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Classification of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas

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Classification of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas

Historically, 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. Peoples can also be classified by genetics, technology, and social structure.

In the United States and Canada, ethnographers commonly classify Indigenous peoples into ten geographical regions with shared cultural traits, called cultural areas. 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.

Of the Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast, it is widely agreed upon by scholars that that the area north of the Haisla represents a cultural subarea, called the "Northern" or "Northern Maritime" area. However, south of this, there is a deal of disagreement on the existence of any subareas, especially south of Vancouver Island. For the purposes of organization, south of the Northern subarea, tribes are grouped by language family.

Northern subarea

Wakashan

Nuxalk (Salishan)

Coast Salish peoples
Northern Coast Salish

Central Coast Salish

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