Difference between revisions of "North American Indians"
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| − | [[American Indian]] | + | * [[American Indian]] |
| − | [[Native American]] | + | * [[Native American]] |
| − | [[Trail of Tears]] | + | * [[Trail of Tears]] |
| − | [[Jamestown Massacre]] | + | * [[Jamestown Massacre]] |
[[category:ethnicities]] | [[category:ethnicities]] | ||
[[category:Native Americans]] | [[category:Native Americans]] | ||
Revision as of 17:59, August 29, 2008
North American Indians (also Native Americans) are the original inhabitants of the Americas. The Native Americans of North America are typically considered to be all those tribes north of Central Mexico. While technically part of North America, most archaeologists tend to place the civilizations of Central Mexico into a separate category.[1] Tribes in North America maintained a wide variety of subsistence patterns, from hunting and gathering, to intensive agriculture. North America is also home to two of the most unusual groups of hunter-gatherers, the Northwest Coast tribes, and the Aleuts. The first Native Americans are believed to have migrated from Asia via the Bering land bridge, the exposed continental shelf between Asia and N. America during the last Ice Age. There are also those that subscribe to a similar migration by sea that followed the ancient coastline from Asia around the Bering land mass. A small group of researchers claim to have uncovered evidence of possible migration from Europe during the same time period, but the evidence is still heavily contested.
While the American Indian population once numbered over 100 million, over 90% were killed by European diseases augmented by changes in the natural habitat caused by the new arrivals.[2]
Culture Areas of North America
American Indians of North America are generally divided into culture areas according to similarities in geography, environment, subsistence patterns, language family, and similar social practices. According to the Handbook of North American Indians, there are ten such cultural areas.[3]
- Arctic
- Greenland, extreme northern Canada, and the northern and western coastlines of Alaska.
- Subarctic
- Most of central Canada and interior Alaska.
- Northeast
- New England, Nova Scotia, the Great Lakes region, the Chesapeake Bay area, and most of current day W. Virginia, the Ohio River valley, and Illinois.
- Southeast
- N. Carolina excluding the NE corner, western Virginia, southern W. Virginia, and all the southern states east of the Mississippi River, in addition to parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, and eastern Texas.
- Plains
- the entire Midwest United States from Texas north to southern parts of Canada.
- Southwest
- Central Mexico north into W. Texas, NM, and AZ.
- Great Basin
- Nevada, Utah, N. Arizona, W. Colorado, W. Wyoming, S. Idaho, SE Oregon, and parts of W. California.
- California
- Interior and Coastal California and N. Baja.
- Northwest Coast
- N. California to S. Alaska along 1500 miles of coastline.
- Plateau
- Parts of Oregon, Washington, N. Idaho, W. Montana, and SW Canada.
References
- ↑ Swidler, Nina, Dongoske, Roger. 1997. Native Americans and Archaeologists: Stepping Stones to Common Ground. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.
- ↑ Trail of Tears
- ↑ Washburn, Wilcomb E. 1998. Handbook Of North American Indians, Vol. 4, History of Indian-White Relations. Washington: Smithsonian Institute.