
C) Indians, American Indians, First Americans, and Indigenous Americans
D) Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders
  • 2. Which geographic regions do Native Americans primarily belong to according to the text?
A) The lower 48 states and Alaska
B) Central and South America exclusively
C) Canada and Greenland
D) Hawaii and Puerto Rico
  • 3. How does the United States Census Bureau define 'American Indians and Alaska Natives'?
A) Anyone born in North America prior to 1492
B) Anyone having origins in original peoples of North and South America who maintains tribal affiliation
C) All residents of United States Indian reservations
D) Only individuals registered with the Bureau of Indian Affairs
  • 4. Why does the U.S. Census Bureau not enumerate 'Native Americans' as a single category?
A) Because Native Americans are not considered US citizens
B) Because the term is legally prohibited by the federal government
C) Because Native Americans refused to participate in the census
D) The term can encompass a broader set of groups like Native Hawaiians, which are tabulated separately
  • 5. What caused a precipitous decline in the Native American population after European colonization began in 1492?
A) Volcanic eruptions and severe natural famines
B) Voluntary mass emigration back to Asia
C) Complete assimilation into European societies
D) Wars, ethnic cleansing, enslavement, and newly introduced diseases
  • 6. What did European settlers wage against Native American peoples as part of settler colonialism?
A) Shared governance and mutual legal pacts
B) War, massacres, removal from ancestral lands, and one-sided treaties
C) Peaceful trade agreements and cultural exchanges
D) Joint ventures for land development
  • 7. What policy did European and U.S. policies focus on into the 20th century?
A) Immediate granting of full statehood
B) Economic reparations and land returns
C) Total tribal sovereignty and independence
D) Forced assimilation
  • 8. How were Native American tribes considered when the United States was established?
A) Semi-independent nations
B) Foreign empires with no legal standing
C) Provinces governed directly by the British Crown
D) Fully integrated states of the Union
  • 9. Which act ended the recognition of independent Native nations and started treating them as 'domestic dependent nations'?
A) The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871
B) The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
C) The Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968
D) The Indian Removal Act of 1830
  • 10. What rights were preserved by the Indian Appropriations Act of 1871?
A) A large degree of tribal sovereignty, rights, and privileges
B) The right to wage war against foreign nations
C) Complete exemption from all federal laws
D) Exclusive ownership of the entire United States
  • 11. Which act granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans born in the US who had not yet obtained it?
A) The Civil Rights Act of 1968
B) The Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975
C) The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871
D) The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
  • 12. What category established by the United States Constitution was emptied by the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924?
A) Stateless persons
B) Non-resident aliens
C) Untaxed foreign entities
D) Indians not taxed
  • 13. What did the Indian Civil Rights Act comprise of?
A) The entire U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights
B) Titles II through VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968
C) Amendments added during the New Deal era
D) Executive orders signed by President Franklin Roosevelt
  • 14. Approximately how many Native Americans live in the U.S. today, and what percentage live outside reservations?
A) Two million, with 20% living outside reservations
B) One million, with 50% living outside reservations
C) Ten million, with all living on reservations
D) Over five million, with about 80% living outside reservations
  • 15. As of 2020, which states have the highest percentage of Native Americans?
A) Alaska, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas
B) Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island
C) New York, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan
D) Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming
  • 16. When did the history of Native Americans in the United States begin?
A) Tens of thousands of years ago with the settlement of the Americas by Paleo-Indians
B) In 1776 with the establishment of the United States
C) In 1830 with the passing of the Indian Removal Act
D) In 1492 with the arrival of Christopher Columbus
  • 17. What was Beringia?
A) An ancient city built by Mound Builders
B) A maritime route across the Atlantic Ocean
C) A land bridge between Siberia and Alaska
D) A mountain range separating North and South America
  • 18. When does archaeological evidence suggest Eurasian migrations to the Americas via Beringia began?
A) In the year 1000 BCE
B) During the 19th century
C) As early as 25,000 years ago
D) Around 500 years ago
  • 19. What were some major Paleo-Indian cultures identified through unique spear points and large-game hunting?
A) Watson Brake and Poverty Point
B) Anasazi and Hohokam traditions
C) Clovis and Folsom traditions
D) Hopewell and Mississippian traditions
  • 20. What cultural period arose around 8000 BCE as the climate stabilized?
A) The Woodland period
B) The Archaic stage
C) The colonial period
D) The Mississippian culture
  • 21. Who created large earthworks such as Watson Brake and Poverty Point?
