Native American cultures across the 578 current federally recognized tribes in the United States can vary considerably by language, beliefs, customs, practices, laws, art forms, traditional clothing, and other facets of culture. Yet along with this diversity, there are certain elements which are encountered frequently and shared by many tribal nations.

European colonization of the Americas had a major impact on Native American cultures through what is known as the Columbian exchange. Also known as the Columbian interchange, this was the spread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, technology, and ideas between the Americas and the Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries, following Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage. The Columbian exchange generally had a destructive impact on Native American cultures through disease, and a 'clash of cultures',Emmer, Pieter. "The Myth of Early Globalization: The Atlantic Economy, 1500–1800." European Review 11, no. 1. Feb. 2003. p. 45–46 whereby European values of private property, smaller family structures, and labor led to conflict, appropriation of traditional communal lands and slavery.Emmer, Pieter. "The Myth of Early Globalization: The Atlantic Economy, 1500–1800." European Review 11, no. 1. Feb. 2003. p. 46

Cultural areas Academics tend to group the cultures of Indigenous North America by geographical region where shared cultural traits occur, based on how these cultures have continued since the Pre-Columbian era. The northwest culture area, for example, shared common traits such as salmon fishing, woodworking, large villages or towns, and a hierarchical social structure.

Native Americans in the United States fall into several distinct ethnolinguistic and territorial phyla, with diverse governmental and economic systems.

They can be classified as belonging to several large cultural areas: Contiguous United States Californian tribes (Northern): Yok-Utian, Pacific Coast Athabaskan, Coast Miwok, Yurok, Palaihnihan, Chumashan, Uto-Aztecan Plateau tribes: Interior Salish, Plateau Penutian Great Basin tribes: Uto-Aztecan Pacific Northwest Coast tribes: Pacific Coast Athabaskan, Coast Salish, Wakashan Southwestern tribes (Oasisamerica): Uto-Aztecan, Yuman, Southern Athabaskan Aridoamerica, Yuman–Cochimí, Tepiman Plains Indians: Siouan, Plains Algonquian, Southern Athabaskan Northeastern Woodlands tribes: Lenape, Pequot, Mohican, Mohawk, Iroquoian, Central Algonquian, Eastern Algonquian Southeastern Woodlands tribes: Muskogean, Caddoan, Catawban, Iroquoian Alaska Natives Arctic: Eskimo–Aleut Subarctic: Northern Athabaskan Native Hawaiians

These cultural regions are not universally agreed upon. Some systems combine the Great Basin and Plateau into Indigenous peoples of Intermountain West. Others separate Northern Plains from Southern Plains and Great Lakes tribes from Northeastern Woodlands tribes. Some identify Prairie tribes as distinct from Northeastern Woodlands tribes and Plains tribes.

Language

There are approximately 296 spoken (or formerly spoken) indigenous languages north of Mexico, 269 of which are grouped into 29 families.

The major ethno-linguistic phyla are: Na-Dene languages, Iroquoian languages, Caddoan languages Algonquian languages Algic languages, Siouan–Catawban languages, Uto-Aztecan languages, Salishan languages, Tanoan languages Eskimo–Aleut (Alaska)

The Na-Dené, Algic, and Uto-Aztecan families are the largest in terms of number of languages. Uto-Aztecan has the most speakers (1.95 million) if the languages in Mexico are considered (mostly due to 1.5 million speakers of Nahuatl); Na-Dené comes in second with approximately 200,000 speakers (nearly 180,000 of these are speakers of Navajo), and Algic in third with about 180,000 speakers (mainly Cree and Ojibwe). Na-Dené and Algic have the widest geographic distributions: Algic currently spans from northeastern Canada across much of the continent down to northeastern Mexico (due to later migrations of the Kickapoo) with two outliers in California (Yurok and Wiyot). The remaining 27 languages are either isolates or unclassified), such as Penutian languages, Hokan, Gulf languages and others.

Organization

Gens structure Early European American scholar described the Native Americans (as well as any other tribal society) as having a society dominated by clans or gentes (in the Roman model) before tribes were formed. There were some common characteristics: The right to elect its sachem and chiefs. The right to depose its sachem and chiefs. The obligation not to marry in the gens. Mutual rights of inheritance of the property of deceased members. Reciprocal obligations of help, defense, and redress of injuries. The right to bestow names on its members. The right to adopt strangers into the gens. Common religious rights, query. A common burial place. A council of the gens.

Tribal structures

Early European American scholars described the Native Americans as having a society dominated by clans.

Tribes, Nations, bands and clans may define and organize themselves in a variety of ways. Federally recognized tribes in the United States are communities of Indigenous people that have been in continual existence since prior to European contact, and which have a sovereign, government-to-government relationship with the Federal government of the United States. In the United States, the Native American tribe is a fundamental unit of sovereign tribal government, with the federally-recognized right to self-government and, tribal sovereignty and self-determination. These tribes possess the right to establish the legal requirements for membership.This right was upheld by the US Supreme Court in Santa Clara Pueblo v. Martinez in 1978, which is discussed in Ray (2007) p403 They may form their own government, enforce laws (both civil and criminal), tax, license and regulate activities, zone, and exclude people from tribal territories. Limitations on tribal powers of self-government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example, neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or coin money.

