Pre-Columbian period

Main article: Pre-Columbian

The earliest known inhabitants of what is now the United States are thought to have arrived in
Alaska by crossing the Bering land bridge, at least 14,000 - 30,000 years ago.[9] Some of these
groups migrated south and over time spread throughout the Americas. These were the
ancestors to modern Native Americans in the United States and Alaskan Native peoples, as
well as all indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Many indigenous peoples were semi-nomadic tribes of hunter-gatherers; others were

sedentary and agricultural civilizations. Many formed new tribes or confederations in
response to European colonization. Well-known groups included the Huron, Apache Tribe,
Cherokee, Sioux, Delaware, Algonquin, Choctaw, Mohegan, Iroquois (which included the
Mohawk nation, Oneida tribe, Seneca nation, Cayuga nation, Onondaga and later the
Tuscarora tribe and Inuit. Though not as technologically advanced as the Mesoamerican
civilizations further south, there were extensive pre-Columbian sedentary societies in what is
now the US. The Iroquois had a politically advanced and unique social structure that was at
the very least inspirational if not directly influential to the later development of the
democratic United States government, a departure from the strong monarchies from which the
Europeans came.[citation needed]

[edit] North America's Moundbuilder Culture

A Mississippian priest, with a ceremonial flint mace. Artist Herb Roe, based on a repousse
copper plate.

Mound Builder is a general term referring to the American Indians who constructed various
styles of earthen mounds for burial, residential and ceremonial purposes. These included
Archaic, Woodland period (Adena and Hopewell cultures), and Mississippian period Pre-
Columbian cultures dating from roughly 3000 BC to the 16th century AD, and living in the
Great Lakes region, the Ohio River region, and the Mississippi River region.

Mound builder cultures can be divided into roughly three eras:

Archaic era

Poverty Point in what is now Louisiana is a prominent example of early archaic mound
builder construction (c. 2500 BC - 1000 BC). While earlier Archaic mound centers are
known, Poverty Point remains one of the best-known early examples.

Woodland period

The Archaic period was followed by the Woodland period (c. 1000 BC). Some well-
understood examples would be the Adena culture of Ohio and nearby states and the
subsequent Hopewell culture known from Illinois to Ohio and renowned for their geometric
earthworks. The Adena and Hopewell were not, however, the only mound building peoples
during this time period. There were contemporaneous mound building cultures throughout the
Eastern United States.

Mississippian culture
Main article: Mississippian Culture

Around 900–1450 AD the Mississippian culture developed and spread through the Eastern
United States, primarily along the river valleys. The location where the Mississippian culture
is first clearly developed is located in Illinois, and is referred to today as Cahokia.

[edit] Colonial period

Main article: Colonial history of the United States

After a period of exploration by people from various European countries, Spanish, Dutch,
English, French, Swedish, and Portuguese settlements were established.[10][1] Christopher
Columbus was the first European to set foot on what would one day become U.S. territory
when he came to Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493, during his second voyage. In the 15th
century, Europeans brought horses, cattle, and hogs to the Americas and, in turn, took back to
Europe corn, potatoes, tobacco, beans, and squash.[10]

[edit] Spanish colonization

Coronado Sets Out to the North (1540) by Frederic Remington, oil on canvas, 1905.
See also: New Spain

Spanish explorers came to what is now the United States beginning with Christopher
Columbus' second expedition, which reached Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493.[11] The first
confirmed landing in the continental US was by a Spaniard, Juan Ponce de León, who landed
in 1513 on a lush shore he christened La Florida.[5]

Within three decades of Ponce de León's landing, the Spanish became the first Europeans to
reach the Appalachian Mountains, the Mississippi River, the Grand Canyon[12] and the Great
Plains. In 1540, De Soto undertook an extensive exploration of the present US and, in the
same year, Francisco Vázquez de Coronado led 2,000 Spaniards and Mexican Indians across
the modern Arizona-Mexico border and traveled as far as central Kansas.[13] Other Spanish
explorers include Lucas Vásquez de Ayllón, Pánfilo de Narváez, Sebastián Vizcaíno, Juan
Rodríguez Cabrillo, Gaspar de Portolà, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de
Vaca, Tristán de Luna y Arellano and Juan de Oñate.[14]

The Spanish sent some settlers, creating the first permanent European settlement in the
continental United States at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565.[1] Later Spanish settlements
included Santa Fe, San Antonio, Tucson, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Most
Spanish settlements were along the California coast or the Santa Fe River in New Mexico.

