Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the from the regions of North America now encompassed by the, including parts of. They comprise a of distinct, s, and s, many of which are still enduring as political communities. There is a wide range of terms used, and some : they are variously known as American Indians, Indians, s, Amerinds, or Indigenous, Aboriginal or Original Americans.

Not all Native Americans come from the contiguous Some come from Alaska, Hawaii and other  regions. These other indigenous peoples, including groups such as the, s, and s, are not always counted as Native Americans, although  demographics listed "American Indian and Alaskan Native" collectively. (also known as Kanaka Māoli and Kanaka Oiwi) and various other peoples, such as the  (Chamoru), can also be considered Native American, but it is not common to use such a designation.

Initial impacts
The nearly obliterated the populations and cultures of the Native Americans. During the through, their populations were ravaged by conflicts with European explorers and colonists, , displacement, ,  as well as high rate of. Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors,  was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives. The first Native American group encountered by in 1492, were the   (more properly called the ) of Boriquen, the  of the , the Cubanacan. It is said that of the 250,000 to 1 million Island Arawaks, only about 500 survived by the year 1550, and the group was considered extinct before 1650. Yet DNA studies show that the genetic contribution of the Taino to that region continues, and the mitochondrial DNA studies of the Taino are said to show relationships to the Northern Indigenous Nations, such as (Eskimo) and others. In the sixteenth century, and other Europeans brought s to the Americas. Some of these animals escaped and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild. Ironically, the horse had originally evolved in the Americas, but the early American horse became game for the earliest humans and became extinct about 7,000 BC, just after the end of the last. The re-introduction of the horse had a profound impact on Native American culture in the of North America. As a new mode of travel the horse made it possible for some tribes to greatly expand their territories, exchange goods with neighboring tribes, and more easily capture. settlers brought s against which the Native Americans had no natural. and, though common and rarely fatal among Europeans, often proved deadly to Native Americans. , always a terrible disease, proved particularly deadly to Native American populations. s often immediately followed European exploration, sometimes destroying entire villages. While precise figures are difficult to arrive at, some historians estimate that up to 80% of some died due to European diseases.

In 1617-1619 wiped out 90% of the  Indians. As it had done elsewhere, the virus wiped out entire population groups of Native Americans. It reached in 1636, and the lands of the  by 1679, killing millions. During the 1770's, smallpox killed at least 30% of the Native Americans.

Early relations
explorers of the early 16th century were probably the first Europeans to interact with the native population of Florida. The first documented encounter of Europeans with Native Americans of the United States came with the first expedition of to  in 1513, although he encountered at least one native that spoke Spanish. In 1521, he encountered the people during a failed colonization attempt in which they drove off the Europeans. In 1526, tried to found a colony in what is now, but for multiple reasons it failed after only a year. The remaining slaves of the colony revolted and fled into the wilderness to live among the people. The next encounter came with the members of the from 1528–1536. wrote a detailed account of the failed expedition which includes descriptions of several Native American cultures he encountered from Florida, the northern, , possibly and , and northern. He described the behavior, living situation, dress, and food of the people he encountered as he wandered from village to village. An expedition in 1539 headed by went in search of. They were guided by another survivor of the Narváez expedition,, who encountered the people in his wanderings. Following de Niza in search of the fabled cities was from 1540–1542. He had encounters with the and  as well as several other native groups in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas,, and.

Also in 1539, the traveled through the Southern United States from 1539–1542. This expedition was responsible for introducing diseases into that region, and also resulted in several battles with various tribes. De Soto's expedition was almost lost in what is today when  of the  people, suspicious of de Soto's intentions, prepared an ambush. When one of the Spanish explorers attacked a Choctaw man, Tuskaloosa's warriors almost decimated the Spanish contingent. The expedition included a member of the failed Narváez expedition of 1528 named Juan Ortiz who lived among the people for twelve years before being rescued by de Soto. In August 1570, a group of Spanish s landed on the to create their. Their guide, a convert to Christianity named, soon left them and rejoined his tribe. Around February of 1571, Don Luis returned with other natives, stole all their clothing and supplies, and killed all but a young servant boy. This disastrous attempt at establishing a mission in Virginia spelled the end of Spanish ventures to colonize the area. 

