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Indians are the indigenous people of North and South America. They received this name because of the historical mistake of Columbus, who was sure that he had sailed to India. There are many Indian tribes, but this ranking contains the most famous of them.
10th place. Abenaki

This tribe lived in the United States and Canada. The Abenaki were not sedentary, which gave them an advantage in the war with the Iroquois. They could silently disappear into the forest and unexpectedly attack the enemy. If before colonization there were about 80 thousand Indians in the tribe, then after the war with the Europeans there were less than one thousand left. Now their number reaches 12 thousand, and they live mainly in Quebec (Canada).

9th place. Comanche

One of the most warlike tribes of the southern plains, once numbering 20 thousand people. Their bravery and courage in battles forced their enemies to treat them with respect. The Comanches were the first to intensively use horses and also supply them to other tribes. Men could take several women as wives, but if the wife was caught cheating, she could be killed or her nose cut off. Today, there are about 8 thousand Comanches left, and they live in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

8th place. Apache

The Apaches are a nomadic tribe that settled in the Rio Grande and later moved south to Texas and Mexico. The main occupation was buffalo hunting, which became the symbol of the tribe (totem). During the war with the Spaniards they were almost completely exterminated. In 1743, the Apache chief made a truce with them by placing his ax in a hole. This is where the catchphrase came from: “burying the hatchet.” Now approximately one and a half thousand descendants of the Apaches live in New Mexico.

7th place. Cherokee

A large tribe (50 thousand) inhabiting the slopes of the Appalachians. By the early 19th century, the Cherokees had become one of the most culturally advanced tribes in North America. In 1826, Chief Sequoia created the Cherokee syllabary; free schools were opened with tribal teachers; and the richest of them owned plantations and black slaves.

6th place. Huron

The Hurons are a tribe numbering 40 thousand people in the 17th century and living in Quebec and Ohio. They were the first to enter into trade relations with Europeans, and thanks to their mediation, trade began to develop between the French and other tribes. Today, about 4 thousand Hurons live in Canada and the United States.

5th place. Mohicans

The Mohicans were a once powerful union of five tribes, numbering about 35 thousand people. But already at the beginning of the 17th century, as a result of bloody wars and epidemics, there were less than a thousand of them left. They mostly disappeared into other tribes, but a small handful of descendants of the famous tribe live today in Connecticut.

4th place. Iroquois

This is the most famous and warlike tribe in North America. Thanks to their ability to learn languages, they successfully traded with Europeans. A distinctive feature of the Iroquois is their masks with a hooked nose, which were designed to protect the owner and his family from disease.

3rd place. The Incas

The Incas are a mysterious tribe that lived at an altitude of 4.5 thousand meters in the mountains of Colombia and Chile. It was a highly developed society that developed an irrigation system and used sewers. It still remains a mystery how the Incas managed to achieve such a level of development, and why, where and how the whole tribe suddenly disappeared.

2nd place. Aztecs

The Aztecs differed from other Central American tribes in their hierarchical structure and rigid centralized control. At the highest level were the priests and the emperor, at the lowest were the slaves. Human sacrifices were widely used, as well as the death penalty, for any offense.

1st place. Mayan

The Mayans are the most famous highly developed tribe of Central America, famous for their extraordinary works of art and cities carved entirely from stone. They were also excellent astronomers, and it was they who created the acclaimed calendar ending in 2012.

Five Civilized Tribes

Representatives of the Five Civilized Tribes.
The portraits were painted in the period 1775-1850.
Five Civilized Tribes - Five Indian Nations of the USA: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole - which in early XIX centuries had already adopted many of the customs and achievements of the white settlers and established quite a good relationship with neighbors.
The process of cultural transformation of these tribes was started by George Washington and Henry Knox; at the same time, the Cherokees and Choctaws successfully adopted European-American culture.
Washington believed that Indians had equal rights with whites, but more primitive public organization. He formulated the principles of a policy encouraging "conversion to civilization", which was later continued by Thomas Jefferson.

Cherokee

Cherokee - Indian people in North America.
The Cherokees once lived along both slopes of the southern Appalachians in what is now Tennessee and North Carolina.
The first Europeans the Cherokees saw were the Spanish. This happened in 1540, the famous conquistador Hernando de Soto participated in the Spanish expedition.

