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named Assiniboin Boy Photo by Edward S. Curtis .]] Native Americans in the United States (also known as '''Indians''', '''American Indians''', '''First Americans''', '''Indigenous Peoples''', '''Aboriginal Peoples''', '''Aboriginal Americans''', '''Amerindians''', '''Amerinds''', or '''Original Americans''') are the Indigenous Peoples within the territory that is now encompassed by the Continental United States and their descendants in modern times. This collective term encompasses a large number of distinct Tribe s, State s, and Ethnic Group s, many of them still enduring as political communities. A comprehensive tribal list or " Classification Of Native Americans " is impossible to assemble. The U.S. State s and several of the inhabited Insular Areas which do not form part of the continental U.S. Territory also contain indigenous groups. Some of these other Indigenous Peoples In The United States are not generally designated as "Native Americans". This includes groups such as the Alaska Natives commonly known as the Eskimo (i.e., the Inuit , Yupik , Aleut , etc.), Native Hawaiians (also known as Kanaka Māoli and Kanaka 'Oiwi), and various Pacific Islander peoples such as the Chamorros . There is some Controversy Surrounding The Names used to describe these peoples. U.S. specific teminology considerations are also covered in the Terminology Differences section, below. EARLY HISTORY See also: Archaeology Of The Americas , Models Of Migration To The New World , and Indigenous People Of The Americas for more detailed history and migration theories. It is worth noting that most Aboriginal peoples or "Indians" of North and South America reject theories about their "arrival" in the western hemisphere. They maintain instead that they have always lived here (at least for ten thousand years — since the dawn of their civilisation). All scientific evidence points to the ancient origin of Amerindians compared to other immigrants. Any theory that holds otherwise is likely to be perceived by most Aboriginal peoples as irrelevant; by some, as racist; and by many, as merely a politically-motivated effort to classify Aboriginal American peoples ultimately as immigrants. Such a position would hold that that, if they're "really" immigrants just like everybody who came after 1492, they cannot have any special historical claims in regard to the land. Of course, because Amerindians have lived in Americas for 10-20 thousand years, in contrast to the recent post-Colombian colonization wave, they have undoubtedly more right to be called "native" than any other group. The Bering Strait Land Bridge theory and supporting facts Considerable , 2006 The exact epoch and route are still a matter of controversy. The primarily Siberian origin is widely regarded as the most likely, consisting of at least three separate migrations from Siberia to the Americas. The first wave, during the late Pleistocene , would be the forerunners of the Clovis and Folsom Culture s, both hunting the abundant large mammals of the virgin continent. This wave eventually spread over the entire hemisphere, as far south as Tierra Del Fuego . Native Americans , URL accessed on February 22, 2006. 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 , Apache s and Navajo s. This group reached North America between 6,000 to 4,000 BC.ibid The third wave brought the ancestors of the Inuit , Yupik and Aleut peoples. They may have come by sea over the Bering Strait, after the land bridge had disappeared. They are believed to have reached Alaska as late as 1,000 BC. In recent years, molecular genetics studies based upon Mitochondrial DNA shows that 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 Inuits and Yupiks during the last ice age. A recent study in 2004 has claimed evidence which, if accepted, would extensively revise the timeline of human habitation in the Americas. New Evidence Puts Man In North America 50,000 Years Ago (November 18, 2004), Science Daily. Retrieved February 19, 2006 At the , 2006 This would indicate the presence of humans well before the termination of the last Glaciation . Other archaeologists have disputed the dating methodology employed, and have also suggested that these "artifacts" are naturally-formed, rather than of human manufacture. Other recent claims for pre-Clovis artifacts have similarly been made in some South America n sites. The notion of pre-Clovis habitation continues to be a subject of scholarly debate, and the issue has not yet been satisfactorily resolved. Settling down By 1500 B.C, many tribes had settled into small indigenous communities. In several regions, temporary Hunter-gatherer settlements were transformed into small permanent or semi-permanent settlements and villages, frequently established in regions, such as river valleys, which were conducive to the Raising Of Crops . Several such societies and communities, over time, intensified this practice of established settlements, and grew to support sizeable and concentrated populations. Examples include those of the Mississippian Culture and the Pueblo Peoples (Anasazi) . They constructed large and complex earthworks, and were particularly skilled at small stone sculptures and engravings on shell and copper. Agriculture was independently developed in what is now the eastern United States by 2500 BCE, based on the domestication of indigenous Sunflower , Squash and Goosefoot . Eventually, in the last eleven hundred years, the Mexican crops of Corn and Beans were adapted to the shorter summers of eastern North American and replaced the indigenous crops. The large '' Pueblo s'', or villages, built on top of rocky ''talleland'' or ''mesas'' of Southwest around 700 CE, were a complicated aggregate of family apartments. Towns were one large complex of buildings, with multistoried houses arranged around courtyards or plazas. Wooden ladders provided access to upper levels. Under the courtyards, subterranean ''kivas'', or ceremonial structures, served as meeting rooms for religious societies. While exhibiting widely divergent social, cultural, and artistic