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 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.

European colonists, and later the US Government, sought to eradicate the Native Americans in order to assert control of the North American land mass from coast to coast. The decimation of the Indian population was accomplished by warfare, disregard of treaties, and economic restrictions, as well as unintentional spreading of diseases such as influenza and small pox. Indians were finally corralled into reservations, with limited rights of self government, generally located in remote areas where Americans would not have to engage with them.

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 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]

Refs

[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.