A) The Mound Builders
B) European settlers
C) The Paleo-Indians
D) The Clovis people
  • 22. What tradition connected the Eastern Woodlands to the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico during the Woodland period?
A) The Hopewell tradition
B) The Oasisamerica tradition
C) The Beringia tradition
D) The Folsom tradition
  • 23. What large urban center with a population exceeding 20,000 by 1250 CE emerged from the Mississippian culture?
A) Watson Brake
B) Poverty Point
C) Cahokia
D) Wounded Knee
  • 24. Into how many cultural areas do ethnographers classify the Indigenous peoples of North America?
A) Three cultural areas
B) Fifty cultural areas
C) Ten cultural areas
D) Twenty cultural areas
  • 25. How was land typically held by Indigenous cultures at the time of first contact, in contrast to Europeans?
A) By the monarch or king
B) By corporate business entities
C) As private individual property
D) Communally
  • 26. What term describes the centuries of population, cultural, and agricultural transfer between Old and New World societies starting in the late 15th century?
A) Manifest Destiny
B) The Great Migration
C) The Columbian exchange
D) The Industrial Revolution
  • 27. How did most Native groups preserve their histories before European contact?
A) By means of oral traditions and artwork
B) Through extensive written encyclopedias
C) Via digital media and stone tablets
D) Using printed books and newspapers
  • 28. Which European disease was especially devastating to Native Americans due to a lack of immunity?
A) Chickenpox
B) The common cold
C) Malaria
D) Smallpox
  • 29. By how much did populations in some regions fall in the first century after European contact?
A) 10 percent or less
B) 90 percent or more
C) Populations actually increased
D) Exactly 50 percent
  • 30. What were pre-Columbian population estimates for the area of the modern U.S.?
A) From 100,000 to 500,000
B) Exactly 1 million
C) From 50 to 100 million
D) From 2 to over 18 million
  • 31. To approximately what number had Native populations collapsed by the end of the 18th century?
A) Zero
B) Over 15 million
C) Around 10 million
D) Around 600,000
  • 32. Who advocated a 'civilizing' policy to assimilate Native Americans as U.S. citizens after the establishment of the United States?
A) Thomas Jefferson and Tecumseh
B) Christopher Columbus and James Buchanan
C) George Washington and Henry Knox
D) Horatio Greenough and Andrew Jackson
  • 33. What 19th-century ideology drove westward expansion and increased pressure on Native lands?
A) Feudalism
B) Manifest destiny
C) Isolationism
D) The Enlightenment
  • 34. Which act authorized mass relocations west of the Mississippi River, resulting in ethnic cleansing and forced marches like the Trail of Tears?
A) The Civil Rights Act of 1968
B) The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871
C) The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
D) The Indian Removal Act of 1830
  • 35. Where did a justification for conquest and subjugation of Native Americans stem from?
A) Treaties signed by independent Native nations
B) Scientific studies conducted by Paleo-Indians
C) Tribal oral histories and artwork
D) Dehumanizing stereotypes like those in the United States Declaration of Independence
  • 36. What phrase was used to describe Native Americans in the United States Declaration of Independence?
A) Merciless Indian savages
B) First American citizens
C) Sovereign equal partners
D) Peaceful domestic nations
  • 37. Who wrote that the sculpture The Rescue (1837) was 'to convey the idea of the triumph of the whites over the savage tribes'?
A) James Buchanan
B) Horatio Greenough
C) Henry Knox
D) George Washington
  • 38. Which senator proposed the sculpture The Discovery of America (1844), which depicted a triumphant Columbus and a 'female savage'?
A) George Washington
B) James Buchanan
C) Horatio Greenough
D) Henry Knox
  • 39. What conflicts constituted Native resistance against the United States?
A) The Revolutionary War
B) The American Indian Wars
C) The War of 1812
D) The Civil War
  • 40. What was one of the last major events of native resistance where up to 300 Lakota were killed during a Ghost Dance gathering?
A) The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890
B) The Trail of Tears
C) The Dakota War of 1862
D) The Great Sioux War of 1876
  • 41. Which 20th-century conflict marked a turning point in Native American visibility and involvement due to significant military service?
A) The Vietnam War
B) World War I
C) World War II
D) The Korean War
  • 42. Which act recognized tribal autonomy, leading to Native-run schools and economic initiatives in 1975?
A) The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924
B) The Indian Removal Act of 1830
C) The Indian Appropriations Act of 1871
D) The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975
  • 43. What percentage of Native Americans now live in cities?
A) Exactly 20%
B) Over 70%
C) 50%
D) Less than 10%
  • 44. What forms the basis of federal Indian law and the trust relationship for contemporary Native Americans?