In 1566, the Spaniards again visited the Cherokee lands. They maintained small mines and smelters in the area until 1690. Convinced of the absence of precious metals in the Cherokee lands, the Spaniards lost interest in them.

By the beginning of the 19th century, Christianity had become the dominant religion of the Cherokees. At the end of the 18th - 19th centuries, the Cherokees made significant cultural progress, changed their nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary one, lived in houses that were modern in their time, and were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding and crafts. In 1825-1826, the leader of the Cherokee tribe, Sequoyah (George Hess), approved at the tribal council the Cherokee syllabary alphabet, which he created in 1821, and in 1828 he began publishing the Cherokee Phoenix newspaper in the Cherokee language.

Rich Indians owned plantations, led an aristocratic lifestyle, and owned hundreds of black slaves. The Cherokees and other civilized tribes created the first network of free schools in the United States. In Cherokee Territory, by the middle of the 19th century, there were about 30 free schools, almost all of the teachers in the school were Cherokees. Overall, Cherokee Territory was characterized by one of the most high levels education among the territories of North America.

Following the example of the United States, the Cherokees created their own constitution, a set of laws, an elected government and a president, traditionally called the “Great Chief.” By 1850, about 22 thousand people lived in “Cherokee Territory”, of which 4 thousand were citizens with the right to vote (Cherokee men). Women and children, whites (about 1 thousand people) and black slaves (about 4 thousand people) did not have the right to vote.

In the early 30s of the 19th century, the authorities of the southern states, with the support of the US federal government, decided to liquidate the Indian enclaves and resettle the Indians themselves to empty lands west of the Mississippi River. During the forced deportation of 1838-1839, called the “Trail of Tears,” over 4 thousand Indians died.

In 1889, immigration was allowed in one part of their area (Oklahoma Territory); in 1891 another part was opened for immigration. They are part of the Five Civilized Tribes.

Origin
In the 1880s, Horace Hale (H. Hale, "Indian migrations, as evidenced by language" in American Antiquarian, 1883) suggested that the Cherokees were related to the Iroquois. The Cherokees themselves call themselves Tsalagi. They are probably descendants of the Alligewi or Talligevi, of which information is preserved in the sagas of the Iroquois and Algonquins. In 1826, Cherokee Chief Sequoyah (or George Hess), invented an 85-character syllabary for the Cherokee language, which became widespread among the tribe and is still used today.

Number
The number of Cherokees in 1674 was approximately 50 thousand people. Smallpox epidemics cut the Cherokee population in half. Relocation to Oklahoma and Civil War in the United States the population has again been greatly reduced. The 1990 census showed 308,132 Cherokees, of which 15 thousand were purebred.
Enrolled members of the Cherokee Tribe are approx. 250,000.

Cherokee (language)
The Cherokee language is one of the Iroquoian languages ​​spoken by the Cherokee Indians. The only Southern Iroquois language still in use using the unique Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.

Famous representatives
Sequoyah (George Hess) - inventor of Cherokee writing
Stand Watie - General of the Confederate Army
John Ross - tribal leader from 1828 to 1860

Do you know that:
Ancestors of famous actors: Johnny Depp, Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Costner, Cameron Diaz, Tommy Lee Jones, Tori Amos and Chuck Norris - Cherokee Indians?

