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The term indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the inhabitants of the Americas before the Arrival Of The European Explorers in the 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 , 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 , Indigenous People Of Brazil .'' HISTORY ''See also: Archeology Of The Americas , Models Of Migration To The New World '' The 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 , prior to 16,000 years ago. (See Adovasio, The First Americans, 2002; Dillehay, The Settlement of the Americas: A New Prehistory, 2001). The exact epoch and route is still a matter of debates. Until recently the majority of anthropologists believed that one wave of migrants crossed the strait 12,000 Years Ago via the Bering Land Bridge which existed during the last Ice Age (which occurred 26,000 to 11,000 Years Ago ), and that they followed an inland route through Alaska and Canada that had just been freed of its ice cover. There is growing evidence of human presence in Brazil (Pedra Pintada), Chile ( Monte Verde ) and Argentina (Piedra Museo) 11,500 years ago or earlier {Link without Title} . Other possibilities, not necessarily exclusive, have been suggested:
While the timing and means by which the First Americans arrived in the Americas is still hotly debated, recent archaeological conferences and an overwhelming plethora of radiocarbon dates from sites at Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania and Monte Verde in Chile, among others, have solidified a paradigm shift that appears to be growing toward a consensus that human beings occupied both North and South America, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, at least 1,000 years before the date previously posited by proponents of the Clovis First theory, and perhaps much earlier. (See Dillehay, 2001; [http://www.nationalgeographic.com/events/97/monteverde/dallas.html ; [http://www.uky.edu/Projects/MonteVerde/]; See also Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed. 1970). One must also remember that the earliest Americans would have used many materials other than stone, including plant fibers and animal hides and tendons, all of which disintegrate under most ecological conditions. Thus stone materials, though not the most common of ancient peoples' tools, have lasted to the present in much greater numbers and have perhaps skewed theory with a stone bias. This adds greater significance to Dillehay's discovery and dating of organic cords tied in knots around tent stakes that date to a pre-Clovis era. Transatlantic Theory A more recent and controversial theory is that the first peoples to arrive in the Americas were from what corresponds today to south-western France . The theory originated when artifacts showing apparent similarities to those of the Solutrean culture (that inhabited pre-historic south-west France) were discovered by Archaeologists digging below the 'Clovis level'. (The Clovis level being the level at which a flint spearhead was found in New Mexico , thought to belong to ' Clovis Man ', the people who moved into North America via the Bering Strait glaciated bridge.) The Carbon Dating indicated that the items have been crafted about 17,000 years ago. By recognizing that the northern Atlantic Ocean itself was also covered by ice roughly 18,000 years ago, archaeologists have theorized that the Solutrean people could have crossed the glaciated Atlantic at that time. According to Mitochondrial DNA analysis, 15% to 25% of indigenous peoples from north-eastern America exhibit a particular DNA Mutation (dating back at least 15,000 years ago) that is much more commonly encountered among Western Europeans than among population of Asia. Some experts believe this implies that some of the indigenous peoples ancestors migrated from across the Atlantic Ocean ( BBC 2002 ) while it is not accepted as a sufficient evidence by others ( Eschleman 2003 ). The Pre-Siberian Aborigines Theory A more radical theory holds that a population of Pre-Siberian American Aborigines already occupied the Americas before the Siberian migrations. These earlier inhabitants could be migrants from Oceania , who arrived either by sailing across the Pacific Ocean or by following the land route through Beringia at a much earlier date. Proponents of this theory claim that the oldest human remains in South America and in Baja California show distinctive non-Siberian traits, resembling those of Australian Aborigine s or the so-called " Negrito " peoples of South and Southeast Asia , such as the Andamanese of the Andaman Islands . These hypothetical Pre-Siberian aborigines would have been displaced by the Siberian migrants, and may have been ancestral to the distinctive Pericu indians of Baja California , and of the Fuegian s, the indigenous peoples of the Tierra Del Fuego . Basing any theory on supposed similarities in human physiology thought to be recognized in the "features" of ancient remains, however, ignores the physical variety among members of any single group and is generally doubted by scientists and scholars. Further, many have argued that such theorizing can be construed as inherently racist and fraught with unscientific notions of population phenotypes and their underlying genetics. Migration waves 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:
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. In 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 before 1650 , and only 500 survived by the year 1550 , though the bloodlines continued through the modern populace. In the 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 Disease s 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. Epidemic s 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 . The Native Americans at the beginning of the 21st century The Native Americans At The Beginning Of The 21st Century are at about 35 million on the continent and still occasionally suffer from discrimination. CULTURE man weaving on traditional loom]] 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 in 1998]] Native American Music of North American Indians is almost entirely Monophonic , but there are notable exceptions. Traditional Native American music often includes Drum ming but little other instrumentation, although Flute s 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 , Painting s, Jewelry , Weaving s, Sculpture s, Basketry , and Carving s. STATISTICS ON INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS 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). HISTORY AND STATUS BY COUNTRY Canada See Also: Aboriginal peoples in Canada The 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 Métis , " 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 people — 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 Nation — is ''Indian''. United States See Also: Native Americans in the United States Indigenous peoples in what is now the United States are commonly called "American Indians" but more recently have been referred to as " Native Americans ". American Indians make up 1.4% of the population, with 4.1 million people identifying themselves as Native Americans, although only 1.8 million are registered tribal members. A substantial proportion of US Native Americans live on Indian Reservation s. Mexico See Also: Indigenous peoples of Mexico The territory of modern-day s, who flourished from between 1200 BC to about 800 BC in the coastal regions of the Gulf Of Mexico ; the Zapotec s and the Mixtec s, 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 Aztec s, 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 Cortés 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 ''). '' Mestizo s'' quickly came to account for a majority of the colony's population; however, significant pockets of pure-blood ''indígenas'' (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 of Chihuahua and the Yaqui s 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 Huichol s 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. Belize Mestizos (European with indigenous peoples) number about 45% of the population; unmixed Maya make up another 10%. Guatemala The 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. Colombia See Also: Indigenous peoples in Colombia A 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 tribe: Raony, Kaye, Kadjor, Panara.]] See Also: Indigenous peoples in Brazil Argentina See also '' Demographics Of Argentina '' Argentina's Native American population is a subject of controversy. Estimates vary from a minimum of 300,000 (0.7% of total population) to a maximum of two million (5.6% of the population). Indigenous nations include the Toba, Wichí, Mocoví, Pilagá, Chulupí, Diaguita Calchaquí, Kolla, Guaraní (Tupí Guaraní and Avá Guaraní in the provinces of Jujuy and Salta, and Mbyá Guaraní in the province of Misiones), Chorote, Chané, Tapieté, Mapuche , Tehuelche and Selknam (Ona). Bolivia In Bolivia about 2.5 million people speak Quechua, 2,1 million speak Aymara, while Guaraní 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. Nevertheless, 10 years afterwards not too much has changed. Other parts of the Americas of the Aymara in Bolvia and Peru]] Indigenous 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 , 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. SEE ALSO
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