American Indians: names of tribes and their customs

Below, we offer you a classification of the different American Indian tribes divided by zones of the American continent.

California American Indian Tribes

• The Yana
• The Yuki
• The Paiute
• The Miwok
• The Hupa

Northwest Coast Indian Tribes

• The Chinooks
• The Nootkas
• The Makahs
• The Haida
• The Tlinglit

Indian tribes of the American Southwest

• The Hopi
• The Navajo
• The Apache
• The Acomas
• The Laguna People
• The Maricopas
• The Mojaves
• The Pima
• The San Ildefonso
• Tribe of Saint Clare of Assisi

Mississippi American Plains Tribes

• The Sioux
• The Comanche
• The Arapahoes
• The black feet
• The Iroquois
• The Algonkins
• The Chippewa or Ojibwa

Woodland tribes of southern North America

• The Cherokee
• The Seminoles
• The chickaasw

Indigenous tribes of Mexico

• The Nahuas
• The Mayans (currently Quiché, Lacandon, Kaqchikel…)
• The Zapotecs
• The Mixtecs
• The Otomíes
• The Totonacas
• The Tsotsils
• The Tzeltals
• The Mazahuas
• The Mazatecs
• The Huastecos
• The Choles
• The Purépechas
• The Chinantecas
• The Mixes
• The Tlapanecos
• The Tarahumaras
• The Mayos
• The Zoques
• The Chontales of Tabasco

Indigenous tribes of the Amazon

• The Nahua
• The Cashibo-cacataibo
• The Masco-piros
• The Nanti
• The Matsigenkas
• The Piripkura
• The Kawahiva
• The Korubos
• The Kuikuro
• The Yuri
• The Nukak

Discover more American Indian tribes of the Amazon in this other Evidence Network post about Who are the indigenous peoples of the Amazon.

If you have read or heard about American Indian tribes, you surely relate them to concepts such as the following:

• Strong warriors with a great fighting spirit.
• Great hunters who used to use arrows or small axes known worldwide as tomahawks.
• Populations closely related to nature and the divine.

Although each of the aforementioned tribes have their own customs, there are some customs of the American Indians or Native Americans in which many agree.

• Performing group dances: Among them, the dance of the sun to ask for good health, the dance of the bison to favor hunting or the dance of the rain to ask the heavens for water for the crops have become famous.
• Celebration of rituals: Native American tribes, like those in other parts of the world, have performed various rituals to ask the spirits of nature for success and good luck. Some of these include prayers, dances, songs, music and offerings.
• Meetings with other tribes to maintain ties between different communities. This meeting, known as pow wow, powwow or pow-wow, is still held today in different places.
• The peace pipe: a simple way to share wisdom and peace, whether with a stranger or with family, in a simple ritual such as smoking together from the same source. This custom is often performed to seal peace between two tribes and wish each other success.
• American Indian clothing: another of the Native American characteristics It’s their way of dressing. The clothing of the American Indians also tends to coincide in general features, regardless of the area. Almost all American Indian clothing is made with skins or leather, but there are also pieces made with plant fibers. They wear pants, tunics or dresses and shirts or ponchos, although there are tribes that wear very little clothing. In addition, they use decorations, like the well-known feather headdressesnecklaces with seeds, feathers and carved objects, bracelets, etc. Furthermore, it is also important to note that, regardless of the costume, the clothing used by Native Americans is always decorated, whether skins or fabrics, with embroidery and paintingswhere a pattern or mosaic is usually repeated that represents both religious values ​​and other important themes, such as gathering or hunting.

Learn a little more about the cultures of some Native Americans with this other post about How the Amazon Tribes Live.

Anthropologists estimate that before the arrival of Europeans to American lands there were more than 300 tribes and that these disappeared as a result of bloody colonization. Even today, many of the tribes that have survived the passage of time are on the verge of disappearing.

However, some areas, such as Mexico, retain a large majority of indigenous people within the country. It is estimated that, currently, Almost 12 million inhabitants of Mexico belong to one of these tribes. Among them, and those mentioned in the previous section, we highlight by index from most to least population the Nahua, the Maya (currently Quiché, Lacandon, Kaqchikel…), the Mixtec and the Totonaca.

In the case of the United States, more than 2 million Native Americans in the year 2000. In fact, this figure also included tribes from the Arctic area, such as the Eskimos. Currently, Native Americans do not represent more than 1% of the population of America. Furthermore, more than half of them They survive on Indian reservations or close to them. Of course, many of the citizens, almost more than 1.5 million people, have Amerindian ancestry.

If you liked knowing the names of American Indian tribes and their customs, both from North America and from areas of Central and South America, we recommend you discover more cultures with these other Evidence Network articles on 16 African tribes: names, meanings and customs and Australian Aborigines: names of peoples and their customs.

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