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Indigenous cultures of North America

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Stöd

The indigenous peoples of North America are the tribes and nations whose ancestors were already on the continent when European explorers and colonizers arrived.

The largest group are American Indians who arrived before 10,000 BC, inhabited most of the continent, and are closely related to the indigenous of South America and those of Mesoamerica. In the U.S. they are now usually called Native Americans, in Canada First Nations, and in Mexico indígenas. Groups that arrived later settled in less hospitable northern areas, the Inuit in Alaska, Northern Canada and Greenland, the Yupik in Alaska and the Aleuts in the Aleutian Islands.

The Métis people of Canada and the northern U.S. have a history that goes back to the days of the fur trade and a distinct culture of their own. They have both indigenous and European (mainly French and Scottish) ancestors.

Native Hawaiians are from a quite different culture and history and are not included in this guide. See Hawaii#History.

Understand

There have been hundreds of indigenous nations and tribes. Many exist today, though often greatly reduced in numbers and territory, while others were wiped out by Europeans (in particular the Spanish, British and French), or the modern states which succeeded them (the U.S., Mexico, Canada, etc.), either from diseases brought from the Old World, by military conquest, genocides, or for other reasons.

Anthropologists tend to group indigenous cultures either by language families or by geographic location. Language is useful in determining which groups are related to each other and how they migrated over time. For example, the relationships within the Uto-Aztecan language family suggest that the founders of the Aztec Empire were related to groups from thousands of kilometres to the north in the present-day United States, like the Utes.
Geography is more useful in imagining how people go about their day to day lives: peoples living in a similar climate tend to have similar lifestyles based on harvesting the same natural resources.

Totem poles in Vancouver 's Stanley Park

Totem poles in Vancouver 's Stanley Park (Photo: Ymblanter, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Many cultures on the continent were farming cultures. These groups had large, complex societies with permanent settlements, specialized artisans and officials, and social hierarchy. The majority of people living in North America at the time of contact lived in these regions.

  • Mesoamerican — All of Mexico except the far north, and much of Central America. The Mesoamerican civilizations (Mayans, Aztecs, Toltecs, Olmecs, etc.) were the earliest farmers, domesticating the "Three Sisters" of maize (corn), squash, and beans. Mesoamericans also had the most urbanized societies, with a network of villages, towns, and even walled cities featuring large temples and palaces, and were the only ones in the New World to have writing.
  • Southwestern — In the entire Southwestern United States (Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah) and all the states of northern Mexico. The Southwestern peoples eventually developed strains of the Three Sisters that could survive their harsh, desert climate and built abode-walled villages, or in Spanish pueblos, and are often known as puebloans.
  • Northeastern — The Canadian Maritime Provinces, large parts of Ontario and Quebec, New England and the Mid-Atlantic region. Northeastern cultures lived in small, fenced villages and practised a mixed lifestyle that combined shifting agriculture (the Three Sisters, as well as wild rice), with hunting and gathering.
  • Southeastern — Basically the Southern United States as used on Wikivoyage plus Florida. The Southeastern peoples adopted the Three Sisters from the Mesoamericans and built large earth mounds and had a few relatively large towns and cities, as well as many smaller villages.

Most of the rest of the continent was populated by hunter-gatherers. They were dependent on the North American wildlife for survival. They typically lived in portable dwellings (domed wigwams or hogans, conical teepees) so they could follow their principle game animals: bison on the plains, deer and moose in the subarctic, and so on. Their population densities were very low, especially in the Subarctic.

People could and did move across these regional boundaries, often moving seasonally to access different resources at different times of the year, for example people from the Subarctic region spending part of the year on the Great Plains to hunt bison. Also there was extensive trade; the high-grade flint from the Niagara region has been found at pre-Columbian Hopi and Navajo sites in the U.S. Southwest, and obsidian from Yellowstone, Wyoming was traded as far away as the U.S. Gulf Coast a thousand years before Columbus.

Destinations

Artifacts have been found at a number of archeological sites, some dating back many thousands of years. The sites themselves are typically closed to visitors when excavations are under way, and visiting them at other times is likely to be a bad idea — not much to see and digging on your own would be a crime. However, nearby museums are often worth a visit and there may be opportunities for volunteer work on some sites.

Clovis culture

These people were stone age hunter-gatherers from around 13,000 years ago, and produced distinctive flint work called Clovis points. There are over 100 Clovis culture sites in the U.S., Mexico, and Central America, plus a few as far away as Nova Scotia and Venezuela.

