Portal:Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The Indigenous peoples of the Americas Portal

Current distribution of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (not including mixed people like mestizos, métis, zambos and pardos)

The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples.

Although some Indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in the Amazon basin, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. While some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions, the Indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, city-states, chiefdoms, states, kingdoms, and empires. Some had varying degrees of knowledge of engineering, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, writing, physics, medicine, planting and irrigation, geology, mining, metallurgy, sculpture, and goldsmithing. (Full article...)

Selected article

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes, against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which occurred June 25–26, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory, was the most prominent action of the Great Sioux War of 1876. It was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho, led by several major war leaders, including Crazy Horse and Chief Gall, inspired by the visions of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake). The U.S. 7th Cavalry, including the Custer Battalion, a force of 700 men led by George Armstrong Custer, suffered a severe defeat. Five of the 7th Cavalry's twelve companies were annihilated; Custer was killed, as were two of his brothers, a nephew, and a brother-in-law. The total U.S. casualty count, including scouts, was 268 dead and 55 injured.

More...

All selected articles

edit

Selected image

Chapito, a Seri shaman from Punta Chueca, Sonora, Mexico. Chapito requested to be photographed pointing toward the mountain caves.

image credit:Tomás Castelazo

Full set of selected images

General images

The following are images from various Indigenous peoples of the Americas-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1This map shows the percentage of Indigenous population in different countries of the Americas. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 2Drawing accompanying text in Book XII of the 16th-century Florentine Codex (compiled 1540–1585), showing Nahuas of conquest-era central Mexico suffering from smallpox (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 3Choctaw artist from Oklahoma (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 4Owners of a roadside cafe near Cachi, Argentina (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 5Indigenous people at a Brazilian farm plantation in Minas Gerais ca. 1824 (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 6Maya women from Guatemala (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 7Current distribution of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (not including mixed people like mestizos, métis, zambos and pardos) (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 8A Mayan woman. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 9Rarámuri marathon in Urique. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 10Cultural areas of North America at time of European contact (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 11Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 12Indigenous Salvadoran Pipil women dancing in the traditional Procession of Palms, Panchimalco in El Salvador (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 13Indigenous man of Terena tribe from Brazil (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 14"The Maiden", one of the discovered Llullaillaco mummies. A Preserved Inca human sacrifice from around the year 1500. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 15Shaman of the Cofán people from the Ecuadorian Amazon Ecuador Amazonian forest (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 16Evo Morales (Aymara), former President of Bolivia (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 17Indigenous woman in traditional dress, near Cochabamba, Bolivia (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 18Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and the First Men (collection of the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver). The Raven represents the Trickster figure common to many mythologies. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 19Dineh boy, in the desert of Monument Valley, AZ, United States of America (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 20Schematic illustration of maternal (mtDNA) gene-flow in and out of Beringia, from 25,000 years ago to present
Image 21A Navajo man on horseback in Monument Valley, Arizona (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 22Ancient mesoamerican engraving of maize, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 23A Warao family from Venezuela traveling in their canoe (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 24Illustration of Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodon (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 25Language families of Indigenous peoples in North America: shown across present-day Canada, Greenland, the United States, and northern Mexico (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 26Quechua woman and child in the Sacred Valley, Cuzco Region, Peru (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 27Tenejapa Carnival with Tzeltal people, Chiapas (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 28Chimu culture feather pectoral, feathers, reed, copper, silver, hide, cordage, ca. 1350–1450 CE (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 29Wixarika (Huichol) woman from Zacatecas (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 30A bison hunt depicted by George Catlin (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 31Textile art by Julia Pingushat (Inuk, Arviat, Nunavut, Canada), wool, embroidery floss, 1995 (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 32Mapuche man and woman. The Mapuche make up about 85% of Indigenous population that live in Chile. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 33Eight Crow Nation prisoners under guard at Crow agency, Montana, 1887 (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 34Some Inuit people on a traditional qamutiik (dog sled) in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Canada (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 35The Kogi, descendants of the Tairona, are a culturally-intact, largely pre-Columbian society. The Tairona were the only Indigenous Andean civilization that was not fully conquered. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 36Guambía people relaxing in Colombia (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 37Indigenous man playing a panpipe, antara or siku (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 38Tunumiit Inuit couple from Kulusuk, Greenland (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)

Selected biography

Juan Evo Morales Ayma, (born October 26, 1959), popularly known as Evo (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈeβo]), is a Bolivian politician, cocalero activist, and footballer, who has served as President of Bolivia since 2006. Widely regarded as the country's first democratically-elected president to come from the indigenous population, his administration has focused on the implementation of leftist policies, poverty reduction, and combating the influence of the United States and transnational corporations in Bolivia. A democratic socialist, he is the head of the Movement for Socialism (MAS) political party.

Born to an Aymara family of subsistence farmers in Isallawi, Orinoca Canton, Morales undertook a basic education before mandatory military service, in 1978 moving to Chapare Province. Growing coca and becoming a trade unionist, he rose to prominence in the campesino (rural laborers) union, campaigning against U.S. and Bolivian attempts to eradicate coca as a part of the War on Drugs, which he denounced as an imperialist violation of indigenous Andean culture. He repeatedly engaged in anti-government direct action protests, resuting in multiple arrests. Entering electoral politics in 1995, he became the leader of the MAS and was elected to Congress. His campaign focused on issues affecting indigenous and poor communities, advocating land reform and the redistribution of gas wealth. Gaining increasing visibility through the Cochabamba protests and gas conflict, in 2002 he was expelled from Congress, though came second in that year's presidential election.

More...

All selected biographies

Did you know…

... that Lutheran priest Henrik Lund wrote Greenland's nation anthem, Nunarput utoqqarsuanngoravit, in the indigenous Greenlandic language?
... that the artwork of full-blood Tsimshian photographer Benjamin Haldane has enjoyed a revival after his glass plate negatives were discovered in an Alaskan dump?
... that in traditional Plains hide painting, Native American women painted abstract, geometric designs while men painted representational, narrative images?

More…

Subcategories

Select [►] to view subcategories

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

Indigenous people of the Americas

Lists of indigenous peoples of the Americas

Anti-indigenous racism in the Americas

Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean

Indigenous peoples of Central America

Indigenous culture of the Americas

History of indigenous peoples of the Americas

Indigenous rights organizations in the Americas

Indigenous languages of the Americas

Non-fiction books about indigenous peoples of the Americas

Indigenous peoples of North America

Indigenous politics in the Americas

Indigenous peoples of South America

Related portals

Things you can do

Join a WikiProject:
Suggest featured articles and pictures.
Help maintain the Indigenous peoples of the Americas portal.

Selected panorama

Machu Picchu

image credit: Martin St-Amant

Topics

Recognized content

This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}) or categorized correctly. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.