Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants, and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans. They are commonly referred to as Indians, Red Indians, American Indians, or Amerindians, but are also known by their specific tribal and cultural ancestry and citizenship. Kanzō Umehara considered the Ainu and some Ryukyuans to have "preserved their proto-Mongoloid traits". Proto-Mongoloid features can be found in most Amerindians, and physical features of the "Proto-Mongoloid" are characterized as "a straight-haired type, medium in complexion, jaw protrusion, nose-breadth, and inclining probably to round-headedness". According to the New World migration model, a migration of humans from Eurasia to the Americas took place via Beringia, a land bridge that connected the two continents across what is now the Bering Strait. The most recent point at which this migration could have taken place is about 12,000 years ago, and the earliest period a matter of contention. The early Paleo-Indians spread throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct nations and tribes. According to the oral histories of many of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, they have been living there since their genesis, described by a wide range of traditional creation accounts.