Apache

Apache- a collective name for several culturally related tribes North American Indians, speaking Apache languages ​​of the Athabaskan branch of the Na-Dene family.
Apache tribes now live on reservations in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma.
Population Total: 56,060 (Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma)
Language - Apache, English
Religion - Native American Church, Shamanism, Christianity
Racial type - Americanoids
Related peoples - Navajo
Ethnic groups - Western Apache, Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Kiowa Apache, Lipan, Mescalero
Historical area of ​​Apache and Navajo settlement in the 18th century: Navajo, Western Apache, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicaria, Lipan, Kiowa Apache.
Languages. Apache languages ​​include:
Western: Navajo, Western Apache, Mescalero-Chiricahua Apache
eastern: Jicaria Apache, Lipan Apache
Plains (Kiowa) Apache
The Navajo language is the most widespread of the American Indian languages ​​(178,000 speakers as of 2000), followed by Western Apache (about 12,000 speakers).
Modern groups of Apaches.
The Apaches were divided into six nations:
Western Apache
Chiricahua
Mescalero
Jicarilla
Lipany
Kiowa Apache
Famous representatives of the Apaches:
Geronimo. Chiricahua name Guyaale
Chiricahua Apache military leader who led the fight against US invasion of his tribe's land for 25 years. In 1886 he was forced to surrender to the American army.
Date of birth: June 16, 1829
Place of Birth: Arizona
Date of death: February 17, 1909 (age 79)
Place of Death: Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Biography of Geronimo: on this page
Cochise
Cochise (1805 - June 8, 1874) was a chief of the Choconen, a group of Chiricahua Apaches, and the leader of a rebellion that broke out in 1861. Cochise was the most significant figure in the history of the American Southwest in the 19th century and one of the greatest leaders among North American Indians. Cochise County in Arizona is named in his honor.
Occupation: Chokonen leader
Date of birth: 1805
Place of birth: New Mexico
Date of death: June 8, 1874
Place of Death: New Mexico Territory
Biography of Geronimo: on this page
Collection of all feature filmsabout the Apache Indians


Photograph of California Indians 1916

Tribal affiliation (graphical representation)

Everything is clear here:Indian tribes are at the very top, their silhouettes are below them, the transcript is on the right.
This is what the Indian tribes of North America looked like.
The way of life of the Indians, history, wars with consistent historical accuracy shown in the film collection - Indians (Tribes)

Lastly: who was Chingachgook?

Chingachgook, the Great (Big) Serpent - the hero of the works of Fenimore Cooper, belongs to the literary type “noble savage”.
Comes from the Mohican tribe of North American Indians. Chingachgook is a wise and brave warrior. He is kind and fair, respected by his friends and feared by his enemies.
This is what the book “The Last of the Mohicans” says about the origin of his name:
“Of course, the name Chingachgook, which means “Great Serpent,” does not mean that he is actually a snake; no, his name says that he knows all the twists, all the corners of human nature, that he is silent and knows how to strike his enemies at moments when they do not expect it at all.”
In the book “The Last of the Mohicans,” his only son, Uncas, dies. And it is Chingachgook who becomes the last of the Mohicans, the last leader and the last representative of a once powerful, but now extinct tribe.
Films about Chingachkuk and other films about Indians
with Gojko Mitic in the title role -

In the adventure novels of Fenimore Cooper and Mine Reed, which most of us read as children, the Indians appear as bloodthirsty, uneducated savages. However, more than 2,000 nationalities with their own culture, language and customs settled on the mainland. And the differences between the tribes were often dramatic!

Where did the Indians come from?

There are many hypotheses about where the first settlers came from in North America. Some scientists suggest that these are the descendants of the Egyptians, who, through who knows what sea routes, reached the neighboring continent. Others put forward the extravagant version that the Indians are the descendants of soldiers who survived the Trojan War. Researchers of the disappeared tribes of Israel insist on Jewish roots. There is an option that people settled the New World from 50 to 20 thousand years ago, coming from Siberia along the so-called Beringian Bridge - the isthmus between Asia and America that later disappeared. As for the name... Everyone knows the story of how Columbus, who accidentally discovered America, believed that he had arrived in India.

The Europeans who arrived in the New World recognized the Iroquois as the most developed tribe. They farmed, mastered crafts, and periodically had weak conflicts with their neighbors. But the main difference was that they, in a sense, created the prototype of modern US politics: their confederation was a democratic and developed system of government. The ladies dominated the council: it was they who decided the fate of the tribe. Later, matriarchy outlived its usefulness - fighting for supremacy in fur production, the Iroquois attacked their neighbors, using brutal torture. By the way, they didn’t get their name because of their hairstyles: in the language of the Algonquin tribe, this word means “vipers” - pacifism has clearly gone out of fashion. But the Iroquois gave the modern name to the adjacent state - “Canada” translated from their language means “village”.

The main enemies of the Iroquois are the Hurons. They also competed for a monopoly in the fur trade, so skirmishes were regular. Compared to their neighbors, they looked quite peaceful: their vegetarian diet consisted mainly of maize and beans, and only on holidays did they allow themselves a ritually cooked dog. The Hurons did not survive the missionary activity of the French - they brought plague and famine to their villages.

