Native American Cultures

[old salt]

From history.com
Many thousands of years before Christopher Columbus' ships landed in the Bahamas, a different group of people discovered America: the nomadic ancestors of modern Native Americans who hiked over a "land bridge" from Asia to what is now Alaska more than 12,000 years ago. In fact, by the time European adventurers arrived in the 15th century A.D., scholars estimate that more than 50 million people were already living in the Americas. Of these, some 10 million lived in the area that would become the United States. As time passed, these migrants and their descendants pushed south and east, adapting as they went. In order to keep track of these diverse groups, anthropologists and geographers have divided them into "culture areas," or rough groupings of contiguous peoples who shared similar habitats and characteristics. Most scholars break North America—excluding present-day Mexico—into 10 separate culture areas: the Arctic, the Subarctic, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Plains, the Southwest, the Great Basin, California, the Northwest Coast and the Plateau.

http://www.history.com/topics/native-american-cultures

[beowulf]

actually it seems that the history of the american indian goes back much further , and that the original racial stock may be a bit more diverse than we`d ever thought , there have been interesting findings all over america pointing at contact with europeans much earlier than even the vikings . and in south america they`ve found the 9,000 year old  skeletal remains of an australian aborigeny . add that to a south western american indian tribe who not only speak a language with more in common with japanese than you`d think possible ,( many of the words are the same , with the same meanings ) but also share their dna ! then there are the legends of blue eyed red headed people that go back several hundred years !  it`s amazing , but the more we learn about the early history of the american continent and its people the more we realize we are just scratching the surface !

[halfstock]

Hmmmmm could it be that the most logical answer to what happened to the roanoak (sp) pilgrims might actually be that they moved in with the local native tribes instead of starving to death and going "POOF"

[beowulf]

   an interesting thought ! they could also have moved further north or west , and may very well have merged with one of the tribal groups !