Meet Our Community
Our community is comprised of American Indians residing in the Triangle area (Wake, Johnston, Durham, Orange, and Chatham counties).
Here are a few quick stats about American Indians in North Carolina from the North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs and the 2020 Census results. You can learn more about these brief overviews by visiting the links in line.
130,000 Native Americans in NC
According to the 2020 US Census, North Carolina’s American Indian population totals more than 130,032, giving the state the largest American Indian population east of the Mississippi and the eighth largest in the nation.
14,000 Years of Indian Heritage
Archaeological evidence indicates that Indians were living in the area now called North Carolina at least 12,000 years ago. Indians of what is now the Virginia and North Carolina coast were hosts to the first English-speaking explorers and settlers. Overall, Indians of North Carolina numbered in the tens of thousands, including more than 30 tribes geographically separated by three linguistic families.
78% of all American Indians live off Reservations
A majority of the American Indian and Alaska Native alone-or-in-combination population (78 percent) lived outside of American Indian and Alaska Native areas. At the same time, most counties with relatively higher proportions of American Indians and Alaska Natives tended to be in close proximity to reservations, trust lands or Oklahoma tribal statistical areas. This was especially evident in counties throughout the West and in Oklahoma.
Some of our community at the Holiday Social of 2019.
According to an updated 2020 North Carolina Census, our service area (Wake, Johnston, Durham, Orange, and Chatham counties) has more than 25,000 American Indians residing here.
While our community is made up of Native Americans from all over, we are all very supportive of each other and work hard to help individuals continue observing the various cultural and traditional practices from their home tribal communities.
If you are interested in joining our community and getting to know this great group of people, please join up or attend some of our great events throughout the year.
It is important to note that statistics may change over time, due to changes in population or other factors. We highly advise that individuals fill out their census, so that it may provide accurate and updated information for important statistics.