Many archeologists in the 20th century accepted the "Clovis First" hypothesis, that the Clovis people were descended from the first migrants across the Bering land bridge and were the ancestors of all later groups. That notion is now considered oversimplified, and excavations from Alaska to Chile have found evidence of pre-Clovis humans, though some of that evidence is disputed.

However, the Clovis people remain important in any version of the history; in the Americas, theirs is both by far the most widespread of known cultures in their time period and by far the oldest culture for which there is undisputed evidence from multiple sites. The DNA evidence shows a close relation between the Clovis people and later groups in both American continents, but it also suggests that the full story is quite complicated.

Canada

  • Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park (Áísínai’pi National Historic Site of Canada) (about 100 km southeast of Lethbridge, Alberta). Home to Siksika (Blackfoot) glyphs that date back as far as 9,000 years.
  • Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump (Estipah-skikikini-kots) (near Fort Macleod, Alberta). Blackfoot hunters would drive a whole herd over a cliff; the site was used for at least 5,500 years. This buffalo jump is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has a Museum of Blackfoot Culture.
  • Majorville Medicine Wheel ("Canada's Stonehenge") (near Brooks in southern Alberta). A sacred Blackfoot site dating back to about 3200 BCE.
  • Triquet Island (off the British Columbia coast, near Bella Bella). Site of a village that appears to have been a refuge from the last ice age, about 12,000 BCE.

Mexico

There is evidence that the oldest known human settlements in North America are at a site outside Puebla, Mexico.

  • Hueyatlaco. This site has tools and animal remains indicating that humans hunted mammoths and other extinct animal species. Its age is controversial. The archeologist who headed the excavation team argues for 23,000 - 21,800 BCE, making it roughly twice as old as Clovis culture. Others contend that the site is over 200,000 years old.

People first developed agriculture and settled near their crops (the Neolithic revolution) sometime after 12,000 BCE. Historians debate who was first; the leading candidates are Mexico, Ancient China and the Fertile Crescent. Certainly the new way of life was well established in all those places, each with different crops, by 7,000 BCE. In Mexico the main crops were the "three sisters": corn (maize), beans and squash.

  • Boca de Potrerillos, Nuevo León. Estimated to have been settled around 8900 BCE, excavations show the site was in use for as much as 8000 years. Thousands of petroglyphs can be seen. Excavations discovered about 20 ovens dating from around 7000 BCE.
  • Tehuacán Valley, Puebla. Area where archaeologists found 9000-year-old evidence of corn domestication. Believed by some experts to have been the place where Mesoamerican civilizations began.
  • Caves at Mitla and Yagul, Oaxaca (state). The caves Mitla significantly predate the Zapotec culture and show evidence of human domestication of the three sisters 10,000 years ago (making it older than Tehuacan). A UNESCO World Heritage Site.

United States

  • Buttermilk Creek Complex (Deborah L Friedkin site) (near Austin, Texas). This site has the oldest weapons yet discovered in North America, spear points from about 13,500 BCE, making it one of only a handful of confirmed pre-Clovis sites. Another part of the Friedkin site has artifacts from later cultures, including Clovis.
  • On Your Knees Cave (Prince of Wales Island, Southern Alaska). Has artifacts from about 8,000 BCE.
  • Sun River (Tanana River Valley, Interior Alaska). This site is from about 9,500 BCE and has the oldest human remains yet found in the Arctic. Its people are thought to have been descended from Ancient Beringians, the first group to cross the Bering Strait land bridge several thousand years earlier; DNA evidence suggests they were not closely related to later groups.

Canada

  • Mantle Site, Wendat (Huron) Ancestral Village (Jean-Baptiste Lainé in Whitchurch-Stouffville, Ontario). Largest site associated with the Huron (Wendat) people yet found, discovered 2012.

Greenland

  • Sermermiut (near Ilulissat, Greenland). 4,000-year-old settlement. Archeological excavations have shown the site being inhabited by the Saqqaq, Early Dorset and Thule cultures. Part of the Ilulissat Icefjord UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Guatemala

Honduras

Mexico

Chichén Itzá (Yucatán). Yucatan's largest and most famous ancient Maya ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Dates from around 600 CE.

