I.

Introduction

Native Americans or American Indians, peoples who are indigenous to the Americas. The name Indian was first applied to them by Christopher Columbus, who believed mistakenly that the mainland and islands of America were part of the Indies, in Asia. This article focuses on the indigenous peoples native to North America, Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), and South America.

II.

Early Population

It is estimated that at the time of the first European contact, North and South America were inhabited by more than 90 million people: about 10 million in America north of present-day Mexico; 30 million in Mexico; 11 million in Central America; 445,000 in the Caribbean islands; 30 million in the South American Andean region; and 9 million in the remainder of South America. These population figures are a rough estimate (some authorities cite much lower figures); exact figures are impossible to ascertain. By the time European colonists began keeping records, the Native American populations had already been drastically reduced by war, famine, forced labour, and epidemics of diseases introduced through contact with Europeans.

III.

Physical Traits

Native Americans are physically most similar to Asian populations and appear to have descended from Asian peoples who migrated across the Bering Strait land bridge during the part of the Quaternary period known as the Ice Age, beginning perhaps some 30,000 years ago. Like other peoples with Mongolian characteristics, Native Americans tend to have light-brown skin, brown eyes, and dark, straight hair. They differ from Asians, in the classification of races however, in their characteristic blood types. Because many Native Americans today have had one or more European-Americans or African-Americans among their ancestors, numerous people who are legally and culturally Native American may look fairer or darker than Mongolian peoples or may have markedly non-Mongolian facial features.

Over the thousands of years that indigenous peoples have lived in the Americas, they have developed into a great number of local populations, each differing somewhat from its neighbours. Some populations (such as those on the Great Plains of North America) tend to be tall and often heavily built, whereas others (for example, many in the South American Andes and adjacent lowlands) tend to be short and broad-chested; furthermore, every population includes people who vary from the average. Some physical characteristics of Native American populations have been influenced by diet or by the environmental conditions of their societies. For example, the short stature of some native Guatemalans seems to result at least in part from diets poor in protein; the broad chests and large hearts and lungs of native Andeans represent an adaptation to the rarefied atmosphere of the high mountains they inhabit.

IV.

Earliest Migrations

Evidence of human migration indicates that the first peoples to cross into the Americas, coming from north-eastern Siberia into Alaska, were carrying stone tools and other equipment typical of the middle and end of the Palaeolithic period of the Stone Age. These peoples probably lived in bands of about 100, fishing and hunting herd animals such as reindeer and mammoths. They were probably nomads, moving camp at least several times each year to take advantage of seasonal sources of food. It is likely that they gathered each summer for a few weeks with other bands to celebrate religious ceremonies and to trade, compete in sports, gamble, and visit one another. At such gatherings, valuable information could be obtained about new sources of food or raw materials (such as stone for tools). Such news might have led families to move into new territory, eventually into Alaska and then farther south into the Americas.

Evidence for the earliest migrations into the Americas is scarce and usually not as clear as archaeologists would wish. Evidence from the comparative study of Native American languages, as well as analysis of some genetic materials, suggest that these earliest migrations may have taken place around 30,000 years ago. More direct evidence from archaeological sites places the date somewhat later. For example, in the Yukon, in what is now Canada, bone tools have been discovered that have been radiocarbon-dated to 22,000 bc. Campfire remains in the Valley of Mexico, in central Mexico, have been radiocarbon-dated to 21,000 bc, and a few chips of stone tools have been found near the hearths, indicating the presence of humans at that time. In a cave in the Andes of Peru, near Ayacucho, archaeologists have found stone tools and butchered animal bones that have been dated to 18,000 bc. A cave in Idaho, in the United States, contains similar evidence—stone tools and butchered bone—dated to 12,500 bc. In none of these sites do distinctive American styles characterize the artefacts (manufactured objects such as tools). Artefacts having the earliest distinctive American styles appeared about 11,000 bc and are known as Clovis stone blades.

V.

Major Culture Areas

A culture area is first of all a geographical region; it has characteristic climate, landforms, and biological population—fauna and flora. Humans who live in the region must adapt to its characteristics to obtain the necessities of life. The Americas may be divided into many culture areas, and these divisions may be determined in different ways. Here, nine areas are used for North America, one for Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), and four for South America.

A.

North America

The culture areas of North America are the South-west, the Eastern Woodlands, the South-east, the Plains, the California Intermountain region, the Plateau, the Subarctic, the North-west Pacific Coast, and the Arctic.

A.1.

The South-West

The South-western culture area encompasses Arizona, New Mexico, southern Colorado, and adjacent northern Mexico (the states of Sonora and Chihuahua). The first known inhabitants of the south-west were hunting mammoths and other game with Clovis-style spearpoints by about 9500 bc. As the Ice Age ended (c. 8000 bc), mammoths became extinct. The people in the south-west turned to hunting bison (known as buffalo in North America) and spent more time collecting wild plants for food. The climate gradually became warmer and drier, and a way of life—called the Archaic—developed from about 8000 bc to about 300 bc. Archaic peoples hunted mostly deer, small game, and birds, and they harvested fruits, nuts, and the seeds of wild plants, using stone slabs for grinding seeds into flour. In about 3000 bc the South-Westerners learned to grow maize, which had been domesticated in Mexico, but for centuries it was only a minor food.

About 300 bc, some Mexicans whose culture was based on cultivating maize, beans, and squash in irrigated fields migrated to southern Arizona. These people, called the Hohokam, lived in towns in adobe-plastered houses built around public plazas. They were the ancestors of the present-day Pima and Papago, who preserve much of the Hohokam way of life.

The peoples of the northern sector of the South-western culture area, after centuries of trading with the Hohokam, had by ad 700 modified their life into what is called the Anasazi tradition, as early Cliff Dwellers. They grew maize, beans, and squash and lived in towns of terraced stone, or in adobe apartment blocks built around central plazas; these blocks had blank walls facing the outside of the town, thereby protecting the people within. During the summer many families lived in small houses at their fields. After 1275 the northern sector suffered severe droughts, and many Anasazi farms and towns were abandoned; those along the Rio Grande, however, grew and expanded their irrigation systems. In 1540 Spanish explorers visited the descendants of the Anasazi, who are called the Pueblos. After 1598 the Spanish imposed their rule on the Pueblos, but in 1680 the Pueblos organized a rebellion that kept them free until 1692. Since that time, Pueblo towns have been dominated by Spanish, then Mexican, and finally United States government. The Pueblos attempted to preserve their culture: They continued their farming and, in some towns, secretly maintained their own governments and religion. Twenty-two Pueblo towns exist today.

In the 1400s, hunters speaking an Athabascan language—related to languages of Alaska and western Canada—appeared in the south-west, having migrated southward along the western Great Plains. They raided Pueblo towns for food and—after slave markets were established by the Spanish—for captives to sell; from the Pueblos, they learned to farm, and from the Spanish, to raise sheep and horses. Today these peoples are the Navajo and the several groups of Apache.

The western sector of the South-west is inhabited by speakers of Yuman languages, including the isolated Havasupai, who farm on the floor of the Grand Canyon; and the Mojave, who live along the lower Colorado River. The Yuman-speaking peoples inhabit small villages of pole-and-thatch houses near their floodplain fields of maize, beans, and squash.

A.2.

Eastern Woodlands

The Eastern Woodlands culture area consists of the temperate-climate regions of the eastern United States and Canada, from Minnesota and Ontario east to the Atlantic Ocean and south to North Carolina. Originally densely forested, this large region was first inhabited by hunters, including those who used Clovis spearpoints. About 7000 bc, with the warming climate, an Archaic culture developed. The peoples of this area became increasingly dependent on deer, nuts, and wild grains. By around 3000 bc human populations in the Eastern Woodlands had reached cultural peaks that were not again achieved until after ad 1200. The cultivation of squash was learned from Mexicans, and in the Midwest sunflowers, amaranth, marsh elder, and goosefoot and related plants were also farmed. All of these were grown for their seeds, which—except for those of the sunflower—were usually ground into flour. Fishing and shellfish gathering increased, and off the coast of Maine the catch included swordfish. In the western Great Lakes area, copper was surface mined and made into blades and ornaments, and throughout the Eastern Woodlands, beautiful stones were carved into small sculptures.