[[edit] Formation of the United States of America (1776–

1789)
 Main article: History of the United States (1776–1789)

The Thirteen Colonies began a rebellion against British rule in 1775 and proclaimed their
independence in 1776. They subsequently constituted the first thirteen states of the United
States of America, which became a nation in 1781 with the ratification of the Articles of
Confederation. The 1783 Treaty of Paris represented Great Britain's formal acknowledgement
of the United States as an independent nation.[8]

The United States defeated the Kingdom of Great Britain with help from France and Spain in
the American Revolutionary War. The colonists' victory at Saratoga in 1777 led the French
into an open alliance with the United States. In 1781, a combined American and French
Army, acting with the support of a French fleet, captured a large British army led by General
Charles Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The surrender of General Cornwallis ended serious
British efforts to find a military solution to their American problem.[8] Seymour Martin Lipset
points out that "The United States was the first major colony successfully to revolt against
colonial rule. In this sense, it was the first 'new nation'."[21]

Side by side with the states' efforts to gain independence through armed resistance, a political
union was being developed and agreed upon by them. The first step was to formally declare
independence from Great Britain. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, still
meeting in Philadelphia, declared the independence of "the United States of America" in the
Declaration of Independence. Although the states were still independent entities and not yet
formally bound in a legal union, July 4 is celebrated as the nation's birthday. The new nation
was dedicated to principles of republicanism, which emphasized civic duty and a fear of
corruption and hereditary aristocracy.[8]

The Continental Congress that convened on September 5, 1774 played an important

coordinating role among the thirteen colonies in dealing with Great Britain, including the
American Revolutionary War from 1775.[8] A constitutional government, the Congress of the
Confederation first became possible with the ratification of the Articles of Confederation and
Perpetual Union on March 1, 1781.[22] Samuel Huntington became the first President of the
United States in Congress Assembled.[23] However, it became apparent early on that the new
constitution was inadequate for the operation of the new government and efforts soon began
to improve upon it.[24]

A series of attempts to organize a movement to outline and press reforms culminated in the
Congress calling the Philadelphia Convention in 1787. The structure of the national
government was profoundly changed on March 4, 1789, when the American people replaced
the Articles with the Constitution. The new government reflected a radical break from the
normative governmental structures of the time, favoring representative, elective government
with a weak executive, rather than the existing monarchical structures common within the
western traditions of the time. The system of republicanism borrowed heavily from the
Enlightenment ideas and classical western philosophy: a primacy was placed upon individual
liberty and upon constraining the power of government through a system of separation of
powers.[24] Additionally, the United States Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791 to
guarantee individual liberties such as freedom of speech and religious practice and consisted
of the first ten amendments of the Constitution.[25] John Jay was the first Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court, whose membership was established by the Judiciary Act of 1789; the first
Supreme Court session was held in New York City on February 1, 1790.[26] In 1803, the Court
case Marbury v. Madison made the Court the sole arbiter of constitutionality of federal law.[27]

Main article: History of the United States (1849–1865)

In the middle of the 19th century, white Americans of the North and South were unable to
reconcile fundamental differences in their approach to government, economics, society and
African American slavery. The issue of slavery in the new territories was settled by the
Compromise of 1850 brokered by Whig Henry Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas; the
Compromise included admission of California as a free state and the passage of the Fugitive
Slave Act to make it easier for masters to reclaim runaway slaves.[40] In 1854, the proposed
Kansas-Nebraska Act abrogated the Missouri Compromise by providing that each new state
of the Union would decide its stance on slavery.[43] After Abraham Lincoln won the 1860
Election, eleven Southern states seceded from the union between late 1860 and 1861,
establishing a rebel government, the Confederate States of America, on February 8, 1861.[44]

.[47] 1991–present
Main article: History of the United States (1991 - present)