  • Mitla (near Oaxaca). Ruins from the Zapotec culture, circa 200 BCE to after 1000 CE. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Tenochtitlan (Mexico City). The original foundation of Mexico City was built atop the ruins of the Aztec capital. At the city center is the Templo Mayor site, rediscovered in 1978 and partially excavated. It's excellent four-story museum sheds light on the Aztec culture as it showcases the many artifacts found on the site.
  • Teotihuacan (near Mexico City). Largest pre-colombian city in the Americas, established about 100 BCE and estimated to have been a city of 125,000 at its peak around 1 CE to 500 CE. Known for its two major pyramids: Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Monte Albán (Oaxaca). One of the oldest city ruins in Mexico, dating from 500 BC. Capital city of the Zapotec people. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Palenque (Chiapas). Stunning architecture and an awe-inspiring setting deep in the jungle. The archeological site is part of a National Park with nature reserves around it. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • El Tajin (Veracruz). Capital city of the Totonac culture, which became the most powerful city in Mesoamerica after the fall of Teotihuacan. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.

United States

Canyon de Chelly National Monument.

Great Serpent Mound (Ohio). The largest earthworks serpent in the world at over a quarter mile or 400 m. Its origin is controversial; some experts say it was built by the Adena culture around 320 BCE and others say by the Fort culture about 1070 CE..

Canada

  • Batoche National Historic Site (Rosthern, Saskatchewan). The site of the historic Battle of Batoche during the Northwest Rebellion of 1885, Métis versus the Canadian government's Northwest Mounted Police. The sites include a NWMP encampment, a church and rectory complex, and a farm home.

United States

  • Chief Crazy Horse Memorial. Under construction in South Dakota. Crazy Horse was one of the leaders at Little Bighorn.
  • Little Bighorn Battlefield (Custer's last stand) (near Crow Agency, Montana). Site of a major Indian victory over US cavalry in 1876.
  • Whitman Mission (Whitman Mission National Historic Site) (near Walla Walla, Washington). A stop on the Oregon Trail, in the territory of the Cayuse tribe. The missionaries were blamed for a measles outbreak that killed about half the tribe; some whites were massacred and others taken hostage. This resulted in a war, which of course the Indians lost.
  • Wounded Knee. Site of a massacre of over 150 Indians, mainly Sioux, by US Cavalry in 1890. Also of an armed standoff between the American Indian Movement and various law enforcement agencies in 1973.

Mexico

  • Copper Canyon (Chihuahua). A whole system of canyons, in total larger and deeper than the Grand Canyon in the U.S. It is home to the Tarahamura indigenous people, who are also known as the Raramuri.

U.S. Indian Reservations

The U.S. federal government recognizes 574 tribes which govern these 326 parcels, mostly spread across the western states. Reservations are subject to federal law, but not to state or other local government. About 1 million Native Americans live inside of a reservation, a bit less than half of the total indigenous population.

Many reservations are small and private communities, without public amenities or much else for an outside visitor to see. Many more direct visitors primarily to casinos, smoke shops and other businesses that take advantage of a jurisdiction that's free from state taxes and regulations. Fortunately, some tribes welcome tourism as an opportunity to share their culture, including the following:

Canada

  • Blackfoot Crossing, Siksika reservation (east of Calgary in Southern Alberta). This is the location of a prehistoric site ("earth-lodge village"), a modern historic site (Treaty 7 signing site and grave of Poundmaker), and a museum and interpretive centre.
  • Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum, Banff, Alberta. Housed in a reproduction of a fur trading post, this museum focuses on the history of the First Nations in the Banff area.

Northwest Coast Art Canadian Museum of History

Northwest Coast Art Canadian Museum of History (Photo: shankar s. from Dubai, united arab emirates, CC BY 2.0)

Mexico

  • Museo Indígena (Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas), Mexico City. Mexico's first museum dedicated to living indigenous cultures (as opposed to archaeological relics).
  • National Anthropological Museum (Museo Nacional de Antropologia), Mexico City. One of the largest and most extensive anthropology museums in the world. Enormous complex with permanent exhibits on the cultures of Aztecs, Mayan, Toltec, Olmec and many other indigenous cultures. Allow several hours to a full day to see everything.
  • Museo Antropologia de Xalapa (MAX), Xalapa, Veracruz (state). Regional anthropology museum on the campus of the University of Veracruz, general exhibits about indigenous cultures of Mexico with some of the best artifacts and exhibits on the Olmec and Huastec cultures.