Another encounter was the failed led by  of  beginning in 1584. At first, the local tribes on bartered with the colonists, but this was during a time of a severe drought, and when the local tribes grew more reluctant to trade, relations deteriorated. Supplies from England were interrupted by a war with Spain, and they were gone when the supplies finally arrived after 3 years. The fate of the colonists has never been ascertained, leading to the 400 year mystery of the "Lost Colony". 

By 1578 there were about 350 European fishing vessels at and sailors began to trade metal implements (particularly knives) for the natives' well worn pelts. The French was undertaken by Francis Grave (a merchant) and Chauvin (a captain) in 1599 when they acquired a monopoly from Henry IV and their attempt to establish a colony at the mouth of the  was a direct result of their desire to profit from trading native fur pelts for European goods.

England attempted again to colonize, in May of 1607 at, and in August 1607 with the in present-day. The Popham Colony interacted with the tribe, but failed to establish cooperation, and was abandoned after a year. Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in the United States. However, it only survived with a great loss of life. Jamestown's breakdown in relations with the and  tribes resulted in the, which ended with the marriage of  and , the youngest daughter of  in 1614.

In 1610 a teenage was sent by  to live with the s for a year as a sort of 'exchange student'. Champlain, in turn, accepted the company of a youth named Savignon who accompanied him back to France. The two cultures made a successful rendezvous the next year and the young men returned to their respective groups to report their experiences. In 1620, a group of English settlers, including the, who were heading for the , got blown off-course and anchored in before they settled at present-day , instead, during a harsh winter. In the autumn of 1621, they celebrated a three-day thanksgiving feast with the native people, without whom they would not have survived the winter of 1620.

On, m about 347 people, or almost one-third of the population of  colony, were killed by a coordinated series of surprise attacks of the  under Chief. Opechancanough launched a campaign of surprise attacks upon at least thirty-one separate English settlements mostly along the James river.

The continued into the 1630s and 40s, creating many settlements in  and the. activities proceeded in an overlapping. Meanwhile, and  were also proceeding on other areas of the continent. The erupted during the mid-17th century, fueled by the fur trade.

Some European settlers used Native American contacts to further their activities in the ; others sold European technology to the natives, including firearms which fueled tribal wars. Peaceful coexistence was established in some times and places. For example, the careful diplomacy of facilitated the founding of what would become  in a desirable farming location close to the native  settlement.

Struggles for economic and territorial dominance also continued to result in armed conflict. In some cases these latent conflicts resulted in escalating tensions, gradually followed by escalating multi-party violence. In other cases sudden, relatively unprovoked raids were conducted on native and colonial settlements, which might involve, massacre, or kidnapping for. Determining how many people died in these overall is difficult. In the book The Wild Frontier: Atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee, amateur historian William M. Osborn sought to tally every recorded in the area that would eventually become the continental, from first contact (1511) to the closing of the frontier (1890), and determined that 9,156 people died from  perpetrated by Native Americans, and 7,193 people died from atrocities perpetrated by Europeans. Osborn defines an atrocity as the, , or mutilation of civilians, the wounded, and.

Pre-existing rivalries among both the Native American tribes and confederacies and the European nations led groups from both continents to find war allies among the others against their traditional enemies. When transatlantic civilizations clashed, better technology (including firearms) and the epidemics decimating native populations gave Europeans a substantial military advantage.

In 1637, the erupted in the  and  colonies. in the English colonies would continue on and off into the.

In the early 1680s, was established by  in the, which was home to the  nation. Chief reputably took part in a peace treaty between the leaders of the Lenni-Lenape nation and the leaders of the Pennsylvania colony held under a large elm tree at.

In the Spanish sphere, many of the Pueblo people harbored hostility toward the Spanish, primarily due to their denigration and prohibition of the traditional religion (the Spanish at the time being staunchly and aggressively ). The traditional economies of the pueblos were likewise disrupted when they were forced to labor on the s of the colonists. However, the Spanish had introduced new farming implements and provided some measure of security against and  raiding parties. As a result, they lived in relative peace with the Spanish following the founding of the Northern New Mexican colony in. In the 1670s, however, drought swept the region, which not only caused famine among the Pueblo, but also provoked increased attacks from neighboring tribes — attacks against which Spanish soldiers were unable to defend. Unsatisfied with the protective powers of the Spanish crown, the in 1680. In 1692, Spanish control was reasserted, but under much more lenient terms.

