Discovering Native North American Cultures

Discovering Native North American Cultures — page 5
DISCOVERING NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN CULTURES WHY WERE THEY CALLED INDIANS When the explorer Christopher Columbus landed in the New World he used the term Indios Spanish for Indians for the native people because he thought he had reached a part of South Asia called the Indies In the 1960s many activists in the United States and Canada rejected the label Indians because of its mistaken origin In these countries Native Americans became the preferred term Later Native Americans in Canada began to refer to themselves as First Nations Various peoples of the Arctic prefer the terms Alaska Native Yupik or Inuit Canadians of mixed First Nations and European heritage are known as Métis Yet even with this great variety of terms many native people of North America continue to identify themselves as Indians Paleo Indians The earliest people of North America are called Paleo Indians The prefix paleo comes from a Greek word meaning early or ancient The Paleo Indians shared Some cultural traits with peoples of Asia such as the use of fire and domesticated IO