19 min.
THE FIRST AMERICANS
In popular culture, Native Americans are often portrayed as a monolithic group, and often as a variant of Plains Indians – full headdresses, riding horses, nomadic, hunting buffalo. In reality, Native American groups at contact were incredibly diverse, estimated to be over 500 nations. Using a bird’s eye view of Native North America, we can identify around eight areas of similar cultural groupings to get a broad picture of Native North America before contact.
When considering Native Americans at contact, it’s useful to keep in mind that different parts of the continent were contacted by different peoples at different times. Depending on the location, this can vary from as early as 1540 to as late as almost 1800 and can include French, Spanish, English, Dutch and Russian explorers and settlers.…
