Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The term
indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the inhabitants of the
Americas before the
European discovery of the Americas in the late 15th century, as well as many present-day
ethnic groups who identify themselves with those historical peoples. (The precise definition of the term is the topic of the
Native American name controversy.)
According to current
scientific knowledge, no
humans evolved in
North America or
South America but instead arrived by
sea or by a
land bridge that formerly connected North America with
Asia. Most (if not all) of those indigenous peoples descend from peoples from
Siberia, who probably entered North America more than 16,000 years ago and spread and diversified into hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes.
While many of these indigenous peoples retained a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle until modern times, others lived in permanent villages and were primarily farmers, and in some regions they created large sedentary
chiefdom polities, and even advanced
state level societies with monumental
architecture and large-scale, organized
cities.
See also: Mississippian culture, Cahokia, Mesoamerica, Maya, Olmec, Zapotec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Aztec, Aymara, Inca, Urarina, indigenous people of Brazil.See also: Archaeology of the Americas, Models of migration to the New WorldThe Bering Strait Land Bridge Theory
Based on
anthropological,
genetic, and linguistic evidence, scholars generally agree that most indigenous peoples of the Americas descend from people who probably
migrated from
Siberia across the
Bering Strait, 15,000-9,000 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.
Migration waves
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Language families of North American indigenous peoples |
In spite of the lingering controversy about who were the first Americans, anthropologists and archaeologists generally agree that most of the indigenous peoples who lived in the New World right before the European conquest descended from Siberian hunters, who entered North America about ten millennia ago, and then gradually spread to Central and South America.
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, the Northern Native Americans are related to the
Tuvans, a
Turkic group of people located in the
Tuva Republic at the southwestern edge of Siberia. The general 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
Eskimos (Inuit) 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 as many as four distinct migrations from
Asia. These studies also provide surprising evidence of 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 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.)
European colonization
The
European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives and cultures of the indigenous peoples of the continent. From the
15th to
19th centuries, their populations were ravaged by the privations of displacement, by disease, and in many cases by warfare with European groups and enslavement by them. The first indigenous group encountered by Columbus were the 250,000
Arawaks of
Hispaniola. They were enslaved. The culture was extinct by
1650, and 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).
s and other Europeans brought
horses to the Americas. Some of these animals
escaped 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, (species
Equus scotti and others [
1]) died out at the end of the last
ice age with other
megafauna. The re-introduction of the horse had a profound impact on Native American and First Nations culture in the
Great Plains of North 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 fatal among Europeans, often proved fatal to the indigenous people, and more dangerous diseases such as
smallpox were especially deadly to indigenous populations. It is difficult to estimate the total percentage of the indigenous population killed by these diseases.
Epidemics often immediately followed European exploration, sometimes destroying entire villages. Some historians estimate that up to 80% of some indigenous populations may have died due to European diseases. (For more information, see
population history of American indigenous peoples.)
| Hopi man weaving on traditional loom |
| | Mystic River Singers performing at a powwow in 1998 |
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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 number of instruments such as drums, flutes, sea snails shells (used as a kind of trumpet), "rain" tubes, etc. No string instruments were used, though, only percussion and wind.
Art of the indigenous peoples of the Americas comprises a major category in the world art collection. Contributions include
pottery,
paintings,
jewelry,
weavings,
sculptures,
basketry, and
carvings.
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Representation of the populations of pure Amerindian peoples in Latin America. (Source : World Fact book 1999) |
