American Indians: names of tribes and their customs

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

American Indian Tribes of California

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

Northwest Coast Indian Tribes

• The Chinook
• The Nootka
• The Makah
• The Haida
• The Tlinglit

Indian Tribes of the American Southwest

• The Hopi
• The Navajo
• The Apache
• The Acoma
• The Laguna People
• The Maricopa
• The Mojave
• The Pima
• The San Ildefonso
• Tribe of Santa Clara de Asís

Tribes of the American plains of Mississippi

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

Forest Tribes of Southern North America

• The Cherokee
• The Seminoles
• The chickaasw

Indigenous tribes of Mexico

• The Nahuas
• The Mayas (currently Quiche, Lacandon, Kaqchikel …)
• The Zapotecs
• The Mixtecas
• The Otomies
• The Totonacas
• The Tsotsiles
• The Tzeltales
• The Mazahuas
• The Mazatecs
• The Huastecos
• The Choles
• The Purépechas
• The Chinantecs
• The Mixes
• The Tlapanecos
• The Tarahumara
• The Mays
• 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 Yurí
• The Nukak

Discover more tribes of American Indians of the Amazon in this other AgroCorrn post about What are the indigenous peoples of the Amazon .

If you have read or heard about the American Indian tribes, surely the relationships with 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 coincide.

• Group dances: among them, the sun dance to ask for good health, the bison dance to promote hunting or the rain dance 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 nature spirits for success and good luck. Some of these include prayers, dances, songs, music, and offerings.
• Meetings with other tribes to maintain ties between the different communities. This meeting known as pow wow, powwow or pow-wow, is still taking place today in different places.
• The pipe of peace: a simple way to share wisdom and peace, either with a stranger or with the family, in a simple ritual such as smoking together from the same source. This custom is often done to seal the peace between two tribes and wish each other success.
• The clothing of the American Indians: Another characteristic of the Native Americans is the way they dress. The clothing of the American Indians also tends to coincide in general features, regardless of the area. Almost all the clothing of the American Indians is made with skins or leather, but there are also pieces made with vegetable fibers. They wear pants, tunics or dresses and shirts or ponchos, although there are tribes who wear very little clothing. In addition, they wear ornaments, such as the well-known feather headdresses , necklaces with seeds, feathers and carved objects, bracelets, etc. In addition, it is also important to note that regardless of the costume, the clothing used by Native Americans is always decorated, be it fur or cloth, withembroidery and paintings , where a pattern or mosaic is often 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 calculate that before the arrival of Europeans to the American lands there were more than 300 tribes and that these were disappearing as a product 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 the Nahua, the Maya (currently Quiche, Lacandon, Kaqchikele …), the Mixteca and the Totonaca by index from more to less.

In the case of the United States, more than 2 million Native Americans were counted in 2000 . In fact, this figure also includes the tribes of the Arctic area, such as the Eskimos. Currently, Native Americans represent no more than 1% of the population of America. Furthermore, more than half of them survive on or near Indian reservations . 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 North American and Central and South American areas, we recommend you discover more cultures with these other AgroCorrn articles about 16 African tribes: names, meanings and customs and Australian aborigines: names of peoples and their customs .