After about 1000 bc the climate became cooler and food resources scarcer, causing a population decline in the Atlantic part of the region. In the Midwest, however, populations organized into wide trading networks and began building large mound-covered tombs for their leaders and for use as centres for religious activities. These early mound builders, called the Hopewell, raised some maize, but were more dependent on Archaic foods. The Hopewell culture declined by about ad 400.

By 750 a new culture developed in the Midwest. Called the Mississippian culture, it was based on intensive maize agriculture, and its people built large towns with earth platforms, or mounds, supporting temples and rulers' residences. Across the Mississippi River from present-day St Louis, Missouri, the Mississippians built the city of Cahokia, which may have had a population of up to 50,000. Cahokia contained hundreds of mounds. Its principal temple was built on the largest, a mound 30 m (100 ft) high and roughly about 110 m (360 ft) long and about 49 m (160 ft) wide. During this time period, maize agriculture also became important in the Atlantic region, but no cities were built.

The presence of Europeans in the Eastern Woodlands dates from at least ad 1000, when colonists from Iceland tried to settle the island of Newfoundland. Throughout the 1500s, European fishers and whalers used the coast of Canada. European settlement of the region began in the 1600s. It was not strongly resisted, partly because terrible epidemics had spread among the Native Americans of this region through contact with European fishers and with Spanish explorers in the south-east. By this time the Mississippian cities had also disappeared, probably as a consequence of the epidemics.

The Native American peoples of the Eastern Woodlands included the Iroquois and a number of Algonquian-speaking peoples, including the Lenape, also known as the Delaware; the Micmac; the Narragansett; the Shawnee; the Potawatomi; the Menominee; and the Illinois. Some Eastern Woodlands peoples moved west in the 19th century; others remain throughout the region, usually in their own small communities.

A.3.

The South-East

The South-east culture area is the semi-tropical region north of the Gulf of Mexico and south of the Middle Atlantic-Midwest region; it extends from the Atlantic coast west to central Texas. Much of this land once consisted of pine forests, which the Native Americans of the region kept cleared of underbrush by yearly burnings, a form of livestock management that maintained high deer populations for hunting.

Cultivation of native plants was begun in the Late Archaic period, about 3000 bc, and there were large populations of humans in the area. In 1400 bc a town, called Poverty Point by modern archaeologists, was built near present-day Vicksburg, Mississippi. Like the Mississippian towns of 2,000 years later, Poverty Point had a large public plaza and huge earth mounds that served as temple platforms or covered tombs.

The number of Native Americans in the south-east remained high until European contact. Maize agriculture appeared about 500 bc. Towns continued to be built, and crafted items were widely traded. The first European explorer, the Spaniard Hernando de Soto, marched around the south-east with his army between 1539 and 1542; epidemics introduced by the Spaniards killed thousands.

South-eastern peoples included the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, the Creek, and the Seminole, known by the explorers as the Five Civilized Tribes because they resembled European nations in organization and economy, and because they quickly incorporated desirable European imports (such as fruit trees) into their way of life. The Natchez, whose elaborate mound-building culture was destroyed by Europeans in the 18th century, were another famous South-eastern people.

A.4.

The Plains

The North American Plains are the grasslands from central Canada south to Mexico and from the Midwest westward to the Rocky Mountains. Bison hunting was always the principal source of food in this culture area, until the wild bison herds were exterminated in the 1880s. Most of the Plains peoples lived in small nomadic bands that moved as the herds moved, driving them into corrals for slaughter. From ad 850 onward, along the Missouri River and other rivers of the central Plains, agricultural towns were also built.

The customs of the Plains peoples have become well known as the stereotyped “Indian” customs—the long feather headdress, the tepee (also spelled tipi), the ceremonial pipe, costumes, and dancing. These peoples and their customs became well known during the 19th century, when European colonists invaded their lands, and newspapers, magazines, and photography popularized the frontier.

Among early Plains peoples were the Blackfoot, who were bison hunters, and the Mandan and Hidatsa, who were Missouri River agriculturalists. As European colonists took over the Eastern Woodlands, many Midwest peoples moved on to the Plains, among them the Sioux, the Cheyenne, and the Arapaho. Earlier, about 1450, from the valleys west of the Rockies, some Shoshone and Comanche had begun moving on to the Plains. After 1630 these peoples took horses from Spanish ranches in New Mexico and traded them throughout the Plains. The culture of the Plains peoples of the time thus included elements from adjacent culture areas.

A.5.

The California Intermountain Area

This area comprises mountain ridges and valleys of Utah, Nevada, and California. An Archaic way of life—hunting deer and mountain sheep, fishing, netting migratory birds, harvesting pine nuts and wild grains—developed by 8000 bc and persisted with no radical changes until about ad 1850. Villages were simple, with thatched houses, and in the warm months little clothing was worn. Agricultural technology was sophisticated; basketry was developed into a true art. On the California coast, people fished and hunted sea lions, dolphins, and other sea mammals from boats; the wealth of resources stimulated a well-regulated trade using shell money.

The Paiute, Ute, and Shoshone are the best-known peoples of the Intermountain Great Basin area; the tribes of California include the Klamath, the Modoc, and the Yurok in the north; the Pomo, Maidu, Miwok, Patwin, and Wintun in the central region; and the “mission tribes” in the south, whose European-given names were derived from those of the Spanish missions that sought to convert them—for example, the Diegueño.

A.6.

The Plateau Region

The plateau region comprised the evergreen forests and mountains in Idaho, eastern Oregon and Washington, western Montana, and adjacent Canada. As in the Great Basin, the Archaic pattern of life persisted on the Plateau, but it was enriched by annual runs of salmon up the Columbia, Snake, Fraser, and tributary rivers, as well as by harvests of camas (western United States plants with edible bulbs) and other nutritious tubers and roots in the meadows. People lived in villages made up of sunken round houses in winter and camped in mat houses in summer. They dried quantities of salmon and camas for winter eating, and on the lower Columbia River, the Wishram and Wasco peoples kept a market town where travellers from the Pacific Coast and the Plains could meet, trade, and buy dried food.

Plateau peoples include the Nez Percé, Wallawalla, Yakama, and Umatilla in the Sahaptian language family, the Flathead, Spokane, and Okanagon in the Salishan language family, and the Cayuse and Kutenai (with no linguistic relatives).

A.7.

The Subarctic

The Subarctic region comprises the major part of Canada, stretching from the Atlantic Ocean west to the mountains bordering the Pacific Ocean, and from the tundra south to within about 300 km (200 mi) of the United States border. The eastern half of this region was once heavily glaciated, and its soil and drainage are poor. No agriculture is possible in the Subarctic because summers are extremely short, and so the region's peoples lived by hunting moose and caribou and by fishing. They were nomadic, sheltering themselves in tents or, in the west, sometimes in sunken round houses (as in the Plateau region). To move camp, they used canoes in summer and sleds in winter. Because of the limited food resources, Subarctic populations remained small.

The peoples native to the eastern half of the Subarctic region are speakers of Algonquian languages; they include the Cree, Ojibwa (also known as the Chippewa), Montagnais, and Naskapi. In the western half live speakers of northern Athabascan languages, including the Chipewyan, Beaver, Kutchin, Ingalik, Kaska, and Tanana. Many Subarctic peoples, although now settled in villages, still live by trapping, fishing, and hunting. In August 2003 the Canadian government signed over a large area of land (39,000 sq km (15,058 sq mi), north-east of Yellowknife) in the Northwest Territories to the Tlicho First Nation (also known as the Dogrib, an Aboriginal people). The Tlicho will form a government to oversee the territory, which will remain a part of Canada although owned by the Tlicho.