United States

  • Anasazi Heritage Center (near Cortez, Colorado).
  • Center for Western Studies, Sioux Falls, South Dakota. More than 200 collections dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history and cultures of the Northern Plains.
  • First Americans Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Museum dedicated to the many cultures that lived in America before the arrival of European settlers, who displaced communities from their traditional homelands.
  • National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.. This museum displays the cultural traditions of the Native peoples of North, Central, and South America. It focuses on 20th century and present day culture much more than pre-Columbian and colonial periods. The exhibits can be fascinating, but are not as grandiose as those of other Smithsonian museums in DC. Perhaps the most important attraction is the gorgeous building itself, designed by famous Native Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal of Blackfoot descent, echoing the ancient stone formations of the American Southwest, and surrounded by manifestations both metaphorical and literal of natural North American landscapes.
  • Tatanka: Story of the Bison, Deadwood, South Dakota. Tatanka explores the history of the North American buffalo, which at one time had a population in excess of 30 million, but by the close of the 19th century the bison population was estimated at only 1,000.

Buy

19th century Sioux jacket

19th century Sioux jacket (Photo: Anagoria, CC BY 3.0)

Native handicrafts are sold in tourist areas of some cities. For example, you can find art from the Northwest Coast in Vancouver or Seattle, Inuit art from Nunavut in Ottawa and Montreal and Southwestern Indian silver and turquoise works in Santa Fe. Don't blindly assume that any item you find was produced nearby or was created by an indigenous artist, as mass-produced pieces are common in these places.

Native handicrafts are often sold on or near reservations. For example, the Navajo Nation has fine weavings and pottery and Pipestone National Monument has pipes and other stone carvings.

Also, some of the museums listed above sell replicas of items in their collections.

Buckskin. "Buckskin" is not necessarily from a buck or even from a deer; the term includes any hide from a male or female deer or similar species such as elk or antelope. It was used extensively in native clothing and enthusiastically adopted by the frontiersmen of the Old West. With the traditional native tanning method it becomes a lovely soft, pliable leather. Unfortunately much of what is on offer today is rather shoddy "tourist trap" stuff, but good examples can still be found.

  • Muskox wool products (Qiviut). The muskox is a somewhat unpleasant animal found in the arctic; it has a proverbially nasty temper and the males smell awful in mating season. Despite that, it is herded or farmed for its wool which is stronger and warmer than sheep's wool and softer than cashmere. It is mostly used in hats and scarves and is quite expensive; a hand-knit qiviut scarf can be over US$300.

Itineraries

  • Lewis and Clark Trail, route of a US government expedition to what is now Oregon, 1804-1806
  • Mohawk Trail, a scenic route in Massachusetts
  • Oregon Trail, a route of widespread settler colonization westward which had a severe impact on native communities on the trail
  • Santa Fe Trail, another major route for settlers
  • Trail of Tears, route of a forced migration of Cherokee and others in which several thousand died

Respect

Due to a long history of discrimination and ill-treatment, and at times even genocides, there still exists a fair bit of mistrust between indigenous people and the white majority in the United States and Canada. While the indigenous people now have equal rights with the white majority on paper, much discrimination continues to exist informally, and indigenous people are still in general economically disadvantaged relative to their white counterparts. The issues are complex and sensitive; visitors should consider avoiding political discussions and, if they do get involved in one, do much more listening than talking.

Avoid saying that Christopher Columbus (or the Vikings) discovered America, as this is highly disrespectful; the ancestors of the indigenous people were here millennia before any European set foot on American soil. Cf. the Native American leader who on meeting the Pope in the Vatican declared this land his, as he was the one to first set foot there.

If you need to refer to race, Native American is now the preferred term for referring to people indigenous to the contiguous United States, though American Indian is usually acceptable too, while First Nations is the preferred term for the non-Inuit indigenous people of Canada. The Inuit of northern Canada do not identify as "First Nations" and consider themselves to be a separate people. Similarly, the indigenous people of Alaska often do not identify as "Native American"; just stick to the term Alaska Native instead. The term Indigenas is commonly used in Mexico for referring to indigenous persons though the names of specific cultures are often preferred locally.

The term "Red Indian" used to be common for referring to Native Americans, but it is now considered a racist slur and should be avoided. "Indian", used alone, is not nearly as rude but should also be avoided. Similarly, the term "Eskimo" was once commonly used to refer to the indigenous peoples of the Arctic, but it has now almost completely fallen out of use in Canada and Greenland, and is falling out of favour in Alaska as well.

See also

Other North American history topics:

Other indigenous cultures:

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Wikivoyage. “Indigenous cultures of North America” from Wikivoyage, by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changed here: set as a page; edit links, maps and listing metadata left out; each photo under its own licence, credited in its caption.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.

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