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States emerged as the world's sole remaining
superpower and continued to involve itself in military action overseas, including the 1991
Gulf War. Following his election in 1992, President Bill Clinton oversaw unprecedented gains
in securities values, a side effect of the digital revolution and new business opportunities
created by the Internet (see Internet bubble). The 1990s, saw one of the longest periods, of
economic expansion. Under Clinton an attempt to universalize health care, led by First Lady
Hillary Rodham Clinton failed after almost two years of work on the controversial plan.[76]

In 1993, Ramzi Yousef, a Kuwaiti national, planted explosives in the underground garage of
One World Trade Center and detonated them, killing six people and injuring thousands, in
what would become the beginning of an age of terrorism. Yousef would be subsequently
captured.[77] In 1995, a domestic terrorist bombing at the federal building in Oklahoma City
killed 168 people.

During the 1990s, the United States and allied nations found themselves under attack from
Islamist terrorist groups efly Al-Qaida. The regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq proved a
continuing problem for the UN and Iraq’s neighbors in its refusal to account for previously
known stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, its violations of UN resolutions, and
its support for terrorism against Israel and other countries. After the 1991 Gulf War, the US,
French, and British militaries began patrolling the Iraqi no-fly zones to protect Iraq’s Kurdish
minority and Shi’ite Arab population – both of which suffered attacks from the Hussein
regime before and after the 1991 Gulf War – in Iraq’s northern and southern regions,
respectively.[78] In the aftermath of Operation Desert Fox during December 1998, Iraq
announced that it would no longer respect the no-fly zones and resumed its efforts in shooting
down Allied aircraft.[79]

The 1993 World Trade Center bombing by Al-Qaida was the first of many terrorist attacks
upon Americans during the same period. Later that year in the Battle of Mogadishu, Al-Qaida
militants took part in an assault upon US forces in Somalia, killing 19 Marines. President
Clinton subsequently withdrew US combat forces from Somalia (there originally to support
UN relief efforts),[80] a move described by Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden as evidence of
American weakness. These attacks were followed by others including the 1996 Khobar
Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, and the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Tanzania
and Kenya. Next came the 2000 millennium attack plots which included an attempted
bombing of Los Angeles International Airport, followed by the USS Cole bombing in Yemen
in October 2000, which the government associated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist
network.[81]

US responses to these attacks included limited Cruise missile strikes on Afghanistan and
Sudan (August 1998), which failed to stop Al-Qaida’s leaders and their Taliban supporters.
Also in 1998, President Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act which called for regime
change in Iraq on the basis of Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction,
oppression of Iraqi citizens and attacks upon other Middle Eastern countries.[82]

In 1998, Clinton was impeached for charges of perjury and obstruction of justice that arose
from an inappropriate sexual relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and a
sexual harassment lawsuit from Paula Jones. He was the second president to have been
impeached. The House of Representatives voted 228 to 206 on December 19 to impeach
Clinton,[83] but on February 12, 1999, the Senate voted 55 to 45 to acquit Clinton of the
charges.[84]

The presidential election in 2000 between George W. Bush (R) and Al Gore (D) was one of
the closest in the U.S. history, and helped lay the seeds for political polarization to come.
Although Bush won the majority of electoral votes, Gore won the majority of the popular
vote. In the days following Election Day, the state of Florida entered dispute over the
counting of votes due to technical issues over certain Democratic votes in some counties.[85]
The Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore was decided on December 12, 2000, ending the
recount with a 5-4 vote and certifying Bush as president.[86]

At the beginning of the new millennium, the United States found itself attacked by Islamic
terrorism, with the September 11, 2001 attacks in which 19 extremists hijacked four
transcontinental airliners and intentionally crashed two of them into the twin towers of the
World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. The passengers on the fourth plane, United
Airlines Flight 93, revolted causing the plane to crash into a field in Somerset County, PA.
According to the 9/11 Commission Report, that plane was intended to hit the US Capitol
Building in Washington. The twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed, destroying the
entire complex. The United States soon found large amounts of evidence that suggested that a
terrorist group, al-Qaeda, spearheaded by Osama bin Laden, was responsible for the attacks.

