Name One American Indian Tribe in the United States: Civics Question 117

Name one tribe from the official list. Navajo works, and so do many others.

Question 117 asks you to name one American Indian tribe in the United States. USCIS accepts a long list of names: Apache, Blackfeet, Cayuga, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chippewa, Choctaw, Creek, Crow, Hopi, Huron, Inupiat, Lakota, Mohawk, Mohegan, Navajo, Oneida, Onondaga, Pueblo, Seminole, Seneca, Shawnee, Sioux, Teton and Tuscarora. Name one of them.

The Answer List Is Long

There are hundreds of federally recognized tribes in the United States, and the official answer list names many of them. Officers work from that list, so choose a name that appears on it rather than one you half remember.

The names on the list come from every part of the country. Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole are nations of the Southeast. Cayuga, Mohawk, Mohegan, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora are nations of the Northeast. Apache, Hopi, Navajo and Pueblo are of the Southwest. Blackfeet, Crow, Lakota, Sioux and Teton are of the northern plains. Inupiat is of Alaska.

Many of these nations were forced off their homelands during the 1800s, so where a tribe began and where its members live now are often two different places.

Why the Officer Asks This

American Indian nations were here before the United States existed, and they still govern their own lands today. This question puts that fact inside the test rather than leaving it out of the story of the country.

How to Remember One Tribe

Choose one name, say it out loud a few times, and let the rest of the list go. You are answering with one word.

Two ways to choose. Pick the shortest name you can pronounce cleanly, such as Hopi, Crow, Apache or Navajo. Or pick the tribe with land in or near your own state, because a name attached to a place you know is much harder to lose under pressure.

Common Ways People Get This Wrong

The most common miss is naming a people from outside the United States. Aztec, Maya and Inca are real, and all three are wrong here, because the question asks for a tribe in the United States.

The second miss is answering with something that sounds close: a state name, a city name, or a sports team. Those are not tribes, and an officer will not accept them.

What to Say on Test Day

Say “Navajo,” or the one name you practiced. Then stop.

You do not need to say where the tribe lives, how many members it has, or anything about its history. One name is the answer.