Indigenous peoples of the Americas

File:Tres Zapotes Stela.C.back.Pt1.jpg

Olmec script
These glyphs written in Epi-Olmec script, the earliest examples of writing in the Americas, give a calendar date of 7.16.6.16.18 (Long Count), which translates to September 3, 32 BCE (Julian). The Olmec were only one of many indigenous cultures and civilizations rooted in the vast agricultural economy of the Americas.

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those historical peoples. They are sometimes also referred to as Native Americans.

According to modern understanding of human migration, people first entered North and South America by a coastal route and a land bridge that formerly connected North America with Eurasia. They are thought to have entered North America by at least 30,000 years ago and diversified into hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes. According to the oral histories of many of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, they have been living where they were living since the dawn of time, and specifically since the beginning of many of their complex calendrical systems.

Some indigenous peoples of the Americas supported agriculturally advanced societies for thousands of years. In some regions they created large sedentary chiefdom polities, and had advanced state level societies with monumental architecture and large-scale, organized cities. Scholars' estimates of the total population of the Americas before European contact vary enormously, from a low of 10 million to a high of 112 million. Whatever the figure, scholars generally agree that most of the indigenous population resided in Mesoamerica and South America, while about 10 percent resided in North America.

History

See also: Archaeology of the Americas and Models of migration to the New World

Original peopling of the Americas

Language families of North American indigenous peoples

Based on anthropological, genetic, and linguistic evidence, scholars generally agree that most indigenous peoples of the Americas descended from people who probably migrated from Siberia across the Bering Strait, 9,000-60,000 years ago. The exact epoch and route is still a matter of debate, and continual challenges are issued to this model. For more information, see models of migration to the New World and pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact.

A 2006 study (to be published in Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology) reports new DNA-based research that uniquely links the DNA retrieved from a 10,000-year-old fossilized tooth from an Alaskan island(obtained from a grave without permission of the local native inhabitants, tantamount to grave robbing), with specific coastal tribes in Tierra del Fuego, Ecuador, Mexico, and California. Unique DNA markers found in the fossilized tooth were found only in these specific coastal tribes, and were not found in any of the other indigenous peoples in the Americas. This finding lends credence to a migration theory that at least one set of early peoples moved south along the west coast of the Americas in boats.

In spite of the lingering controversy about who were the first peoples of this land, anthropologists and archaeologists generally agree that most of the indigenous peoples who lived in North America right before the European conquest descended from Siberian hunters, who entered North America about 15-50,000 years ago. For some reason these professionals completely discount Native traditions in their research.

Of course, according to many myriad native held beliefs, we have been here since the dawn of time, and many natives feel that such thoeries as the bering straight land bridge idea are insulting at the very least, some see it as perpetrating rascist attitudes.

Several genetic surveys have indicated clear affinities between present-day indigenous American populations and peoples of Siberia. According to Ilya Zakharov of Moscow's Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, northern Native Americans exhibit closer genetic links to the Tuvans, a Turkic group of people located in the Tuva Republic at the southwestern edge of Siberia.

The consensus of such studies is that at least three separate migrations from Siberia to the Americas are highly likely to have occurred:

• The first wave came into a land populated by the large mammals of the late Pleistocene, including mammoths, horses, giant sloths, and woolly rhinoceroses. The Clovis culture would be a manifestation of that migration, and the Folsom culture, based on the hunting of bison, would have developed from it. This wave eventually spread over the entire hemisphere, as far south as Tierra del Fuego, and became the inhabitants of central to eastern North America and most if not all of Central and South America.
• The second migration brought the ancestors of the Na-Dene peoples. They lived in Alaska and western Canada, but some migrated as far south as the Pacific Northwestern U.S. and the American Southwest, and would be ancestral to the Dene, Apaches and Navajos.
• The third wave brought the ancestors of the Inuit and Yupik and the Aleuts. They may have come by sea over the Bering Strait, after the land bridge had disappeared.
• In recent years, molecular genetics studies have suggested at least four distinct migrations into the Americas. These studies lend support to the Solutrean hypothesis, which states there may have been smaller-scale, contemporaneous migrations from Europe, possibly by peoples who had adopted a lifestyle resembling that of the Inuit and Yupiks during the last ice age.