A.8.

North-West Pacific Coast

The west coast of North America, from southern Alaska to northern California, forms the North-west Pacific Coast culture area. Bordered on the east by mountains, the habitable land is usually narrow, lying between the sea and the hills. The sea is rich in sea mammals and in fish, including salmon and halibut; on the land are mountain sheep and goats, elk, abundant berries, and edible roots and tubers. These resources supported a dense population organized into large villages where people lived in wooden houses, often more than 30 m (100 ft) long. Each house contained an extended family, sometimes with slaves, and was managed by a chief. During the winter, villagers staged elaborate costumed religious dramas, and they also hosted people from neighbouring villages at ceremonial feasts called potlatches, at which gifts were lavishly given. Trade was important, and it extended towards northern Asia, where iron for knives was obtained. The North-west Pacific Coast cultures are known for their magnificent wooden carvings.

The North-west Pacific Coast culture developed after 3000 bc, when sea levels stabilized and movements of salmon and sea mammals became regular. The basic pattern of life changed little, and over the centuries carving and other crafts gradually attained great sophistication and artistry. Peoples of the North-west Pacific Coast include the Tlingit, Tsimshian, Haida, Kwakiutl, Nootka, Chinook, Salish, Makah, and Tillamook.

A.9.

The Arctic

The Arctic culture area runs along the coasts of Alaska and northern Canada. Because winters are long and dark, agriculture is impossible; people live by fishing and by hunting seal, caribou, and (in northern Alaska and eastern Canada) whale. Traditional summer houses were tents. Winter houses were round, well-insulated frame structures covered with skins and blocks of turf; in central Canada the winter houses often were made of blocks of ice. Populations were small because resources were so limited.

The Arctic was not inhabited until about 2000 bc, after glaciers finally melted in that region. In Alaska the Inuit and the Yuit (also known as Yupik) developed ingenious technology to deal with the difficult climate and meagre resources. In about ad 1000 bands of Alaskan Inuit migrated across Canada to Greenland; called the Thule culture, they appear to have absorbed an earlier people in eastern Canada and Greenland (the Dorset culture). These people are now often referred to as the Greenland Inuit. Because of this migration, traditional Inuit culture and language are similar from Alaska to Greenland. Living in south-western Alaska (and the eastern end of Siberia) are the Yuit, who are related to the Inuit in culture and ancestry but whose language is slightly different. Distantly related to the Inuit and Yuit are the Aleuts, who since 6000 bc have remained in their homeland on the Aleutian Islands, fishing and hunting sea mammals. Like the Subarctic peoples but, unlike most Native Americans, the Inuit, Yuit, and Aleut peoples today retain much of their ancient way of life, because their culture areas are remote from cities and their lands cannot be farmed.

B.

Mesoamerica

Civilizations developed in Mexico and upper Central America after about 1400 bc. These civilizations originated from an Archaic hunter-gatherer way of life that by 7000 bc included cultivation of small quantities of beans, squash, pumpkins, and maize. By 2000 bc Mexicans had come to depend on their planted fields of these crops, plus amaranth, avocado, and other fruits, and chilli peppers. Towns developed, and by 1500 bc the Olmec civilization boasted a capital with palaces, temples, and monuments built on a huge constructed platform about 50 m (165 ft) high and nearly 1.6 km (1 mi) long. The Olmec lived in the jungle of the east coast of Mexico; their trade routes extended as far as Monte Albán in western Mexico (in what is now Oaxaca State) and the Valley of Mexico in the central highlands. As the power of the Olmec declined (about 300 bc), the centres in the central highlands grew, and, shortly before the beginning of the Christian era, the earliest city in pre-Columbian Mexico had developed to an urban size at Teotihuacán in the Valley of Mexico. From 450 to 600 Teotihuacán dominated Mexico, trading with Monte Albán and with the kingdoms of the Maya that had arisen in south-western Mexico and conquering rivals as far south as the Valley of Guatemala. The capital city covered some 21 sq km (8 sq mi) with blocks of apartment houses, markets, many small factories, temples on platforms, and palaces covered with murals. Maya culture was also distinguished for developing, uniquely among Native American peoples, a written language based on glyphs.

About AD 700 Teotihuacán suffered attacks that destroyed its power. From about AD 750 to AD 950 the Maya civilization in the lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula collapsed, although other cities, mostly in northern Yucatán, were not as affected. Recent scientific research suggests that the reason for the decline of these Maya cities may have been three multi-year droughts between AD 810 and AD 910, which placed enormous pressure on the resources of the communities, whose agriculture was dependent on seasonally consistent rainfall. This empire collapsed in 1168. By 1433 the Valley of Mexico had regained domination over much of Mexico as a result of an alliance of three neighbouring kingdoms. This alliance secured the homeland from which one king, Montezuma I of the Aztecs, began territorial conquests in the 1400s. The empire flourished until 1519, when a Spanish soldier, Hernán Cortés, landed in eastern Mexico and advanced with Mexican allies upon the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlán. Internal strife and a smallpox epidemic weakened the Mexicans and helped Cortés conquer them in 1521.

At the time of these initial Spanish conquests the native peoples of Mexico included those in the domains of the Aztec Empire and of the powerful kingdoms of the Mixtec rulers in what is now Puebla State and the Purépecha (Tarascan) in Michoacán State, and of the Zapotec in Oaxaca, the Tlaxcalan in Michoacán, the Otomí in Hidalgo, and the Totonac in Veracruz; the subjects of the remnants of the Maya state of Mayapán in the Yucatán and of a number of smaller undestroyed Maya states to the south; and many independent groups in the frontier regions, such as the Yaqui, Huichol, and Tarahumara in northern Mexico and the Pipil in the south. After the Spanish conquest—which took more than two centuries to reach throughout Mexico—most of the Native American peoples were forced to survive as peasants governed by the Spanish-Mexican upper class.

The culture area of Mesoamerica—Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, western Honduras, and western Nicaragua—was one of farming villages producing maize, beans, squash, amaranth, turkeys, and other foods, supporting large city markets where traders sold tools, cloth, and luxury goods imported over long land and sea trade routes. In the cities lived manufacturers and their workers, merchants, the wealthy class, and priests and scholars who recorded literary, historical, and scientific works in hieroglyphic texts (astronomy was particularly advanced). Cities were adorned with sculptures and brilliant paintings, often depicting the Mesoamerican symbols of power and knowledge: the eagle, lord of the heavens; the jaguar, lord of the Earth; and the rattlesnake, associated with wisdom, peace, and the arts of civilization.

C.

South America

The culture areas of South America extend from lower Central America—eastern Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica—to the southern tip of South America. Four principal areas can be distinguished: northern South America, including the Caribbean and lower Central America; the central and southern Andes and adjacent Pacific coast; the Tropical Forest of eastern South America; and the tip and eastern portion of the narrow southern third of the continent, an area supporting only nomadic hunting-and-gathering peoples.

C.1.

Northern South America and the Caribbean

The culture area of northern South America and the Caribbean includes jungle lowlands, grassy savannah plains, the northern Andes, some arid sections of western Ecuador, and the islands of the Caribbean. Given its geographical location, the region might seem to link the great civilizations of Mexico and Peru; but because land travel through the jungles and mountains of lower Central America is difficult, pre-Columbian contacts between Peru and Mexico took place mostly by sea, from Ecuador's Gulf of Guayaquil to western Mexican ports. The indigenous peoples of northern South America and the Caribbean lived in small, independent states. Although they traded directly with Mexico and Peru by way of Ecuador, they were bypassed by the empires.

