One of the most debated questions facing Native Americans today is: Who is considered Native American? This may seem unusual, but given the significant implications—Native American Tribes are specifically mentioned in the U.S. Constitution as sovereign nations, and Congress is required to negotiate treaties with them as it does with any other sovereign nation—the U.S. government has left this question somewhat vague. By recognizing only those with a certain percentage of a specific Nation's ancestry as tribal members, the government has made lineage a critical issue within the Native American community.

In the late 1960s, ancestry nearly replaced the concept of race as the main criterion for census purposes, which could have greatly reduced racial tensions in America. This shift would have also revealed to Native Americans that their population was nearly thirty million—a remarkable voting bloc. However, due to strict blood quantum requirements, the U.S. government recognizes very few Native Americans. For example, someone who is one-quarter Irish, one-quarter Mohawk, one-quarter Ibo, and one-quarter Lakota—but raised entirely as Pueblo—is not recognized as Native American.

Additionally, the U.S. government has only recently acknowledged some tribes. For instance, even though Tucson was founded around the Yaqui village of Pasqua, it wasn't until 1973 that Congress officially recognized the Yaqui as Native Americans.