Southeast Native American Indian Nations

LorettaKryzanski asks a question and states that she is in the 4th grade. She would like to know which of the many Native American Nations in the Southeast US are the largest.

American Indigenous Peoples are called Native Americans, American Indians, or Native American Indians. Some are also called Native Alaskans. They all descended into what is now USA or America from what is now Alaska (formerly land owned by the USSR) and Canada. In those area, they are known as First Nations, because they were the first people to set foot into the New World of the Western Hemisphere.

Competing theories exist about a time frame in which SubPolar Peoples from the Old World of the Eastern Hemisphere traveled across the Bering Land Bridge, which is now the Bering Strait (a body of water separating what is now Alaska from Russia/Siberia). One theory suggests these peoples migrated to Alaska about 36,000 BC and another estimates the time as about 12,000 BC, both give or take a few thousand years. SubPolar Peoples are those that live in and have migrates across to the East and West in Northern Europe and Northern Asia just below and above the Arctic Circle. In annual national festivals celebrating the peoples of the USSR in the early 1980s, those most northern in USSR were called simplyThe People of the North. They were/are a fearsome people, because they survive in -75° F weather without modern heating or homes. Some North and South Koreans still survive in this manner as well.

There may have been one continuous or two separate waves of migration from Northern Europe, Siberia, Northern China, Korea, and Japan into what is now USA, but we will concern ourselves with the more recent peoples of 12,000 BC. They came across Alaska, moved across Canada to the Atlantic Ocean and crossed parts of that as well.

Some of this First Nations group moved instead down into the Pacific Northwest and fanned out across the US and Mexico, mixing with other peoples that likely came across the Pacific Ocean further south by longboats and other craft. They also mixed eventually with African slaves, especailly in Florida and with other Africans.

Some Native Americans migrated all the way south into all the areas of South America, down to the southernmost tip of the continent. Some later migrated back northward and we think they ended up in the Ohio Valley. many Native Americans mixed with whites and nearly all nationalituies that came into the New World and they are known as Metis or other similar terms, spelled differently depending upon the region of the US.

We have 1000s Nation American Nations in what is now the USA. Some are recognized by the Federal Government, some are recognized by US State Governments, and some have no legal standing at all, although many of applied for it. Some groups are very small and are called communities or other designations, instead of nations.

The Native Americans spread all the way across America to the Atlantic Ocean all along the East Coast. Then, as Europeans landed and claimed more and more of the land, these settlers and the governments that formed in the USA pushed the Native Americans back to the West. Not all went westward, but many did. A particularly sad case of this is the Trail of Tears, which you may want to study.

By US State in the Southeast Region, the Indigenous Peoples in the SE United States are located at these presentations:

• Southeastern Native American Nations - Part One
• Southeastern Native American Nations - Part Two

In order to find largest groups or nations of Southeast Native Americans, look at the hubs at the links above and look for nations that have their own websites. This may provide recent census information.

The 2000 US Census is now outdated and a new census will begin in 2010. Many Native American groups have been growing and the largest groups in the year 2000 may not be the largest groups in 2010, so it is difficult to say which Southeastern groups are actually largest unless they have been logging statistics of this nature, you can find them, and then you can compare them. Even if counted, these numbers may not yet be posted anywhere public. Some of these numbers on the Internet are even as far back as 1990. They are fully incorrect for 2009 and 2010.

HOWEVER, the US Census Bureau published a 2004 estimate by nation (tribe) on PAGE 2 of the document below that gives the tribe name and the number of people in it. Compare the names of tribes from the two Hubs above with the nation/tribe names and population numbers on the 2004 document at this link:

http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/acs-07.pdf

...and you will have your answer as close as we can find it for the end of 2009.