At the same time, European-introduced diseases were ravaging the natives, greatly decreasing their numbers. It has also been alleged that the introduction of these diseases was exacerbated when soldiers handed out infected blankets. During the late in the  (1756-1763), British General  wrote in a letter to Colonel  on July 17, 1763, "You will Do well to try to Inoculate the Indians, by means of Blankets, as well as to Try Every other Method, that can Serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race. — I should be very glad [if] your Scheme for Hunting them down by Dogs could take Effect; but England is at too great a Distance to think that at present." Prior correspondence between Amherst and Bouquet also discussed the use of smallpox-infected blankets. trader William Trent had already given two smallpox-infected blankets to, apparently without Amherst's knowledge, but likely with the knowledge of the Fort Pitt commander Captain Simeon Ecuyer.

Historians have been unable to establish whether or not this plan was implemented, particularly in light of the fact that was already present in the region. Despite the lack of historical evidence, the claim that British and American soldiers used germ warfare against North American tribes has remained fairly strong in certain oral traditions and in popular culture. A smallpox epidemic in fact did devastate the Delawares, but it is impossible to know if they were infected by the blankets or through exposure to English soldiers infected with the disease.

Relations during and after the American Revolutionary War
During the, the newly proclaimed competed with the British for the allegiance of Native American nations east of the. Most Native Americans who joined the struggle sided with the British, hoping to use the war to halt further colonial expansion onto Native American land. Many native communities were divided over which side to support in the war. For the Confederacy, the American Revolution resulted in civil war. split into a neutral (or pro-American) faction and the anti-American s, led by.

was particularly brutal, and numerous were committed by settlers and native tribes. Noncombatants suffered greatly during the war, and villages and food supplies were frequently destroyed during military expeditions. The largest of these expeditions was the of 1779, which destroyed more than 40 Iroquois villages in order to neutralize Iroquois raids in. The expedition failed to have the desired effect: Native American activity became even more determined.

The British made peace with the Americans in the, and had ceded a vast amount of Native American territory to the United States without informing the Native Americans. The United States initially treated the Native Americans who had fought with the British as a conquered people who had lost their land. When this proved impossible to enforce, the policy was abandoned. The United States was eager to expand, and the national government initially sought to do so only by purchasing Native American land in. The states and settlers were frequently at odds with this policy.

Removal and reservations
In the nineteenth century, the incessant Westward expansion of the incrementally compelled large numbers of Native Americans to resettle further west, often by force, almost always reluctantly. Under President, Congress passed the of 1830, which authorized the President to conduct treaties to exchange Native American land east of the  for lands west of the river. As many as 100,000 Native Americans eventually relocated in the West as a result of this policy. In theory, relocation was supposed to be voluntary (and many Native Americans did remain in the East), but in practice great pressure was put on Native American leaders to sign removal treaties. Arguably the most egregious violation of the stated intention of the removal policy was the, which was signed by a dissident faction of s, but not the elected leadership. The treaty was brutally enforced by President, which resulted in the deaths of an estimated four thousand Cherokees on the.

The explicit policy of Indian Removal forced or coerced the relocation of major Native American groups in both the Southeast and the Northeast United States, resulting directly and indirectly in the deaths of tens of thousands. The subsequent process of assimilations was no less devastating to Native American peoples. Tribes were generally located to reservations on which they could more easily be separated from traditional life and pushed into European-American society. Some Southern states additionally enacted laws in the 19th century forbidding non-Indian settlement on Indian lands, intending to prevent sympathetic white missionaries from aiding the scattered Indian resistance.

At one point, President Jackson told people to kill as many bison as possible in order to cut out the Plains Indian's main source of food. Later in time there were fewer than 500 bison left in the Great Plains.

Conflicts, generally known as "", broke out between forces and many different tribes. U.S. government authorities entered numerous treaties during this period, but later abrogated many for various reasons. Well-known military engagements include the Native American victory at the in 1876 and the massacre of Native Americans at  in 1890. This, together with the near-extinction of the that many tribes had lived on, set about the downturn of  that had developed around the use of the horse for hunting, travel and trading.