In response to the attacks, under the administration of President George W. Bush, the United
States (with the military support of NATO and the political support of some of the
international community) launched Operation Enduring Freedom which overthrew the
Taliban regime which had protected and harbored bin Laden and al-Qaeda. With the support
of large bipartisan majorities, the US Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military
Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. With a coalition of other countries including Britain,
Spain, Australia, Japan and Poland, in March 2003 President Bush ordered an invasion of Iraq
dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom which led to the overthrow and capture of Saddam Hussein.
Using the language of 1998 Iraq Liberation Act and the Clinton Administration, the reasons
cited by the Bush administration for the invasion included the spreading of democracy, the
elimination of weapons of mass destruction[87] (a key demand of the UN as well, though later
investigations found parts of the intelligence reports to be inaccurate)[88] and the liberation of
the Iraqi people.[89] This second invasion fueled protest marches in many parts of the world.

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded parts of the city of New Orleans and heavily
damaged other areas of the gulf coast, including major damage to the Mississippi coast. The
preparation and the response of the government were criticized as ineffective and slow.[90]

By 2006, rising prices saw Americans become increasingly conscious of the nation's extreme
dependence on steady supplies of inexpensive petroleum for energy, with President Bush
admitting a U.S. "addiction" to oil.[91] The possibility of serious economic disruption, should
conflict overseas or declining production interrupt the flow, could not be ignored, given the
instability in the Middle East and other oil-producing regions of the world. Many proposals
and pilot projects for replacement energy sources, from ethanol to wind power and solar
power, received more capital funding and were pursued more seriously in the 2000s than in
previous decades. The 2006 midterm elections saw Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi become
Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and the highest ranking woman in the
history of the U.S. government.[92]

In addition to military efforts abroad, in the aftermath of 9/11 the Bush Administration
increased domestic efforts to prevent future attacks. A new cabinet level agency called the
United States Department of Homeland Security was created to lead and coordinate federal
counterterrorism activities. The USA PATRIOT Act removed legal restrictions on
information sharing between federal law enforcement and intelligence services and allowed
for the investigation of suspected terrorists using means similar to those in place for other
types of criminals. A new Terrorist Finance Tracking Program monitored the movements of
terrorist’s financial resources but was discontinued after being revealed by The New York
Times.[93] Telecommunication usage by known and suspected terrorists was studied through
the NSA electronic surveillance program.

Since 9/11, Islamic extremists made various attempts to attack the US homeland, with varying
levels of organization and skill. For example, in 2001 vigilant passengers aboard a
transatlantic flight to Miami prevented Richard Reid (shoe bomber) from detonating an
explosive device. Other terrorist plots have been stopped by federal agencies using new legal
powers and investigative tools, sometimes in cooperation with foreign governments. Such
thwarted attacks include a plan to crash airplanes into the U.S. Bank Tower (aka Library
Tower) in Los Angeles; the 2003 plot by Iyman Faris to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge in New
York City; the 2004 Financial buildings plot which targeted the International Monetary Fund
and World Bank buildings in Washington, DC, the New York Stock Exchange and other
financial institutions; the 2004 Columbus Shopping Mall Bombing Plot; the 2006 transatlantic
aircraft plot which was to involve liquid explosives; the 2006 Sears Tower plot; the 2007 Fort
Dix attack plot; and the 2007 John F. Kennedy International Airport attack plot.

After months of brutal violence against Iraqi civilians by Sunni and Shi’ite terrorist groups
and militias -- including Al-Qaeda in Iraq –- in January 2007 President Bush presented a new
strategy for Operation Iraqi Freedom based upon Counter-insurgency theories and tactics
developed by General David Petraeus. The Iraq War troop surge of 2007 was part of this
"new way forward"[94] and has been credited by some[who?] with a dramatic decrease in violence
and an increase in political and communal reconciliation in Iraq.
As of 2008, debates continue over abortion, gun control, same-sex marriage, immigration
reform, and the ongoing war in Iraq. A new Congressional majority promised to withdraw US
forces from Iraq, however Congress continues to fund efforts in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In
the area of foreign policy, the U.S. maintains ongoing talks with North Korea over its nuclear
weapons program, as well as with Israel and the Palestinian Authority over a two-state
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the Palestinian-Israeli talks began in 2007, an effort
spearheaded by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.[95] The George W. Bush
administration has also stepped up rhetoric implicating Iran and more recently Syria in the
development of weapons of mass destruction.

