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California has the most Indians and tribes, but we're fairly invisible with our low proportion, and small reservations. And there are Zapotec and Mayan Indians out here too, but they're usually just filed under "Hispanic".
The country with the most Indians is Mexico, closely followed by Peru. Proportionally you have Greenland (if you consider it a country) and Bolivia.
Quechua is the largest ethnic group, followed by Mayans.
We're a very diverse group traversing North and South America, coming from anything from hunter gatherer proto-bands to advanced civilizations and everything in between. We come everywhere from deserts, jungles to tundras.
There is admixture, but even without it there's this no hair except the top of your head stereotype, that can depend on where your from. Many full blooded Indians from different regions have been growing some wispy mustaches and goatees for some time now. Skin color without admixture can vary too, this is a large heterogenous group.
Admixture doesn't necessarily make you less of an Indian, neither does growing up in the city (like most American Indians have been doing for decades now, pay attention people). A lot of non Indians like to judge and have some strange criteria to what a real Indian is, this is not their place, they often don't know what they're talking about, and it's annoying. There's this notion of authenticity that sees the Indians of the past as authentic and Indians of the present as diluted. We change and adapt just like any other group and we decide what is authentic, not outsiders.
But here's some pics
[url]http://absolute-news.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Dann_Sisters01-300x271.jpg[/url]
Shoshones (best group)
Pictured is Carrie and Mary Dann, the rights to their lands was breached by the United States breaching the treaty of ruby valley, and therefore the American constitution. The impounding of their cattle didn't get nearly as attention as the Bundy fiasco (either one) because people don't care to pay attention.
[url]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8475/8118615624_2444b3a06d_z.jpg[/url]
Cherokee
[url]http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/events/RWP-002138.jpg[/url]
Cree (her name is Buffy Saint Marie)
Wonderful post- the diversity of Native American cultures is most often simplified. Native American cultures are reduced to a generic 'Indian' category and few inform themselves of the cultural components of these populations.
I'm not sure if this is still the case, but in CA the 3rd most spoken language was Mixteco for a while. As you mentioned, many Native Americans have just been thrown into the Hispanic category so few know that they speak a language other than Spanish.
In LA there is a pretty significant Mayan population.
Yes, they are related groups, not all that different in appearance.
The fact is, full blooded Native Americans differ somewhat in their appearances depending on what part of the continent they are from, and indeed many have white blood in them from centuries of interactions with European peoples even if they remain culturally native American. The natives from the reserves I lived near in Quebec look somewhat different from the natives I know in British Columbia, who have somewhat different features. It's analagous to the differences you see between people from Southern Italy and people from Scandinavia. Here are some pictures of various Amerindian people.
This is Buffy St. Marie, a successful singer song writer who is a Cree from the Great Plains. She was born in the province of Saskatchewan on a rural reserve.
Here's a video of Buffy's, made decades ago when she was a young woman, just so you can see what she looked like (also it's a great song, one of my favourites):
This is Waneek Horn-Miller, a former Olympic Athlete and a Mohawk, from the Kahnawke reserve, which is just across the river the city of Montreal. I am acquainted with her and she is a lovely woman!
This lady, I don't know her name. She is a Kuna indian, from Kuna Yala in Panama:
This is Lorne Cardinal, a noted Canadian actor. He's also a Plains Cree but I thought I'd feature him as I didn't have enough men yet.
Here's grand chief Stewart Phillip of the Penticton, British Columbia Indian Band:
This is Armando Manzanero, a famous musician from Mexico, who is a Mayan:
This is Norma Howard, a water colour painter who is a Choctaw, from Oklahoma.
This is Natar Ungalaaq, an Inuk from the arctic who has starred in several commerically successful big budget Inuktitut language movies, like Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner, and Ce Qu'il Faut Pour Vivre (The Necessities of Life). Although I don't know if Inuit people (called Eskimos abroad) count as Native Americans.
Finally, here's just an everyday group of modern Native American people making music at a summer pow wow.
I went to Mongolia a while back and I was struck by how some of the Mongolians looked like stereotypical Native Americans. Some of the women even dressed ala Pocahontas(probably not the most PC way to put it but..).
It makes sense if you believe the Bering Crossing explanation.
Some have even connected some Indian language traits to the Asian steppe people. Impossible to prove though, 30000 years changes a lot. The last 500 years of Eurpeans and American Indians mixing with each other changes a lot as well. Hard to imagine those people crossing that land bridge, must have been some tough hardy people to survive that journey.
Well yes and no. The decendents of Africans in North America are very culturally European influenced. They speak English, they have most of the same customs and religious beliefs of white Americans. Black Americans may be ethnically African but you could argue they are no different than whites in the respect that they are culturally European. Of course 300 years ago they had far more of their African culture intact, so at that point their African culture may have influenced the American Indian but in the last several hundred years the black people in America are nearly as culturally European as the whites.
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