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[[da:Indianer]] |
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[[de:Indigene Völker Nordamerikas]] |
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[[es:Amerindio]] |
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[[ja:アメリカ大陸の先住民]][[nl:Indiaan]] |
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'''Native Americans''' ('''American Indians''', '''Amerindians''', '''Amerins''', '''Indyans''', '''Injuns''', or '''Red Indians''') are [[indigenous people]]s, who lived in the [[The Americas|Americas]] prior to the [[Europe]]an [[colonialism|colonization]]; some of these [[ethnic group]]s still exist. The name "Indians" was bestowed by [[Christopher Columbus]], who mistakenly believed that the places he found them were among the islands to the southeast of Asia known to Europeans as the Indies. (See further discussion below). |
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[[Canada | Canadians]] now generally use the term [[First Nations]] to refer to Native Americans. In [[Alaska]], because of legal use in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act ([[ANSCA]]) and because of the presence of the [[Inuit]], [[Yupik]], and [[Aleut]] peoples, the term '''Alaskan Native''' predominates. (See further discussion below.) |
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Native Americans officially make up the majority of the population in [[Bolivia]] and [[Guatemala]] and are significant in most other [[Hispanic]] American countries, with the possible exception of [[Costa Rica]], [[Cuba]], [[Dominican Republic]] and [[Uruguay]]. |
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==History== |
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The Native Americans are widely believed to have come to the Americas via the prehistoric [[Bering Land Bridge]]. However, this is not the only theory. Some archaeologists believe that the migration consisted of seafaring tribes that moved along the coast, avoiding mountainous inland terrain and highly variable terrestrial ecosystems. Other researchers have postulated an original settlement by skilled navigators from [[Oceania]], though these [[American Aborigine]] people are believed to be nearly extinct. Yet another theory claims an early crossing of the [[Atlantic Ocean]] by people originating in [[Europe]]. Many native peoples do not believe the migration theory at all. The creation stories of many tribes place the people in North America from the beginning of time. [[Mormon]] tradition holds that the native americans represent one of the lost tribes of [[Israel]]. |
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Based on [[anthropology|anthropological]] evidence, at least three distinct [[Migration (human)|migrations]] from [[Siberia]] occurred. The first wave of migration came into a land populated by the large [[mammal]]s of the late [[Pleistocene|Pleistocene epoch]], including [[mammoth]]s, [[horse]]s, [[giant sloth]]s, and [[rhinoceros|wooly rhinoceroses]]. The [[Clovis culture]] provides one example of such immigrants. Later the [[Folsom culture]] developed, based on the hunting of [[bison]]. |
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The second immigration wave comprised the [[Athabascan]] people, including the ancestors of the [[Apache]]s and [[Navajo]]s; the third wave consisted of the [[Inuit]]s, the [[Yupik]]s, and the [[Aleut]]s, who may have come by sea over the [[Bering Strait]]. The Athabascan peoples generally lived in [[Alaska]] and western [[Canada]] but some Athabascans migrated south as far as [[California]] and the [[American Southwest]], and became the ancestors of tribes now there. |
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The descendants of the third wave are so ethnically distinct from the remainder of the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas that they are not usually included in the terms "[[American Indian]]" or "[[First Nations]]". |
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In recent years, anthropological evidence of migration has been supplemented by studies based on molecular [[genetics]]. The provisional results from this field suggest that four distinct migrations from [[Asia]] occurred; and, most surprisingly, provide evidence of smaller-scale, contemporaneous human migration from [[Europe]]. This suggests that the migrant population, living in Europe at the time of the most recent [[Ice age|ice age]], adopted a life-style resembling that lived by Inuits and Yupiks in recent centuries. |
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In the [[Mississippi River | Mississippi]] valley of the [[United States]], in [[Mexico]] and [[Central America]], and in the [[Andes]] of [[South America]] Native American [[civilization]]s arose with [[farming]] cultures and [[city-state]]s. |
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See [[archeology of the Americas]]. |
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==The Arrival of Europeans== |
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The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives and cultures of the Native Americans. In the 15th to 19th centuries, their populations were decimated, by the privations of displacement, by disease, and in many cases by warfare with European groups and enslavement by them. The first Native American group encountered by Columbus, the 250,000 [[Arawaks]] of [[Haiti]], were violently enslaved. Only 500 survived by the year 1550, and the group was totally extinct before 1650. Over the next 400 years, the experiences of other Native Americans with Europeans would not always amount to genocide, but they would typically be disasterous for the Native Americans. |
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In the [[15th century]] [[Spain | Spaniard]]s and other Europeans brought [[horse]]s to the Americas. Some of these animals escaped their owners and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild. Ironically, the horse had originally evolved in the Americas, but the last American horses died out at the end of the last [[ice age]]. The re-introduction of the horse, however, had a profound impact on Native American cultures in the [[Great Plains]] of North America. This new mode of travel made it possible for some tribes to greatly expand their territories, exchange goods with neighboring tribes and to more easily capture [[game]]. |
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[[European colonization of the Americas|Europeans]] also brought diseases against which the Native Americans had no immunity. Sometimes they did this intentionally, but often it was unintentional. Common and rarely fatal ailments such as [[chicken pox]] and [[measles]] often proved fatal to Native Americans, and other more deadly diseases, such as [[smallpox]] were especially deadly to Indian populations. It is difficult to estimate the percentage of the total Native American population killed by these diseases, since waves of disease oftentimes preceded [[White]] [[scout]]s and often destroyed entire villages. Some historians have argued that more than 80% of some Indian populations may have died due to European-derived diseases. [See [[Jeffrey Amherst]]] |
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The first reported case of white men [[scalp]]ing Native Americans took place in [[New Hampshire]] colony on [[February 20]], [[1725]], though it is thought that Indians learned scalping from Americans who, at times, collected them for bounties. |
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In the [[19th century]] the [[United States]] forced Native Americans onto marginal lands in areas farther and farther west as white settlement of the young nation expanded in that direction. Numerous [[Indian Wars]] broke out between [[US]] forces and many different tribes. Authorities drafted countless treaties during this period and then later nullified them for various reasons. Well-known battles include the untypical Native American victory at the [[Battle of Little Bighorn]] in 1876, and the massacre of Native Americans at [[Wounded Knee]] in 1890. On [[January 31]], [[1876]] the United States government ordered all Native Americans to move into [[Indian reservation|reservations or reserves]]. This spelled the end of the [[Prairie Culture]] that developed around the use of the horse for hunting, travel and trading. |