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

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For indigenous peoples in the United States other than Hawaii and Alaska, see also
Native Americans in the United States. For those in Alaska see also Native Alaskan.
For indigenous peoples in Canada see also First Nations, Metis and Inuit.
"Red Indian" redirects here. For the ethnic group known as such to Europeans for using red
ochre, see Beothuk.

Painting of various ethnic groups from the Americas, early 20th century.
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas,
their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples. They are often
also referred to as Native Americans, First Nations and by Christopher Columbus' historical
mistake Indians, modernly disambiguated as the American Indian race, American Indians,
Amerindians, Amerinds, or Red Indians.

According to the still-debated New World migration model, a migration of humans from
Eurasia to the Americas took place via Beringia, a land bridge which formerly connected the
two continents across what is now the Bering Strait. The minimum time depth by which this
migration had taken place is confirmed at c. 12,000 years ago, with the upper bound (or
earliest period) remaining a matter of some unresolved contention.[1] These early
Paleoamericans soon spread throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of
culturally distinct nations and tribes.[2] According to the oral histories of many of the
indigenous peoples of the Americas, they have been living there since their genesis, described
by a wide range of traditional creation accounts.

Application of the term "Indian" originated with Christopher Columbus, who thought that he
had arrived in the East Indies, while seeking India. This has served to imagine a kind of racial
or cultural unity for the aboriginal peoples of the Americas. Once created, the unified "Indian"
was codified in law, religion, and politics. The unitary idea of "Indians" was not originally
shared by indigenous peoples, but many now embrace the identity.

While some indigenous peoples of the Americas were historically hunter-gatherers, many
practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the
world is a testament to their time and work in reshaping, taming, and cultivating the flora
indigenous to the Americas.[3] Some societies depended heavily on agriculture while others
practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples
created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and massive
empires.

Many parts of the Americas are still populated by indigenous Americans, some countries with
sizeable populations are Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, and
Ecuador. At least a thousand different indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas and
some like Quechua, Guaraní, Mayan languages, and Nahuatl count their speakers in millions.
Most indigenous peoples have largely adopted the lifestyle of the western world,[citation needed] but
many also maintain aspects of indigenous cultural practices to varying degrees, including
religion, social organization and subsistence practices. Some indigenous peoples still live in
relative isolation from Europeanized society, and a few are still counted as uncontacted
peoples.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 History
o 1.1 Original migrations to the Americas
o 1.2 Recent genetic research
o 1.3 European colonization
• 2 Agriculture
• 3 Culture
o 3.1 Writing systems
o 3.2 Music and art
• 4 Demography of contemporary populations
• 5 History and status by country
o 5.1 Argentina
o 5.2 Belize
o 5.3 Bolivia
o 5.4 Brazil
o 5.5 Canada
o 5.6 Chile
o 5.7 Colombia
o 5.8 Costa Rica
o 5.9 Ecuador
o 5.10 Guatemala
o 5.11 El Salvador
o 5.12 Mexico
o 5.13 Nicaragua
o 5.14 Peru
o 5.15 United States
o 5.16 Venezuela
o 5.17 Other parts of the Americas
• 6 Native American name controversy
• 7 Rise of Indigenous Movements
o 7.1 Legal prerogative
• 8 See also
• 9 Notes
• 10 References

• 11 External links

[edit] History
See also: Archaeology of the Americas and Models of migration to the New World

[edit] Original migrations to the Americas

 See also: Models of migration to the New World, Classification of indigenous peoples
of the Americas, Solutrean hypothesis, Kennewick Man, and Pre-Siberian American
Aborigines

Language families of North American indigenous peoples

Scholars who follow the Bering Strait theory agree that most indigenous peoples of the
Americas descended from people who probably migrated from Siberia across the Bering
Strait, anywhere between 9,000 and 50,000 years ago. The time frame and exact routes are
still matters of debate, and the model faces continuous challenges. A 2006 study (to be
published in Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology[when?]) reports new DNA-
based research that links DNA retrieved from a 10,000-year-old fossilized tooth from an
Alaskan island, with specific coastal tribes in Tierra del Fuego, Ecuador, Mexico, and
California.[4] Unique DNA markers found in the fossilized tooth were found only in these
specific coastal tribes, and were not comparable to markers found in any other indigenous
peoples in the Americas. This finding lends substantial credence to a migration theory that at
least one set of early peoples moved south along the west coast of the Americas in boats.
However, these results may be ambiguous, as there are other issues with DNA research and
biological and cultural affiliation as outlined in Peter N. Jones' book Respect for the
Ancestors: Cultural Affiliation and Cultural Continuity in the American West.

