Identity issues are complex for all Americans, but they are exponentially more complicated for American Indians due to a host of factors, including: tribal enrollment; federal treaties; federal recognition of tribes, rancherias, pueblos, and Alaska Native villages; federal programs that apply only to Indians; and shifting, convoluted cultural attitudes among both Indians and non-Indians, to name just a few.

There is no easy way to accurately count Indigenous people of all stripes. But as the history of the U.S. census shows, it’s certainly not as simple as asking people to choose for themselves and then marking down those who respond “I’m Indian.”

Which is what the Washington Post did for its poll.

Do all Native peoples in the United States take umbrage at the term redskins? It’s actually more complicated than a simple Yes or No.

Like any other ethnic group, Native peoples are not monolithic. Indigenous Americans comprise hundreds of different ethnic groups, bound together by little more than a shared history of colonialism and racism. There’s incredibly wide variance in things like language and religion. So Indian people from different parts of the country have far less in common with each other than do, say, African Americans or Jews from different parts of America.