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Tribe
Also written: tribe, tribal, tribes
capitalization-ruleself-id-requiredspecific-over-genericsovereignty
At a glance
Source-by-source
“Whenever possible, use a specific name (e.g., Cherokee and Inuit). If you are not aware of the preferred name, whenever possible, ask. … Capitalize the proper names of tribes, nationalities, and peoples …”
SumOfUs's 2016 guidance leads with specificity: use the proper nation/community name (Cherokee, Inuit) rather than a generic descriptor, and ask if you don't know. Capitalize proper names of tribes, nationalities, and peoples. The guide predates the wider shift to capitalizing 'Tribe' itself as a respect convention.
“Refer to the nations we serve as Native nations. Use Tribal nations or Tribes in special circumstances, if necessary.”
NGC prefers 'Native nations' as the default collective term; 'Tribal nations' or 'Tribes' are reserved for special circumstances. When 'Tribe' or 'Tribal' is used, it is always capitalized — regardless of whether it appears in a proper noun. NGC names this as an intentional respect convention rooted in Indigenous-style practice.
“Whenever possible, use the specific name referring to the relevant Tribe or Band. … When referring collectively to more than one Tribe, use the term 'Tribal Nations.' Be sure to capitalize 'Tribe' or 'Tribal' as well as 'Native' and 'Indigenous.'”
Sierra Club capitalizes Tribe and Tribal as a default respect convention, and treats the specific nation name (Dine, Cheyenne, Nooksack) as preferable to the generic 'Tribes.' For collective references, the recommended form is 'Tribal Nations.' Common use varies; Sierra Club defaults to capitalization absent a specific community preference.
“The term 'tribalism' to describe extreme group loyalty. Use 'partisanship' or 'provincialism' instead.”
Sierra Club draws a hard line against 'tribalism' as a metaphor for political polarization or in-group loyalty — the metaphor flattens Tribal nations into a stand-in for irrational factionalism. Recommends 'partisanship' or 'provincialism' as replacements.
“Native Americans are the Indigenous people of North America. The term should only be used to describe groups of two or more people who come from different tribal affiliations. If you're interviewing individuals, or reporting on individual tribes, then identify them by their preferred tribal affiliation.”
GCJT mirrors NAJA's specificity rule and extends it: 'Native American' belongs only to multi-tribal group references, and any coverage of an individual or a single tribe should name the tribe directly; headlines should use tribes' proper names. The guide explicitly cites NAJA as its source for this position.
“Reporters should identify Indigenous people by their specific tribes, nations or communities. Headlines and text should also refer to tribes by their proper names, not a catch-all phrase like 'Oklahoma Native American Tribe' or 'Native American group.'”
NAJA's editorial position is that generic 'Tribe' framing in headlines and copy is a journalistic accuracy failure, not just a courtesy issue. The accurate practice is to name the specific tribe or nation — the same standard reporters apply when covering any other place or group. NAJA does not lead with a capitalization rule; the priority is specificity.
“Use with caution. Use nation or ethnic group except for specific entities like a tribal council on a reservation or when a Native group or other group calls itself a tribe.”
DSG prefers 'nation' over 'tribe' as the default in U.S. contexts, on the reasoning that treaties between the United States and Indigenous nations established the nation-to-nation framing. 'Tribe' is reserved for entities that self-identify with it (e.g., tribal councils) or for organizational forms (federally recognized tribes) where the legal terminology is fixed.
“Avoid. Eurocentric term for ethnic conflict among people of color. Example: The conflict between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda was called tribal warfare, but the civil war in the former Yugoslavia between Serbs, Croats, and Muslims was 'ethnic cleansing.' Both are ethnic conflicts or civil wars.”
DSG draws a separate, harder line against 'tribal warfare' as a journalistic frame: it's a Eurocentric label applied to ethnic conflict involving people of color while comparable conflicts among white populations receive neutral terminology like 'civil war.' Recommended substitutes are 'ethnic conflict' or 'civil war.'
“When writing about Indigenous Peoples, use the names that they call themselves. In general, refer to an Indigenous group as a 'people' or 'nation' rather than as a 'tribe.'”