American policy toward Native Americans has been an evolving process. In the late nineteenth century, reformers, in efforts to "" or otherwise assimilate Indians (as opposed to relegating them to ), adapted the practice of educating native children in s. These schools, which were primarily run by Christian missionaries, often proved traumatic to Native American children, who were forbidden to speak their, taught instead of their native religions and in numerous other ways forced to abandon their various Native American identities and adopt European-American culture. There are also many documented cases of sexual, physical and mental abuses occurring at these schools. The gave United States citizenship to Native Americans, in part because of an interest by many to see them merged with the American mainstream, and also because of the heroic service of many Native American veterans in.

Current status
There are 561 in the United States. These tribes possess the right to form their own government, to enforce laws (both civil and criminal), to tax, to establish membership, to license and regulate activities, to zone and to exclude persons from tribal territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example, neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or coin money (this includes paper currency).

According to 2003 estimates, a little over one third of the 2,786,652 Native Americans in the United States live in three states:  at 413,382,  at 294,137 and  at 279,559.

As of 2000, the largest tribes in the U.S. by population were, , , , , , , , , and. In 2000, eight of ten Americans with Native American ancestry were of mixed blood. It is estimated that by 2100 that figure will rise to nine out of ten. In addition, there are a number of tribes that are, but not by the federal government. The rights and benefits associated with state recognition vary from state to state.

Some tribal nations have been unable to establish their heritage and obtain federal recognition. The of the San Francisco bay area are pursuing litigation in the federal court system to establish recognition. Many of the smaller eastern tribes have been trying to gain official recognition of their tribal status. The recognition confers some benefits, including the right to label arts and crafts as Native American and permission to apply for grants that are specifically reserved for Native Americans. But gaining recognition as a tribe is extremely difficult; to be established as a tribal group, members have to submit extensive proof of tribal descent.

Military defeat, cultural pressure, confinement on reservations, forced cultural assimilation, outlawing of native languages and culture, termination policies of the 1950s and 1960s and, , and have had deleterious effects on Native Americans' mental and physical health. Contemporary health problems suffered disproportionately include, , , and suicide.

As recently as the 1970s, the was still actively pursuing a policy of "assimilation", dating at least to the. The goal of assimilation &mdash; plainly stated early on &mdash; was to eliminate the reservations and steer Native Americans into mainstream U.S. culture. In July 2000 the  adopted a resolution of termination for tribal governments. As of 2004, there are still claims of theft of Native American land for the and  it contains.

In the state of, Native Americans face a unique problem. Virginia has no federally recognized tribes, largely due to. In 1912, Plecker became the first registrar of the state's Bureau of Vital Statistics, serving until 1946. Plecker believed that the state's Native Americans had been "mongrelized" with its population. A law passed by the state's General Assembly recognized only two races, "white" and "colored". Plecker pressured local governments into reclassifying all Native Americans in the state as "colored", leading to the destruction of records on the state's Native American community.

Maryland also has a non-recognized tribal nation &mdash; the.

In order to receive federal recognition and the benefits it confers, tribes must prove their continuous existence since 1900. The federal government has so far refused to bend on this bureaucratic requirement. A bill currently before to ease this requirement has been favorably reported out of a key  committee, being supported by both of Virginia's senators,  and, but faces opposition in the  from Representative , who has expressed concerns that federal recognition could open the door to  in the state.

In the early 21st century, Native American communities remain an enduring fixture on the United States landscape, in the American economy, and in the lives of Native Americans. Communities have consistently formed governments that administer services like, management, and. Most Native American communities have established systems to adjudicate matters related to local ordinances, and most also look to various forms of moral and social authority vested in traditional affiliations within the community. To address the housing needs of Native Americans, Congress passed the Native American Housing and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA) in 1996. This legislation replaced public housing, and other 1937 Housing Act programs directed towards Indian Housing Authorities, with a block grant program directed towards Tribes.

has become a leading industry. s operated by many Native American governments in the United States are creating a stream of gambling revenue that some communities are beginning to use as leverage to build diversified economies. Native American communities have waged and prevailed in legal battles to assure recognition of rights to self-determination and to use of natural resources. Some of those rights, known as are enumerated in early treaties signed with the young United States government. has become a cornerstone of American, and at least on the surface, in national legislative policies. Although many Native American tribes have casinos, they are a source of conflict. Most tribes, especially small ones such as the of, feel that casinos and their proceeds destroy culture from the inside out. These tribes refuse to participate in the gaming industry.