One result of these supposed successive waves of migration is that large groups of peoples with similar languages and perhaps physical characteristics as well, moved into various geographic areas of North, and then Central and South America. While these peoples have traditionally remained primarily loyal to their individual tribes, ethnologists have variously sought to group the myriad of tribes into larger entities which reflect common geographic origins, linguistic similarities, and life styles. (See Classification of indigenous peoples of the Americas.)

According to the findings in Monte Verde, Chile that are suspected to be 12,500 years old, southern Chile was colonized by peoples who did not come through Bering's Strait, as travel by land into the American continent was not feasible at that time. (or at any other time, even with the land bridge, no one but a mad man would lead their people over hundreds of miles of icy wasteland... ) It is suggested that a coastal route via canoes could have allowed rapid migration into the Americans.

The "traditional" (also pronounced non native) view above has recently been challenged by findings of human remains in South America that are claimed to be too old to fit this scenario—perhaps even 20,000 years old. Some recent finds (notably the Luzia skeleton in Lagoa Santa) are claimed to be morphologically distinct from Asians and are more similar to African and Australian Aborigines. These American Aborigines would have been later displaced or absorbed by the Siberian immigrants. The distinctive natives of Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of the American continent, may have been the last remains of those Aboriginal populations.

These early immigrants would have either crossed the ocean by boat or traveled north along the Asian coast and entered America through the Bering Strait area, well before the Siberian waves. This theory is still resisted by many scientists chiefly because of the apparent difficulty of the trip.

European colonization

File:Nordamerikanische Kulturareale en.png

Cultural areas of North America at time of European contact.

The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives, bloodlines and cultures of the peoples of the continent. According to some writers such as Ward Churchill, from the 15th to 19th centuries they were the victims of genocide. Their populations were ravaged by disease, by the privations of displacement, and in many cases by warfare with European groups that may have tried to enslave them. The first indigenous group encountered by Columbus were the 250,000 Tainos of Hispaniola who were the dominant culture in the Greater Antilles, and the Bahamas. Later explorations of the Caribbean led to the discovery of the Aruak peoples of the lesser Antilles. Whoever wasn't killed by the fighting or the widespread diseases were enslaved, and the culture was extinct by 1650. Only 500 had survived by the year 1550, though the bloodlines continued through the modern populace. In Amazonia, indigenous societies weathered centuries of unforgiving colonial affronts (Varese 2002).

The Spaniards and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas. Some of these animals escaped and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild. Interestingly, the horse had originally evolved in the Americas, but the last American horses (species Equus scotti and others [3]) died out at the end of the last ice age with other megafauna with their extinction possibly due to overhunting by the natives. The re-introduction of the horse had a profound impact on Native American culture in the Great Plains of North America and of Patagonia in South America. This new mode of travel made it possible for some tribes to greatly expand their territories, exchange many goods with neighboring tribes, and more easily capture game.

Europeans also brought diseases against which the indigenous peoples of the Americas had no immunity. Chicken pox and measles, though common and rarely life-threatening among Europeans, often proved fatal to the indigenous people, and more dangerous diseases such as smallpox were especially deadly to indigenous populations. Epidemics often immediately followed European exploration sometimes destroying entire villages. It is difficult to estimate the total percentage of the indigenous population killed by these diseases, but some historians estimate that up to 80 percent of some indigenous populations may have died due to European diseases. (For more information, see population history of American indigenous peoples.)

Smallpox, typhus, influenza, diphtheria, measles, malaria, and other epidemics swept in after European contact, felling a large portion of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, causing one of the greater calamities in human history. In North America alone, at least 93 waves of epidemic disease swept through native populations between first contact and the early 20th century. Another reason for the dramatic decline of the Native American population were the continuing wars with either Europeans or between feuding indigenous communities, and to a smaller degree, the brutal treatment of the native population by Europeans. More recently, collective mobilization among the indigenous peoples in the Americas has required the incorporation of closely-knit local communities into a broader national and international framework of political action.