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 | 1% | 13% | 14% |
| Bolivia | 55% | 30% | 85% |
| Brazil2 | 0.4% | [?] | [?] |
| Canada3 | 1.9%4 | 2.7% | 4.6% |
| Chile | 3% | 60 | 63 |
| Cuba5 | 0% | NA | NA |
| Costa Rica5 | [?] | [?] | [?] |
| Colombia | 2% | 68% | 70% |
| Dominican Republic | 2% | 60% | 0%. |
| Guatemala | 44 % | 52% | 96% |
| Ecuador | 25% | 55% | 80% |
| El Salvador | 5% | 94% | 99% |
French Guyana,
Guyana and Suriname | 5 – 20% | [?] | [?] |
| Honduras | 7% | 90% | 97% |
| Mexico | 10-30% | 60-80% | 90% |
| Nicaragua | 5% | 69% | 74% |
| Panama | 6% | 70% | 76% |
| Paraguay | 5% | 93.3% | 98.3% |
| Peru | 45% | 37% | 82% |
| Venezuela | 2% | 69% | 71% |
| USA6 | 0.9% | 0.6% | 1.5% |
| Uruguay | 0% | 8% | 8% |
1 Source : The World Factbook 1999, Central Intelligence Agency unless otherwise indicated.
2 2000 Brazil Census
3 Canada 2001 Census
4 1.9% is for single origins only, Aboriginal identity population is 3.3%
5 indigenous peoples mixed into the general population; NA = "not available".
6 2000 U.S. Census
|}CanadaThe 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 MĂ©tis, "First Nations" is the most commonly preferred term of self-identification. First Nations peoples make up approximately 3% of the Canadian population. The official term for First Nations peopleâ€"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 Nationâ€"is Indian.United StatesIndigenous 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% 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.MexicoThe territory of modern-day Mexico was home to numerous indigenous civilizations prior to the arrival of the European conquistadors: 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 CortĂ©s 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 indĂgenas (as the native peoples are now known) have survived to the present day.
With mestizos numbering some 60% of the modern population, estimates for the numbers of unmixed indigenous peoples vary from a very modest 10% to a more liberal 30% 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.
While Mexicans are universally proud of their indigenous heritage (generally more so than of their Spanish roots), 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.BelizeMestizos (European with indigenous peoples) number about 45% of the population; unmixed Maya make up another 10%.GuatemalaThe indigenous peoples of Guatemala are of Maya stock. Pure Maya account for some 45% of the population; although around 40% 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% of the population.ColombiaA small minority 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.Brazil | Brazilian Indigenous chiefs of the Kayapo tribe: Raony, Kaye, Kadjor, Panara. |
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ArgentinaSee also Demographics of Argentina
Argentina's Native American population is about 403.000 (1% of total population)[INDEC: Encuesta Complementaria de Pueblos IndĂgenas (ECPI) 2004 - 2005]. Indigenous nations include the Toba, WichĂ, MocovĂ, Pilagá, ChulupĂ, Diaguita-CalchaquĂ, Kolla, GuaranĂ (TupĂ GuaranĂ and Avá GuaranĂ in the provinces of Jujuy and Salta, and Mbyá GuaranĂ in the province of Misiones), Chorote, ChanĂ©, TapietĂ©, Mapuche, Tehuelche and Selknam (Ona).BoliviaIn Bolivia about 2.5 million people speak Quechua, 2,1 million speak Aymara, while GuaranĂ 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.Most Peruvians are either Indigenous or Mestizos (of mixed Indigenous, African, European and Asian ancestry). Rampant racism in Peru has caused poverty and neglect among indigenous peoples and their traditional communities since the Spanish invaded this land, and has continued for centuries from the centralist government of Lima. Arguably, Peru has the second largest indigenous population of South America, and their traditions and customs have shaped the way Peruvians live and see themselves today. The most visited tourist destinations of Peru were built by indigenous peoples (the Quechua, Aymara, Moche, etc.), while Amazonian peoples, such as the Urarina 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 characterdiscrimination and language endangerment continue to challenge the indigenous peoples of this culturally diverse country of many nations.[Dean, Bartholomew. "State Power and Indigenous Peoples in Peruvian Amazonia: A Lost Decade, 1990-2000." In The Politics of Ethnicity Indigenous Peoples in Latin American States. Chapter 7, David Maybury-Lewis (ed.) Harvard University Press[2]]Other parts of the AmericasIndigenous 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.*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
*:Category:Indigenous languages of the Americas (division into geo-cultural areas)* Indigenous Women of the Americas
* Photos and videos of Bolivian, Mexican, Peruvian and Guatemaltec indigenous people
* Indigenous American Art in Persian--Art images of Native Americans
* 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.
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