The classification of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas is based upon cultural regions, geography, and linguistics. Anthropologists have named various cultural regions, with fluid boundaries, that are generally agreed upon with some variation. These cultural regions are broadly based upon the locations of the
Indigenous peoples of the Americas from early European and African contact beginning in the late 15th century. When Indigenous peoples have been
forcibly removed by nation-states, they retain their original geographic classification. Some groups span multiple cultural regions.
Canada, Greenland, United States, and northern Mexico
In the
United States and
Canada,
ethnographers commonly classify
Indigenous peoples into ten geographical regions with shared
cultural traits, called cultural areas.[1]Greenland is part of the
Arctic region. Some scholars combine the Plateau and Great Basin regions into the Intermontane West, some separate Prairie peoples from Great Plains peoples, while some separate Great Lakes tribes from the Northeastern Woodlands.
Arctic
Paleo-Eskimo, prehistoric cultures, Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, 2500 BCE–1500 CE
Cherokee, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, later Georgia, northwestern South Carolina, northern Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Mexico, and currently North Carolina and Oklahoma[32]
Nota bene: The California cultural area does not exactly conform to the state of California's boundaries, and many tribes on the eastern border with Nevada are classified as
Great Basin tribes and some tribes on the Oregon border are classified as
Plateau tribes.[57]
The Colombia and Venezuela culture area includes most of
Colombia and
Venezuela. Southern Colombia is in the Andean culture area, as are some peoples of central and northeastern Colombia, who are surrounded by peoples of the Colombia and Venezuela culture. Eastern Venezuela is in the
Guianas culture area, and southeastern Colombia and southwestern Venezuela are in the Amazonia culture area.[66]
The
haplogroup most commonly associated with Indigenous Americans is
Haplogroup Q1a3a (Y-DNA).[76] Y-DNA, like (mtDNA), differs from other nuclear
chromosomes in that the majority of the Y chromosome is unique and does not recombine during
meiosis. This has the effect that the historical pattern of mutations can more easily be studied.[77] The pattern indicates
Indigenous peoples of the Americas experienced two very distinctive genetic episodes; first with the initial-peopling of the
Americas, and secondly with
European colonization of the Americas.[78][79] The former is the determinant factor for the number of
gene lineages and founding
haplotypes present in today's Indigenous American
populations.[78]
^
abcdFrank, Andrew K.
Indian Removal.Archived 2009-09-30 at the
Wayback MachineOklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
^Hann, John H. (2006). The Native American World Beyond Apalachee. University Press of Florida. pp. 53–56.
ISBN978-0-8130-2982-5.
^
abcdSteward, Julian H. (1948) Editor. Handbook of South American Indians. Volume 4 The Circum-Caribbean Tribes. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143.
^"Y-Chromosome Evidence for Differing Ancient Demographic Histories in the Americas"(PDF). Department of Biology, University College, London; Departamento de Gene´tica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientı´ficas, Caracas, Venezuela; Departamento de Gene´tica, Universidade Federal do Parana´, Curitiba, Brazil; 5Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; 6Laboratorio de Gene´tica Humana, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota´; Victoria Hospital, Prince Albert, Canada; Subassembly of Medical Sciences, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Laboratorio de Gene´tica Molecular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellı´n, Colombia; Université de Montréal. University College London 73:524–539. 2003. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2019-04-30. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
^
abWendy Tymchuk, Senior Technical Editor (2008).
"Learn about Y-DNA Haplogroup Q". Genebase Systems. Archived from
the original(Verbal tutorial possible) on 2010-06-22. Retrieved 2009-11-21. Haplogroups are defined by unique mutation events such as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs. These SNPs mark the branch of a haplogroup, and indicate that all descendants of that haplogroup at one time shared a common ancestor. The Y-DNA SNP mutations were passed from father to son over thousands of years. Over time, additional SNPs occur within a haplogroup, leading to new lineages. These new lineages are considered subclades of the haplogroup. Each time a new mutation occurs, there is a new branch in the haplogroup, and therefore a new subclade. Haplogroup Q, possibly the youngest of the 20 Y-chromosome haplogroups, originated with the SNP mutation M242 in a man from Haplogroup P that likely lived in Siberia approximately 15,000 to 20,000 years before present{{
cite web}}: |author= has generic name (
help)
^Than, Ker (2008).
"New World Settlers Took 20,000-Year Pit Stop".