Finds of Clovis-like spearpoints indicate the presence of hunters in the area by 9000 bc; other evidence suggests that people were in the northern region by 18,000 bc. The Archaic style of living continued from the time of the extinction of the mastodons and mammoths, in the Clovis period, until about 3000 bc. About this time, village dwellers developed the cultivation of maize in Ecuador, and of manioc (or cassava) in Venezuela, and pottery-making flourished. Also after this date, the Caribbean islands were first settled. By 500 bc, in towns in some areas of northern South America, distinctive local styles had developed in sculpture and metalwork. Population growth and technological progress continued until the Spanish conquered the region; at that time the Chibcha kingdoms of Colombia were famous for their fine gold ornaments. Around the Caribbean, smaller groups such as the Mískito of Nicaragua, the Kuna of Panama, and the Arawak and Carib peoples of the Caribbean islands farmed and fished around their villages; the Carib also lived along the coast of Venezuela. These peoples lived a simpler life than did the peoples of the northern Andean states.

C.2.

Central and Southern Andes

The chain of the Andes that stretches down the western half of South America, together with the narrow coastal valleys between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean, were the home of the great indigenous American civilizations.

In recent years, excavation at the Monte Verde site in southern Chile has yielded unequivocal evidence of human occupation dating back to 11,000 bc. Excavations farther north, in Peru, show that by 7000 bc beans, including the lima bean, were cultivated, as were chilli peppers. A few centuries later the domestication of llamas was begun. Guinea pigs were eventually raised for meat; cotton, potatoes, peanuts, and other foods gradually became part of Peruvian agriculture, and about 2000 bc maize was brought from the northern Andes. The peoples of the Pacific coast, from Chile through Peru into Ecuador, also made use of the rich sea life, which included many species of fish, as well as water birds, sea lions, dolphins, and shellfish.

After 2000 bc peoples in villages in several coastal valleys of central Peru organized to build great temples of stone and adobe on large platforms. After about 900 bc these temples appear to have served a new religion, centred in the mountain town of Chavín de Huántar. This religion had as its symbols the eagle, the jaguar, the snake (probably an anaconda), and the caiman, which seems to have represented water and the fertility of plants. These symbols are somewhat similar to those of the Mexican Olmec religion, but no definite link between the two cultures is known. After 300 bc Chavín influence—or possibly political power—declined. The Moche civilization then appeared on the northern coast of Peru, and the Nazca on the southern coast. In both, large irrigation projects, towns, and temples were constructed, and extensive trade was carried on, including the export of fine ceramics. The Moche depicted their daily life and their myths in paintings and in ceramic sculpture; they showed themselves as fearsome warriors and also made moulded ceramic sculptures depicting homes with families, cultivated plants, fishers, and even lovers. They were also expert metalworkers.

By about ad 600 the Moche and Nazca cultures declined, and two new, powerful states appeared in Peru: Huari in the central mountains, and Tiahuanacu in the southern mountains at Lake Titicaca. Tiahuanacu seems to have been a great religious centre, reviving symbols from the Chavín. These states lasted only a few centuries; after 1000, coastal states again became important, especially Chimú in the north, with its vast and magnificent adobe-brick capital city of Chan Chan. All Peru was eventually conquered by a state that arose in the central mountains at Cuzco; this was the Quechua state, ruled by a people known as the Inca. The emperor of the Inca at the time, Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui, began large-scale expansion of the empire in the 1400s; by 1525 Inca rule extended from Ecuador to Chile and Argentina. Civil war raged within the empire from 1525 to 1532. At its conclusion, the Spanish adventurer Francisco Pizarro landed in Peru and had little trouble conquering the devastated Inca Empire.

During this time the central and southern Andes were populated by farmers who raised a variety of crops. Local products, transported by llama caravans, were exported and traded between the coast, the mountains, and the eastern tropical jungle. The region's kingdoms were governed by administrators aided by soldiers and priests. The Peruvians did not have a written language, but they did use the abacus for arithmetic calculations, and they kept numerical records for government by means of abacus-like sets of knotted strings called quipus.

C.3.

The Tropical Forest

The jungle lowlands of eastern South America seem to have been settled after 3000 bc, for archaeologists have not found evidence of any earlier peoples. Population was always relatively sparse, clustered along riverbanks where fish could be obtained and manioc and other crops planted. Various herbs and foods were cultivated, including hallucinogens for use in religious rituals; these were also exported to Peru. Although animals such as tapirs and monkeys were hunted, little game was supported by the jungle. No large towns existed—people lived in thatched houses in villages. Sometimes the whole village slept in hammocks—a local invention. Little clothing was worn, because of the damp heat, but cotton cloth was woven, and the people ornamented themselves with body painting. Among the many small groups of the tropical forest culture area are the Makiritare, the Yanomamo, the Mundurucu, the Tupinamba, the Shipibo, and the Cayapó. Speakers of Arawak and Carib languages—linguistic relatives of Caribbean peoples—also live in the northern tropical forest. Although tropical forest peoples retain much of their traditional way of life, today they suffer from diseases brought by Europeans, and from destruction of their lands by ranchers, loggers, miners, and agribusiness corporations.

C.4.

Southernmost South America

In Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile, farming peoples such as the Mapuche of the Araucanian group of Chile still live in villages and cultivate maize, potatoes, and grains. Although they once kept llamas, after the Spanish invasions they began to raise cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens, and used horses for herding and for warfare. Farther south, on the Pampas, agriculture was not suitable; people lived by hunting guanacos and rheas and, on the coasts, by fishing and gathering shellfish. In Tierra del Fuego evidence of this hunting-and-gathering life dates from 7000 bc. On the Pampas, hunting was transformed when the horse was obtained from the Spaniards after ad 1555. The Tehuelche pursued guanacos from horseback, and like the North American Plains peoples, once they had horses for transport, they enjoyed larger tepees as well as more clothing and other goods. Even further south, around the Strait of Magellan, the Ona, Yahgan, and Alacaluf lacked the game animals of the Pampas; they survived principally on fish and shellfish, but also hunted seals and sea lions. Nomadic peoples, they lived in small wigwams covered with bark or sealskins. In spite of the cold, foggy climate, they wore little clothing. Life in Tierra del Fuego appears to have changed little over 9,000 years, for no agriculture or herding is possible in the climate. The peoples native to this region suffered greatly from diseases brought by Europeans, and few survive today.

VI.

Traditional Way of Life

Among the elements of the traditional ways of life of Native Americans are their social and political organization, their economic and other activities, and their religions, languages, and art.

A.

Social and Political Organization

Social organization among Native Americans was and is based largely on the family. Some Native American societies emphasize the economic cooperation of husband and wife, others that of adult brothers and sisters.

The smallest societies were historically found in regions that are poor in food resources. Examples include the Cree and the Athabascan-language peoples of the Canadian Subarctic, the Paiute of the Nevada desert, and the Ona and Yahgan of Tierra del Fuego. When agriculture was possible, communities were larger, from one or two hundred to thousands of people. In most of what is now the United States, people lived in villages and formed a loosely organized alliance with nearby villages. The alliance and each village were governed by councils; village councils usually consisted of representatives from each family, and the alliance council was made up of representatives from the villages. The council selected a man or, in some areas (especially the North American south-east), a woman to act as chief—that is, to preside over the council and act as principal liaison in dealing with other groups. In many areas families in the villages were linked together in clans. Clans usually owned resources such as agricultural plots and fishing stations; they allotted these as needed to member families and protected their members. Similar societies became common in the tropical forest culture area of South America.

In pre-Columbian times in Mesoamerica and the Andes of South America, kingdoms that had hundreds of thousands of subjects, stratified in classes, and empires with millions of subjects were established. Citizens supported the state religion, although in the empires local religious observances were sometimes permitted to coexist with the state religion. War captives and debtors often became slaves. The Inca state in Peru was tightly organized and controlled, moving people and even whole villages around the empire to meet its needs. In Mesoamerican kingdoms, on the other hand, clan-like local groups were generally allowed limited power.