On, , the Massachusetts legislature finally ed a disused 330 year-old law that barred Native Americans from entering Boston.

In August 2005, the (NCAA) banned the use of "hostile and abusive" Native American mascots from postseason tournaments. The use of Native American themed team names in U.S. professional sports is widespread and often controversial, with examples such as of the  and the.

Conflicts between the federal government and native Americans occasionally erupt into violence. Perhaps one of the more noteworthy incidents in recent history is the in small town of. On February 27, 1973, the town was surrounded by federal law enforcement officials and the United States military. The town itself was under the control of members of the which was protesting a variety of issues important to the organization. Two members of AIM were killed and one was paralyzed as a result of gunshot wounds. In the aftermath of the conflict, one man, Leonard Peltier was arrested and sentenced to life in prison while another, John Graham, as late as 2007, was extradited to the U.S. to stand trial for killing a Native American woman, months after the standoff, that he believed to be an FBI informant.

Blood Quanta
Intertribal and interracial mixing was common among Native American tribes making it difficult to clearly identify which tribe an individual belonged to. Bands or entire tribes occasionally split or merged to form more viable groups in reaction to the pressures of climate, disease and warfare. A number of tribes practiced the adoption of into their group to replace their members who had been captured or killed in battle. These captives came from rival tribes and later from European settlers. Some tribes also sheltered or adopted white traders and runaway slaves and Native American-owned slaves. So a number of paths to genetic mixing existed.

In later years, such mixing, however, proved an obstacle to qualifying for recognition and assistance from the U.S. federal government or for tribal money and services. To receive such support, Native Americans must belong to and be certified by a recognized tribal entity. This has taken a number of different forms as each tribal government makes its own rules while the federal government has its own set of standards. In many cases, qualification is based upon the percentage of Native American blood, or the "blood quanta" identified in an individual seeking recognition. To attain such certainty, some tribes have begun requiring (DNA testing). Requirements for tribal certification vary widely. The Cherokee require only a descent from an Native American listed on the early 20th century while federal scholarships require enrollment in a federally recognized tribe as well as a  card showing at least a one-quarter Native American descent. Tribal rules regarding recognition of members with Native American blood from multiple tribes are equally diverse and complex.

Tribal membership conflicts have led to a number of activist groups, legal disputes and court cases. One example are the, who were descendants of slaves once owned by the Cherokees. The Cherokees had allied with the in the  and, after the war, were forced by the federal government, in an 1866 treaty, to free their slaves and make them citizens. They were later disallowed as tribe members due to their not having "Indian blood". However, in March 2006, the Judicial Appeals Tribunal &mdash; the Cherokee Nation's highest court &mdash; ruled that Cherokee freedmen are full citizens of the Cherokee Nation. The court declared that the Cherokee freedmen retain citizenship, voting rights and other privileges despite attempts to keep them off the tribal rolls for not having identifiable "Indian" blood. In March 2007 the Freedmen were voted out of the.

In the 20th century, among white ethnic groups, it became popular to claim descent from an "American Indian princess", often a Cherokee. The prototypical "American Indian princess" was, and, in fact, descent from her is a frequent claim. However, the American Indian "princess" is a false concept, derived from the application of European concepts to Native Americans, as also seen in the naming of war chiefs as "kings". Descent from "Indian braves" is also sometimes claimed.

This descent from Native Americans was seen as fashionable not only among whites claiming prestigious colonial descent but also among whites seeking to claim connection to groups with distinct folkways that would differentiate them from the mass culture. Large influxes of recent immigrants with unique social customs may have been partially an object of envy. Among African-Americans, the desire to be un-black was sometimes expressed in claims of Native American descent. Those as white might use the slightly more acceptable Native American ancestry to explain inconvenient details of their heritage.

Cultural aspects
Though cultural features, language, clothing, and customs vary enormously from one tribe to another, there are certain elements which are encountered frequently and shared by many tribes.

Early tribes made stone weapons from around 10,000 years ago; as the age of  dawned, newer technologies were used and more efficient weapons produced. Prior to contact with Europeans, most tribes used similar weaponry. The most common implement were the bow and arrow, the war club, and the spear. Quality, material, and design varied widely.