Agricultural endowment

Over the course of thousands of years, a large array of plant species were domesticated, bred and cultivated by the indigenous peoples of the American continent. This American agricultural endowment to the world now constitutes more than half of all crops grown worldwide. In certain cases, the indigenous peoples developed entirely new species and strains through artificial selection, as was the case in the domestication and breeding of maize from wild teosinte grasses in the valleys of southern Mexico. Maize alone now accounts in gross tonnage for the majority of all grain produced world-wide. A great number of these agricultural products still retain native (Nahuatl and others) names in the English and Spanish lexicons. The modern American holiday of Thanksgiving is a national holiday of thanks commemorating the bountiful produce provided by indigenous peoples to European immigrants. The holiday is celebrated by a family meal with dishes prepared exclusively of indigenous agricultural produce and the domesticated turkey game bird.

This tremendously important agricultural endowment, now a basic component of global human culture, would include:

1. Maize* (domesticated from teotsinte grasses in southern Mexico starting 12000 years ago; maize, squash and beans form the indigenous triumvirate crop system known as the "three sisters")
2. Squash* (pumpkins, zucchini, marrow, acorn squash, butternut squash, others)
3. Pinto bean (Frijol pinto) ("painted/speckled" bean; nitrogen-fixer traditionally planted in conjunction with other "two sisters" to help condition soil; runners grew on maize; beans in the genus Phaseolus including most common beans, Tepary beans and Lima beans were also all first domesticated and cultivated by indigenous peoples in the Americas)
4. Tomato*
5. Potato (papas*)
6. Camote or "sweet potato" (often called incorrectly as "yams" in English; distinct from true-yams)
7. Avocado* ("aguacate" in Spanish)
8. Peanuts, in Spanish cacahuates or maníes
9. Cacao* beans (used to make chocolate*)
10. Vanilla
11. Black raspberry
12. Strawberry (various cultivars; modern Garden strawberry was created by crossing sweet North American variety with plump South American variety)
13. Pineapple (cultivated extensively)
14. Cassava* (edible starchy root also known as manioc; also used to make tapioca)
15. Peppers (species and varieties of Capsicum, including bell peppers, jalapeños, paprika, chili peppers, now used in world-wide cuisines.)
16. Allspice (so-called because of its resemblence to a combination cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, pepper.)
17. Nopales* (stem segments of prickly pear Opuntia cactus, now grown as far away as Israel.)
18. Tunas* (fruits of many different species of cultivated Opuntia cactus )
19. Jicama*
20. Papaya*
21. Guayaba* (guava fruit)
22. Huautli* (amaranth grain; other species present on other continents)
23. Quinoa (pseudo-cereal grain crop)
24. Cherimoya* (fruit)
25. Sapote* (generic Nahuatl name for a soft fruit from various unrelated species, including the Black Sapote or Black Persimmon, which is native to Mexico)
26. Mamey* (fruit, other parts of plants have noted uses)
27. Pitaya (also known as pitahaya; the fruit of several cactus species, especially of the genus Hylocereus)
28. Yerba Buena (aromatic herb)
29. Lemon verbena (herb with a powerful lemony scent)
30. Jerusalem artichoke, tuber related to the sunflower.
31. Sunflower seeds (under cultivation in Mexico and Peru for thousands of years; also source of essential oils)
32. Pecan (a species of hickory native to southeastern North America)
33. Pine nuts, in Spanish Piñones (from: Pinus monophylla, Pinus edulis, and Pinus cembroides (Mexican Pine))
34. Stevia an herb, non-caloric sweetener.
35. Spirulina (cyanobacteria or blue-green algae harvested in lakes, and dried into cakes)
36. Rubber (used indigenously for making bouncing balls, foot-molded rubber shoes, and other assorted items)
37. Chicle* (also known as chewing gum)
38. Cotton (cultivation of different species independently started in both the Americas and in India)
39. Chinchona* (tree which yields the anti-malarial drug quinine)
40. Achiote* (fruit and seeds are used to extract a culinary red dye known as Annatto)
41. Tobacco* (ceremonial entheogen; leaves smoked in pipes)
42. Peyote* (ceremonial entheogen; hallucinogenic cactus)
43. Ayahuasca (ceremonial entheogen; hallucinogenic drink made from a mixture of a vine of the same name and another plant used as an MAOI)
44. Psychedelic mushrooms (ceremonial entheogen; hallucinogenic mushrooms)
45. Tesguino* (ceremonial entheogen; fermented corn drink)
46. Octli* (ceremonial entheogen; fermented beverage made from agave cactus, later known as pulque; pulque is the precursor of the distilled spirit mezcal; mezcal made from the blue agave is known as tequila)
47. Coca* (leaves chewed for energy and medicinal uses)
48. Yerba mate* (used to make a hot infusion or beverage for both medicinal and religious purposes)
49. Mexican Oregano (a different and unrelated plant species to the milder Mediterranean Oregano; has medicinal, religious, and culinary uses)

