What are Native Americans

Native Americans are the indigenous peoples fromCubanacan (Cuba), and Haiti. It is said that only
the regions of North America now encompassed500 survived by the year 1550, and the group
by the continental United States, including parts ofwas considered extinct before 1650. Yet DNA
Alaska. They comprise a large number of distinctstudies show that the genetic contribution of the
tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of whichTaino to that region continues, and the
are still enduring as political communities. There ismitochondrial DNA studies of the Taino are said to
some controversy surrounding the names used:show relationships to the Northern Indigenous
they are also known as American Indians, Indians,Nations, such as Inuit (Eskimo) and others.[1]
Amerindians, Amerinds, or Indigenous, AboriginalIn the fifteenth century, Spaniards and other
or Original Americans. In Canada they are knownEuropeans brought horses to the Americas. Some
as First Nations.of these animals escaped and began to breed and
The U.S. states and several of the inhabited insularincrease their numbers in the wild. Ironically, the
areas that are not part of the continental U.S. alsohorse had originally evolved in the Americas, but
contain indigenous groups. Some of these otherthe early American horses were game for early
indigenous peoples in the United States, includinghuman hunters, and went extinct about 7,000 BC,
the Inuit, Yupik Eskimos, and Aleuts, are notjust after the end of the last ice age. The
always counted as Native Americans, although there-introduction of the horse had a profound
US Census 2000 demographics listed "Americanimpact on Native American culture in the Great
Indian and Alaskan Native" collectively. NativePlains of North America. This new mode of travel
Hawaiians (also known as Kanaka Maoli andmade it possible for some tribes to greatly
Kanaka ‘Oiwi) and various other Pacificexpand their territories, exchange goods with
Islander American peoples such as the Chamorrosneighboring tribes, and more easily capture game.
can also be considered Native American, but it isEuropeans also brought diseases, against which
not common usually due to their differentthe Native Americans had no immunity. Chicken
historical origin (i.e. Polynesian).pox and measles, though common and rarely fatal
The European colonization of the Americasamong Europeans, often proved fatal to Native
decimated the populations and cultures of theAmericans, and more dangerous diseases such as
Native Americans. During the fifteenth throughsmallpox were especially deadly to Native
nineteenth centuries, their populations wereAmerican populations.[2] It is difficult to estimate
ravaged by disease, displacement, enslavement,the total percentage of the Native American
internal warfare, as well as conflicts with Europeanpopulation killed by these diseases. Epidemics often
explorers and colonists.immediately followed European exploration,
The first Native American group encountered bysometimes destroying entire villages. Some
Christopher Columbus in 1492, were the 250historians estimate that up to 80% of some
thousand to 1 million Island Arawaks (moreNative populations may have died due to
properly called the Taino) of Boriquen (PuertoEuropean diseases.
Rico), Dominican Republic (Quisqueya), the