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American policy toward Native Americans has been an evolving process. In the late [[nineteenth century]] reformers in efforts to [[civilization|civilize]] Indians adapted the practice of educating native children in [[Native American Boarding School|boarding school]]s. The experience in the boarding schools which existed from 1875 to 1928 was difficult for Indian children who were forbidden to speak their native languages and in numerous other ways forced to adopt white cultural practices. |
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Military defeat, cultural pressure, confinement on reservations, forced cultural assimilation, the outlawing of native languages and culture, forced sterilizations, termination policies of the 50's and 60's, and (especially) [[Indian Slavery|slavery]] have had deleterious effects on Native Americans' mental and ultimately physical [[health]]. Contemporary problems include [[poverty]], [[alcoholism]], heart disease, and [[diabetes]]: see [[New World Syndrome]]. |
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==Classification== |
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Ethnographers commonly classify the native peoples of the United States into ten geographical regions with shared cultural traits. The following list groups peoples by their region of origin, followed by the current location. See the individual article on each [[tribe]] for a history of their movements. The regions are: |
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*Alaska Native (incomplete) |
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**[[Ahtna]] |
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**[[Carrier]] |
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**[[Chilcotin]] |
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**[[Haida]] |
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**[[Holikachuk]] |
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**[[Ingalik]] |
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**[[Kolchan]] |
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**[[Koyukon]] |
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**[[Nahanni]] |
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**[[Nishka]] |
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**[[Sekani]] |
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**[[Tagish]] |
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**[[Tahltan]] |
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**[[Tanana]] |
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**[[Tanaina]] |
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**[[Tlingit]] |
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**[[Tsetsaut]] |
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**[[Tsimishian]] |
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**[[Tutchone]] |
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*Arctic |
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**[[Aleut]] |
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**[[Inuit]] |
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**[[Yupik]] |
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*West coast |
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**[[Achomawai]] California |
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**[[Atsugewi]] California |
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**[[Chukchansi]] California |
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**[[Chumash]] California |
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**[[Costanoan]] California |
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**[[Esselen]] California |
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**[[Hupa]] California |
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**[[Kato]] |
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**[[Klamath]] California, Oregon |
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**[[Kumeyaay-Digueno]] California |
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**[[Luiseno]] California |
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**[[Maidu]] California |
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**[[Me-wuk]] California |
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**[[Mission Indians]] California |
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**[[Miwok]] California |
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**[[Modoc]] Oklahoma [originally from California/Oregon] |
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**[[Mohave]] (Mojave) California |
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**[[Mono]] California |
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**[[Nomlaki]] California |
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**[[Pit River Indians]] California |
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**[[Pomo]] California |
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**[[Shasta]] California |
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**[[Tache]] California |
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**[[Tachi]] California |
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**[[Tolowa]] California |
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**[[Tongva]] California |
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**[[Wailaki]] California |
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**[[Wintun]] California |
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**[[Wiyot]] California |
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**[[Yocha Dehe]] California |
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**[[Yokut]] California |
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**[[Yuki]] |
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**[[Yurok]] California |
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*Eastern Woodlands |
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**[[Abenaki]] (Wabenaki) Vermont |
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**[[Accohannock]] Maryland |
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**[[Algonquian]] lower [[Saint Lawrence River]] |
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**[[Beothuk]] formerly [[Newfoundland]], no longer exist |
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**[[Lenape|Delaware]] Oklahoma [originally near Delaware] |
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**[[Wyandot|Huron]] north and east of [[Lake Ontario]] |
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**[[Iroquois]] New York |
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***[[Cayuga]] |
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***[[Mohawk]] |
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***[[Oneida]] |
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***[[Onondaga]] |
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***[[Seneca]] |
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***[[Tuscarora]] |
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**[[Lenape|Lenni-Lenape]] New Jersey |
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**[[Maliseet]] Maine and New Brunswick, Canada |
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**[[Mashantucket Pequots]] Connecticut |
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**[[Micmac]] Maine and [[Nova Scotia]] |
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**[[Mingo]] Pennsylvania, Ohio |
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**[[Mohican]] (Mohegan) Connecticut |
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**[[Montaukett]] New York |
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**[[Narragansett]] Rhode Island |
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**[[Nipmuc]] Massachusetts |
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**[[Paugusset]] Connecticut |
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**[[Passamaquoddy]] Maine |
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**[[Penobscot]] Maine |
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**[[Poospatuck]] New York |
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**[[Powhatan]] Virginia |