expressions, all Native American groups worked with materials available to them and employed social arrangements that augmented their Means Of Subsistence and survival. EUROPEAN COLONIZATION Initial impacts The European Colonization Of The Americas changed the lives and cultures of the Native Americans. In the 15th to 19th century, their populations were ravaged by displacement, disease, warfare with the Europeans, and enslavement. The first Native American group encountered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, the 250,000 to 1,000,000 Island Arawaks (more properly called the Taino ) of Haiti Quisqueya , Cubanacan ( Cuba ) and Boriquen Puerto Rico , were enslaved. It is said that only 500 survived by the year 1550, and the group was considered extinct before 1650. Yet DNA studies show that the genetic contribution of the Taino to that region continues, and the mitochondrial DNA studies of the Taino are said to show relationships to the Northern Indigenous Nations, such as Inuit (Eskimo) and others. Mitochondrial DNA in the Dominican Republic In the 15th century, Spaniard s and other Europeans brought Horse s 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 early American horses were game for early human hunters, and went extinct about 7,000 BC, just after the end of the last Ice Age . The re-introduction of the horse had a profound impact on Native American 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 goods with neighboring tribes, and more easily capture Game . Europeans also brought Disease s, against which the Native Americans had no Immunity . Chicken Pox and Measles , though common and rarely fatal among Europeans, often proved fatal to Native Americans, and more dangerous diseases such as Smallpox were especially deadly to Native American populations. It is difficult to estimate the total percentage of the Native American population killed by these diseases. Epidemic s often immediately followed European exploration, sometimes destroying entire villages. Some historians estimate that up to 80% of some Native Populations may have died due to European diseases. Smallpox epidemic ravages Native Americans on the northwest coast of North America in the 1770s. Early relations During the American Revolutionary War , the newly proclaimed United States competed with the British for the allegiance of Native American nations east of the Mississippi River . Most Native Americans who joined the struggle sided with the British, hoping to use the war to halt colonial expansion onto American Indian land. Many native communities were divided over which side to support in the war. For the Iroquois Confederacy, the American Revolution resulted in civil war. Cherokees split into a neutral (or pro-American) faction and the anti-American Chickamauga s, led by Dragging Canoe . Many other communities were similarly divided. Frontier Warfare During The American Revolution was particularly brutal, and numerous atrocities were committed on both sides. Noncombatants of both races suffered greatly during the war, and villages and food supplies were frequently destroyed during military expeditions. The largest of these expeditions was the Sullivan Expedition of 1779, which destroyed more than 40 Iroquois villages in order to neutralize Iroquois raids in Upstate New York . The expedition failed to have the desired effect: American Indian activity became even more determined. The British made peace with the Americans in the Treaty Of Paris (1783) , and had ceded a vast amount of American Indian territory to the United States without informing the American Indians. The United States initially treated the American Indians who had fought with the British as a conquered people who had lost their land. When this proved impossible to enforce (the Indians had lost the war on paper, not on the battlefield), the policy was abandoned. The United States was eager to expand, and the national government initially sought to do so only by purchasing Native American land in Treaties . The states and settlers were frequently at odds with this policy. Indians and the American Revolution by Wilcomb E. Washburn. URL accessed February 23, 2006. Removal and reservations tipis, about 1900]] In the 19th century, the incessant Westward expansion of the United States incrementally compelled large numbers of Native Americans to resettle further west, sometimes by force, almost always reluctantly. Under President Andrew Jackson , Congress passed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized the President to conduct treaties to exchange Indian land east of the Mississippi River for lands west of the river. As many as 100,000 American Indians eventually relocated in the West as a result of this Indian Removal policy. In theory, relocation was supposed to be voluntary (and many Indians did remain in the East), but in practice great pressure was put on American Indian leaders to sign removal treaties. Arguably the most egregious violation of the stated intention of the removal policy was the Treaty Of New Echota , which was signed by a dissident faction of Cherokee s, but not the elected leadership. The treaty was brutally enforced by President Martin Van Buren , which resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4,000 Cherokees (mostly from disease) on the Trail Of Tears . Conflicts, generally known as " Indian Wars ", broke out between U.S. forces and many different tribes. U.S. government authorities entered numerous treaties during this period, but later abrogated many for various reasons. Well-known military engagements include the Native American victory at the Battle Of Little Bighorn in 1876, and the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890. On January 31 , 1876 , the United States government ordered all remaining Native Americans to move into Reservations Or Reserves . This, together with the near-extinction of the American Bison that many tribes had lived on, set about the downturn of Prairie Culture that had developed around the use of the horse for hunting, travel and trading. |
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