Indigenous peoples of the Americas

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

Current distribution of Indigenous peoples of the Americas
Total population
Approximately 62 million
Regions with significant populations
Mexico	11.8 - 23.2 million[1][2]
United States	3.7 - 9.6 million[3]
Guatemala	6.4 million[4]
Peru	At least 5.9 million[5]
Bolivia	4.1 million[6]
Chile	2.1 million[7]
Colombia	1.9 million[8]
Canada	1.8 million[9]
Brazil	1.7 million[10]
Argentina	1.3 million[11]
Ecuador	1.3 million[12]
Venezuela	724,592[13]
Panama	698,114[14]
Honduras	601,019[15]
Nicaragua	443,847[16]
Paraguay	140,039[17]
Costa Rica	104,143[18]
Guyana	78,492[19]
Uruguay	76,452[20]
Greenland	50,189[21]
Belize	36,507[22]
Suriname	20,344[23]
Puerto Rico	19,839[24]
French Guiana	~19,000[25]
El Salvador	13,310[26]
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	3,280[27]
Dominica	2,576[28]
Trinidad and Tobago	1,394[29]
Saint Lucia	951[30]
Antigua and Barbuda	327[31]
Grenada	162[32]
Saint Kitts and Nevis	8[33]
Languages
Numerous Indigenous American languages (both extant and extinct) Non-native European languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Danish, Dutch, and Russian (formerly in Alaska)
Religion
Mostly Christianity (Catholic and Protestant) Minority: various Indigenous American religions
Related ethnic groups
Métis, Mestizos, Zambos, and Pardos Distantly related to some Indigenous Siberian peoples

The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are groups of people native to a specific region that inhabited the Americas before the arrival of European settlers in the 15th century and the ethnic groups who continue to identify themselves with those peoples.^[34]

The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are diverse; some Indigenous peoples were historically hunter-gatherers, while others traditionally practice agriculture and aquaculture. In some regions, Indigenous peoples created pre-contact monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, city-states, chiefdoms, states, kingdoms, republics, confederacies, and empires.^[35] These societies had varying degrees of knowledge of engineering, architecture, mathematics, astronomy, writing, physics, medicine, planting and irrigation, geology, mining, metallurgy, sculpture, and goldsmithing.

Many parts of the Americas are still populated by Indigenous peoples; some countries have sizeable populations, especially Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, and the United States. At least a thousand different Indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas, where there are also 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States alone. Several of these languages are recognized as official by several governments such as those in Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay and Greenland. Some, such as Quechua, Arawak, Aymara, Guaraní, Mayan, and Nahuatl, count their speakers in the millions. Whether contemporary Indigenous people live in rural communities or urban ones, many also maintain additional aspects of their cultural practices to varying degrees, including religion, social organization and subsistence practices. Like most cultures, over time, cultures specific to many Indigenous peoples have also evolved, preserving traditional customs but also adjusting to meet modern needs. Some Indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western culture and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples.^[36] Indigenous peoples from the Americas have also formed diaspora communities outside the Western Hemisphere, namely in former colonial centers in Europe. A notable example is the sizable Greenlandic Inuit community in Denmark.^[37] In the 20th and 21st centuries, Indigenous peoples from Suriname and French Guiana migrated to the Netherlands and France, respectively.^[38][39]

In addition to Indigenous communities, the Americas are also home to millions of people of mixed Indigenous and European, as well as sometimes African or Asian descent, historically referred to as Mestizos in Spanish-speaking countries.^[40][41] In many Latin American countries, people of partial Indigenous descent make up the majority or a significant component of the population, including in most of Central America, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and Paraguay.^{[42][43] [44]} In fact, based on estimates of ethnic cultural identification in Latin America^[43], mestizos significantly outnumber Indigenous people in most Spanish-speaking countries. However, since Indigenous communities in the Americas are defined by cultural identification and kinship rather than ancestry or racial concepts, mestizos or mixed people are usually not counted among the Indigenous population unless they speak an Indigenous language and/or identify as part of a particular Indigenous culture. ^[45] Additionally, many people of wholly Indigenous descent who don't follow Indigenous traditions or speak an Indigenous language have been classified or self-identify as "mestizo" in Latin American societies as a result of assimilation into the dominant Hispanic culture. In recent years, the self-identified Indigenous population in many countries has increased as a result of these people reclaiming their heritage amid a rise in Indigenous lead movements for self determination and social justice.^[46]