Native American

Native Americans, also called Indigenous peoples of the United States and Canada, are the aboriginal populations residing in these territories before European contact. They are categorized into cultural groupings like American Indians and Arctic peoples, with American Indians further divided by region: Northern America, Middle America, and South America.

These groups, decimated by disease, conquest, and discriminatory policies, have actively pursued political change to regain autonomy in areas such as education, land ownership, and cultural revitalization. They have diverse languages and cultures, with varied means of subsistence, tribal laws, customs, trade, and intertribal relations.

The Indigenous peoples of North America, also known as Native Americans, resided in diverse regions across present-day Canada and the United States. Their settlements and lifestyles were closely tied to the environment, with distinct culture areas characterized by unique cultural traits.

In the Arctic, the Eskimos (Inuit) developed dome-shaped igloos. South of the Arctic, the Subarctic region's tribes like the Innu, Cree, and Ojibwe lived in small kin-based bands, constructing winter houses to withstand the cool climate. On the Northwest Coast, Indigenous people built rectangular plank houses, while the Northeast Indians lived in barrel houses. The plains and prairie tribes were known to use earth and skin lodges and tepees. Some of the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest built flat-roofed, often multistoried houses.

Some major Native American and First Nations groups include:

• Inuit: Indigenous people of the Arctic and subarctic regions with a population of over 180,000. They are located in Greenland, Arctic Canada, northern and southwestern Alaska, and part of Chukotka in Russia.
• Métis: An indigenous nation of Canada that has combined Native American and European cultural practices since at least the 17th century.
• Cherokee: A large, politically integrated tribe of Iroquoian lineage. They lived in the Appalachian Mountains in areas of present-day Georgia, eastern Tennessee, and western parts of North and South Carolina.
• Navajo: An Indigenous North American people who settled in the Southwest of what is now the United States some time before European contact.
• Ojibwe: An Algonquian-speaking Indigenous North American group inhabiting areas in Ontario and Manitoba, Canada, and Minnesota and North Dakota, United States.
• Oceti Sakowin: A broad alliance of Indigenous North American peoples who spoke three related languages within the Siouan language family.
• Iroquois: Also known as the Haudenosaunee or "People of the Longhouse." The confederacy consists of six nations: the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora.

Indigenous peoples across North America adapted to diverse environments through varied strategies.

In the Arctic, Inuit, Yupik/Yupiit and Unangan (Aleut) groups relied on hunting and gathering, targeting sea mammals, fish, and caribou, using fur clothing and dog sleds to survive the harsh winters.

On the Plains, groups like the Mandan and Hidatsa cultivated crops in earth-lodge villages and hunted bison, with the introduction of horses in the 1750s revolutionizing hunting and enabling a nomadic lifestyle.

In the American Southwest, groups such as the Yuman, Akimel O’odham, and Tohono O’odham practiced farming and hunting, with proximity to water dictating their reliance on agriculture, utilizing irrigation techniques and check dams.

Along the Northwest Coast, communities like the Tlingit and Coast Salish efficiently used aquatic resources such as salmon and developed advanced watercraft for fishing and trade, dispersing in summer and gathering in winter villages.

In the Eastern Woodlands, groups developed the Eastern Agricultural Complex, including plants such as sunflower and squash. They also used fire to clear garden plots and manage forests.