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**[[Ramapough Mountain Indians]] New Jersey |
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**[[Hopewell]] Ohio and [[Black River]] region |
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**[[Shawnee]] Ohio, Pennsylvania [most ended up in Oklahoma] |
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**[[Shinnecock]] New York |
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**[[Wampanoag]] Massachusetts |
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*Great Basin |
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**[[Cayuse]] Oregon [Confederated Tribes: (Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla) ] |
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**[[Cupeño]] |
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**[[Diegueño]] |
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**[[Paiute]] California, Nevada, Oregon [Burns-Paiute], Arizona [Kaibab] |
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**[[Shoshone]] (Shoshoni) Nevada, Wyoming, California |
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**[[Umatilla]] Oregon [Confederated Tribes: (Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla) ] |
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**[[Walla Walla]] Oregon [Confederated Tribes: (Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla) ] |
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**[[Wasco]] Oregon [Confederated Tribes: [Warm Springs (Paiute, Wasco, Walla Walla) ] |
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**[[Washoe]] Nevada, California |
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*Northwest Coast |
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**[[Chehalis]] Washington |
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**[[Chimacum]] Washington (''extinct'') |
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**[[Chinookan]] Washington, Oregon |
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**[[Coos]] Oregon |
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**[[Coquille]] Oregon |
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**[[Cowlitz]] Washington |
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**[[Drews Tribal Posse]] Wisconsin |
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**[[Duwamish]] Washington |
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**[[Hoh]] Washington |
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**[[Klallam]] Washington |
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***[[Klallam (Lower Elwha)]] |
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***[[S'Klallam (Jamestown)]] |
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***[[S'Klallam (Port Gamble)]] |
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**[[Lummi]] Washington |
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**[[Makah]] Washington |
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**[[Muckleshoot]] Washington |
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**[[Nooksack]] Washington |
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**[[Nisqually]] Washington |
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**[[Puyallup]] Washington |
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**[[Quileute]] Washington |
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**[[Quinault]] Washington |
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**[[Sauk-Suiattle]] Washington |
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**[[Shoalwater Bay Tribe]] Washington |
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**[[Siletz]] Oregon |
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**[[Siuslaw]] Oregon |
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**[[Skokomish]] Washington |
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**[[Squaxin Island Tribe]] Washington |
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**[[Spokane]] Washington |
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**[[Stillaguamish]] Washington |
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**[[Suquamish]] Washington |
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**[[Swinomish]] Washington |
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**[[Tulalip]] Washington |
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**[[Umpqua]] Oregon |
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**[[Upper Skagit]] Washington |
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*Plains - Prairies |
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**[[Alabama-Coushatta]] Texas |
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**[[Arapaho]] Wyoming, Oklahoma |
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**[[Arikara]] North Dakota |
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**[[Assiniboine]] Montana [Ft. Peck Indian Reservation: Assiniboine and Lakota (Sioux) ] |
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**[[Atsina]] |
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**[[Brule]] |
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**[[Caddo]] Oklahoma |
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**[[Cheyenne]] Montana, South Dakota; Oklahoma |
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**[[Chickasaw]] Oklahoma |
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**[[Chipewyan]] |
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**[[Comanche]] Oklahoma |
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**[[Cree]] |
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**[[Dakota]] |
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**[[Hidatsa]] North Dakota [Three Affiliated Tribes - Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara] |
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**[[Ho-Chunk]] (Winnebago) Wisconsin; Oklahoma |
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**[[Huron Potawatomi]] (Nottowaseppi) Michigan |
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**[[Illiniwek|Illinois]] (Illiniwek) Illinois |
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**[[Iowa tribe|Iowa]] (Ioway) Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma |
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**[[Kaw]] (Kansa) Oklahoma |
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**[[Kickapoo]] Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas |
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**[[Kiowa]] Oklahoma |
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**[[Lakota]] (Sioux) South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska |
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**[[Mandan]] North Dakota [Three Affiliated Tribes - Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara] |
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**[[Mascouten]] |
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**[[Menominee]] Wisconsin |
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**[[Miami]] Indiana; Oklahoma |
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**[[Oglala]] |
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**[[Omaha (tribe)|Omaha]] Nebraska |
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**[[Ojibwe]] (Chippewa, Anishaabe) Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana) |
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***[[Mississaugas]] |
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**[[Osage]] Oklahoma |
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**[[Otoe-Missouria]] Oklahoma |
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**[[Ottawa (tribe)|Ottawa]] Michigan; Oklahoma |
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**[[Pawnee]] Oklahoma |
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**[[Peoria (tribe)|Peoria]] Oklahoma |
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**[[Piegan]] |
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**[[Ponca]] Nebraska, Oklahoma |
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**[[Potawatomi]] Oklahoma, Wisconsin |
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**[[Quapaw]] Oklahoma |
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**[[Sarsi]] |