Traditional diets

The traditional diet of Native Americans has historically consisted of a combination of agriculture, hunting, and the gathering of wild foods, variable by bioregion.

Post-contact, European settlers in the northeastern region of the Americas observed that some of the Indigenous peoples cleared large areas for cropland. These fields in New England sometimes covered hundreds of acres. Colonists in Virginia noted thousands of acres under cultivation by Native Americans.

Native American agricultural communities have commonly used tools such as the hoe, maul, and dibber. The hoe is the main tool used to till the land and prepare it for planting; and later used for weeding. The first versions were made out of wood and stone. When the settlers brought iron, Native Americans switched to iron hoes and hatchets. The dibber was historically a digging stick, used to plant seeds. Once plants are harvested, traditionally women have prepared the produce for eating, using the maul to grind the corn into mash. It is then cooked and eaten that way or baked as corn bread.

Religion

Traditional Native American ceremonies are still practiced by many tribes and bands, and the older theological belief systems are still held by many of the traditional people. Many Plains tribes have sweatlodge ceremonies, though the specifics of the ceremony vary among tribes. Fasting, singing and prayer in the ancient languages of their people, and sometimes drumming, and dancing are also common.

The Midewiwin Lodge is a traditional medicine society based on the oral traditions and prophesies of the Ojibwa (Chippewa) and related tribes.

Another significant, though more recent, religious body among some Native Americans is the Native American Church. It is a syncretistic religion incorporating elements of Native spiritual practice from a number of different tribes. Some varieties also include elements from Christianity, while others do not. Its main rite is the peyote ceremony. Some tribes' traditional religious beliefs included Wakan Tanka. In the American Southwest, especially New Mexico, a syncretism between the Catholicism brought by Spanish missionaries and the Indigenous religions is common; the religious drums, chants, and dances of the Pueblo people are regularly part of Masses at Santa Fe's Saint Francis Cathedral.A Brief History of the Native American Church by Jay Fikes. Retrieved 2006-02-22. Native American-Catholic syncretism is also found elsewhere in the United States. (e.g., the National Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine in Fonda, New York and the National Shrine of the North American Martyrs in Auriesville, New York).

The eagle feather law (Title 50 Part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations) stipulates that only individuals of certifiable Native American ancestry enrolled in a federally recognized tribe are legally authorized to obtain eagle feathers for religious or spiritual use. The law does not allow Native Americans to give eagle feathers to non-Native Americans.

Gender roles

Gender roles can vary significantly between tribal nations, with patriarchal, matriarchal, and egalitarian traditions among the 574 federally-recognized tribes.

Many tribes, such as the Haudenosaunee Six Nations and the Southeast Muskogean tribes, are traditionally matrilineal, with property and hereditary leadership passed through the maternal lines, and children belonging to their mother's and grandmother's clan. Others were patrilineal tribes, such as the Omaha, Osage and Ponca, where hereditary leadership passed through the male line, and children were considered to belong to the father and his clan.

Historically, when European-American male settlers had children with Native American women, if the tribe was patrilineal, their children were considered "white" like their fathers. If the mother was from a matrilineal tribe, the children would be considered tribal members. While rules have, in most cases, been modernized so the sex of the parent is irrelevant, historically the children of white fathers could have no official place in a patrilineal tribe because their fathers did not belong to it, unless they were adopted by a tribalmale and made part of his family. Melvin Randolph Gilmore, "The True Logan Fontenelle", Publications of the Nebraska State Historical Society, Vol. 19, edited by Albert Watkins, Nebraska State Historical Society, 1919, p. 64, at GenNet, accessed 2011-08-25

In most of the Plains Nations, men traditionally hunt, trade and go to war. The women have traditionally held primary responsibility for the survival and welfare of the families (and future of the tribe). Traditionally, Plains women own the home, and tend to jobs such as gathering and cultivating plants for food and healing, along with caring for the young and the elderly, making clothing and processing and curing meat and skins. Plains women have historically tanned hides to make clothing as well as bags, saddle cloths, and tipi covers, and have used cradleboards to carry an infant while working or traveling.Beatrice Medicine, "Gender", Encyclopedia of North American Indians, February 9, 2006.

Several dozen tribes have been documented to practiced polygyny to sisters, with procedural and economic limits.

Apart from making homes, women traditionally hold many additional responsibilities essential for the survival of the tribes, including the manufacture of weapons and tools, maintenance of the roofs of their homes, as well as historically participating in the bison hunts."Native American Women", Indians.org. Retrieved 2007-01-11. In some of the Plains Indian tribes, medicine women gathered herbs and cured the ill."Medicine Women" , Bluecloud.org. Retrieved 2007-01-11.