In 2018, a research project investigating national public opinion about how non-Natives perceive Native peoples (Reclaiming Native Truth, First Nations Development Institute & Echo Hawk Consulting, 2018) revealed that most people believe that the Native population is declining, and most do not think about Native people much, if at all. Reclaiming Native Truth proved what most Native people have experienced: Native people are misrepresented if they are even mentioned, and are invisible in American society.

In theory the erasure of Native Americans would seem to be difficult, if not impossible. Today in 2019, more than 550 federally recognized and nearly 100 state-recognized American Indian tribes exist in the United States, with at least another 400 tribes that do not benefit from state or federal recognition but still exist as intact cultural groups. More than five million people in the United States identify as being American Indian and/or Alaska Native as of the last U.S. Census.