Baháʼí Faith and Native Americans

The relationship between Baháʼí Faith and Native Americans has a history reaching back to the lifetime of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and has multiplied its relationships across the Americas. Individuals have joined the religion and institutions have been founded to serve Native Americans and conversely have Native Americans serve on Baháʼí institutions.

By 1963, Baháʼí sources claimed that members of some 83 tribes of Native Americans had joined the religion. In North America diversification is an ever-present theme in Baháʼí history. Native Americans have been attracted to the Baháʼí Faith in increasing numbers since the 1940s; currently there are several thousand American Indian and Alaska Native Baháʼís, especially in rural Alaska and among the Navajo and Lakota peoples. There are also substantial populations of native Baháʼís among Central and South American Indians. There is an estimate of some 8,000 Guaymi Baháʼís in the area of Panama, about 10% of the population of Guaymi in Panama. An informal summary of the Wayuu (a tribe living in La Guajira Desert) community in 1971 showed about 1,000 Baháʼís. The largest population of Baháʼís in South America is in Bolivia, a country whose population is estimated to be 55%–70% indigenous and 30%–42% Mestizo, with a Baháʼí population estimated at 206,000 in 2005 according to the Association of Religion Data Archives.