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History: Native Americans
Native Americans
31,000 BC - Present
Native American
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At the time of Christopher Columbus' discovery of the Americas in the late 1400, Europeans believed that they had found a new and empty land, one that was ripe for the taking. However, both North and South America had been heavily populated and very advanced for thousands and thousands of years before Columbus arrived.
The indigenous people of the Americas, known today as American Indians or Native Americans, lived as far north as Alaska and as far south as the tip of South America.
It would be impossible to tell someone what American Indians were like because there were hundreds of tribes who, in many ways, were as different as the areas that they lived in.
Inuit Woman
In the north, natives like the Inuit were drastically different from the tribes that covered the Great Plains in North America, which also differed greatly from the Taino who first met Columbus in 1492.
Taino Man
In Central and South America, tribes such as the Aztecs, Incans, and Mayans had developed large advanced societies with powerful cities, advanced mathematics and architecture, and a well developed political structure.
The arrival of Europeans forever changed the indigenous people of America. Some historians believe that as many as 80% of the tribes of the Americas were wiped our due to diseases that were brought across the oceans by explorers and settlers. Most who survived the diseases were either killed or forced out of their homelands by Europeans seeking land and power.
These proud people still survive today, many trying to carry on the traditions of their ancestors.
Navajo boy in traditional clothing
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