Any member of the people living in North or South America before the Europeans arrived in America are known as the Native Americans. They are also known as American Indian, Aboriginal American or First Nation People.

Modern Native Americans came to settle in the USA, about fifteen thousand years ago. The Native American people migrated from Eurasia, across Beringia, a land bridge that connected to present-day Siberia. By the time Europeans came to the Americas, scholars estimate that more than fifty million people already lived in America- ten million lived in now the United States of America. During the course of time, these Native Americans started moving towards the South and the East. Hence, there is a wide range of diversity in their culture and tradition. Scholars have broken North America (excluding Mexico) into ten cultural areas- the Arctic, the Subarctic, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Plains, the Southwest, the Great Basin, California, the Northwest Coast, and the Plateau.

The Arctic- consist of present-day Canada and Greenland. The Inuit and the Aleut people resided there. They spoke and continue to speak the dialects descended from Eskimo-Aleut language. The Arctic lies in the North Pole, it has extreme weather conditions, it has snowfall almost during the entire year, hence, it is inhospitable for the most part of the year. The population was less compared to other areas. The people were nomads, they followed the Arctic animals- polar bears, bears. The Aleut lived in small fishing groups along the shore.

Since the USA acquired Alaska in 1867, the Native Americans living there were subjected to exposure and oppression, they were not immune to a lot of diseases, they were exposed to such diseases. By 2005, the population of Native Americans in The Arctic circle dropped to just 2500.

The Subarctic- consists of islands of Alaska and Canada. Piney, swampy forest and water-logged tundra region. Scholars have divided the region’s people into two language groups: the Athabaskan speakers at its western end, among them the Tsattine (Beaver), Gwich’in (or Kuchin) and the Deg Xinag (formerly—and pejoratively—known as the Ingalik), and the Algonquian speakers at its eastern end, including the Cree, the Ojibwa and the Naskapi.

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Transportation and commuting were difficult is the Subarctic region. People did not have permanent settlements nor were they nomads. People there lived in tents and easy-to-move tents for a short period of time. They stuck together in small family groups. When it became too cold, to live in a certain place, they lived under the soil in dugouts, to keep themselves warm. European invasion disrupted the people in the Subarctic region. The Subarctic people traded pelts to the Europeans.

The Northeast- Present-day North Carolina, Canada’s North Coast and inland to the Mississippi River. They were one of the very first people who first interacted with the Europeans when they came to America. There are two main groups of people in this region: Iroquoian speakers (these included the Cayuga, Oneida, Erie, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora) they lived in stable villages along the inland rivers and lakes and Algonquian speakers (these included the Pequot, Fox, Shawnee, Wampanoag and Menominee) they lived in small fishing families and were also into agriculture.

The Southeast- Consist of the north of the Gulf of Mexico. This region had a fertile land, perfect for agricultural activities and humid weather. People organized their lives around small market villages known as hamlets. the South-eastern indigenous peoples are the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole, sometimes called the Five Civilized Tribes, who all spoke a variant of the Muskogean language. By the time the USA got its independence, a large chunk of the Native American population wiped out due to exposure to diseases and oppression.

The Plains- Consist of a region between Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Speakers of Siouan, Algonquian, Caddoan, Uto-Aztecan and Athabaskan languages—were relatively settled hunters and farmers. In the eighteenth century, Spanish colonizers brought horses to this region along with trading, this caused the people of the Great Plains to become more nomadic. Plains Indians are also known for their elaborately feathered war bonnets.

The Great Basin- formed by the Rocky Mountains to the east, the Sierra Nevadas to the west, the Columbia Plateau to the north, and the Colorado Plateau to the south. People spoke Shoshonean or Uto-Aztecan dialects. They were also nomads, lived in easy-to-build up wikiups made from poles or saplings, leaves and brush.

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The Southwest- Dessert region, consist of present-day Arizona and New Mexico. The Hopi, the Zuni, the Yaqui and the Yuma were sedentary farmers, they grew crops like corn, beans. They lived in permanent houses known as pueblos. The Navajo and the Apache were nomadic. They survived by hunting and gathering, by raiding the permanent settlement of other people. Spanish colonists and missionaries had enslaved many of the Pueblo Indians, for example, working them to death on vast Spanish ranches known as encomiendas.