A) Sovereignty and treaty rights
B) United Nations mandates
C) State property tax laws
D) Colonial European legal codes
  • 45. What term do many older Native Americans prefer according to the text?
A) First Nations or Métis
B) Aleut or Inuit
C) Indigenous or Aboriginal
D) Indian or American Indian
  • 46. What terms do younger generations of Native Americans often choose?
A) Merciless savages
B) Domestically dependent
C) Indian or American Indian
D) Indigenous or Aboriginal
  • 47. Which designations are commonly used for Indigenous peoples in Canada?
A) Aleut, Yup'ik, and Inuit
B) Apache, Cherokee, and Navajo
C) First Nations, Inuit, and Métis
D) Clovis, Folsom, and Archaic
  • 48. Which groups were traditionally not included in the term 'Native American'?
A) Hopewell and Mississippian cultures
B) Choctaw and Lakota
C) Paleo-Indians and Archaic hunter-gatherers
D) Native Hawaiians or some Alaska Natives such as Aleut, Yup'ik, or Inuit
  • 49. What cultural region is also known as Oasisamerica in the classification of North American Indigenous peoples?
A) The Southwest
B) The Great Plains
C) The Northwest Coast
D) The Arctic
  • 50. How many Indigenous people in the United States identified with Central American Indigenous groups in 2022?
A) 634,503
B) 205,954
C) 875,183
D) 47,518
  • 51. How many Indigenous people identified with the Indigenous people of Mexico in 2022?
A) 875,183
B) 1,449,888
C) 47,518
D) 634,503
  • 52. How many Indigenous people identified with Canadian First Nations in 2022?
A) 634,503
B) 875,183
C) 205,954
D) 47,518
  • 53. What approximate percentage of the 3.2 million Americans who identified as American Indian or Alaska Native alone in 2022 are of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity?
A) 45%
B) 80%
C) 11%
D) 25%
  • 54. Which is the largest self-reported tribe among groups Indigenous to the United States?
A) Choctaw
B) Cherokee
C) Apache
D) Navajo
  • 55. What was the self-reported population of the Navajo tribe according to the text?
A) 1,449,888
B) 434,910
C) 220,739
D) 295,373
  • 56. How many respondents specified an Alaska Native identity?
A) 205,954
B) 191,823
C) 47,518
D) 288,255
  • 57. How are Native Hawaiians classified by the census?
A) Alaska Native
B) Hispanic
C) American Indian
D) Pacific Islanders
  • 58. According to 2022 estimates, how many Americans reported Native Hawaiian ancestry?
A) 714,847
B) 875,183
C) 434,910
D) 634,503
  • 59. Since which census year has self-identification of race been permitted?
A) 2010
B) 1960
C) 1880
D) 2000
  • 60. In which census year was the option to select more than one race introduced?
A) 2010
B) 2000
C) 1950
D) 1960
  • 61. What was the Native American population count in the 1930 census?
A) 366,500
B) 362,500
C) 274,000
D) 377,273
  • 62. What was the Native American population count in the 1940 census?
A) 366,500
B) 551,669
C) 377,273
D) 362,500
  • 63. In what year did the Native American population begin to rebound sharply?
A) 1950
B) 1930
C) 1960
D) 1940
  • 64. What was the Native American population in 1950?
A) 366,500
B) 377,273
C) 827,268
D) 551,669
  • 65. What was the Native American population in 1960?
A) 362,500
B) 827,268
C) 377,273
D) 551,669
  • 66. What was the Native American population in 1970?
A) 377,273
B) 827,268
C) 551,669
D) 346,000
  • 67. How many times the national average was the annual growth rate of the Native American population by 1970?
A) Five times
B) Three times
C) Four times
D) Twice
  • 68. In what year did total spending on Native Americans return to $38 million?
A) 1933
B) 1929
C) 1950
D) 1940
  • 69. What was the self-reported population of the Choctaw tribe?
A) 220,739
B) 295,373
C) 191,823
D) 288,255
  • 70. What was the self-reported population of the Blackfeet tribe?
A) 288,255
B) 220,739
C) 191,823
D) 295,373
  • 71. What was the self-reported population of the Sioux tribe?
A) 288,255
B) 295,373
C) 220,739
D) 191,823
  • 72. What was the self-reported population of the Apache tribe?
A) 220,739
B) 295,373
C) 288,255
D) 191,823
  • 73. What percentage of Native Americans live outside a reservation?