APA's 2023 guidance takes the strongest position in this set: prefer 'peoples' or 'nations' to 'tribes' as the generic descriptor, and use the names communities use for themselves whenever possible. The position aligns with DSG's preference for 'nation' but generalizes it across academic and clinical contexts.
Synthesis
Tribe is doing three different jobs in this corpus, and the guides answer three different questions about it. The first is whether to use it as the default collective term. Here the guides split. Native-led NGC and post-2020 Sierra Club prefer “Native nations” or “Tribal Nations” as the default, with “Tribe” or “Tribes” reserved for special circumstances. DSG and APA go further — both prefer “nation,” “nations,” or “peoples” outright. DSG reserves “tribe” for entities that self-identify with it (tribal councils, federally recognized tribes) or for legal terminology where the term is fixed; APA stops at the preference for “people”/“nation”/“community” without DSG’s explicit carve-out. DSG’s reasoning is treaty-grounded: the U.S. signed nation-to-nation treaties with Indigenous nations, and the nation framing carries that legal weight. SumOfUs (2016) leads with the older specificity-and-capitalization rule without prescribing nation-over-tribe; that fits its date, predating the shift the post-2020 guides reflect.
The second question is capitalization. NGC and Sierra Club are explicit and aligned: capitalize Tribe and Tribal whether or not they appear in a proper noun. NGC frames this as an intentional respect convention rooted in Indigenous-style practice — “The United States is home to 574 federally-recognized Tribes.” SumOfUs (2016) capitalizes proper names of tribes but does not yet generalize the rule to “Tribe” itself; NAJA leads with specificity rather than capitalization. The capital-T convention is a post-2020 settling, not a long-standing rule, and it travels with the broader move to capitalize Indigenous racial / ethnic / political identifiers (Native, Indigenous, Tribal) across the post-2020 guides.
The third question is the metaphorical use of “tribe” and “tribal” outside Indigenous contexts, and here the corpus is the most unified. Sierra Club bans “tribalism” as a metaphor for political polarization, recommending “partisanship” or “provincialism” instead. DSG draws a harder line against “tribal warfare,” naming it a Eurocentric label applied to ethnic conflict among people of color while comparable conflicts among white populations are described as “civil war” or “ethnic cleansing.” APA’s guidance generalizes the point. Across all three, “tribal” as a metaphor for irrationality, factionalism, or atavistic violence flattens Tribal nations into a stand-in for whatever the writer wants to disparage.
The practical consensus across these threads: lead with specificity (the actual nation name), use “Tribe” capitalized when the generic is needed, prefer “nation” or “Tribal Nations” for collective references where the political content matters, and don’t borrow “tribal” as a metaphor. Casey is not in this entry because the 2013 guide does not engage these questions, which reflects its date rather than a divergence.
Audience notes
- Journalists and editors. NAJA’s specificity rule applies in headlines and lede paragraphs as much as in body copy. “Oklahoma Native American tribe” or “Native American group” is not a headline shortcut — it is, in NAJA’s framing, an accuracy failure. Name the nation. When a collective term is genuinely needed, “Tribal Nations” (Sierra Club / NGC) or “Indigenous nations” (DSG) carries the sovereignty content better than “tribes.”
- Political and policy writing. Do not borrow “tribe” or “tribal” as a metaphor for partisan polarization, group loyalty, or in-group thinking. Sierra Club’s recommended substitutes — partisanship, provincialism — and DSG’s “ethnic conflict” or “civil war” replacements are workable defaults. The metaphor is not value-neutral; it consistently lands on Indigenous nations and on conflicts involving people of color.
- Capitalization. Capitalize Tribe and Tribal in editorial copy by default, following NGC and Sierra Club, unless an internal house style has settled on a different rule. The lowercase form remains in active use in some style guides and legal contexts; consistency within a document matters more than picking one rule globally.
- Self-identification. Many federally recognized tribes use “Tribe” in their official names (the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, the Quileute Tribe). When an organization or community uses “Tribe” for itself, follow its self-naming. DSG’s exception for tribal councils and self-identified entities is the operative rule.
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