On first encountering Native American societies, Europeans frequently did not understand their organization; subsequently, the native organization was modified by the British or Spanish conquerors. In North America, Europeans failed to recognize the respect and power accorded to women of the Iroquois, Creek, and a number of other peoples. In California, Europeans who saw the local upper class living in thatch houses and wearing little clothing failed to understand that the region's native communities had different social classes and highly organized ownership of property.

B.

Food

Since at least 2000 bc, most Native Americans have lived by agriculture. Maize was the most common grain, but certain grain-like plants were also popular—maize and potato, as well as peanuts, chilli peppers, cotton, cacao (chocolate), avocados, and many others, were domesticated and developed as crops by Native Americans.

Livestock was less important to Native Americans than to peoples on other continents. Protein was often obtained from plants, especially beans, in the southern cultures, while throughout the Americas additional protein was obtained from fish and game animals, especially deer. Techniques of food preparation varied according to the type of food and the culture area. Techniques of drying foods, including meats, have always been important. In pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica and the Andes, nobles indulged in elaborate feasts of richly prepared dishes.

C.

Clothing and Adornment

In their traditional clothing Native Americans differed from Europeans in that they placed less importance on completely covering the body. The peoples of warm climates, for example, often did not wear much clothing except at festivals; then they adorned themselves with flowers and paint, and often with intricate feather headdresses. In Mesoamerica and Peru, men wore a breechcloth and a cloak knotted over one shoulder, and women wore a skirt and a loose blouse; these garments were woven of cotton or, in Peru, sometimes of fine vicuña wool. North American hunting peoples made garments of well-tanned deer, elk, or caribou skin; a common style was a tunic, longer for women than for men, with detachable sleeves and leggings. In the Arctic, the Inuit and Aleuts wore parkas, trousers, and boots of caribou or, when needed, of waterproof fish skin. Except in Canada and Alaska, where parkas and coats were worn, Native Americans in cold weather usually wrapped themselves in robes, cloaks, or ponchos.

D.

Housing and Construction

Some Native American houses that appear simple, such as the Inuit igloo or the Florida Seminole chikee, are quite sophisticated: The igloo (Inuit for “house”), usually made of hide or sod over a wood or whalebone frame, is a dome with a sunken entrance that traps heat indoors but allows ventilation; the chikee, naturally air-conditioned, consists of a thatch roof over an open platform. The tepee of the Plains peoples constitutes efficient housing for people who must move camp to hunt; tepees are easily portable and quickly erected or taken down, and an inner liner hung from midway up the tepee allows ventilation without drafts, so that the enclosed space is comfortable even in winter.

Some peoples in cold climates that were well supplied with wood, such as the peoples of Tierra del Fuego and the Subarctic Athabascan-language peoples, relied on windbreaks with good fires in front, rather than on tents. Many other peoples spent cold weather in dome-shaped houses that were sunk well into the ground for insulation.

Mesoamerican and Andean peoples constructed buildings of stone and cement as well as of wood and adobe. Public buildings and the houses of the upper class were usually built on raised-earth platforms, with a large number of rooms arranged around atria and courtyards.

E.

Trade and Transport

To all Native Americans, trade was an important economic activity. The early empire of Teotihuacán in Mexico was founded on the manufacture and export of blades of obsidian, a natural volcanic glass that made the best stone knives. Several centuries later, the Aztecs organized their conquests by sending merchants into other kingdoms to develop trade, act as spies, and help plan conquest if the foreign ruler failed to give favourable terms to Aztec trade. In the Inca Empire excellent roads were built over difficult mountain terrain in order to move quantities of local speciality products in pack trains of llamas. Trade was also conducted by sea along South America and around Mexico and the Caribbean. Much sea trade was carried in large sailing rafts or, in the Caribbean, in canoes made from huge logs. Trade goods in Mesoamerica and the Andes included foodstuffs, manufactured items such as cloth, knives, and pottery, and luxuries such as jewellery, brilliant tropical bird feathers, and chocolate. Both medicinal and hallucinogenic drugs were widely traded. Goods were bought and sold in large open markets in towns and cities.

Outside the kingdoms of Mesoamerica and the Andes, trade was often carried on by travelling parties who were received in each village by its chief, who supervised business as the people gathered around the trader. In many areas, small shells or shell beads—called wampum in the Eastern Woodlands—were used as money. Furs and brightly coloured feathers were valued in trade nearly everywhere. In western North America dried salmon, fish oil, and fine baskets were major trade products, and in eastern North America expertly tanned deer hides, copper, catlinite pipe-bowl stone, pearls, and conch shells were widely traded.

F.

Recreation and Entertainment

The games and other recreational activities of Native Americans have had much in common with those of peoples elsewhere. Children traditionally played with dolls and with miniature figures and implements, imitating adult activities; in groups they played tag, the one who was “it” often pretending to be a jaguar or similar animal. Youths and adults played games with balls—rubber balls in Mesoamerica and northern South America, hide or fibre balls elsewhere. The Mesoamerican ball game called tlatchtli was somewhat similar to basketball in that it was played in a rectangular court and had the goal of knocking a hard ball through a stone hoop high on the court wall. In Mesoamerica these ball games were often seen as rituals of cosmic significance. Lacrosse was popular in the eastern region of North America and eventually was adopted by European settlers. Competitions—in foot racing, wrestling, archery, and, after the Spanish invasions, horse racing—were generally popular. Minor amusements that are still popular include cat's cradle and the use of tops and swings.

G.

Religion and Folklore

Native American religious beliefs and practices display great diversity.

The Mexican and Andean nations, the peoples of the North American South-west and South-east, and some North-west Pacific Coast peoples had full-time religious leaders as well as shrines or temple buildings. Peoples of other areas had part-time priests and generally lacked permanent temples. Part-time priests and shamans learned to conduct ceremonies by apprenticing themselves to older practitioners; in the larger nations priests were trained in schools attached to the temples.

Most Native Americans believed in a spiritual force that is the source of all life. In many areas of the Americas, divine force was recognized in several aspects: as light and life-power, focused in the sun; as fertility and strength, centred in the earth; as wisdom and the power of earthly rulers, observed in creatures such as the jaguar, the bear, or snakes. In most places in the Americas, religious devotees enhanced their ability to perceive aspects of the Almighty, sometimes by using hallucinogenic plants as in Peyotism, or sometimes by fasting and singing prayers until they achieved a spiritual vision.

Native American traditions generally assumed that the souls of the dead go to another part of the universe, where they have a pleasant existence carrying on everyday activities. Souls of unhappy or evil people might stay around their former homes, causing misfortunes. Many Native American peoples have celebrated an annual memorial service for deceased relatives; in Latin America this observance later became fused with the Christian All Souls' Day. Northern public rituals included the Sun Dance and the Snake Dance.

H.

Warfare

Notwithstanding the exaggerated European stereotype that Native Americans were extremely warlike, wars between Native American groups did take place before the European invasions. Most Native Americans fought in small groups, relying on surprise to give them victory. The large nations of Mexico and Peru sometimes relied on surprise attacks by armies, but their soldiers also fought in disciplined ranks. The Aztecs fought formal battles called “flower wars” with neighbouring peoples; the purpose was to capture men for sacrifice (the Aztecs believed that the sun would weaken if it were not fed with human blood). Other native peoples conducted war raids to obtain captives, but these captives were used as slaves. Some Native American battles were fought for revenge. The most common cause of war between Native American groups was probably to defend or enlarge tribal territory.

Before the Spanish colonizations, warfare was conducted on foot or from canoes. Both the Mexican and the Andean nations, as well as smaller Native American groups, employed hand-to-hand combat with clubs, battle axes, and daggers, as well as close-range combat with javelins hurled with great force from spear-thrower boards (known as atlatls). Bows and arrows were used in attacks, and fire arrows were used against thatched-house villages. When the Spanish brought horses to the New World, native peoples in both North and South America developed techniques of raiding from horseback.

I.