The Cherokees resisted the Europeans longer than others, but in the end they were forced to surrender and accept Christianity, adopting a culture and customs alien to them. The government of the new country forcibly removed the Cherokees to infertile lands, where they died. This tribe was quite civilized: Chief Sequoia, for example, developed his own letter, so the Indians knew how to read and write, albeit in their own way, and even published newspapers. Cherokee blood flows in the veins of Barack Obama, Johnny Depp, Quentin Tarantino.

Apaches are a symbol of Indian resistance to Europeans. Their leader Geronimo gained worldwide fame: he waged a guerrilla war for quite a long time, in the end he was caught, but not executed - he was taken to exhibitions and photographs of this unique brand of a dying culture were replicated. The famous wigwam (“house”) was the main dwelling of the Apaches - the rest of the inhabitants of North America took refuge in conical tents.

Beothuk

Thereby Indian tribe all Indians received the unflattering nickname “redskins.” They were among the first to meet Europeans on the continent, and the guests, seeing their faces painted with ocher, were frightened and called them that. By the way, the natural skin color of Indians is white or dark. In Canada, the tragic story of a woman from this tribe named Demasduit, who died in captivity, is very popular. It was she who left information about the grammar and features of the Beothuk language.

Fall of Civilization

Having received horses and weapons from the colonialists, Indian tribes began to develop the prairies. Since the Europeans gradually drove the aborigines out of the fertile lands, they had to go to the steppes. The main source of food for them was the bison, whose skin was also used to make clothes and shoes. The classic image of an Indian with a headdress of eagle feathers, leather boots, a tomahawk and an Indian bow appeared there. But life on the reservations was not easy: they were forbidden to practice their own religion and their children were taken away. Gradually, out of hopelessness, people began to drink too much - their enzyme system could not withstand the fight against alcohol, and civilization began to fade away.

Modern Indian tribes- Cherokee, Navajo, Sioux and Chippewa - live below the poverty line, despite tourism, casinos and excise-free tobacco trade. Disease, alcoholism and unemployment are a real scourge on the reservations. It seems that the great nation is on the verge of final extinction. And today, August 9, on the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, I would like to wish not to repeat the mistakes of European colonialists, but to preserve the culture and customs of people, no matter what nationality they belong to.

Animation program “The Path of the Pathfinder”

ETHNOMIR, Kaluga region, Borovsky district, Petrovo village

Schoolchildren and students from all over the country visit ETNOMIR all year round. The center successfully cooperates with leading educational institutions Russia and the world. We host youth rallies, children's shifts summer camps, we accept school groups, offering ready-made programs with a set of thematic excursions and master classes.

When coming to the ethnographic park with a group of schoolchildren or students, you can additionally select an animation program for any educational tour. ETNOMIR presents to your attention games of strength, speed and ingenuity, traditional entertainment different nations world, exciting quests, gatherings around the fire, ethnic dances and adventures in the Indian tribe. While playing, children expand their understanding of the world around them, experience a natural desire and need to learn new things, develop communication skills, and form a personality.

Street Game is an interactive adventure that will introduce participants to North American Indian culture!

Today, South America is a continent with a population of more than three hundred million people, whose population is constantly increasing. Due to the difficult circumstances of the history of the “conquest” of America, there is a complex and multinational ethnic composition in which racial characteristics are significantly mixed.

Tribes of ancient Indians came to the South American continent more than 20 thousand years ago from North America, gradually settling throughout the continent. Then, in the 16th century, the era of European colonialism began, first the Portuguese and Spaniards arrived here, and a little later immigrants from other European countries - Germans, British, French, etc. The indigenous population of the country - the South American Indian tribes - were brutally exterminated, their ancient culture was destroyed, ancient cities, temples and sanctuaries were destroyed. In subsequent years, after most Indian people was thoughtlessly destroyed, they were brought in as slaves a large number of blacks from the African continent. The result of such a rapid and rather bloody settlement of South America is the variegated ethnic composition of the continent.