Large mammals like mammoths and mastodons were largely extinct by around 8,000 B.C., and the Native Americans switched to hunting other large game, such as. The Great Plains tribes were still hunting the bison when they first encountered the Europeans. The acquisition of the horse and horsemanship from the Spanish in the 17th century greatly altered the natives' culture, changing the way in which these large creatures were hunted and making them a central feature of their lives.

Gens structure
Before the formation of tribal structure, a structure dominated by existed.
 * The right of electing its sachem and chiefs.
 * The right of deposing its sachem and chiefs.
 * The obligation not to marry in the gens.
 * Mutual rights of inheritance of the property of deceased members.
 * Reciprocal obligations of help, defense, and redress of injuries.
 * The right of bestowing names upon its members.
 * The right of adopting strangers into the gens.
 * Common religious rights, query.
 * A common burial place.
 * A council of the gens.

Tribal structure
Subdivision and differentiation took place between various groups. Upwards of forty stock languages developed in North America, with each independent tribe speaking a dialect of one of those languages. Some functions and attributes of tribes are:


 * The possession of a territory and a name.
 * The exclusive possession of a dialect.
 * The right to invest sachems and chiefs elected by the gentes.
 * The right to depose these sachems and chiefs.
 * The possession of a religious faith and worship.
 * A supreme government consisting of a council of chiefs.
 * A head-chief of the tribe in some instances.

Society and art


The, living around the and extending east and north, used strings or belts called  that served a dual function: the knots and beaded designs mnemonically chronicled tribal stories and legends, and further served as a medium of exchange and a unit of measure. The keepers of the articles were seen as tribal dignitaries.

crafted impressive items associated with their religious ceremonies.  dancers wore elaborately painted and decorated masks as they ritually impersonated various ancestral spirits. Sculpture was not highly developed, but carved stone and wood fetishes were made for religious use. Superior weaving, embroidered decorations, and rich dyes characterized the textile arts. Both turquoise and shell jewelry were created, as were high-quality pottery and formalized pictorial arts.

spirituality focused on the maintenance of a harmonious relationship with the spirit world, often achieved by ceremonial acts, usually incorporating. The colors—made from sand, charcoal, cornmeal, and pollen—depicted specific spirits. These vivid, intricate, and colorful sand creations were erased at the end of the ceremony.

Religion
The most widespread religion at the present time is known as the. It is a syncretistic church incorporating elements of native spiritual practice from a number of different tribes as well as symbolic elements from. Its main rite is the ceremony. Prior to 1890, traditional religious beliefs included. In the American Southwest, especially, a syncretism between the brought by Spanish missionaries and the native religion is common; the religious drums, chants, and dances of the  are regularly part of es at 's. Native American-Catholic syncretism is also found elsewhere in the United States. (e.g., the National Shrine in  and the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs in ).

Native Americans are the only known group in the United States requiring a federal permit to practice their. The, (Title 50 Part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations), stipulates that only individuals of certifiable Native American ancestry enrolled in a federally recognized tribe are legally authorized to obtain feathers for  or  use. Native Americans and non-Native Americans frequently contest the value and validity of the, charging that the law is laden with discriminatory racial preferences and infringes on tribal sovereignty. The law does not allow Native Americans to give feathers to non-Native Americans, a common modern and traditional practice. Many non-Native Americans have been adopted into Native American families, made tribal members and given eagle feathers.

Many Native Americans would describe their religious practices as a form of, rather than , although in practice the terms may sometimes be used interchangeably.

Native Americans and African American slaves
There were historical treaties between the European Colonists and the Native American tribes requesting the return of any. For example, in 1726, the British Governor of New York exacted a promise from the Iroquois to return all runaway slaves who had joined up with them. This same promise was extracted from the Huron Natives in 1764 and from the Delaware Natives in 1765. There are also numerous accounts of advertisements requesting the return of African Americans who had married Native Americans or who spoke a Native American language. Individuals in some tribes owned African ; however, other tribes incorporated African Americans, slave or freemen, into the tribe. This custom among the Seminoles was part of the reason for the where the European Americans feared their slaves fleeing to the Natives. The and tribes such as the  in North Carolina include African American ancestors.

After 1800, the and some other tribes started buying and using black slaves, a practice they continued after being relocated to  in the 1830s. The nature of often mirrored that of white slave-owning society. The law barred intermarriage of Cherokees and blacks, whether slave or free. Blacks who aided slaves were punished with one hundred lashes on the back. In Cherokee society, blacks were barred from holding office, bearing arms, and owning property, and it was illegal to teach blacks to read and write.