Languages

About a thousand distinct Native American languages are presently spoken by indigenous peoples in North and South America, and hundreds more have become extinct since the first European contact. In many areas people often spoke not only their native language but also the languages of groups with whom they had frequent contact. In various cases one language served as a common language for a multilingual region; examples include Tucano (western Amazon area) and Quechua (Andean region). Some regions had a traders' language or pidgin, a simplified language or mixture of several languages, helpful to traders of different native languages; among these were Chinook Jargon (Pacific Coast, North America), Mobilian (United States, South-east), and lingua geral (Brazil). Linguists have grouped many of the Native American languages into roughly 180 families, but many other languages have no known relatives; scholars differ in proposing more distant relationships among families. Grammatical traits, sound systems, and word formation often vary from family to family, but families in a given region often influence one another.

J.

Crafts and the Arts

Nearly all the major technologies known in Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 16th century were known also to Native Americans before European contact, but these technologies were not always used in the same way. For example, although the Andean nations had superb metallurgists, they made few metal tools (people used stone tools for most tasks); instead they applied their skills to creating ornaments. The result was magnificent pre-Columbian art and architecture.

J.1.

Stonework

The earliest American art known to archaeologists is flint knapping, or the chipping of stone. Between about 9000 and 6000 bc, stone spear and dart points were produced with great skill. Although flint knapping eventually declined somewhat in other culture areas, in Mesoamerica the art of chipping flint and, especially, obsidian continued to be highly prized. In the Late Archaic period, after 3000 bc, the pecking and grinding (rather than chipping) of stone developed into an art. Between about 1500 and 400 bc in Mesoamerica, the Olmec made small ornaments of semi-precious stones, as well as fine naturalistic and in-the-round stone sculptures that were close to or larger than life size.

In architecture, the pre-Hispanic Andean nations developed stone masonry to a high degree, fitting smoothed stone blocks together so expertly that no mortar was needed for walls that have stood for more than a thousand years. The Mesoamerican peoples also built in stone, and they preferred to cover their buildings in stucco plaster and adorn them with murals.

J.2.

Pottery

The earliest pottery in the Americas was made about 3500 bc. By 2000 bc several known styles of ceramics had emerged, and in the wares of the following centuries everyday cooking pottery can be distinguished from fine serving pieces. Among outstanding styles are the Maya vessels painted with scenes of royalty and mythology.

J.3.

Basketry

Ever since its beginnings as an Archaic-period art form in the Americas (by about 8000 bc or perhaps earlier), basketry continued to develop, reaching its finest levels of achievement in western North America. In most parts of the Americas several basketry techniques were known, among them weaving, twining, and coiling; decorative techniques included embroidery and the use of bright feathers, shells, and beads.

J.4.

Weaving

Throughout the Americas weaving of one kind or another was practised, but the craft reached its highest development in the Andean nations. In ancient South America twining seems to have been in use earlier than true weaving, and was used in both North and South America for bags, belts, and other items. Almost as widespread as twining was the use of the backstrap loom. On this simple loom a skilled weaver can make extremely fine, although narrow, textiles. Heddle looms appeared in Peru after about 2000 bc, allowing wider cloth to be woven. Peruvian weavers, using cotton as well as llama and vicuña wool, produced some of the finest textiles known, from filmy gauzes to double-faced brocades.

J.5.

Metalworking

In North America, in the upper Midwest, copper was beaten into knives, awls, and other tools and ornaments in the Late Archaic period (c. 2000 bc). The use of copper in this region, however, was not true metallurgy, because the metal was hammered from pure deposits rather than smelted from ore. The earliest metallurgy in the Americas was practised in Peru about 900 bc, and this technology spread into Mesoamerica, probably from South America, after about ad 900. Over the intervening centuries a variety of techniques developed, among them alloying, gilding, casting, the lost-wax process (see Cire Perdue), soldering, and filigree work. Iron was never smelted, but bronze came into use after about ad 1000. Most effort was put into developing the working of precious metals—gold and silver.

J.6.

Work in Other Materials

Among hunting peoples leather was used extensively for clothing, tents, shields, and containers. Woodcarving was a widespread craft among Native Americans. The peoples of the North-west Pacific Coast developed a truly distinctive style in their woodcarvings, with variations between peoples; the most famous examples of this style are its totem poles, tall logs carved and painted to represent the noted ancestors of a clan and figures from mythology.

Among South-western peoples such as the Navajo, Pueblo, and Yumans, pollen, pulverized charcoal and sandstone, and other coloured powdery materials are distributed over a ground of sand to create symbolic sand paintings that are used in healing rites and then destroyed.

K.

Music and Dance

In North America six distinctive musical styles or regions have been recognized: Inuit and North-west Coast; California and nearby Arizona; the Great Basin; Athabascan; Plains and Pueblo; and Eastern Woodland. The music of northern Mexico has much in common with that of western Arizona; farther south, however, in the regions of the Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations, complex musical cultures existed. Little information has been preserved about the music of these civilizations, and whatever remains of the original styles survived the Spanish conquest principally in the form of highly complex and varied blends of native and assimilated Spanish elements. Elsewhere in South America the music of the indigenous peoples, like that of North America, was relatively insulated from outside influence; the South American music, however, has been less extensively studied than that of North America.

K.1.

Instruments and Vocal Styles

Among the persisting native musical styles of the Americas, singing is the dominant form of musical expression, with instrumental music serving primarily as rhythmic accompaniment. Throughout the Americas the principal instruments have been drums and rattles (shaken in the hand or worn on the body), as well as flutes and whistles. In Mesoamerica and the Andes, greater variety exists. Instruments have often had ritual or religious significance; among some indigenous Brazilians, for example, women must not view the men's flutes. In North America the tambourine-like frame drum, and in South America the maraca rattle, were frequently played by shamans.

K.2.

Inuit and North-west Pacific Coast

The Inuit and the peoples of the North-west Pacific Coast use more complex rhythms than are common elsewhere in North America, and on the North-west Pacific Coast, songs may have more complex musical forms and may use exceptionally small melodic intervals (a semitone or smaller). North-west Pacific Coast dance dramas are lengthy, elaborate productions, and the songs for these dramas are carefully taught and rehearsed. Inuit dance and costumes are simpler, and the dances often feature men using the forceful movements of harpooning while women sing accompaniment.

K.3.

California and the Great Basin

The singing of the Native Americans of California and the Great Basin is produced by a more relaxed throat than that of other North American musical areas. The melodies and texts, however, are like those found elsewhere in North America in that the songs are short (although they may be repeated or combined into series) and the texts are often brief sentences.

K.4.

Athabascan Music

The music of the Athabascan peoples—those of north-western Canada and Alaska as well as the Navajo and Apache of the south-west—is characterized by melodies that have a wide range and an arc-shaped contour, and by frequent changes in metre; falsetto singing is prized. Costumed ritual dances are unusual except among the Apache, who, like the Navajo, have been influenced by the Pueblos. Much Navajo music belongs to healing rituals designed to restore patients to harmony by seating them in beautiful sand paintings while they listen to poetic songs.

K.5.

Plains and Pueblo Music

The music of the Great Plains is the best known of the Native American styles of North America and is the source of the musical styles heard at present-day powwows (social gatherings, often intertribal, featuring Native American dancing). Singing is in a tense, pulsating, forceful style; men's voices are preferred, although a high range and falsetto are valued. Melodic ranges are wide, and the typical melodic contour is terrace-shaped—beginning high, and descending as the song progresses. Plains music is often produced by a group of men sitting around a large double-headed drum, singing in unison and drumming with drumsticks (at powwows, the group itself is called a drum). In Plains dancing, men usually dance solo with bent body (several may dance at once, independently), but there are also ritual dances with symbolic steps and social round dances for couples. The Pueblos add some lower-voiced music; they make more use of chorus, and they perform elaborate costumed ritual dances (often with clowns that entertain between serious dances).

