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, confederacies, 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

Tak'alik Ab'aj is a pre-Columbian archaeological site in Guatemala. It was formerly known as Abaj Takalik; its ancient name may have been Kooja. It is one of several Mesoamerican sites with both Olmec and Maya features. The site flourished in the Preclassic and Classic periods, from the 9th century BC through to at least the 10th century AD, and was an important centre of commerce,trading with Kaminaljuyu and Chocolá. Investigations have revealed that it is one of the largest sites with sculptured monuments on the Pacific coastal plain.Olmec-style sculptures include a possible colossal head, petroglyphs and others. The site has one of the greatest concentrations of Olmec-style sculpture outside of the Gulf of Mexico.

Takalik Abaj is representative of the first blossoming of Maya culture that had occurred by about 400 BC. The site includes a Maya royal tomb and examples of Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions that are among the earliest from the Maya region. Excavation is continuing at the site; the monumental architecture and persistent tradition of sculpture in a variety of styles suggest the site was of some importance.

Finds from the site indicate contact with the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico and imply that Takalik Abaj was conquered by it or its allies.Takalik Abaj was linked to long-distance Maya trade routes that shifted over time but allowed the city to participate in a trade network that included the Guatemalan highlands and the Pacific coastal plain from Mexico to El Salvador.

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Aztec calendar stone

image credit: El Comandante

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General images

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

Image 1Cultural areas of North America at time of European contact (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 2Indigenous woman in traditional dress, near Cochabamba, Bolivia (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 3Guambía people relaxing in Colombia (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 4Current 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 5Indigenous man of Terena tribe from Brazil (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 6A Mayan woman. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 7Shaman of the Cofán people from the Ecuadorian Amazon Ecuador Amazonian forest (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 8Chimu culture feather pectoral, feathers, reed, copper, silver, hide, cordage, ca. 1350–1450 CE (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 9Indigenous Salvadoran Pipil women dancing in the traditional Procession of Palms, Panchimalco in El Salvador (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 10The 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 11Rarámuri marathon in Urique. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 12Maya glyphs in stucco at the Museo de sitio in Palenque, Mexico (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 13Schematic illustration of maternal (mtDNA) gene-flow in and out of Beringia, from 25,000 years ago to present
Image 14A bison hunt depicted by George Catlin (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 15Some Inuit people on a traditional qamutiik (dog sled) in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, Canada (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 16This map shows the percentage of Indigenous population in different countries of the Americas. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 17Choctaw artist from Oklahoma (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 18Language 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 19Tunumiit Inuit couple from Kulusuk, Greenland (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 20Maya women from Guatemala (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 21Wixarika (Huichol) woman from Zacatecas (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 22A Navajo man on horseback in Monument Valley, Arizona (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 23Mapuche man and woman. The Mapuche make up about 85% of Indigenous population that live in Chile. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 24Evo Morales (Aymara), former President of Bolivia (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 25"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 26Tenejapa Carnival with Tzeltal people, Chiapas (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 27Drawing 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 28Indigenous people at a Brazilian farm plantation in Minas Gerais ca. 1824 (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 29Dineh boy, in the desert of Monument Valley, AZ, United States of America. The Three Sisters buttes are visible in the background. (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 30Ancient mesoamerican engraving of maize, National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico (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 32Eight Crow Nation prisoners under guard at Crow agency, Montana, 1887 (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 33Indigenous man playing a panpipe, antara or siku (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 34Owners of a roadside cafe near Cachi, Argentina (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 35Illustration of Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodon (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 36Quechua woman and child in the Sacred Valley, Cuzco Region, Peru (from Indigenous peoples of the Americas)
Image 37Bill 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 38A Warao family from Venezuela traveling in their canoe (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.

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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?

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First day in school for the new pupils in first grade at the Prinsesse Margrethe School in Upernavik, Greenland. All pupils are wearing the national costumes of Greenland

image credit: Kim Hansen

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