Geographic / Cultural Areas

 

"Native Americans" are not one large societal group. There are actually about 500 different tribes in North America, grouped together by language group, or by geographic region, or by cultural area. The ten major geographic/cultural areas are the Arctic, Subarctic, Northeast, Southeast, Plains, Plateau, Southwest, Great Basin, California and Northwest coast.

List of Tribes in Each Geographic Area

Green indicates tribes with web links on resources page.
Choose one of these green tribes.

Arctic: Aleut, Inuit

California: Chumash, Hupa, Luiseño, Maidu, Miwok, Pomo, Wintun, Yana, Yokuts, Yurok.

Great Basin: Bannock, Paiute, Shoshone, Ute.

Northeast: Abenaki, Huron, Iroquois (Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca), Kickapoo, Lenape, Mahican, Maliseet, Massachusetts, Menominee, Miami, Micmac, Mohegan, Nipmuc, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Passamaquoddy, Pennacook, Penobscot, Peoria, Pequot, Potawatomi, Sac and Fox, Shawnee, Susquehannonck, Wampanoag, Wappinger, Winnebago.

Northwest Coast: Chinook, Coast Salish, Haida, Kwakiutl, Makah, Nootka, Tlingit, Tsimshian.

Plains: Arapaho, Arikara, Assiniboine, Blackfeet, Caddo, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Gros Ventre, Hidatsa, Iowa, Kaw, Kiowa, Manan, Missouria, Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Ponca, Quapaw, Sarcee, Sioux (Dakota, Lakota, Nakota), Tonkawa, Wichita.

Plateau: Coeur d'Alene, Flathead, Kalispel, Klamath, Kutenai, Modoc, Nez Perce, Palouse, Shoshone, Umatilla, Warm Springs, Yakima.

Southeast: Alabama-Coushatta, Apalachee, Calusa, Catawba, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Chitimacha, Choctaw, Creek, Lumbee, Natchez, Powhatan, Seminole, Timucua, Tunica-Biloxi, Yamasee, Yazoo, Yuchi.

Southwest: Apache, Dineh (Navajo), Havasupai, Hopi, Mojave, Pima, Pueblo, Thono, O'odham, Yaqui, Yavapai, Yuma, Zuni.

Subarctic: Beaver, Carrier, Chipewyan, Cree, Kutchin, Métis, Montagnais, Naskapi.

 

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