National Geographic Society. Archived from
the original on 2011-01-19. Retrieved 2010-01-23. Over time descendants developed a unique culture—one that was different from the original migrants' way of life in Asia but which contained seeds of the new cultures that would eventually appear throughout the Americas
^Juliette Saillard; Peter Forster; Niels Lynnerup; Hans-Jürgen Bandelt; Søren Nørby (2000).
"mtDNA Variation among Greenland Eskimos. The Edge of the Beringian Expansion". Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, University of Hamburg, Hamburg.
Archived from the original on 2011-08-11. Retrieved 2009-11-22. The relatively lower coalescence time of the entire haplogroup A2 including the shared sub-arctic branches A2b (Siberians and Inuit) and A2a (Eskimos and Na-Dené) is probably due to secondary expansions of haplogroup A2 from the Beringia area, which would have averaged the overall internal variation of haplogroup A2 in North America.
^A. Torroni; T. G. Schurr; C. C. Yang; EJE. Szathmary; R. C. Williams; M. S. Schanfield; G. A. Troup; W. C. Knowler; D. N. Lawrence; K. M. Weiss; D. C. Wallace (January 1992).
"Native American Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Indicates That the Amerind and the Nadene Populations Were Founded by Two Independent Migrations". Center for Genetics and Molecular Medicine and Departments of Biochemistry and Anthropology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. 130 (1). Genetics Society of America: 153–62.
Archived from the original on 2009-02-20. Retrieved 2009-11-28. The divergence time for the Nadene portion of the HaeIII np 663 lineage was about 6,000–10,000 years. Hence, the ancestral Nadene migrated from Asia independently and considerably more recently than the progenitors of the Amerinds
Hann, John H. "The Mayaca and Jororo and Missions to Them", in McEwan, Bonnie G. ed. The Spanish Missions of "La Florida". Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. 1993.
ISBN0-8130-1232-5.
Hann, John H. A History of the Timucua Indians and Missions. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1996.
ISBN0-8130-1424-7.
Hann, John H. (2003). Indians of Central and South Florida: 1513–1763. University Press of Florida.
ISBN0-8130-2645-8.
Heizer, Robert F., volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 8: California. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.
ISBN978-0-16-004574-5.
Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Bruce G. Trigger, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians: Northeast. Volume 15. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.
ASINB000NOYRRA.
Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004.
ISBN0-16-072300-0.
The classification of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas is based upon cultural regions, geography, and linguistics. Anthropologists have named various cultural regions, with fluid boundaries, that are generally agreed upon with some variation. These cultural regions are broadly based upon the locations of the
Indigenous peoples of the Americas from early European and African contact beginning in the late 15th century. When Indigenous peoples have been
forcibly removed by nation-states, they retain their original geographic classification. Some groups span multiple cultural regions.
Canada, Greenland, United States, and northern Mexico
In the
United States and
Canada,
ethnographers commonly classify
Indigenous peoples into ten geographical regions with shared
cultural traits, called cultural areas.[1]Greenland is part of the
Arctic region. Some scholars combine the Plateau and Great Basin regions into the Intermontane West, some separate Prairie peoples from Great Plains peoples, while some separate Great Lakes tribes from the Northeastern Woodlands.
Arctic
Paleo-Eskimo, prehistoric cultures, Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, 2500 BCE–1500 CE
Cherokee, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, later Georgia, northwestern South Carolina, northern Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Mexico, and currently North Carolina and Oklahoma[32]
Nota bene: The California cultural area does not exactly conform to the state of California's boundaries, and many tribes on the eastern border with Nevada are classified as
Great Basin tribes and some tribes on the Oregon border are classified as
Plateau tribes.[57]
The Colombia and Venezuela culture area includes most of
Colombia and
Venezuela. Southern Colombia is in the Andean culture area, as are some peoples of central and northeastern Colombia, who are surrounded by peoples of the Colombia and Venezuela culture. Eastern Venezuela is in the
Guianas culture area, and southeastern Colombia and southwestern Venezuela are in the Amazonia culture area.[66]
The
haplogroup most commonly associated with Indigenous Americans is
Haplogroup Q1a3a (Y-DNA).[76] Y-DNA, like (mtDNA), differs from other nuclear
chromosomes in that the majority of the Y chromosome is unique and does not recombine during
meiosis. This has the effect that the historical pattern of mutations can more easily be studied.[77] The pattern indicates
Indigenous peoples of the Americas experienced two very distinctive genetic episodes; first with the initial-peopling of the
Americas, and secondly with
European colonization of the Americas.[78][79] The former is the determinant factor for the number of
gene lineages and founding
haplotypes present in today's Indigenous American
populations.[78]
^
abcdFrank, Andrew K.