A) 45%
B) 78%
C) 70%
D) 8%
  • 74. Which individuals are more likely to live on a reservation?
A) Multiracial individuals
B) Individuals of mixed ancestry
C) Urban residents
D) Mono-racial individuals
  • 75. What is the largest tribe if only non-multiracial individuals are counted?
A) Cherokee
B) Sioux
C) Choctaw
D) Navajo
  • 76. What proportion of the Navajo tribe consists of mono-racial individuals?
A) 78%
B) 70%
C) 45%
D) 86.3%
  • 77. What percentage of Native Americans lived in urban areas in 1940?
A) 70%
B) 45%
C) 28%
D) 8%
  • 78. Which Indian social service organization attempts to address urban problems in Minneapolis?
A) Bureau of Indian Affairs
B) Little Earth
C) Dawes Rolls
D) Muwekma Ohlone
  • 79. How many federally recognized tribal governments are there in the US?
A) 819
B) 286
C) 326
D) 574
  • 80. How many Indian reservations are there in the US?
A) 574
B) 819
C) 284
D) 326
  • 81. To gain federal recognition, tribes must prove continuous existence since what year?
A) 2000
B) 1970
C) 1900
D) 1940
  • 82. Which group is pursuing litigation in the federal court system to establish recognition in the San Francisco Bay Area?
A) Passamaquoddy Tribe
B) Penobscot Nation
C) Muwekma Ohlone
D) Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians
  • 83. In what year did a group of Democratic Party congressmen introduce a bill to terminate federal recognition of the Cherokee Nation?
A) 2009
B) 2007
C) 2000
D) 2017
  • 84. What roll was required for Cherokee Freedmen to be included as members of the Cherokee Nation?
A) Bureau of Vital Statistics
B) Dawes Rolls
C) Racial Integrity Act
D) Little Earth register
  • 85. Since what year had all Cherokee Freedmen and their descendants been members of the Cherokee Nation prior to the exclusion dispute?
A) 1940
B) 1866
C) 1970
D) 1900
  • 86. How many nonvoting representatives from Indian Tribes are allowed in the Maine State House Legislature?
A) 2
B) 3
C) 5
D) 4
  • 87. Until what year did Virginia have no federally recognized tribes?
A) 2007
B) 2009
C) 2017
D) 2000
  • 88. How many tribes did the state of Virginia recognize prior to having federally recognized tribes?
A) eight
B) ten
C) three
D) five
  • 89. Who served as registrar of Virginia's Bureau of Vital Statistics from 1912 to 1946?
A) Secretary of State
B) Walter Ashby Plecker
C) Dawes
D) Little Earth director
  • 90. In what year did the Senate Indian Affairs Committee endorse a bill that would grant federal recognition to tribes in Virginia?
A) 2009
B) 2017
C) 2007
D) 2000
  • 91. By what year is it estimated that nine out of ten Americans with Native American ancestry will be of mixed ancestry?
A) 2012
B) 2000
C) 2007
D) 2100
  • 92. Which of the following is an urban area with a significant Native American population mentioned in the text?
A) Minneapolis
B) Seattle
C) Miami
D) Boston
  • 93. Which tribe represented in the Maine State Legislature is named in the text?
A) Penobscot Nation
B) Navajo Nation
C) Cherokee Nation
D) Sioux Nation
  • 94. What laws subjected Native Americans to segregation in the Deep South?
A) Navigation Acts
B) Homestead Acts
C) Jim Crow Laws
D) Intolerable Acts
  • 95. What institutionalized economic, educational, and social disadvantages for Native Americans in the south?
A) Federal paternalism
B) Reservation systems
C) Tribal sovereignty
D) Jim Crow
  • 96. What was a major problem for Native Americans seeking education in the south?
A) Lack of textbooks
B) High tuition costs
C) English-only mandates
D) Segregation
  • 97. Which organization's legal strategy changed education segregation for Native Americans?
A) The NARF
B) The NAACP
C) The NIYC
D) The NCAI
  • 98. Who began assisting Native Americans in the south in the late 1950s?
A) Mel Thom
B) Dean Rusk
C) The Secretary of the Interior
D) Martin Luther King Jr.
  • 99. Which tribe in Alabama was trying to completely desegregate schools in their area in the late 1950s?
A) The remaining Creek
B) The Cherokee
C) The Navajo
D) The Sioux
  • 100. In which book does Martin Luther King Jr. write about the nation being born in genocide against the Indian?
A) Stride Toward Freedom
B) Strength to Love
C) Where Do We Go from Here
D) Why We Can't Wait
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