Indigenous people in the pre-Columbian era

At the time when Europeans “discovered” the New World for themselves, the indigenous populations of both continents were on different stages development, and if in the north of America tribes picked mushrooms and berries, and lived in a primitive communal system, then in Central and South America, Indian tribes had already created states and entire civilizations, built class relations and created unique monuments of culture, science and architecture, which later became real phenomena and mysteries for all scientific minds of the world

The tribes that lived east of the Andes hunted and collected gifts of nature, were at a fairly low level of development, and practiced the basics of a primitive communal system.

(An ancient vanishing tribe)

Highly developed Indian tribes who lived in mountainous areas Andes and the coast Pacific Ocean(modern territory of Colombia, Peru, Chile), they created here the first states with developed agriculture and livestock breeding, crafts and various applied arts and scientific knowledge. These are the ancient civilizations of the Incas, Mayans, Chavin, Mochica cultures, etc.

The inhabitants of the extreme southern part of the South American continent, who lived on the archipelago of the Tierra del Fuego islands (the modern province of Argentina and part of Chile) - Fuegians, these are the Ona, Alakaluf, Yagan tribes, by the time of European expansion they were at a low level of development, wore animal skins, had stone and bone weapons, hunted guanacos (the ancestor of the domestic llama) and fished in the ocean on fragile boats made of birch bark.

(Men of the Amazon Valley Tribe)

A step higher in development were the Indian tribes who lived in the valley of the Orinoco and Amazon rivers in the center and north of the continent (tribes language groups Arawaks, Caribs, Tupi-Guarani), who were engaged in hunting, weapons - bows and pipes with poisoned arrows (the famous poison curare), grew corn, cassava, tobacco, cotton, a form of social organization - a tribal community.

In the north of the Andes (modern Colombia) in the valley of the Bogota River, the Chibcha people organized the Indian state of the Chibcha-Muisca peoples with a fairly developed culture; within modern Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador there was a culture of the Quechua Indian tribe.

Culture and life of the ancient Indians

(Iroquois Tribe)

The most famous and studied in detail is the culture of the ancient Inca Empire or Tauntinsuyu (“four connected cardinal directions”), which was formed in the second century AD through wars of conquest, when one of the mountain tribes conquered vast neighboring lands, where tribes such as the Aymara and Keuar lived. , Huallacán, etc. and united them all into one powerful Inca state. In the 14th and 15th centuries, which marked the era of aggressive European colonization, the Inca Empire occupied vast territories of today's Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, parts of Argentina, Colombia and Chile. The specially built capital of the state is Cusco, the language is Quechua, the first ruler (Supreme Inca) is Manco Capac.

(Iroquois Warriors)

Like the Roman Empire, the main force of this power was the army; the entire people were engaged in providing it, regularly paying taxes to the treasury for its maintenance. Conquered peoples were allowed to believe in their deities, but worship was required supreme god Suns of the Incas - Inti. The population lived in stone houses, built from such rocks like limestone, basalt, diorite, etc. The houses of ordinary residents were simple and modest, but the houses of the nobility, priests and rulers were decorated with gold and silver plates. The architecture of the ancient Incas is distinguished by its severity and asceticism; palaces and temples are overwhelming with their power and grandeur; for their construction, huge monolithic blocks were used, tightly adjusted in size and not held together by any mortar. The ensemble of temples of Coricancha (“Golden Temple”) in the Inca capital of Cusco is the pinnacle of Inca architecture. It contained a golden altar and a golden disk of the sun god Inti; it was destroyed and plundered by the Spaniards. Nowadays the Cathedral of Santa Domingo is located on its ruins.

(Machu Picchu - ancient Inca city on top of a mountain overlooking the Urubamba River valley)

The ancient Incas were skilled artisans, they mined metal ores and knew how to process gold, bronze, and made amazingly beautiful jewelry, which was later melted down into gold bars and taken to Spain by the conquering conquistadors. The Incas did not have writing as such; it is believed that they transmitted and stored information using a special knotted letter “khipu”.

The entire population of the empire was divided into social classes and professions; the basis of the Inca social pyramid was the concept of aylyu, consisting of family clans that lived on the same land and cultivated it together, engaged in common livestock breeding and shared the harvest among everyone. The head of state was the One Inca - the supreme ruler and chief priest of the Sun god.

At the beginning of the 16th century, when spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro came to the lands of the Empire, due to an acute internecine struggle for power, it was already on the verge of collapse, was quickly conquered and plundered, the ancient Inca civilization ceased to exist. Today all that remains of it are ruins ancient city Machu Picchu in the mountains of Peru.