The Northwest- Consist of Pacific coast of British Columbia and North California. It was rich in natural resources. The people here lived in permanent settlements because of the abundance of natural resources, they did not require to follow migrating animals for food and water. Prominent groups in the region included the Athapaskan Haida and Tlingit; the Penutian Chinook, Tsimshian and Coos; the Wakashan Kwakiutl and Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka); and the Salishan Coast Salish.

California- the population was more than three million until the mid-sixteenth century. There were hundred different tribes who spoke more than two hundred dialects. These tribes did not practice agriculture, lived in small groups (family based) of hunters and gatherers known as tribelets.

In 1769, the cleric Junipero Serra established a mission at San Diego, inaugurating a particularly brutal period in which forced labour, disease and assimilation nearly exterminated the culture area’s native population.

The Plateau- Consist of the Columbia and Fraser river basins at the intersection of the Subarctic, the Plains, the Great Basin, the California and the Northwest Coast. After the introduction of horses in this region in the eighteenth century, people of The Plateau shifted to animal-based economy.

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Present situation

Before the White settlers, the Native Americans comprised almost 100% of the population. Present day, the population of Native Americans in less than 1%. Presently, the lack of economic opportunity has led to overcrowded households, they only get societal security. 28.2% of American Indian live below the federal line (2008, American Indian census facts).

‘One legislator deplored the fact that “there are 90,000 homeless or underhoused Indian families, and that 30% of Indian housing is overcrowded and less than 50% of it is connected to a public sewer.” (March 8, 2004, Indian Country Today).

In addition, many American Indians are living in substandard housing. About 40% of on-reservation housing is considered inadequate (2003, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights). The waiting list for tribal housing is long; the wait is often three years or more, and overcrowding is inevitable. Most families will not turn away family members or anyone who needs a place to stay. It is not uncommon for 3 or more generations to live in a two-bedroom home with inadequate plumbing, kitchen facilities, cooling, and heating.

Source – Native Partnership

The Dawes Act, 1887.

This act was passed and provided with the dissolution of the Native Americans as legal entities and redistribution of tribal lands among groups and individuals. The “surplus” was distributed to the non-Indians. The Dawes Act did no good to the Native Americans. It led to the loss of culture and tradition among the Native Americans. More than two-third of tribal land was destroyed. The failure of The Dawes act led to changes in the policies of the USA government towards the Native Americans.

The Snyder Act, 1924

It provided with full U.S. citizenship to the Native Americans born in the U.S. ‘Though the Fifteenth Amendment, passed in 1870, granted all U.S. citizens the right to vote regardless of race, it wasn’t until the Snyder Act that Native Americans could enjoy the rights granted by this amendment.

Even with the passing of this citizenship bill, Native Americans were still prevented from participating in elections because the Constitution left it up to the states to decide who has the right to vote. After the passage of the 1924 citizenship bill, it still took over forty years for all fifty states to allow Native Americans to vote. For example, Maine was one of the last states to comply with the Indian Citizenship Act, even though it had granted tax paying Native Americans the right to vote in its original 1819 state constitution. As reported by Henry Mitchell, a resident of that state, Native Americans were prevented from voting in Maine in the late 1930s.

…[T]he Indians aren’t allowed to have a voice in state affairs because they aren’t voters. …. Just why the Indians shouldn’t vote is something I can’t understand. One of the Indians went over to Old Town once to see some official in the city hall about voting. I don’t know just what position that official had over there, but he said to the Indian, ‘We don’t want you people over here. You have your own elections over on the island, and if you want to vote, go over there.

Image Source – Library of Congress

In 1948, the Arizona Supreme Court struck down a provision of its state constitution that kept Indians from voting. Other states eventually followed suit, concluding with New Mexico in 1962, the last state to enfranchise Native Americans.

Even with the lawful right to vote in every state, Native Americans suffered from the same mechanisms and strategies, such as poll taxes, literacy tests, fraud, and intimidation, that kept African Americans from exercising that right. In 1965, with a passage of the Voting Rights Act and subsequent legislation in 1970, 1975, and 1982, many other voting protections were reaffirmed and strengthened.

Source – Voting Rights for Native Americans