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**[[Sauk First Nation|Sauk]] (Sac and Fox) originally Great Lakes now Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa |
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**[[Siksika]] |
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**[[Sioux]] (Lakota, Dakota, Nakota) Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota) |
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**[[Teton]] |
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**[[Tonkawa]] Oklahoma |
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**[[Wichita]] Oklahoma [Affiliated Tribes - Wichita, Waco, Tawakoni, Keechi] |
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**[[Wyandot]] Ontario, Michigan |
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*Rocky Mountains |
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**[[Blackfeet]] Montana |
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**[[Chippewa Cree]] Montana |
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**[[Coeur d'Alene]] Idaho |
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**[[Colville]] Washington |
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**[[Crow Tribe|Crow]] (Absaroka or Apsáalooke) Montana, South Dakota |
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**[[Goshute]] Utah |
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**[[Gros Ventre]] Montana |
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**[[Kalispel]] Washington |
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**[[Klikitat]] Washington |
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**[[Kootenai]] Idaho |
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**[[Nez Perce]] Idaho |
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**[[Salish]] Montana, Washington [Okanagan] |
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**[[Spokane]] Washington |
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**[[Ute]] Utah, Colorado |
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**[[Yakama]] Washington |
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*Southeast |
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**[[Catawba]] South Carolina |
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**[[Cherokee]] North Carolina; Oklahoma |
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**[[Chickahominy]] Virginia |
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**[[Chitimacha]] Louisiana |
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**[[Choctaw]] Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama; Oklahoma |
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**[[Creek]] Alabama; Oklahoma |
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**[[Coushatta]] Louisiana |
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**[[Coharie]] North Carolina |
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**[[Haliwa-Saponi]] North Carolina |
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**[[Houma]] Louisiana |
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**[[Lumbee]] North Carolina |
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**[[Mattaponi]] Virginia |
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**[[Meherrin]] North Carolina |
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**[[Miccosukee]] Florida |
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**[[Monacan]] Virginia |
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**[[Nansemond]] Virginia |
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**[[Pamunkey]] Virginia |
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**[[Pee Dee]] South Carolina |
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**[[Rappahannock]] Virginia |
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**[[Seminole (tribe)|Seminole]] Florida; Oklahoma |
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**[[Timucua]] (Utina) Florida |
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**[[Topachula]] Florida |
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**[[Tunica-Biloxi]] Louisiana |
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**[[Waccamaw]] North Carolina, South Carolina |
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*Southwest |
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**[[Acoma]] |
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**[[Ak Chin]] Arizona |
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**[[Apache]] Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma |
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**[[Cahuila]] (Cahuilla) California |
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**[[Chemehuevi]] California |
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**[[Cochiti]] |
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**[[Cocopah]] Arizona |
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**[[Havasupai]] Arizona |
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**[[Hohokam]] Arizona |
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**[[Hopi]] Arizona |
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**[[Hualapai]] Arizona |
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**[[Isleta]] |
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**[[Jemez]] |
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**[[Keresan]] |
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**[[Laguna]] |
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**[[Maricopa]] |
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**[[Mohave]] |
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**[[Navajo|Navaho]] Arizona, New Mexico |
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**[[Pima]] Arizona |
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**[[Pueblo people]] New Mexico |
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**[[Qahatika]] |
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**[[Quechan]] Arizona |
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**[[Taos]] |
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**[[Tewa]] |
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**[[Tigua]] |
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**[[Tohono O'odham]] ([[Pagago]]) Arizona |
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**[[White Mountain Apache]] |
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**[[Yavapai]] Arizona |
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**[[Yuma]] |
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**[[Zuni]] |
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*Subarctic |
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**[[Atikamekw]] |
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**[[Cree]] |
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**[[Innu]] |
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**[[Yupik]] |
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Indians of Central and South America are generally classified by language, environment, and cultural similarities. The preferred term in Latin America is "Indigenous peoples." |
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*[[Caribbean]] |
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**[[Arawak]] |
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**[[Carib]] |
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**[[Ciboney]] |
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**[[Kuna]] |
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*[[Mesoamerica]]n |
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**[[Aztec]] |
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**[[Huastec]] |
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**[[Lenca]] |
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**[[Mam]] |
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**[[Mayan civilization|Maya]] |
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**[[Mixtec]] |
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**[[Olmec]] |
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**[[Quiche]] |
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**[[Tarascan]] |
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**[[Teotihuacan]] |
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**[[Toltec]] |
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**[[Totonac]] |
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**[[Zapotec]] |
