Native American population by state

[King of Kensington]

American Indian or Alaska Native alone or in combination with one or more other races

Alaska  147,196  20.32%
Oklahoma  526,408  13.19%
New Mexico  226,198  10.75%
South Dakota  90,422  10.09%
Montana  86,818  8%
North Dakota  50,119  6.51%
Arizona  399,151  5.31%
Wyoming  21,089  3.63%
Oregon  128,380  2.99%
Washington  219,642  2.82%
Hawaii  34,512  2.45%
Idaho  42,129  2.26%
Kansas  61,423  2.11%
Nevada  65,762  2.06%
Colorado  120,639  2.05%
Arkansas  59,120  1.95%
California  762,733  1.93%
North Carolina  204,106  1.91%
Minnesota  108,322  1.9%
Maine  22,920  1.69%
Nebraska  32,827  1.68%
Utah  55,633  1.68%
Wisconsin  92,283  1.58%
Michigan  147,844  1.48%
Rhode Island  14,220  1.34%
Missouri  81,120  1.31%
Louisiana  59,834  1.29%
Vermont  7,818  1.25%
Alabama  61,168  1.24%
Texas  349,927  1.18%
New York  206,533  1.07%
Connecticut  37,477  1.05%
Maryland  61,785  1.02%
Virginia   86,798  1.01%
Delaware  9,976  1.01%
Georgia  101,415  0.94%
South Carolina  48,926  0.93%
Tennessee  62,201  0.9%
Iowa  27,712  0.87%
Ohio  101,157  0.86%
Mississippi  25,283  0.85%
Illinois  101,063  0.8%
New Hampshire  11,005  0.8%
Florida  174,068  0.79%
Indiana  52,249  0.77%
Kentucky  33,033  0.74%
Pennsylvania  94,275  0.74%
West Virginia  12,682  0.72%
Massachusetts  48,528  0.7%
New Jersey  61,399  0.69%

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/native-american-population

[King of Kensington]

The Native American population exceeds 5% of the population in seven states: Alaska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Arizona.

[TDAS04]

Hawaii's ranking is surprisingly high. 

[Mexican Wolf]

I was quizzing my friend about these stats the other day when we were talking about Don Young, Lisa Murkowski, and Dan Sullivan backing Haaland's confirmation.

I agree with TDAS04 that's surprising how high Hawai'i's Native percentage is. I remember reading in Vine Deloria Jr.'s book Indians of the Pacific Northwest that a lot of Native Hawaiians moved to the PNW in the 1940s through the 1970s to work in Native- and non-Native run fisheries; I wonder if any similar movements happened in reverse that could help explain Hawai'i's higher Native population.

A strong sense of solidarity between Native Hawaiians, Native Americans, and Alaska Natives on common issues probably also factors into it somewhat.

[King of Kensington]

Yes, Hawaii is surprising.

[jimrtex]

Hawaii's ranking is surprisingly high. 

It appears that an extraordinarily high share claim mixed race.

In 2010:

W+AIAN 6398
W+AIAN+AS+NHOPI 4184
AIAN alone 2823
W+AIAN+AS 2450
W+AIAN+NHOPI 1299
W+B+AIAN 1057
AIAN+NHOPI 915
AIAN+AS+NHOPI 845
AS+AIAN 789
B+AIAN 723

Some possible explanations:

Multiracial is more prestigious in Hawaii, so some whites remember their Cherokee princess g...g-mother.

Some conflate NHOPI and AIAN as indigenous people (Native Americans)

In the coterminous US we may think of AIAN as Indian, where in Alaska it may be more thought of Alaska Native, and there is more interchange between Alaska and Hawaii than Kansas and Hawaii.

[Sol]

Jimrtex is probably right--IMO there's a decent chance that a lot of the people claiming Native American ancestry in Hawai'i are Native Hawai'ians. That's probably the bulk of the numbers IMO, with the rest being people who migrated from the mainland for various economic reasons (including a lot of white people who claim descent from Pocahontas or whatever), plus Native people from the mainland stationed at bases and suchlike. IF you subtract the native hawai'ians I suspect the native percentage would be more in line with our expectations.

[ultraviolet]

Forgot Illinois:  101,063  0.80%

[King of Kensington]

Thank you, added.

[jimrtex]

Jimrtex is probably right--IMO there's a decent chance that a lot of the people claiming Native American ancestry in Hawai'i are Native Hawai'ians. That's probably the bulk of the numbers IMO, with the rest being people who migrated from the mainland for various economic reasons (including a lot of white people who claim descent from Pocahontas or whatever), plus Native people from the mainland stationed at bases and suchlike. IF you subtract the native hawai'ians I suspect the native percentage would be more in line with our expectations.

I also checked the census reported tribes. The largest tribe in Hawaii was Cherokee, with relatively large numbers of Creek, Choctaw, etc. This suggests military personnel from the South serving in Hawaii, or settling in Hawaii after their service. Hawaii relatively speaking has a large military population. If you were at Fort Bragg or Fort Benning and were being shifted to Hawaii, your girl friend might suggest that you should get married.

[Badger]

Googling Native American population in Hawaii - - sorry, I'm having trouble copying the link off my phone - - shows a 2019 US Census Bureau figure of just over 3,700 people. That is closer to 0.2% than two and a fraction. Possibly a typo in the list the o p copied?

[jimrtex]

Googling Native American population in Hawaii - - sorry, I'm having trouble copying the link off my phone - - shows a 2019 US Census Bureau figure of just over 3,700 people. That is closer to 0.2% than two and a fraction. Possibly a typo in the list the o p copied?

The Census Bureau permits persons to list up to 6 racial categories:

White, Black, Asian, American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN), Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (NHOPI), or Other.

The census reports the totals for the 63 (non-empty) combinations.

States where there is a large AIAN population (NM, SD, AZ, AK, MT, NV, NC, OK, WI, MN) will have a majority of those who report AIAN as AIAN alone.

States where there is a small AIAN population (NH, HI, and OH) have large numbers who report AIAN in combination.

For example OH,

22,816 alone
47,675 White+AIAN
12,047 Black+AIAN

Your source would show 22,816 AIAN. Another source might show 82,538 AIAN.

Those 47,675 who report White+AIAN, might be whites with a family tradition of Indian ancestry. Or they might have a Cree father and White mother who somehow ended up in Youngstown.