The indigenous people’s stories are an exciting part of global history, and individuals should know as much as possible about the things that have happened because they changed the course of the past.
For those interested in the topic, plenty of artefacts can still be found in several museums in the USA. On the internet also, many articles are discussing this topic.
Who Were the Indigenous People?
Indigenous people are often called “the first people,” “aboriginal people,” or “native people.” These groups of individuals are the original settlers in a particular region, and more often than not, other people established their territory and took their place, killing them and stealing everything.
The natives have a strong tradition, and they want to continue it by any means. Sometimes they even borrowed colonizers’ cultural elements, such as dress, religion, or language.
Indigenous people can be sedentary, meaning they are settled in a specific region or they can be nomadic, traveling in a particular larger territory. Also, people tend to associate them with the area they are living in.
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
This group of people is commonly known as the first inhabitants of the Americas before the Europeans came to colonize it and settle there. These people who try to maintain the traditional lifestyle can be found from the Northern Arctic to the Southern places such as Tierra del Fuego.
The effect of the European colonizers’ arrival was not a positive one. Lots of indigenous people died, not only because of the violence but from the diseases colonizers brought unconsciously on their boats. Shortly after their arrival, several tribes became extinct or near this point.
Both North and South America have had populations of indigenous people on their lands. Some countries in South America are formed by a significant percentage of the indigenous people, sometimes getting even up to 70%. English people call these indigenous people by more than one name: Native Americans, Amerindians, American Indians.
South America has a similar story; for example, Brazil has about 700000 people from the Amerindian tribe. Indigenous people can be found on the entire land of Brazil, but the most significant part of them can be found in Indian reservations.
Indigenous Peoples of Asia
Each continent had its indigenous people, Asia is nothing different. There are many types of indigenous peoples in Asia, and the most famous one are Assyrians, Bedouin, Druze, Jews, Sumerians, and Arameans.
Each type of indigenous people has its own culture, land and traditions, and some have survived time and wars. For example, Jews were one of the most persecuted people in the world. For 5000 years, they were the main target of surrounding nations who wanted them exterminated. Religion was the main reason other people so hated them. Wars in the name of religion were a common reason to kill other people whose doctrine you don’t like.
Indigenous people were undoubtedly proud of their roots, and they tried by any means to maintain the tradition among the youngsters. Their traditional lifestyle attracted the hatred of a small part of young people and a big part of the surrounding nations or invaders who wanted to change the place and the lifestyle upon their ideas.
Indigenous people were the exponents of the first nations living in a particular place or land. They were the first ones and being discovered by some more evolved countries was not good for them.