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*[[Andean]] |
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**[[Quechua]] |
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**[[Aymara]] |
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*[[Sub-Andean]] |
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**[[Panoan]] |
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**[[Jivaroan]] |
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*[[Amazon River|Western Amazon]] |
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**[[Tukanoan]] |
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*[[Amazon River|Central Amazon]] |
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**[[Arawak]] |
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**[[Tupian]] |
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*[[Amazon River|Eastern and Southern Amazon]] |
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**[[Ge]] |
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**[[Tupian]] |
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***[[Guarani]] [[Paraguay]] |
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*Southern Cone |
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**[[Araucanian]] |
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**[[Puelche]] |
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**[[Tehuelche]] |
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==Languages== |
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For a general discussion, see [[Language families and languages]] |
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*[[Algonquian]] |
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*[[Athabascan]] |
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*[[Mobilian]] |
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*[[Taino|Taíno]] language ([[Arawak]]) |
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*[[Uto-Aztecan]] |
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*[[Chibchan]] |
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*Languages of the Pueblo: [[Keres]], [[Towa]], [[Tewa]] |
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*See http://users.cybercity.dk/~nmb3879/indian0.html |
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See also: [[Native American mythology]] |
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==External Resources== |
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* http://www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/cultural/newworld/index.shtml |
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* http://www.nativeweb.org/resources/ |
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* http://www.dickshovel.com/trbindex.html (List of North American Tribes) |
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* http://www.indianlife.org/reserves/ (Canadian reserves) |
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* [http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/analytic/companion/abor/canada.cfm/ statcan.ca] (Aboriginal peoples of Canada: A demographic profile) |
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==Further Reading== |
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*''Discover Indian Reservations USA: A Visitors' Welcome Guide'', Edited by Veronica E. Tiller, Forward by [[Ben Nighthorse Campbell]], Council Publications, Denver, Colorado, 1992, Trade Paperback, 402 pages, ISBN 0-9632580-0-1 |
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*Arlene B. Hirschfelder, Mary Gloyne Byler, and Michael Dorris, ''Guide to research on North American Indians'', American Library Association, 1983, (ISBN 0838903533) |
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*''Indians in the United States & Canada, A Comparative History'', Roger L. Nicholes, University of Nebraska Press, 1998, Trade Paperback, 393 pages, ISBN 0-8032-8377-6 |
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* David Wallace Adams, ''Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience 1875-1928'', [http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/ University Press of Kansas], 1975, hardcover, ISBN 0-7006-0735-8, trade paperback, ISBN 0-7006-0838-9 |
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See [[European colonization of the Americas]], [[Indian Territory]], [[The Indian Trade]], [[Indian Massacres]], and [[Indian Removal]]. |
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== What name best identifies this group of people? == |
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The term "'''Native American'''" originated with anthropologists who preferred it to the former appelations of "'''Indian'''" or "'''American Indian'''", which they considered inaccurate, as these terms bear no relationship to the actual origins of [[Aboriginal Americans]] (or American Aborigines), and were born of the misapprehension on the part of [[Christopher Columbus]], arriving at islands off the east coast of the North American continent, that he had reached the East [[Indies]]. The words "'''Indian'''" and "'''American Indian'''" continue in widespread use in [[North America]], even amongst Native Americans themselves, many of whom do not feel offended by the terms. But the appropriateness of this usage has become controversial since the late 20th century; many feel the "Indian" term undersirable as symbolic of the domination of these peoples by the European colonists. Others, in turn, resent criticism of their traditional way of speaking. "[[Red Indian]]" is a common [[British]] term, useful in differentiating this group from a distinct group of people referred to as [[Indies|East Indians]]. |
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One minority view has advocated the name "'''Asiatic Americans'''" as a more accurate term because of the popular theory that such peoples migrated to the Americas from Asia across an ice bridge covering the Bering Straits some 20,000 years ago. Competent [[fossil]] evidence supports the case for such a migration. However, this term is considered offensive by many American Indians because most native religions state that American Indians have been in the Western Hemisphere since the dawn of time. Furthermore, the strong tradition among archaeologists and anthropologists, is to indicate the geographic origins of a people as relating to the region where researchers first encountered them or their remains. |
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One difficulty with the term "Native American" as a substitute for "American Indian" lies in the fact that there exist several groups of people indisputably indigenous to the Americas, but who fall outside the classification of "American Indians", for example the [[Innu]] people of the [[Labrador]]/[[Quebec]] peninsula and the [[Inuit]], [[Yupik]], and [[Aleut]] peoples of the far north of the continent. Another argument is that any person born in America is native to it. |
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Another difficulty is that many Native American groups migrated (or were displaced) to their current locations after the start of European [[colonization]], and therefore it can be argued that they have no more "native" ties to their current locations than do the Europeans. However, as they were moving within America, they remained native to it. |
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''See also'' [[List of Native Americans]], [[First Nations of Canada]] |
Revision as of 19:58, 9 October 2003
Native Americans (American Indians, Amerindians, Amerins, Indyans, Injuns, or Red Indians) are indigenous peoples, who lived in the Americas prior to the European colonization; some of these ethnic groups still exist. The name "Indians" was bestowed by Christopher Columbus, who mistakenly believed that the places he found them were among the islands to the southeast of Asia known to Europeans as the Indies. (See further discussion below).
Canadians now generally use the term First Nations to refer to Native Americans. In Alaska, because of legal use in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANSCA) and because of the presence of the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut peoples, the term Alaskan Native predominates. (See further discussion below.)