K.6.

Eastern Woodland Styles

Eastern Woodland music resembles Plains music, but it tends to have narrower melodic ranges, and Eastern singing makes use of polyphony (multipart music) as well as forms that are antiphonal (with alternating choruses) and responsorial (with alternating solo and chorus). Dances include men's solos, as well as ritual dances and social round dances.

K.7.

Mexico and the Andes

Almost no archaeological evidence exists for prehistoric music in the Americas; all that is known from pre-Hispanic civilizations is a few preserved instruments (such as panpipes and ocarinas in Peru) and painted or carved scenes of musicians and dancers. In Mexico officials organized rituals for each month, with hundreds of richly costumed, carefully rehearsed dancers and musicians. Responsorial singing was practised; sophisticated scales and chords were apparently used, and compositions seem to have been formally structured, with variety in melody and in combinations of metres. The harps, fiddles, and guitars found in the Native American music of present-day Mexico and Peru were adopted from the Spanish.

K.8.

Other South American Areas

Elsewhere in South America, indigenous music was relatively unaffected by European music. The pentatonic scale of the Incas spread to some other regions, but earlier scales of three or four notes also survived. Polyphonic singing, characterized by various voices and melodies, developed in some areas, notably in Patagonia. Flutes are still sometimes played in harmony, and the music of some tropical forest peoples is often a complex combination of voices, percussion, and flutes.

VII.

History Since European Contact

As early Europeans first stepped ashore in what they considered the “New World”—whether in San Salvador (West Indies), Roanoke Island (North Carolina), or Chaleur Bay (New Brunswick)—they usually were welcomed by the peoples indigenous to the Americas. Native Americans seemed to regard their lighter-complexioned visitors as something of a marvel, not only for their dress, beards, and winged ships but even more for their technology—steel knives and swords, harquebus and cannon, mirrors, hawkbells and earrings, copper and brass kettles, and other unusual items.

A.

Initial Reaction to Europeans

Nonetheless, Native Americans soon recognized that the Europeans themselves were very human. Indeed, early records show that 16th- and 17th-century Native Americans very often regarded Europeans as rather despicable specimens. White Europeans, for instance, were frequently accused of being stingy with their wealth and avaricious in their insatiable desire for beaver furs and deer hides. Similarly, Native Americans were surprised at European intolerance for native religious beliefs, sexual and marital arrangements, eating habits, and other customs.

To many Native Americans, the Europeans appeared to be oblivious to the rhythms and spirit of nature. Nature to the Europeans seemed to be an obstacle, a commodity. Some Europeans perceived the Native Americans themselves as a resource. Europeans, in sum, were regarded as somewhat mechanical—soulless creatures who wielded ingenious tools and weapons to accomplish their ends.

B.

Relations with the Colonial Powers

“We came here to serve God, and also to get rich”, announced a member of the entourage of Spanish explorer and conqueror Hernán Cortés. Both agendas of 16th-century Spaniards, the commercial and the religious, needed the Native Americans themselves in order to be successful. The Spanish conquistadors and other adventurers wanted the land and labour of the Native Americans; the priests and friars laid claim to their souls. Ultimately, both programmes were destructive to many indigenous peoples of the Americas. The first robbed them of their freedom and, in many cases, their lives; the second deprived them of their culture.

Contrary to many stereotypes, however, many 16th-century Spaniards agonized over the ethics of conquest. Important Spanish jurists and humanists argued at length over the legality of depriving the Native Americans of their land and coercing them to submit to Spanish authority. For the Native Americans, however, these ethical debates did little good.

The situation for Native Americans was considerably less destructive in Canada, where French commercial interests centred on the fur trade. Many of the indigenous peoples were vital suppliers of beaver, otter, muskrat, mink, and other valuable pelts. It would have been ruinous for the French to have mistreated such useful business partners. It was also unnecessary, as the lure of trade goods was sufficient incentive for the native hunters to transport the pelts to Montreal, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec.

Another factor favouring the relative independence of the indigenous peoples of Canada was the French need for allies in their wars with the British—both to the south, in the 13 colonies, and to the north, on the shores of Hudson Bay. Both the French and British employed Native Americans as auxiliaries in their wars.

While the French tended to regard the indigenous peoples as equals and intermarriage as acceptable, the English were not so inclined. English scorn for Native Americans no doubt derived in large measure from the tensions and friction generated by the English desire to acquire more and more land. Unlike the French in Canada, the English settled the Atlantic coast of the present-day United States on a relatively massive scale, and in the process displaced many more Native Americans. Moreover, Native Americans were not considered nearly as important to the English economy as they were to the French. The result was that the English generally viewed them as an obstacle to progress and a nuisance—except when war with France threatened; at such times the English attempted to purchase the support or neutrality of the indigenous peoples with outlays of gifts.

C.

The Ravages of Disease

In 1492 the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and Andean South America were among the most densely populated regions of the hemisphere. Yet, within a span of several generations, each experienced a cataclysmic population decline. The culprit, to a large extent, was microbial infection: European-brought diseases such as smallpox, pulmonary ailments, and gastrointestinal disorders, all of which had been unknown in the Americas during the pre-Columbian period. Native Americans were immunologically vulnerable to this invisible conqueror.

The destruction was especially visible in Latin America, where great masses of susceptible individuals were congregated in cities such as Tenochtitlán and Cuzco, not to mention the innumerable towns and villages dotting the countryside. More than anything else, it was the appalling magnitude of these deaths from disease that prompted the vigorous Spanish debate over the morality of conquest.

As the indigenous population in the Caribbean plummeted, Spaniards resorted to slave raids on the mainland of what is now Florida to bolster the work force. When the time came that this, too, proved insufficient, they took to importing West Africans to work the cane fields and silver mines.

Those Native Americans who did survive were often assigned, as an entire village or community, to a planter or mine operator to whom they would owe all their services. The encomienda system, as it came to be known, amounted to virtual slavery. This, too, broke the spirit and health of the indigenous peoples, making them all the more vulnerable to the diseases brought by the Europeans.

Death from microbial infection was probably not as extensive in the Canadian forest, where most of the indigenous peoples lived as migratory hunter-gatherers. Village farmers, such as the Huron north of Lake Ontario, did, however, suffer serious depopulation in waves of epidemics that may have been triggered by Jesuit priests and their lay assistants, who had established missions in the area.

D.

Wars and Enforced Migrations

Without a doubt, the indigenous peoples of Canada suffered fewer dislocations than did those of Latin or English America. This can be partly explained by the nature of the fur trade, which militated against settlement; the idea was to maintain the wilderness so that fur-bearing animals would continue to flourish. Furthermore, French settlement in Canada was restricted to a thin line of seigneuries (large tracts of land) and villages along the banks of the St Lawrence and lower Ottawa rivers. This demographic and commercial legacy continues to be felt in present-day Canada, where numerous indigenous groups may be found living in a more or less traditional manner, at least for part of the year.

In contrast, English-Native American relations in the 17th and 18th centuries were marked by a series of particularly vicious wars won by the English. The English exercised the mandate of victory to insist that the Native Americans submit to English sovereignty and either confine their activities to strictly delimited tracts of land near areas of English settlement or move out beyond the frontier.

Disease was also a grim factor in the American colonies, where the majority of the Eastern Woodlands people lived as village farmers. Severely affected by smallpox and war and harassed by settlers, many of the peoples indigenous to the eastern coastal areas gathered together their remnants and sought refuge west of the Appalachians.

E.

Relations with the United States

One of the problems confronting the young United States was what to do with Native American peoples. The Treaty of Paris (1783) ending the American War of Independence had made no mention of the country's indigenous peoples, reflecting Great Britain's ambiguous jurisdiction over them. The United States duly drafted Article I, Section 8, of its Constitution: “The Congress shall have Power ... To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes”.