(* Asterisk indicates a common English or Spanish word derived from an indigenous word)

Culture

Hopi man weaving on traditional loom

Though cultural features including language, garb, and customs vary enormously from one tribe to another, there are certain elements which are shared by many of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Music and art

Native American music in North America is almost entirely monophonic, but there are notable exceptions. Traditional Native American music often includes drumming but little other instrumentation, although flutes are played by individuals. The tuning of these flutes is not precise and depends on the length of the wood used and the hand span of the intended player, but the finger holes are most often around a whole step apart and, at least in Northern California, a flute was not used if it turned out to have an interval close to a half step.

Music from indigenous peoples of Central Mexico and Central America often was pentatonic. Before the arrival of the Spaniards it was inseparable from religious festivities and included a large variety of percussion and wind instruments such as drums, flutes, sea snail shells (used as a kind of trumpet) and "rain" tubes. No string instruments were used.

Art of the indigenous peoples of the Americas comprises a major category in the world art collection. Contributions include pottery, paintings, jewellery, weavings, sculptures, basketry,carvings and hair pipes.

Modern statistics on indigenous populations

The following table provides estimates of the per-country populations of indigenous people, and also those with part-indigenous ancestry, expressed as a percentage of the overall country population. of each country that is comprised by indigenous peoples, and of people with partly indigenous descent. The total percentage obtained by adding both of these categories is also given (One should note however that these categories, especially the second one, are rather vaguely defined and measured differently from country to country).

Indigenous populations of the Americas¹
as estimated percentage of total country's population

Country	Indigenous	Part-indigenous	Combined total
Argentina	.9 percent	4 percent	5 percent
Bolivia	55 percent	30 percent	85 percent
Brazil2	0.4 percent	[?]	[?]
Canada3	1.9 percent4	2.7 percent	4.6 percent
Chile	3 percent	60 - 72 percent	75 percent
Cuba5	1 percent	NA	NA
Costa Rica5	1 percent	[?]	[?]
Colombia	2 percent	68 percent	70 percent
Dominican Republic	1 percent	40-60 percent	41-61 percent
Guatemala	44 percent	52 percent	96 percent
Ecuador	25 percent	55 percent	80 percent
El Salvador	1 percent	90 percent	91 percent
French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname	5 – 20 percent	[?]	[?]
Honduras	7 percent	90 percent	97 percent
Mexico	30 percent7	60 percent	90 percent
Nicaragua	5 percent	69 percent	74 percent
Panama	6 percent	70 percent	76 percent
Paraguay	5 percent	93.3 percent	98.3 percent
Peru	45 percent	37 percent	82 percent
Puerto Rico	0.4 percent	61.2 percent	61.6 percent[4]
Venezuela	2 percent	69 percent	71 percent
USA7	2 percent	5 percent	7 percent
Uruguay	0 percent	8 percent	8 percent
1 Source : The World Factbook 1999, Central Intelligence Agency unless otherwise indicated. 2 2000 Brazil Census 3 Canada 2001 Census 4 1.9 percent is for single origins only, Aboriginal identity population is 3.3 percent 5 indigenous peoples mixed into the general population; NA = "not available". 6 [5] 7 Of Amerindian and "predominantly" Amerindian as reported in the CIA Factbook. National statistics report a 12% of pure Amerindian. 8 2000 U.S. Census