Native Americans officially make up the majority of the population in Bolivia and Guatemala and are significant in most other Hispanic American countries, with the possible exception of Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
History
The Native Americans are widely believed to have come to the Americas via the prehistoric Bering Land Bridge. However, this is not the only theory. Some archaeologists believe that the migration consisted of seafaring tribes that moved along the coast, avoiding mountainous inland terrain and highly variable terrestrial ecosystems. Other researchers have postulated an original settlement by skilled navigators from Oceania, though these American Aborigine people are believed to be nearly extinct. Yet another theory claims an early crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by people originating in Europe. Many native peoples do not believe the migration theory at all. The creation stories of many tribes place the people in North America from the beginning of time. Mormon tradition holds that the native americans represent one of the lost tribes of Israel.
Based on anthropological evidence, at least three distinct migrations from Siberia occurred. The first wave of migration came into a land populated by the large mammals of the late Pleistocene epoch, including mammoths, horses, giant sloths, and wooly rhinoceroses. The Clovis culture provides one example of such immigrants. Later the Folsom culture developed, based on the hunting of bison.
The second immigration wave comprised the Athabascan people, including the ancestors of the Apaches and Navajos; the third wave consisted of the Inuits, the Yupiks, and the Aleuts, who may have come by sea over the Bering Strait. The Athabascan peoples generally lived in Alaska and western Canada but some Athabascans migrated south as far as California and the American Southwest, and became the ancestors of tribes now there.
The descendants of the third wave are so ethnically distinct from the remainder of the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas that they are not usually included in the terms "American Indian" or "First Nations".
In recent years, anthropological evidence of migration has been supplemented by studies based on molecular genetics. The provisional results from this field suggest that four distinct migrations from Asia occurred; and, most surprisingly, provide evidence of smaller-scale, contemporaneous human migration from Europe. This suggests that the migrant population, living in Europe at the time of the most recent ice age, adopted a life-style resembling that lived by Inuits and Yupiks in recent centuries.
In the Mississippi valley of the United States, in Mexico and Central America, and in the Andes of South America Native American civilizations arose with farming cultures and city-states.
See archeology of the Americas.
The Arrival of Europeans
The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives and cultures of the Native Americans. In the 15th to 19th centuries, their populations were decimated, by the privations of displacement, by disease, and in many cases by warfare with European groups and enslavement by them. The first Native American group encountered by Columbus, the 250,000 Arawaks of Haiti, were violently enslaved. Only 500 survived by the year 1550, and the group was totally extinct before 1650. Over the next 400 years, the experiences of other Native Americans with Europeans would not always amount to genocide, but they would typically be disasterous for the Native Americans.
In the 15th century Spaniards and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas. Some of these animals escaped their owners and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild. Ironically, the horse had originally evolved in the Americas, but the last American horses died out at the end of the last ice age. The re-introduction of the horse, however, had a profound impact on Native American cultures in the Great Plains of North America. This new mode of travel made it possible for some tribes to greatly expand their territories, exchange goods with neighboring tribes and to more easily capture game.
Europeans also brought diseases against which the Native Americans had no immunity. Sometimes they did this intentionally, but often it was unintentional. Common and rarely fatal ailments such as chicken pox and measles often proved fatal to Native Americans, and other more deadly diseases, such as smallpox were especially deadly to Indian populations. It is difficult to estimate the percentage of the total Native American population killed by these diseases, since waves of disease oftentimes preceded White scouts and often destroyed entire villages. Some historians have argued that more than 80% of some Indian populations may have died due to European-derived diseases. [See Jeffrey Amherst]
The first reported case of white men scalping Native Americans took place in New Hampshire colony on February 20, 1725, though it is thought that Indians learned scalping from Americans who, at times, collected them for bounties.
In the 19th century the United States forced Native Americans onto marginal lands in areas farther and farther west as white settlement of the young nation expanded in that direction. Numerous Indian Wars broke out between US forces and many different tribes. Authorities drafted countless treaties during this period and then later nullified them for various reasons. Well-known battles include the untypical Native American victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, and the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890. On January 31, 1876 the United States government ordered all Native Americans to move into reservations or reserves. This spelled the end of the Prairie Culture that developed around the use of the horse for hunting, travel and trading.
American policy toward Native Americans has been an evolving process. In the late nineteenth century reformers in efforts to civilize Indians adapted the practice of educating native children in boarding schools. The experience in the boarding schools which existed from 1875 to 1928 was difficult for Indian children who were forbidden to speak their native languages and in numerous other ways forced to adopt white cultural practices.
Military defeat, cultural pressure, confinement on reservations, forced cultural assimilation, the outlawing of native languages and culture, forced sterilizations, termination policies of the 50's and 60's, and (especially) slavery have had deleterious effects on Native Americans' mental and ultimately physical health. Contemporary problems include poverty, alcoholism, heart disease, and diabetes: see New World Syndrome.