Gender roles
Most Native American tribes had traditional. In some tribes, such as the nation, social and clan relationships were  and/or, although several  were in use. One example is the Cherokee custom of wives owning the family property. Men hunted, traded and made war, while women cared for the young and the elderly, fashioned clothing and instruments and cured meat. The was used by mothers to carry their baby while working or traveling. However, in some (but not all) tribes a kind of was permitted; see.

At least several dozen tribes allowed to sisters, with procedural and economic limits.

Apart from making home, women had many tasks that were essential for the survival of the tribes. They made weapons and tools, took care of the roofs of their homes and often helped their men hunt. In some of the Plains Indian tribes there reportedly were medicine women who gathered herbs and cured the ill.

In some of these tribes girls were also encouraged to learn to ride and fight. Though fighting was mostly left to the boys and men, there had been cases of women fighting alongside them, especially when the existence of the tribe was threatened.

Music and art
is almost entirely, but there are notable exceptions. Traditional Native American music often includes ming and/or the playing of rattles or other percussion instruments but little other instrumentation. s and whistles made of wood, cane, or bone are also played, generally by individuals, but in former times also by large ensembles (as noted by Spanish ). The tuning of these flutes is not precise and depends on the length of the wood used and the hand span of the intended player, but the finger holes are most often around a whole step apart and, at least in Northern California, a flute was not used if it turned out to have an interval close to a half step.

Performers with Native American parentage have occasionally appeared in American popular music, such as, , , and. Some, such as have used music to comment on life in Native America, and others, such as  integrate traditional sounds with modern sounds in instrumental recordings. A variety of small and medium-sized recording companies offer an abundance of recent music by Native American performers young and old, ranging from pow-wow drum music to hard-driving rock-and-roll and rap.

The most widely practiced public musical form among Native Americans in the United States is that of the pow-wow. At s, such as the annual in, , members of s sit in a circle around a large drum. Drum groups play in unison while they sing in a native language and dancers in colorful regalia dance clockwise around the drum groups in the center. Familiar pow-wow songs include honor songs, intertribal songs, crow-hops, sneak-up songs, grass-dances, two-steps, welcome songs, going-home songs, and war songs. Most indigenous communities in the United States also maintain traditional songs      and ceremonies, some of which are shared and practiced exclusively within the community. Native American art comprises a major category in the world art collection. Native American contributions include, s, , s, s, , and.

Artists have at times misrepresented themselves as having native parentage, most notably, who traced his heritage to ancestors and admitted he fabricated a story that he was one-quarter. The integrity of certain Native American artworks is now protected by an act of Congress that prohibits representation of art as Native American when it is not the product of an enrolled Native American artist.

Traditional economy
The, or , prepared and buried large amounts of dried meat and fish. Pacific Northwest tribes crafted seafaring dugouts 40–50 feet long for fishing. Farmers in the Eastern Woodlands tended fields of maize with hoes and digging sticks, while their neighbors in the Southeast grew tobacco as well as food crops. On the Plains, some tribes engaged in agriculture but also planned buffalo hunts in which herds were efficiently driven over bluffs. Dwellers of the Southwest deserts hunted small animals and gathered acorns to grind into flour with which they baked wafer-thin bread on top of heated stones. Some groups on the region's mesas developed irrigation techniques, and filled storehouses with grain as protection against the area's frequent.

As these native peoples encountered European explorers and settlers and engaged in trade, they exchanged food, crafts, and furs for trinkets, blankets, iron, and steel implements, horses, firearms, and alcoholic beverages.

Depictions by Europeans and Americans
Native Americans have been depicted by in various ways at different historical periods. During the period when America was first being colonized, in the and, the artist  made watercolors and engravings of the people native to the southeastern states. John White’s images were, for the most part, faithful likenesses of the people he observed. Later the artist used White’s original watercolors to make a book of engravings entitled, A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia.  In his book, de Bry often altered the poses and features of White’s figures to make them appear more European, probably in order to make his book more marketable to a European audience. During the period that White and de Bry were working, when Europeans were first coming into contact with native Americans, there was a large interest and curiosity in native American cultures by Europeans, which would have created the demand for a book like de Bry’s.