History and status by country

Argentina

See also: Demographics of Argentina

Argentina's indigenous population is about 403.000 (.9 percent of total population). Indigenous nations include the Toba, Wichí, Mocoví, Pilagá, Chulupí, Diaguita-Calchaquí, Kolla, Guaraní (Tupí Guaraní and Avá Guaraní in the provinces of Jujuy and Salta, and Mbyá Guaraní in the province of Misiones), Chorote, Chané, Tapieté, Mapuche, Tehuelche and Selknam (Ona).

Belize

Mestizos (European with indigenous peoples) number about 45 percent of the population; unmixed Maya make up another 6.5 percent.

Bolivia

In Bolivia about 2.5 million people speak Quechua, 2.1 million speak Aymara, while Guaraní is only spoken by a few hundred thousand people. The languages are recognized; nevertheless, there are no official documents written in those languages and people who do not speak the only official language Spanish are badly treated. However, the constitutional reform in 1997 for the first time recognized Bolivia as a multilingual, pluri-ethnic society and introduced education reform. In 2005, for the first time in the country's history, an indigenous Aymara president, Evo Morales, was elected.

Brazil

Brazilian Indigenous chiefs of the Kayapo tribe: Raony, Kaye, Kadjor, Panara.

File:Korubu Indian Amazon Travel Channel.JPG Korubo man from the Brazilian Amazon

Main article: Indigenous peoples in Brazil

Canada

Main article: Aboriginal peoples in Canada

The most commonly preferred term for the indigenous peoples of what is now Canada is Aboriginal peoples. Of these Aboriginal peoples who are not Inuit or Métis, "First Nations" is the most commonly preferred term of self-identification. First Nations peoples make up approximately 3 percent of the Canadian population; Inuit, Métis and First Nations together make up 5 percent. The official term for First Nations people—that is, the term used by both the Indian Act, which regulates benefits received by members of First Nations, and the Indian Register, which defines who is a member of a First Nation—is Indian.

Chile

Less than 5 percent of Chileans belong to indigenous peoples, such as the Mapuche in the country's central valley and lake district, and the Mapuche successfully fought off defeat in the first 300-350 years of Spanish during the War of Arauco. Relation with the new Chilean Republic were good until the chilean state decided to occupy their lands. During the Occupation of Araucanía the Mapuche surrendered to the country's army in the 1880's. The former land was opened to settlement for mestizo and white Chileans. Conflict over Mapuche land rights continued until present days.

Colombia

Main article: Indigenous peoples in Colombia

A small minority today within Colombia's overwhelmingly Mestizo and Afro-Colombian population, Colombia's indigenous peoples nonetheless encompass at least 85 distinct cultures and more than 700,000 people. A variety of collective rights for indigenous peoples are recognized in the 1991 Constitution.

One of these is the Muisca culture, a subset of the larger Chibcha ethnic group, famous for their use of gold, which led to the legend of El Dorado. At the time of the Spanish conquest, the Chibchas were the largest native civilization between the Incas and the Aztecs.

Guatemala

Many of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala are of Mayan heritage. Other groups are Xinca people and Garífuna.

Pure Maya account for some 45 percent of the population; although around 40 percent of the population speaks an indigenous language, those tongues (of which there are more than 20) enjoy no official status. Maya sources, however, place estimates at around 60 percent of the population.

Mexico

Main article: Indigenous peoples of Mexico

A 20th century oil painting of Cuauhtémoc, the Emperor of the Aztecs. Painted by Mexican artist, Jesús de la Helguera.