Classification
Ethnographers commonly classify the native peoples of the United States into ten geographical regions with shared cultural traits. The following list groups peoples by their region of origin, followed by the current location. See the individual article on each tribe for a history of their movements. The regions are:
- Alaska Native (incomplete)
- West coast
- Achomawai California
- Atsugewi California
- Chukchansi California
- Chumash California
- Costanoan California
- Esselen California
- Hupa California
- Kato
- Klamath California, Oregon
- Kumeyaay-Digueno California
- Luiseno California
- Maidu California
- Me-wuk California
- Mission Indians California
- Miwok California
- Modoc Oklahoma [originally from California/Oregon]
- Mohave (Mojave) California
- Mono California
- Nomlaki California
- Pit River Indians California
- Pomo California
- Shasta California
- Tache California
- Tachi California
- Tolowa California
- Tongva California
- Wailaki California
- Wintun California
- Wiyot California
- Yocha Dehe California
- Yokut California
- Yuki
- Yurok California
- Eastern Woodlands
- Abenaki (Wabenaki) Vermont
- Accohannock Maryland
- Algonquian lower Saint Lawrence River
- Beothuk formerly Newfoundland, no longer exist
- Delaware Oklahoma [originally near Delaware]
- Huron north and east of Lake Ontario
- Iroquois New York
- Lenni-Lenape New Jersey
- Maliseet Maine and New Brunswick, Canada
- Mashantucket Pequots Connecticut
- Micmac Maine and Nova Scotia
- Mingo Pennsylvania, Ohio
- Mohican (Mohegan) Connecticut
- Montaukett New York
- Narragansett Rhode Island
- Nipmuc Massachusetts
- Paugusset Connecticut
- Passamaquoddy Maine
- Penobscot Maine
- Poospatuck New York
- Powhatan Virginia
- Ramapough Mountain Indians New Jersey
- Hopewell Ohio and Black River region
- Shawnee Ohio, Pennsylvania [most ended up in Oklahoma]
- Shinnecock New York
- Wampanoag Massachusetts
- Great Basin
- Cayuse Oregon [Confederated Tribes: (Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla) ]
- Cupeño
- Diegueño
- Paiute California, Nevada, Oregon [Burns-Paiute], Arizona [Kaibab]
- Shoshone (Shoshoni) Nevada, Wyoming, California
- Umatilla Oregon [Confederated Tribes: (Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla) ]
- Walla Walla Oregon [Confederated Tribes: (Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla) ]
- Wasco Oregon [Confederated Tribes: [Warm Springs (Paiute, Wasco, Walla Walla) ]
- Washoe Nevada, California
- Northwest Coast
- Chehalis Washington
- Chimacum Washington (extinct)
- Chinookan Washington, Oregon
- Coos Oregon
- Coquille Oregon
- Cowlitz Washington
- Drews Tribal Posse Wisconsin
- Duwamish Washington
- Hoh Washington
- Klallam Washington
- Lummi Washington
- Makah Washington
- Muckleshoot Washington
- Nooksack Washington
- Nisqually Washington
- Puyallup Washington
- Quileute Washington
- Quinault Washington
- Sauk-Suiattle Washington
- Shoalwater Bay Tribe Washington
- Siletz Oregon
- Siuslaw Oregon
- Skokomish Washington
- Squaxin Island Tribe Washington
- Spokane Washington
- Stillaguamish Washington
- Suquamish Washington
- Swinomish Washington
- Tulalip Washington
- Umpqua Oregon
- Upper Skagit Washington
- Plains - Prairies
- Alabama-Coushatta Texas
- Arapaho Wyoming, Oklahoma
- Arikara North Dakota
- Assiniboine Montana [Ft. Peck Indian Reservation: Assiniboine and Lakota (Sioux) ]
- Atsina
- Brule
- Caddo Oklahoma
- Cheyenne Montana, South Dakota; Oklahoma
- Chickasaw Oklahoma
- Chipewyan
- Comanche Oklahoma
- Cree
- Dakota
- Hidatsa North Dakota [Three Affiliated Tribes - Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara]
- Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Wisconsin; Oklahoma
- Huron Potawatomi (Nottowaseppi) Michigan
- Illinois (Illiniwek) Illinois
- Iowa (Ioway) Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma
- Kaw (Kansa) Oklahoma
- Kickapoo Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas
- Kiowa Oklahoma
- Lakota (Sioux) South Dakota, North Dakota, Nebraska
- Mandan North Dakota [Three Affiliated Tribes - Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara]
- Mascouten
- Menominee Wisconsin
- Miami Indiana; Oklahoma
- Oglala
- Omaha Nebraska
- Ojibwe (Chippewa, Anishaabe) Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana)
- Osage Oklahoma
- Otoe-Missouria Oklahoma
- Ottawa Michigan; Oklahoma
- Pawnee Oklahoma
- Peoria Oklahoma
- Piegan
- Ponca Nebraska, Oklahoma
- Potawatomi Oklahoma, Wisconsin
- Quapaw Oklahoma
- Sarsi
- Sauk (Sac and Fox) originally Great Lakes now Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa
- Siksika
- Sioux (Lakota, Dakota, Nakota) Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota)
- Teton
- Tonkawa Oklahoma
- Wichita Oklahoma [Affiliated Tribes - Wichita, Waco, Tawakoni, Keechi]
- Wyandot Ontario, Michigan
- Rocky Mountains
- Blackfeet Montana
- Chippewa Cree Montana
- Coeur d'Alene Idaho
- Colville Washington
- Crow (Absaroka or Apsáalooke) Montana, South Dakota
- Goshute Utah
- Gros Ventre Montana
- Kalispel Washington
- Klikitat Washington
- Kootenai Idaho
- Nez Perce Idaho
- Salish Montana, Washington [Okanagan]
- Spokane Washington
- Ute Utah, Colorado
- Yakama Washington
- Southeast
- Catawba South Carolina
- Cherokee North Carolina; Oklahoma
- Chickahominy Virginia
- Chitimacha Louisiana
- Choctaw Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama; Oklahoma
- Creek Alabama; Oklahoma