Also, the Mayan and Aztec cultures are considered the most ancient civilizations on the territory of modern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, states of Latin America.

(Ancient Maya)

The Maya are the clearest example of the Indian pre-Culomb civilization, which remains a mystery and a scientific phenomenon to everyone today. It began its existence at the beginning of our era, and by the time the conquistadors arrived it was already in deep decline. This unique people, existing in Stone Age conditions and not knowing how to mine and process metal, not having means of transportation and animals for transporting goods, developed a surprisingly accurate solar calendar, had complex hieroglyphic writing, predicted eclipses of the Moon and the Sun, and calculated the movements of the planets. It was the Mayans who created unique masterpieces of construction art, which are still known throughout the world (the Mayan pyramids in the ancient cities of Teotihuacan, Cholula and Chechen Itza). The Mayan civilization died in the 11th century, even before the arrival of the conquistadors, who found the remnants of their former power; why this happened is still unknown.

(Temple of the Inscriptions ancient civilization Maya - visualization)

The Aztec civilization existed in what is now Mexico between the 14th and 16th centuries AD. The capital of the ancient Aztec state was Tenochtitlan on Lake Texcoco, which was a huge city located on several islands in the middle of lakes, connected by dams. Excellent stone roads were laid everywhere, its streets were intersected by canals, stone palaces and temples were located in green gardens. The Aztecs were excellent woodcarvers, sculptors, craftsmen and jewelers. Unfortunately, the legacy of this ancient civilization has practically not survived to this day; only a few masterpieces that miraculously escaped destruction at the hands of the Spanish conquistadors found their way to Europe and became public knowledge.

Traditions and customs

Customs and traditions played a huge role in the life of almost every Indian people who lived on the territory of the South American continent in ancient times.

(Life of the ancient Mayans)

For example, the Mayans believed that the birth of a child was a sign of the special favor of the gods, especially the moon goddess; the priests chose the name of the child, calculated his horoscope and predicted the future. Among the Mayans, cross-eyedness was a sign of beauty; in order for a child to become cross-eyed, a bead was attached to his forehead, hanging over his eyes, which the child should look at more often. Also, with the help of a plank tied in front, the forehead lengthened and the head became flatter, this was required by the Mayan canons of beauty, and also required a high position in society.

The ball game was very popular; it was of a religious nature, carried out with great ceremonies and careful preparation.

One of the terrible and bloody rituals of this people was the ritual of sacrifice, when a human sacrifice was made to please some god, tearing out the heart and throwing the body from a high pyramid.

(Warrior of the ancient Inca tribe)

In the Inca religion there was a whole pantheon of gods: the creator of the world and all living things, Kon Tisci Viracocha, after him came the sun god Inti, Ilyapa - the weather god, the moon goddess - Mama Quilla and others. The Incas performed a great variety of religious and ritual ceremonies, subject to the agricultural calendar or dates dedicated to the life of the ruling royal family. Holidays and celebrations were held in the central square of the city of Cusco, which was called Uyakapata (“Sacred Terrace”), where the ruler’s palace was also located; after his death, it turned into a sanctuary, where the embalmed mummy of the deceased was located. The new Supreme Inca lived in another palace, built personally for him.

Modern life of the peoples of the South American continent

(Puno city in Peru)

The current population of South America is 387.5 million people. Characterized by a predominance of mixed ethnic groups: mestizos (the result of mixed barques of Europeans and Indians), mulattoes (marriage of Europeans with the Negroid race), sambo (marriage of Indians with the Negroid race).

In Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador and Venezuela, mestizos predominate, descendants of mixed marriages between indigenous people (Indians) and Spanish settlers. In Peru and Bolivia the majority are Indians. In the states of central South America in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, the majority of citizens are of African descent, the minority are descendants of the inhabitants of the European continent. But most of them, especially those from Spain and Italy, live in Argentina and Uruguay. In Chile there are many immigrants from European countries such as Germany, England, France, Austria, Greece, Scandinavia, etc. The official language of most countries on the mainland is spoken in Spanish, in Brazil in Portuguese, in Peru the Indian language Quechua is official along with Spanish.