The territory of modern-day Mexico was home to numerous indigenous civilizations prior to the arrival of the European conquistadores: The Olmecs, who flourished from between 1200 BC to about 800 BC in the coastal regions of the Gulf of Mexico; the Zapotecs and the Mixtecs, who held sway in the mountains of Oaxaca and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; the Maya in the Yucatán (and into neighbouring areas of contemporary Central America;the Purepecha or Tarascan in present day Michoacán and surrounding areas and, of course, the Aztecs, who, from their central capital at Tenochtitlan, dominated much of the centre and south of the country (and the non-Aztec inhabitants of those areas) when Hernán Cortés first landed at Veracruz.

In contrast to what was the general rule in the rest of North America, the history of the colony of New Spain was one of racial intermingling (mestizaje). Mestizos quickly came to account for a majority of the colony's population; however, significant pockets of pure-blood indígenas (as the native peoples are now known) have survived to the present day.

With mestizos numbering some 60 percent of the modern population, estimates for the numbers of unmixed indigenous peoples vary from a very modest 10 percent to a more liberal 30 percent of the population. The reason for this discrepancy may be the Mexican government's policy of using linguistic, rather than racial, criteria as the basis of classification.

In the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca and in the interior of the Yucatán peninsula the majority of the population is indigenous. Large indigenous minorities, including Nahuas, Purépechas, and Mixtecs are also present in the central regions of Mexico. In Northern Mexico indigenous people are a small minority: they are practically absent from the northeast but, in the northwest and central borderlands, include the Tarahumara of Chihuahua and the Yaquis and Seri of Sonora. Many of the tribes from this region are also recognized Native American tribes from the U.S. Southwest such as the Yaqui and Kickapoo.

While Mexicans are universally proud of their indigenous heritage, modern-day indigenous Mexicans are still the target of discrimination and outright racism. In particular, in areas such as Chiapas — most famously, but also in Oaxaca, Puebla, Guerrero, and other remote mountainous parts — indigenous communities have been left on the margins of national development for the past 500 years. Indigenous customs and uses enjoy no official status. The Huichols of the states of Jalisco, Nayarit, Zacatecas, and Durango are impeded by police forces in their ritual pilgrimages, and their religious observances are interfered with.

Nicaragua

Main article: Miskito

The Miskito are Native American people in Central America. Their territory expands from Cape Cameron, Honduras, to Rio Grande, Nicaragua along the Miskito Coast. There is a native Miskito language, but large groups speak Miskito creole English, Spanish, Rama and others. The creole English came about through frequent contact with the British. Many are Christians.

Over the centuries the Miskito have intermarried with escaped slaves who have sought refuge in Miskito communities. Traditional Miskito society was highly structured, with a defined political structure. There was a king but he did not have total power. Instead, the power was split between him, a governor, a general, and by the 1750s, an admiral. Historical information on kings is often obscured by the fact that many of the kings were semi-mythical.

Peru

Main article: Indigenous Peoples in Peru

Peruvian indigenous people, learning to read.

Most Peruvians are either indigenous or mestizos (of mixed Indigenous, African, European and Asian ancestry). Peru has the largest indigenous population of South America, and its traditions and customs have shaped the way Peruvians live and see themselves today.

Cultural citizenship--or what Renato Rosaldo has called, "the right to be different and to belong, in a democratic, participatory sense" (1996:243)--is not yet very well developed in Peru. This is perhaps no more apparent than in the country's Amazonian regions where indigenous societies continue to struggle against state-sponsored economic abuses, cultural discrimination, and pervasive violence. Throughout the Peruvian Amazon, indigenous peoples have long faced centuries of missionization, unregulated streams of colonists, land-grabbing, decades of formal schooling in an alien tongue, pressures to conform to a foreign national culture, and more recently, explosive expressions of violent social conflict fueled by a booming underground coca economy. The disruptions accompanying the establishment of extractive economies, coupled with the Peruvian state-sanctioned civilizing project, have led to a devastating impoverishment of Amazonia's richly variegated social and ecological communities.