- Coushatta Louisiana
- Coharie North Carolina
- Haliwa-Saponi North Carolina
- Houma Louisiana
- Lumbee North Carolina
- Mattaponi Virginia
- Meherrin North Carolina
- Miccosukee Florida
- Monacan Virginia
- Nansemond Virginia
- Pamunkey Virginia
- Pee Dee South Carolina
- Rappahannock Virginia
- Seminole Florida; Oklahoma
- Timucua (Utina) Florida
- Topachula Florida
- Tunica-Biloxi Louisiana
- Waccamaw North Carolina, South Carolina
- Southwest
- Acoma
- Ak Chin Arizona
- Apache Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma
- Cahuila (Cahuilla) California
- Chemehuevi California
- Cochiti
- Cocopah Arizona
- Havasupai Arizona
- Hohokam Arizona
- Hopi Arizona
- Hualapai Arizona
- Isleta
- Jemez
- Keresan
- Laguna
- Maricopa
- Mohave
- Navaho Arizona, New Mexico
- Pima Arizona
- Pueblo people New Mexico
- Qahatika
- Quechan Arizona
- Taos
- Tewa
- Tigua
- Tohono O'odham (Pagago) Arizona
- White Mountain Apache
- Yavapai Arizona
- Yuma
- Zuni
- Subarctic
Indians of Central and South America are generally classified by language, environment, and cultural similarities. The preferred term in Latin America is "Indigenous peoples."
- Caribbean
- Mesoamerican
- Andean
- Sub-Andean
- Western Amazon
- Central Amazon
- Eastern and Southern Amazon
- Southern Cone
Languages
For a general discussion, see Language families and languages
- Algonquian
- Athabascan
- Mobilian
- Taíno language (Arawak)
- Uto-Aztecan
- Chibchan
- Languages of the Pueblo: Keres, Towa, Tewa
- See http://users.cybercity.dk/~nmb3879/indian0.html
See also: Native American mythology
External Resources
- http://www.anthro.mankato.msus.edu/cultural/newworld/index.shtml
- http://www.nativeweb.org/resources/
- http://www.dickshovel.com/trbindex.html (List of North American Tribes)
- http://www.indianlife.org/reserves/ (Canadian reserves)
- statcan.ca (Aboriginal peoples of Canada: A demographic profile)
Further Reading
- Discover Indian Reservations USA: A Visitors' Welcome Guide, Edited by Veronica E. Tiller, Forward by Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Council Publications, Denver, Colorado, 1992, Trade Paperback, 402 pages, ISBN 0-9632580-0-1
- Arlene B. Hirschfelder, Mary Gloyne Byler, and Michael Dorris, Guide to research on North American Indians, American Library Association, 1983, (ISBN 0838903533)
- Indians in the United States & Canada, A Comparative History, Roger L. Nicholes, University of Nebraska Press, 1998, Trade Paperback, 393 pages, ISBN 0-8032-8377-6
- David Wallace Adams, Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience 1875-1928, University Press of Kansas, 1975, hardcover, ISBN 0-7006-0735-8, trade paperback, ISBN 0-7006-0838-9
See European colonization of the Americas, Indian Territory, The Indian Trade, Indian Massacres, and Indian Removal.
What name best identifies this group of people?
The term "Native American" originated with anthropologists who preferred it to the former appelations of "Indian" or "American Indian", which they considered inaccurate, as these terms bear no relationship to the actual origins of Aboriginal Americans (or American Aborigines), and were born of the misapprehension on the part of Christopher Columbus, arriving at islands off the east coast of the North American continent, that he had reached the East Indies. The words "Indian" and "American Indian" continue in widespread use in North America, even amongst Native Americans themselves, many of whom do not feel offended by the terms. But the appropriateness of this usage has become controversial since the late 20th century; many feel the "Indian" term undersirable as symbolic of the domination of these peoples by the European colonists. Others, in turn, resent criticism of their traditional way of speaking. "Red Indian" is a common British term, useful in differentiating this group from a distinct group of people referred to as East Indians.
One minority view has advocated the name "Asiatic Americans" as a more accurate term because of the popular theory that such peoples migrated to the Americas from Asia across an ice bridge covering the Bering Straits some 20,000 years ago. Competent fossil evidence supports the case for such a migration. However, this term is considered offensive by many American Indians because most native religions state that American Indians have been in the Western Hemisphere since the dawn of time. Furthermore, the strong tradition among archaeologists and anthropologists, is to indicate the geographic origins of a people as relating to the region where researchers first encountered them or their remains.
One difficulty with the term "Native American" as a substitute for "American Indian" lies in the fact that there exist several groups of people indisputably indigenous to the Americas, but who fall outside the classification of "American Indians", for example the Innu people of the Labrador/Quebec peninsula and the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut peoples of the far north of the continent. Another argument is that any person born in America is native to it.
Another difficulty is that many Native American groups migrated (or were displaced) to their current locations after the start of European colonization, and therefore it can be argued that they have no more "native" ties to their current locations than do the Europeans. However, as they were moving within America, they remained native to it.