| Native Americans are the indigenous peoples | | | | (Quisqueya), the Cubanacan (Cuba), and Haiti. |
| from the regions of North America now | | | | It is said that only 500 survived by the year |
| encompassed by the continental United States, | | | | 1550, and the group was considered extinct |
| including parts of Alaska. They comprise a | | | | before 1650. Yet DNA studies show that the |
| large number of distinct tribes, states, and | | | | genetic contribution of the Taino to that |
| ethnic groups, many of which are still | | | | region continues, and the mitochondrial DNA |
| enduring as political communities. There is | | | | studies of the Taino are said to show |
| some controversy surrounding the names used: | | | | relationships to the Northern Indigenous |
| they are also known as American Indians, | | | | Nations, such as Inuit (Eskimo) and |
| Indians, Amerindians, Amerinds, or | | | | others.[1] |
| Indigenous, Aboriginal or Original Americans. | | | | |
| In Canada they are known as First Nations. | | | | In the fifteenth century, Spaniards and other |
| | | | Europeans brought horses to the Americas. |
| The U.S. states and several of the inhabited | | | | Some of these animals escaped and began to |
| insular areas that are not part of the | | | | breed and increase their numbers in the wild. |
| continental U.S. also contain indigenous | | | | Ironically, the horse had originally evolved |
| groups. Some of these other indigenous | | | | in the Americas, but the early American |
| peoples in the United States, including the | | | | horses were game for early human hunters, and |
| Inuit, Yupik Eskimos, and Aleuts, are not | | | | went extinct about 7,000 BC, just after the |
| always counted as Native Americans, although | | | | end of the last ice age. The re-introduction |
| the US Census 2000 demographics listed | | | | of the horse had a profound impact on Native |
| "American Indian and Alaskan Native" | | | | American culture in the Great Plains of North |
| collectively. Native Hawaiians (also known as | | | | America. This new mode of travel made it |
| Kanaka Maoli and Kanaka ‘Oiwi) and | | | | possible for some tribes to greatly expand |
| various other Pacific Islander American | | | | their territories, exchange goods with |
| peoples such as the Chamorros can also be | | | | neighboring tribes, and more easily capture |
| considered Native American, but it is not | | | | game. |
| common usually due to their different | | | | |
| historical origin (i.e. Polynesian). | | | | Europeans also brought diseases, against |
| | | | which the Native Americans had no immunity. |
| The European colonization of the Americas | | | | Chicken pox and measles, though common and |
| decimated the populations and cultures of the | | | | rarely fatal among Europeans, often proved |
| Native Americans. During the fifteenth | | | | fatal to Native Americans, and more dangerous |
| through nineteenth centuries, their | | | | diseases such as smallpox were especially |
| populations were ravaged by disease, | | | | deadly to Native American populations.[2] It |
| displacement, enslavement, internal warfare, | | | | is difficult to estimate the total percentage |
| as well as conflicts with European explorers | | | | of the Native American population killed by |
| and colonists. | | | | these diseases. Epidemics often immediately |
| | | | followed European exploration, sometimes |
| The first Native American group encountered | | | | destroying entire villages. Some historians |
| by Christopher Columbus in 1492, were the 250 | | | | estimate that up to 80% of some Native |
| thousand to 1 million Island Arawaks (more | | | | populations may have died due to European |
| properly called the Taino) of Boriquen | | | | diseases. |
| (Puerto Rico), Dominican Republic | | | | |