There are two main points of view. According to the first (the so-called “short chronology”), people came  At that time, the sea level was 130 meters lower than today, and in winter it was not difficult to cross the ice on foot. to America about 14-16 thousand years ago. According to the second, people settled the New World much earlier, from 50 to 20 thousand years ago (“long chronology”). The answer to the question “How?” much more definite: the ancient ancestors of the Indians came from Siberia through the Bering Strait, and then went south - either along the west coast of America, or along the central part of the continent through the ice-free space between the Laurentian ice sheet and glaciers Coast Ranges in Canada. However, regardless of how exactly the first inhabitants of America moved, traces of their early presence either ended up deep under water due to rising sea levels (if they walked along the Pacific coast), or were destroyed by the actions of glaciers (if people walked along the central part of the continent). Therefore, the earliest archaeological finds are not found in Beringia  Beringia- a biogeographic region connecting Northeast Asia and northwestern North America., and much further south - for example, in Texas, northern Mexico, southern Chile.

2. Were the Indians in the eastern United States different from the Indians in the west?

There are about ten cultural types of North American Indians  Arctic (Eskimos, Aleuts), Subarctic, California (Chumash, Washo), northeastern US (Woodland), Great Basin, Plateau, northwest coast, Great Plains, southeastern US, southwestern US.. Thus, the Indians who inhabited California (for example, the Miwoks or Klamaths) were hunters, fishermen and gatherers. The inhabitants of the southwestern United States - the Shoshone, Zuni and Hopi - belong to the so-called Pueblo cultures: they were farmers and grew corn, beans and squash. Much less is known about the Indians of the eastern United States, and especially the southeast, since most Indian tribes died out with the arrival of Europeans. For example, until the 18th century, the Timucua people lived in Florida, distinguished by their wealth of tattoos. The life of these people is recorded in the drawings of Jacques Le Moine, who visited Florida in 1564-1565 and became the first European artist to depict Native Americans.

3. Where and how the Indians lived

Apache wigwam. Photo by Noah Hamilton Rose. Arizona, 1880Denver Public Library/Wikimedia Commons

Adobe houses in Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. Around 1900 Library of Congress

Indians of the forest zone in the north and northeast of America lived in wigwams - stationary dwellings made of branches and animal skins in the shape of a dome, while the Pueblo Indians traditionally built adobe houses. The word "wigwam" comes from one of the Algonquian languages.  Algonquian languages- a group of Algian languages, one of the largest language families. Algonquian languages ​​are spoken by about 190 thousand people in eastern and central Canada, as well as on the northeast coast of the United States, in particular the Cree and Ojibwe Indians. and translated means something like “house”. Wigs were built from branches that were tied together to form a structure, which was covered with bark or skins on top. An interesting option of this Indian dwelling are the so-called long houses where the Iroquois lived  Iroquois- a group of tribes with a total number of about 120 thousand people living in the USA and Canada.. They were made of wood, and their length could exceed 20 meters: in one such house lived several families, whose members were relatives to each other.

Many Indian tribes, such as the Ojibwe, had a special steam bath - the so-called “sweating wigwam”. It was a separate building, as you might guess, for washing. However, the Indians did not wash themselves too often - as a rule, several times a month - and used the steam bath not so much to become cleaner, but as a therapeutic agent. It was believed that the bathhouse helps with illnesses, but if you feel well, you can do without washing.

4. What did they eat?

A man and a woman eating. Engraving by Theodore de Bry after a drawing by John White. 1590

Sowing maize or beans. Engraving by Theodore de Bry after a drawing by Jacques Le Moine. 1591Brevis narratio eorum quae in Florida Americae provincia Gallis acciderunt / book-graphics.blogspot.com

Smoking meat and fish. Engraving by Theodore de Bry after a drawing by Jacques Le Moine. 1591Brevis narratio eorum quae in Florida Americae provincia Gallis acciderunt / book-graphics.blogspot.com

The diet of the North American Indians was quite varied and varied greatly depending on the tribe. Thus, the Tlingits, who lived on the coast of the North Pacific Ocean, mainly ate fish and seal meat. Pueblo farmers ate both corn dishes and the meat of animals obtained by hunting. And the main food of the California Indians was acorn porridge. To prepare it, the acorns had to be collected, dried, peeled and crushed. Then the acorns were placed in a basket and boiled on hot stones. The resulting dish resembled something between soup and porridge. They ate it with spoons or just with their hands. The Navajo Indians made bread from corn, and its recipe has been preserved:

“To make bread, you will need twelve ears of corn with leaves. First you need to peel the cobs and grind the grains using a grain grater. Then wrap the resulting mass in corn leaves. Dig a hole in the ground large enough to accommodate the packages. Light a fire in the pit. When the ground has warmed up properly, remove the coals and place the bundles in the hole. Cover them and light a fire on top. The bread takes about an hour to bake.”

