Ethnic Group Evaluation

Ethnic Group Evaluation - The Indigenous Americans
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Institution
Date
The Indigenous Americans
Introduction
In America today, the population comprises of several ethnic groups ranging from blacks, indigenous Americans, Asians, Hispanics and other non-white Europeans, creating a rich American culture. With the unique cultural differences, conflicts become a common feature, one of them being the pressure to assimilate. One of the ethnic groups in America facing this challenge is the Indigenous Americans.
History of Indigenous Americans
The migration of indigenous American can be traced back to the era before the colonization. During the colonization period, large groups of people sharing the same language and physical characteristics moved to one geographical area either to the south or northern part of America. The Native Americans are the descendants of East-Asians. They settled in the North and South America especially in Alaska, Hawaii and the American mainland as different tribes lived in different areas. The history indicates that they crossed Bering Sea via land bridge; some 16,500 years back (Brookeman, 1990). They started migrating from Siberia to Alaska in search of animals because they were hunters and gatherers. This enabled them to cross two continents by land bridge commonly known as Bering Strait. According to Brookeman (1990), the Native Americans migrated to America in three separate times. The first group crossed the land bridge from Asia to America 15,000 years ago, being the first Americans to settle in the north and south part of America. The second and third migration was the Eskimos and Canadian Chipewyan, they moved along the south coast later as the population split along the way (Brookeman 1990).
The Indigenous Americans population started diminishing when they first got into contact with Europeans. Most of the indigenous Americans died due to outbreak of diseases like cholera, small pox and measles brought by the European explorers visiting the North and Southern parts of America. The loss of lives worsens later as a result of conflicts between the indigenous Americans and the colonialist who wanted to take over their land.
Contact with Other Ethnic Groups 
The indigenous Americans initially live in Arctic part of America as they were small ethnic groups scattered in the north. The group lived in swampy forests that stretched across Alaska to Canada. Most of the groups were nomads; therefore, they interacted frequently with other people as they moved from place to place. However, for some groups living in the subarctic areas, traveling was difficult due to bad climatic conditions. They lived in sem...