One result of these waves of migration is that large groups of peoples with similar languages
and perhaps physical characteristics as well, moved into various geographic areas of North,
and then Central and South America. While these peoples have traditionally remained
primarily loyal to their individual tribes, ethnologists have variously sought to group the
myriad of tribes into larger entities which reflect common geographic origins, linguistic
similarities, and lifestyles.[5]

Remnants of a human settlement in Monte Verde, Chile dated to 12,500 years B.P. (another
layer at Monteverde has been tentatively dated to 33,000–35,000 years B.P.) suggests that
southern Chile was settled by peoples who entered the Americas before the peoples associated
with the Bering Strait migrations. It is suggested that a coastal route via canoes could have
allowed rapid migration into the Americas.[citation needed]

The traditional view of a relatively recent migration has also been challenged by older
findings of human remains in South America; some dating to perhaps even 30,000 years old
or more. Some recent finds (notably the Luzia Woman in Lagoa Santa, Brazil) are claimed to
be morphologically distinct from most Asians and are more similar to Africans, Melanesians
and Australian Aborigines. These American Aborigines would have been later displaced or
absorbed by the Siberian immigrants. The distinctive Fuegian natives of Tierra del Fuego, the
southernmost tip of the American continent, are speculated to be partial remnants of those
Aboriginal populations. These early immigrants would have either crossed the ocean by boat
or traveled north along the Asian coast and entered America through the Northwest, well
before the Siberian waves. This theory is presently viewed by many scholars as conjecture, as
many areas along the proposed routes now lie underwater, making research difficult. Some
scholars believe the earliest forensic evidence for early populations appears to more closely
resemble Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders, and not those of Northeast Asia. [6]

Scholars' estimates of the total population of the Americas before European contact vary
enormously, from a low of 10 million to a high of 112 million.[7] Some authors see ideological
underpinnings in this population debate. For example, Robert Royal writes that "estimates of
pre-Columbian population figures have become heavily politicized with scholars who are
particularly critical of Europe and/or Western civilization often favoring wildly higher
figures."[8] Some scholars believe that most of the indigenous population resided in
Mesoamerica and South America, with approximately 10 percent residing in North America,
prior to European colonization.[9]

The Solutrean hypothesis suggests an early European migration into the Americas[10][11][12][13]
and that stone tool technology of the Solutrean culture in prehistoric Europe may have later
influenced the development of the Clovis tool-making culture in the Americas. Some of its
key proponents include Dr. Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution and Dr. Bruce
Bradley of the University of Exeter. In this hypothesis, peoples associated with the Solutrean
culture migrated from Ice Age Europe to North America, bringing their methods of making
stone tools with them and providing the basis for later Clovis technology found throughout
North America. The hypothesis rests upon particular similarities in Solutrean and Clovis
toolmaking styles, and the fact that no predecessors of Clovis technology have been found in
Eastern Asia, Siberia or Beringia, areas from which or through which early Americans are
thought to have migrated.[citation needed]

American Indian creation legends tell of a variety of originations of their respective peoples.
Some were "always there" or were created by gods or animals, some migrated from a
specified compass point, and others came from "across the ocean".[14]

Vine Deloria, Jr., author and Nakota activist, cites some of the oral histories that claim an in
situ origin in his book Red Earth, White Lies, rejecting the Bering Strait land bridge route.
Deloria takes a Young Earth position, arguing that Native Americans actually originated in
the Americas.[15]

[edit] Recent genetic research

An article in the American Journal of Human Genetics states "Our results strongly support the
hypothesis that haplogroup X, together with the other four main mtDNA haplogroups, was
part of the gene pool of a single Native American founding population; therefore they do not
support models that propose haplogroup-independent migrations, such as the migration from
Europe posed by the Solutrean hypothesis."[16] The National Geographic Genographic Project
identified haplogroup Q-M242 as the YDNA male ancestor of the "Siberian Clan," some of
whom remained in Asia, but that today "almost all Native Americans are descendants from
this man."[17]

[edit] European colonization

Cultural areas of North America at time of European contact.

