November is National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month, celebrating the peoples who were the original explorers and settlers of the United States.  According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the nation's population of American Indians and Alaska Natives totaled 5.1 million.  There are 565 federally-recognized Indian tribes and 324 federally-recognized reservations.  Twenty-two percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives live on federal American Indian reservations, off-reservation trust lands, state American Indian reservations, or tribal designated statistical areas.  (Learn more about American Indians and Alaska Natives.)

Our list celebrates these First Nations - in literature, on film and through song.  While acknowledging the past, this list recognizes the present and challenges stereotypical images of American Indian life.