In the closing years of the 18th century, many “new” Americans were migrating in search of land across the Alleghenies and the Blue Ridge into the Ohio Valley, Kentucky, and Tennessee—areas where various Native American nations were still intact and strong. Once there, many of these migrants squatted on Native American land, with the predictable result: war. A series of battles culminated in 1794 in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in north-western Ohio, and in 1795 in the forced Treaty of Greenville, establishing a definite boundary between what was designated “Indian Territory” and white settlement.

E.1.

The Trade and Intercourse Acts

The Congress of the United States, interested in pursuing a just and humane policy towards indigenous peoples, passed the Trade and Intercourse Acts, a series of programmes at the end of the 18th century aimed at regulating dealings with Native Americans. In practice, Congress sought to extinguish Native American titles to lands through peaceful negotiation before white settlement.

However, Washington policymakers and eastern humanitarians could not control the frontier dwellers, who proposed and practised dispossession or even extermination. Eastern philanthropists and humanitarians, including President Thomas Jefferson, sought to incorporate the indigenous peoples into the mainstream of American society by means of an ambitious, largely Church-operated educational programme. The Bureau of Indian Affairs was created in 1824 by the War Department to assimilate Native Americans. By the later 1820s, however, even the staunchest defenders of this programme were admitting defeat.

E.2.

The Removal Act

The Indian Removal Act, passed in May 1830, empowered the United States to move eastern Native Americans west of the Mississippi, to what was then Indian Territory (now essentially Oklahoma): this “voluntary” removal was in practice mandatory, resulting in brutal forced marches. By the 1850s, as the United States expanded, removal was refined by the restriction of Native Americans in Indian Territory to reservations, with resistance countered by the army. The resulting Indian Wars, which raged during the last half of the 19th century, ended in the slaughter of Sioux men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, shortly after December 25, 1890.

E.3.

The Allotment Act

By 1890 it had become clear that a new policy had to be adopted towards Native Americans, whose dwindling numbers seemed to threaten extinction. In 1871 Congress decided to abandon the treaty process and legislate on the behalf of Native Americans, now wards of the government. Tribalism was attacked by parcelling out reservation land on a severalty (individual) basis from 1887. Hundreds of thousands of acres remaining were then sold to whites. This allotment policy, designed to absorb the Native Americans into mainstream society, actually stripped them, in many cases, of even their allotted lands. Native Americans reached their lowest population numbers at the turn of the 20th century. In June 1924 the US Congress finally granted these original Americans United States citizenship.

E.4.

Policy Changes

Attempts at coerced integration ceased with the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act, which encouraged Native Americans to organize their own governments, subject to the approval of the Department of the Interior. After World War II this was replaced by a policy of terminating federal trust responsibility to the Native Americans. Native American resistance in the early 1970s forced a policy reversal, with responsibility for self-determination being returned to the tribal administrations. Many Native American groups also initiated land claims and other actions to regain lost rights and territories: the Alaska Native Land Claims Settlement Act of 1971 settled $962 million cash and 16 million hectares (40 million acres) of land on Alaska's Inuit and Aleut population.

F.

Native Americans in Contemporary US Society

The Native American population in the United States increased steadily during the 20th century. According to the US Census Bureau in 2000, 2.5 million people or 0.9 per cent of the total US population identified themselves as Native American (including Alaska Natives, which encompassed Aleuts and Inuits) alone. Between 1990 and 2000 the Native American population increased by 26 per cent. The cities of New York and Los Angeles have the highest Native American populations, while four out of ten Native Americans live in the West. In 1990 the US government held about 23 million hectares (56 million acres) in trust for 314 federally recognized Native American groups in the form of 278 reservations in 35 states, plus pueblos, rancherias, and trust lands. On what remains of their former lands, Native American groups continue to function as separate federal governments.

G.

Native Americans of Canada

The Native Americans of Canada suffered from European encroachment, but not to the same degree as their fellows in the United States. Competition for land was reduced by the sparse settlement of Canadian territory; only an estimated 200,000 Native Americans were resident in the area of modern Canada when the first European settlers arrived. Populations declined during the 19th century, but Canadian Native Americans did not endure anything like the Indian Wars of the United States. The Indian Act of 1876 gave the status of Canadian Native Americans a statutory footing. Native Americans today constitute some 2 per cent of the Canadian population, and belong predominantly to the Algonquian linguistic group; other representative linguistic stocks are the Iroquoian, Salishan, Athabascan, and Inuit. They are divided into nearly 600 groups, or bands. People of mixed Native American and European ancestry, especially the French-speaking Metis, also form a significant group, particularly in the north and west. Schools and other services are provided for Native Americans by the Canadian federal government. Native American populations have grown greatly in recent years due to better health care.

The Inuit have probably endured the most interference with their traditional ways of life in recent years, with mining, hydroelectric projects, and oil extraction intruding into their territories. A separate, self-governing territory for the Inuit was established in 1999. Nunavut (Inuktitut for 'our land'), was established on about 2 million sq km (772,000 sq mi) of the former North-west Territories. Also in 1999 the House of Commons approved a treaty granting the Nisga’a, a group of indigenous people living in British Columbia, unprecedented powers of self-government. The treaty is likely to serve as a model for future treaties between Canada and its indigenous people.

H.

Native Americans of Latin America

The Native American population of Latin America is estimated at 26.3 million, of whom 24 million live in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. Generally classified as campesinos (peasants) by the governments of the countries in which they live, the vast majority live in extreme poverty in remote rural areas where they eke out a living from the land. Native American campesinos make up 60 per cent of the total population of Bolivia and Guatemala. In all of Latin America, only Uruguay has no remaining indigenous population. In addition, the majority of Latin Americans are mestizos of mixed Native American and European descent: Native Americans and mestizos together make up an estimated 85 per cent of the populations of Mexico, Bolivia, Panama, and Peru, 90 per cent of that of Ecuador, and an even greater percentage in Chile, Honduras, El Salvador, and Paraguay. Only Argentina is notably European in racial constitution. Modern Latin America is therefore considerably indebted to its Native American heritage, and the history of most Latin American states is essentially the recent history of Latin Native Americans.

Only 1.5 per cent of the total Native American population of Latin America is designated as tribal, unsurprisingly as most important pre-Columbian Latin American cultures were constituted as states or other units larger than tribes. These exist mainly in Brazil, Colombia, Panama, Paraguay, and Venezuela. Many of the tribal groups live in the remote jungle environment of the Amazon Basin, where they subsist by hunting, fishing, and gathering manioc and other roots. Current Brazilian expansion into the Amazon, however, threatens the physical and cultural survival of the indigenous Amazon peoples, as diseases brought by outsiders decimate the indigenous populations, and mineral exploration and road construction destroy tribal territories.

The largest unacculturated Brazilian group today is the Yanomamo, numbering over 16,000 people, for whom the government plans to create a park for their protection. Anthropologists estimate, however, that the Yanomamo would need at least 6.4 million hectares (16 million acres) in order to continue their traditional lifestyle.

The total indigenous population of Latin America includes slightly more than 400 different Native American groups, with their own languages or dialects. Like the Native Americans of North America, they live in vast extremes of climate and conditions, ranging from the Amazon jungle to the heights of the Andes, where one group, on Lake Titicaca, subsists on artificial islands of floating reeds.

Native American and mestizo populations, frequently poor and often barred from the highest echelons of Latin American government and society, have sometimes fostered political radicalism. Liberation theology, which grew up in Latin America, attempted a compromise between the Roman Catholicism prevalent in these communities and the revolutionary Communism that offered the chief promise of bettering their social and economic situation. Peru's notorious terrorist movement, the Shining Path, was able to propagate itself partly by combining its interpretation of Maoism with the traditional beliefs of the mestizo and Native American peasantry. Governments have consequently persecuted these populations which are seen as centres of subversion. However, in June 2001 Alejandro Toledo made history when he won Peru’s presidential election, the first Peruvian of Native American descent to do so.