5. Could a non-Indian lead the tribe?

In 1885-1889, the Jew Solomon Bibo served as governor of the Acoma Pueblo Indians, with whom he had traded since the mid-1870s. Bibo was married to an Acoma woman. True, this is the only known case when a pueblo was led by a non-Indian.

6. Who is the Kennewick Man?

In 1996, the remains of one of the ancient inhabitants of North America were found near the small town of Kennewick in Washington state. That's what they called him - the Kennewick Man. Outwardly, he was very different from modern American Indians: he was very tall, had a beard and rather resembled modern Ainu  Ainu- ancient inhabitants of the Japanese islands.. Researchers suggested that the skeleton belonged to a European who lived in these places in the 19th century. However, radiocarbon dating showed that the owner of the skeleton lived 9,300 years ago.

The skeleton is now kept at the Burke Museum of Natural History in Seattle, and modern-day Washington State Indians regularly demand that the remains be given to them for burial according to Indian traditions. However, there is no reason to believe that the Kennewick man during his lifetime belonged to any of these tribes or their ancestors.

7. What the Indians thought about the moon

Indian mythology is very diverse: its heroes are often animals, such as a coyote, beaver or raven, or celestial bodies- stars, sun and moon. For example, members of the Californian Wintu tribe believed that their appearance the moon owes to a bear who tried to bite her, and the Iroquois claimed that there was an old woman on the moon weaving linen (the unfortunate woman was sent there because she could not predict when the end of the world would happen).

8. When the Indians got bows and arrows

Today, Indians of various North American tribes are often depicted holding or shooting a bow. It wasn't always like this. Historians know nothing about the fact that the first inhabitants of North America hunted with a bow. But there is information that they used a variety of spears. The first finds of arrowheads date back to around the ninth millennium BC. They were made in the territory of modern Alaska - only then the technology gradually penetrated into other parts of the continent. By the middle of the third millennium BC, onions appeared in the territory of modern Canada, and at the beginning of our era they came to the territory of the Great Plains and California. In the southwestern United States, bows and arrows appeared even later - in the middle of the first millennium AD.

9. What languages ​​do the Indians speak?

Today, the Indians of North America speak approximately 270 different languages, which belong to 29 language families, and 27 isolate languages, that is, isolated languages ​​that do not belong to any big family, but form their own. When the first Europeans came to America, there were many more Indian languages, but many tribes became extinct or lost their language. The largest number of Indian languages ​​have been preserved in California: 74 languages ​​belonging to 18 language families are spoken there. Among the most common North American languages ​​are Navajo (about 180 thousand Indians speak it), Cree (about 117 thousand) and Ojibwe (about 100 thousand). Most Native American languages ​​now use the Latin alphabet, although Cherokee uses an original syllabary developed in the early 19th century. Most Indian languages ​​are at risk of extinction - after all, less than 30% of ethnic Indians speak them.

10. How modern Indians live

Today, most descendants of Indians in the United States and Canada live almost the same as the descendants of Europeans. Only a third of them are occupied by reservations—autonomous Indian territories that make up about two percent of the U.S. area. Modern Indians enjoy a number of benefits, and in order to receive them, you need to prove your Indian origin. It is enough that your ancestor was mentioned in the census of the early 20th century or had a certain percentage of Indian blood.

Tribes have different ways of determining whether a person belongs to them. For example, the Isleta Pueblos consider as theirs only those who have at least one parent who was a member of the tribe and a purebred Indian. But the Oklahoma Iowa tribe is more liberal: to become a member, you need to have only 1/16 Indian blood. At the same time, neither knowledge of the language nor following Indian traditions has any significance.

See also materials about the Indians of Central and South America in the course "".