Several centuries later, during the reconstruction of the in the early nineteenth century, the  commissioned a series of four relief panels to crown the doorway of the. The reliefs encapsulate a vision of European--Native American relations that had assumed mythicohistorical proportions by the nineteenth century. The four panels depict: The Preservation of Captain Smith by Pocahontas (1825) by, The Landing of the Pilgrims (1825) and The Conflict of Daniel Boone and the Indians (1826-27) by , and William Penn’s Treaty with the Indians (1827) by. The reliefs present idealized versions of the Europeans and the native Americans, in which the Europeans appear refined and gentile, and the natives appear ferocious and savage. The representative of, , voiced a particularly astute summary of how Native Americans would read the messages contained in all four reliefs: “We give you corn, you cheat us of our lands: we save your life, you take ours.”

While many nineteenth century images of native Americans conveyed similarly negative messages, there were artists, such as, who sought to express a more positive image of the native Americans as s.

Terminology differences
When arrived in the "", he described the people he encountered as Indians because he mistakenly believed that he had reached the, the original destination of his voyage. The name Indian (or American Indian) stuck, and for centuries the people who first came to the Americas were collectively called Indians in America, and similar terms in. The problem with this traditional term is that the peoples of India are also known as Indians. The term Red Man was common among the early settlers of New England because the northeastern tribes colored their bodies with red pigments, but later this term became a pejorative and insulting epithet during the western push into America, with the corruption redskin becoming its most virulent form. A usage in British English was to refer to natives of North America as 'Red Indians', though now old fashioned, it is still widely used.

Common usage in the United States
The term Native American was originally introduced in the by anthropologists as a more accurate term for the indigenous people of the Americas, as distinguished from the people of India. Because of the widespread acceptance of this newer term in and outside of academic circles, some people believe that Indians is outdated or offensive. People from India (and their descendants) who are citizens of the United States are known as s.

Criticism of the neologism Native American, however, comes from diverse sources. Some American Indians have misgivings about the term Native American. , a famous American Indian activist, opposes the term Native American because he believes it was imposed by the government without the consent of American Indians. Furthermore, some American Indians question the term Native American because, they argue, it serves to ease the conscience of "white America" with regard to past injustices done to American Indians by effectively eliminating "Indians" from the present. Still others (both Indians and non-Indians) argue that Native American is problematic because "native of" literally means "born in," so any person born in the Americas could be considered "native". However, very often the compound "Native American" will be in order to differentiate this intended meaning from others. Likewise, "native" (small 'n') can be further qualified by formulations such as "native-born" when the intended meaning is only to indicate place of birth or origin.

A 1996 survey revealed that more American Indians in the United States still preferred American Indian to Native American. Nonetheless, most American Indians are comfortable with Indian, American Indian, and Native American, and the terms are now used interchangeably. The continued usage of the traditional term is reflected in the name chosen for the, which opened in 2004 in.

Recently, the U.S. Census introduced the "Asian Indian" category to more accurately sample the Indian American population.

State percentages
As of 2005 Census estimates, 1.0 percent of the US population is of American Indian and descent. This population is unevenly distributed across the country, with Alaska and New Mexico boasting double digit native populations while in five states they constitute only 0.2% of the population.


 * 16%
 * 10.2%
 * 8.8%
 * 8.1%
 * 6.5%
 * 5.3%
 * 5.1%
 * 2.7%
 * 1.7%
 * 1.4%
 * 1.4%
 * 1.4%
 * 1.3%
 * 1.3%
 * 1.2%
 * 1.2%
 * 1.1%
 * 0.9%
 * 0.9%
 * 0.9%
 * 0.7%
 * 0.7%
 * 0.6%
 * 0.6%
 * 0.6%
 * 0.6%
 * 0.5%
 * 0.5%
 * 0.4%
 * 0.4%
 * 0.4%
 * 0.4%
 * 0.4%
 * 0.4%
 * 0.3%
 * 0.3%
 * 0.3%
 * 0.3%
 * 0.3%
 * 0.3%
 * 0.3%
 * 0.3%
 * 0.3%
 * 0.3%
 * 0.3% 9%
 * 0.3%
 * 0.2%
 * 0.2%
 * 0.2%
 * 0.2%
 * 0.2%