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Native American Tribes Regex Table

Shirlyn Dong

2026-03-16

Source: vignettes/native-tribes.qmd

Introduction

This vignette demonstrates how to extract references to Native American tribes using a regex lookup table. This approach is similar to the core regextable::extract() workflow but uses a specialized lookup table of tribe names and name variants.

Install and load the package:

Regex Table of Native American Tribes

The following table contains tribe names and regex patterns used for matching. Each row represents a tribe and includes possible spelling variations or alternate names used in text.

This lookup table includes: - Name - Strings - Source - Website - Notes - Type - Emphasis

tribes_regex <- read.csv("/Users/shirl/Downloads/Native_American_Tribes_Regex_Table.csv", stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
kable(head(tribes_regex))
Name Strings Source Website Notes Type Emphasis
Ahahui o Hawaii (at William S. Richardson School of Law) Ahahui o Hawaii Comments for Hawaii Rulemaking http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ahahui/about-ahahui-o-hawaii.htm Center within University Law
American Indian Business Association (University of New Mexico) American Indian Business Association https://www.ncai.org/tribal-directory/tribal-organizations https://aiba.unm.edu/?fbclid=IwAR3d-ys6QaMLfpf_HzVWHUuvDA1FGswcUX9Oh8ZiAizYwn_eNSusQsoOwOY Center within University Business
American Indian Policy Institute (Arizona State University) American Indian Policy Institute https://nativeamericatoday.com/political-organizations-and-advocacy-groups/ https://aipi.asu.edu/ Center within University Governance/Advocacy
Center for Indian Law and Policy (Seattle University) center for indian law and policy Unmatched Commenters List https://law.seattleu.edu/centers-and-institutes/center-for-indian-law-and-policy/ Center within University Law
Center for Indigenous Research, Science, and Technology (Kansas University) Center for Indigenous Research Googling other organization https://ipsr.ku.edu/cfirst/ Center within University Research

Extracting Tribe Names from Directory

To demonstrate extraction, this vignette collects tribe names from the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Tribal Directory. The directory provides publicly available information about federally recognized tribes.

max_page <- read_html("https://www.ncai.org/tribal-directory") %>%
  html_elements(".Pagination_numberButton__vLhpm") %>%
  html_text() %>%
  as.numeric() %>%
  max(na.rm = TRUE)

all_pages <- paste0("https://www.ncai.org/tribal-directory/page/", 1:max_page)

tribes_df <- map_df(all_pages, function(url) {
  
  message("Scraping: ", url)
  html <- read_html(url)
  cards <- html %>% html_elements("article.TribeCard_tribeCard__UJcdx")
  
  map_df(cards, function(card) {
    tibble(
      Region = card %>% html_element(".TribeCard_regionLabel___OVFL") 
                    %>% html_text(trim = TRUE) 
                    %>% str_remove(" Region"),
      Tribe = card %>% html_element("h2") %>% html_text(trim = TRUE),
      Leader = card %>% html_element("section:nth-of-type(1) p:nth-of-type(1)") 
                    %>% html_text(trim = TRUE),
      Tel = card %>% html_element(xpath = ".//p[strong[contains(., 'Tel:')]]") 
                 %>% html_text(trim = TRUE) 
                 %>% str_remove("Tel: "),
      Fax = card %>% html_element(xpath = ".//p[strong[contains(., 'Fax:')]]") 
                 %>% html_text(trim = TRUE) 
                 %>% str_remove("Fax: "),
      Address = card %>% html_element("section:nth-of-type(2)") %>% html_text2(),
      Recognition = card %>% html_element(".TribeCard_federal__bQB0g") 
                         %>% html_text(trim = TRUE),
      District = card %>% html_element(".TribeCard_generic__MLwRU") 
                      %>% html_text(trim = TRUE)
                      %>% str_remove("Congressional District ")
    )
  })
})

kable(head(tribes_df))
Region Tribe Leader Tel Fax Address Recognition District
Southern Plains Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma John Raymond Johnson (Governor) (405) 275-4030 (405) 273-7938 2025 S. Gordon Cooper Drive Shawnee, OK 74801-9005 |Federally Recognize |OK-05
Alaska Agdaagux Tribe of King Cove Etta Kuzakin (President) (907) 497-2648 (907) 497-2803 PO Box 249 King Cove, AK 99612-0249 |Federally Recognize |AK-01
Pacific Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Reid D. Milanovich (Chairman) (760) 699-6800 (760) 699-6919 5401 Dinah Shore Dr Palm Springs, CA 92264-5970 |Federally Recognize |CA-45
Western Ak-Chin Indian Community Robert Miguel (Chairman) (520) 568-1000 (520) 568-1001 42507 W Peters and Nall Road Maricopa, AZ 85138-394 |Federally Recognize |AZ-07
Alaska Akiachak Native Community (IRA) Phillip Peters, Sr. (President) (907) 825-4626 (907) 825-4029 PO Box 70 Akiachak, AK 99551-0070 |Federally Recognize |AK-01

Extracting Tribe Names from Directory

This example demonstrates how to use regextable::extract() to extract Native American Tribe names in the Tribal Directory data (tribes_df). The extract() function searches the Tribe column using the regex patterns in the Strings column of tribes_regex. When a match is found, the function returns the original tribe name along with metadata from the regex table, such as the source reference.

tribe_directory_df <- extract(
    data = tribes_df,
    regex_table = tribes_regex,
    col_name = "Tribe",
    pattern_col = "Strings",
    data_return_cols = "Tribe",
    regex_return_cols = "Source"
)

kable(head(tribe_directory_df))
row_id Tribe Source pattern match
1 Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma Federal Register (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/12/2023-00504/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of) Shawnee Tribe Shawnee Tribe
1 Absentee-Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Cherokee_Heritage_Project Nee Tribe &#124; Nuluti Equani Ehi &#124; Near River Dwellers nee Tribe
2 Agdaagux Tribe of King Cove Federal Register (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/12/2023-00504/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of) Agdaagux Agdaagux
3 Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Federal Register (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/12/2023-00504/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of) Agua Caliente Agua Caliente
5 Akiachak Native Community (IRA) Federal Register (https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/01/12/2023-00504/indian-entities-recognized-by-and-eligible-to-receive-services-from-the-united-states-bureau-of) Akiachak Akiachak