North American Indians

North American Indians (also Native Americans) are the descendents of those groups that migrated from Asia to North America at the end of the last Ice Age. 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 seperate category.[2] 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 deliberate murder of the vast majority of native North Americans by immigrant settlers and the military forces of the country still goes largely unrecognised by the USA. This slaughter, which took place mainly through the Nineteenth Century, ranks of one of the worst genocides in human history.

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 culutal areas.

1. Arcitc- Greenland, extreme northern Canada, and the northern and western coastlines of Alaska.

2. Subarctic- Most of central Canada and interior Alaska.

3. 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.

4. Southeast- N. Carolina excluding the NE corner, western Virginia, southern W. Virginia, and all the southersn states east of the Mississippi River, in addition to parts of Arkansas, Lousiana, and eastern Texas.

5. Plains- the entire Midwest United States from Texas north to southern parts of Canada.

6. Southwest- Central Mexico north into W. Texas, NM, and AZ.

7. Great Basin- Nevada, Utah, N. Arizona, W. Colorado, W. Wyoming, S. Idaho, SE Oregon, and parts of W. California.

8. California- Interior and Coastal California and N. Baja.

9. Northwest Coast- N. California to S. Alaska along 1500 miles of coastline.

10. Plateau- Parts of Oregon, Washington, N. Idaho, W. Montana, and SW Canada.[1]

[1]Washburn, Wilcomb E. 1998. Handbook Of North American Indians, Vol. 4, History of Indian-White Relations. Washington: Smithsonian Institute.

[2]Swidler, Nina, Dongoske, Roger. 1997. Native Americans and Archaeologists: Stepping Stones to Common Ground. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.