Urarina shaman, 1988

The most visited tourist destinations of Peru were built by indigenous peoples (the Quechua, Aymara, Moche, etc.), while Amazonian peoples, such as the Urarina, Bora, Matsés, Ticuna, Yagua, Shipibo and the Aguaruna, developed elaborate shamanic systems of belief prior to the European Conquest of the New World. Macchu Picchu is considered one of the marvels of humanity, and it was constructed by the Inca Civilization. Even though Peru officially declares its multi-ethnic character, it has at least six dozen languages, including Quechua, Aymara and hegemonic Spanish- discrimination and language endangerment continue to challenge the indigenous peoples in Peru, which is a culturally diverse country of many nations.

United States

An Inuit woman

Main article: Native Americans in the United States

Indigenous peoples in what is now the United States are commonly called "American Indians" but more recently have been referred to as "Native Americans". Native Americans make up 2 percent of the population, with more than 6 million people identifying themselves as such, although only 1.8 million are registered tribal members. A minority of US Native Americans live on Indian reservations. There are also many Southwestern U.S. tribes, such as the Yaqui and Apache, that have registered tribal communities in Northern Mexico and several bands of Blackfoot reside in southern Alberta. There is further Native American ancestry by various extraction existing across all social races that is mostly unaccounted for.

Other parts of the Americas

Indigenous peoples make up the majority of the population in Bolivia and Peru, and are a significant element in most other former Spanish colonies. Exceptions to this include Costa Rica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Dominican Republic, and Uruguay. At least three of the Amerindian languages (Quechua in Peru and Bolivia, Aymara also in Bolivia, and Guarani in Paraguay) are recognized along with Spanish as national languages. And the controversial issue on the significance of indigenous peoples and their culture has on Chile, the South American country was treated more like an European-derived one by the fact European immigration was dense, but smaller than immigration to Uruguay and neighboring Argentina, but a majority of Chileans are mestizos of varied degrees of mixed European and American Indian ancestry. (see demographics of Chile)

See also

• Aztec
• Inca
• Maya
• Apache
• Cherokee
• Seminole
• Chumash
• Eskimo
• Olmec
• Toltec
• Indigenous people of Brazil
• Indigenous Peoples in Peru
• Population history of American indigenous peoples
• Native Americans in the United States
• Indigenous languages of the Americas
• 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
• History of the west coast of North America
• Mississippian culture
• Cahokia
• Mesoamerica
• Zapotec
• Teotihuacan
• Raramuri
• Aymara
• Urarina
• Fuegians, a collective name for (linguistically and culturally) unrelated peoples

References

• The Ecological Indian : Myth and History / Shepard Krech. - W.W. Norton, 1999. - 352 p. - ISBN 0393047555
• Jones, Peter N. Respect for the Ancestors: American Indian Cultural Affiliation in the American West 2005 Bauu Press ISBN 0972134921
• Kane, Katie Nits Make Lice: Drogheda, Sand Creek, and the Poetics of Colonial Extermination Cultural Critique, No. 42 (Spring, 1999), pp. 81-103 doi:10.2307/1354592
• Churchill, Ward A Little Matter of Genocide 1997 City Lights Books ISBN 0872863239

External links

• http://www.garviespointmuseum.com/indian-archaeology-long-island.php Native American Archaeology of Long Island, NY
• http://www.reacheverychild.com/feature/native.html Educational sites for teachers
• Indigenous Women of the Americas
• Chakana: NGO & knowledge centre about Indians of the highlands
• Speaking4Earth: action site about indigenous issues
• Dutch Centre for Indigenous Peoples
• Photos and videos of Bolivian, Mexican, Peruvian and Guatemaltec indigenous people
• Tlingit National Anthem, Alaska Natives and Native American resources
• A History of Aboriginal Treaties and Relations in Canada This site includes contextual materials, links to digitized primary sources and summaries of primary source documents.Template:Link FA