Further information: European colonization of the Americas, Population history of
American indigenous peoples, and Columbian Exchange

The European colonization of the Americas forever changed the lives, bloodlines and cultures
of the peoples of the continent. The Population history of American indigenous peoples
postulates that disease exposure, displacement, and warfare may have diminished populations.
[18][19]
The first indigenous group encountered by Columbus were the 250,000 Tainos of

of Hispaniola who were the dominant culture in the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. In
thirty years, about 70% of the Tainos died.[20] Enslaved, forced to labour in the mines,
mistreated, the Tainos began to adopt suicidal behaviors, with women aborting or killing their
newly-born children, men jumping from the cliffs or ingesting manioc, a violent poison[20].
They were not immune to European diseases, so outbreaks of measles and smallpox ravaged
their population.[21]

The Laws of Burgos, 1512-1513 were the first codified set of laws governing the behavior of
Spanish settlers in America, particularly with regards to native Indians. They forbade the
maltreatment of natives, and endorsed their conversion to Catholicism.[22]

Reasons for the decline of the Native American populations are variously theorized to be from
diseases, conflicts with Europeans, and conflicts among warring tribes. More recently,
collective mobilization among the indigenous peoples in the Americas has required the
incorporation of closely-knit local communities into a broader national and international
framework of political action.

Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the
overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives.[23][24] After first
contacts with Europeans and Africans, some believe that the death of 90 to 95% of the native
population of the New World was caused by Old World diseases.[25] Half the native
population of Hispaniola in 1518 was killed by smallpox.[26] Within a few years smallpox
killed between 60% and 90% of the Inca population, with other waves of European disease
weakening them further.[27] Smallpox was only the first epidemic. Typhus (probably) in 1546,
influenza and smallpox together in 1558, smallpox again in 1589, diphtheria in 1614, measles
in 1618—all ravaged the remains of Inca culture. Smallpox had killed millions of native
inhabitants of Mexico.[28][29] Unintentionally introduced at Veracruz with the arrival of Panfilo
de Narvaez on April 23, 1520, smallpox ravaged Mexico in the 1520s,[30] killing 150,000 in
Tenochtitlán alone, including the emperor, and was credited with the victory of Cortes over
the Aztec empire at Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City) in 1521.[31]

Over the centuries, the Europeans had developed high degrees of immunity to these diseases,
while the Native Americans had no such immunity.[32]

In 1633 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the Native Americans were struck by the virus. As it had
done elsewhere, the virus wiped out entire population groups of Native Americans.[33] It
reached Lake Ontario in 1636, and the lands of the Iroquois by 1679.[34][35] During the 1770s,
smallpox killed at least 30% of the West Coast Native Americans.[36] Smallpox epidemics in
1780–1782 and 1837–1838 brought devastation and drastic population depletion among the
Plain Indians.[37][38] By 1832, the federal government of the United States established a
smallpox vaccination program for Native Americans (The Indian Vaccination Act of 1832).[39]
[40]

In Brazil the indigenous population has declined from a pre-Columbian high of an estimated 3
million to some 300,000 in 1997.[41][42]

Later explorations of the Caribbean led to the discovery of the Aruak peoples of the lesser
Antilles. The culture was extinct by 1650. Only 500 had survived by the year 1550, though
the bloodlines continued through the modern populace. In Amazonia, indigenous societies
weathered centuries of colonization[43]

The Spaniards and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas. Some of these animals
escaped and began to breed and increase their numbers in the wild.[44] The re-introduction of
the horse had a profound impact on Native American culture in the Great Plains of North
America and of Patagonia in South America. This new mode of travel made it possible for
some tribes to greatly expand their territories, exchange many goods with neighboring tribes,
and more easily capture game.