Indian Removal.Archived 2009-09-30 at the
Wayback MachineOklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Retrieved 10 July 2009.
^Hann, John H. (2006). The Native American World Beyond Apalachee. University Press of Florida. pp. 53–56.
ISBN978-0-8130-2982-5.
^
abcdSteward, Julian H. (1948) Editor. Handbook of South American Indians. Volume 4 The Circum-Caribbean Tribes. Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 143.
^"Y-Chromosome Evidence for Differing Ancient Demographic Histories in the Americas"(PDF). Department of Biology, University College, London; Departamento de Gene´tica, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientı´ficas, Caracas, Venezuela; Departamento de Gene´tica, Universidade Federal do Parana´, Curitiba, Brazil; 5Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque; 6Laboratorio de Gene´tica Humana, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota´; Victoria Hospital, Prince Albert, Canada; Subassembly of Medical Sciences, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Laboratorio de Gene´tica Molecular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellı´n, Colombia; Université de Montréal. University College London 73:524–539. 2003. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 2019-04-30. Retrieved 2010-01-22.
^
abWendy Tymchuk, Senior Technical Editor (2008).
"Learn about Y-DNA Haplogroup Q". Genebase Systems. Archived from
the original(Verbal tutorial possible) on 2010-06-22. Retrieved 2009-11-21. Haplogroups are defined by unique mutation events such as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs. These SNPs mark the branch of a haplogroup, and indicate that all descendants of that haplogroup at one time shared a common ancestor. The Y-DNA SNP mutations were passed from father to son over thousands of years. Over time, additional SNPs occur within a haplogroup, leading to new lineages. These new lineages are considered subclades of the haplogroup. Each time a new mutation occurs, there is a new branch in the haplogroup, and therefore a new subclade. Haplogroup Q, possibly the youngest of the 20 Y-chromosome haplogroups, originated with the SNP mutation M242 in a man from Haplogroup P that likely lived in Siberia approximately 15,000 to 20,000 years before present{{
cite web}}: |author= has generic name (
help)
^Than, Ker (2008).
"New World Settlers Took 20,000-Year Pit Stop".
National Geographic Society. Archived from
the original on 2011-01-19. Retrieved 2010-01-23. Over time descendants developed a unique culture—one that was different from the original migrants' way of life in Asia but which contained seeds of the new cultures that would eventually appear throughout the Americas
^Juliette Saillard; Peter Forster; Niels Lynnerup; Hans-Jürgen Bandelt; Søren Nørby (2000).
"mtDNA Variation among Greenland Eskimos. The Edge of the Beringian Expansion". Laboratory of Biological Anthropology, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, University of Hamburg, Hamburg.
Archived from the original on 2011-08-11. Retrieved 2009-11-22. The relatively lower coalescence time of the entire haplogroup A2 including the shared sub-arctic branches A2b (Siberians and Inuit) and A2a (Eskimos and Na-Dené) is probably due to secondary expansions of haplogroup A2 from the Beringia area, which would have averaged the overall internal variation of haplogroup A2 in North America.
^A. Torroni; T. G. Schurr; C. C. Yang; EJE. Szathmary; R. C. Williams; M. S. Schanfield; G. A. Troup; W. C. Knowler; D. N. Lawrence; K. M. Weiss; D. C. Wallace (January 1992).
"Native American Mitochondrial DNA Analysis Indicates That the Amerind and the Nadene Populations Were Founded by Two Independent Migrations". Center for Genetics and Molecular Medicine and Departments of Biochemistry and Anthropology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. 130 (1). Genetics Society of America: 153–62.
Archived from the original on 2009-02-20. Retrieved 2009-11-28. The divergence time for the Nadene portion of the HaeIII np 663 lineage was about 6,000–10,000 years. Hence, the ancestral Nadene migrated from Asia independently and considerably more recently than the progenitors of the Amerinds
Hann, John H. "The Mayaca and Jororo and Missions to Them", in McEwan, Bonnie G. ed. The Spanish Missions of "La Florida". Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida. 1993.
ISBN0-8130-1232-5.
Hann, John H. A History of the Timucua Indians and Missions. Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida, 1996.
ISBN0-8130-1424-7.
Hann, John H. (2003). Indians of Central and South Florida: 1513–1763. University Press of Florida.
ISBN0-8130-2645-8.
Heizer, Robert F., volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 8: California. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.
ISBN978-0-16-004574-5.
Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Bruce G. Trigger, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians: Northeast. Volume 15. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978.
ASINB000NOYRRA.
Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004.
ISBN0-16-072300-0.