aren't the native americans of asian descent?

Question

if not, then what is their ethnicity ?

Answer 1

Try "NATIVE AMERICAN"????

Are you asking because they used to be called "Red Indians"????

That's because Christopher Columbus actually thought he'd discovered the Westerly Route to India and that he'd landed in India!?!?

When people found out they were wrong, they added "Red" to the "Indian" to differentiate them from the "Brown" "Indians" !?!?

Oh, by the way, the Native Americans are not of Asian Descent!?!?

Their ethnicity is Native American!!!!

All the best!

Cheers!

ST

Answer 2

If you choose accept in the theories that thousands of years ago Asiatic peoples migrated over a period of several centuries across what is now the Bering Straits, your answer would be yes. But as with Asians today don't think that all Native Americans are the same. One thing for certain is a fact...they are the most abused, and ill treated people in America today. Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness....how hypocritical this must seem to an Osage!

Answer 3

It depends on your perspective.

There are many different, non-homogenous nations that are loosely called "Native American". Most of their beliefs are "tribal" not "universal" so it is tough to make general statement about them.

With that in mind, according to many Native American belief systems, the People were either created where they were or journeyed from the Land of Darkness deep underground (2 of the most popular beliefs).

Legally, they are indigenous, which means that they were the original humans living on this continent. This was a REAL legal battle that they almost lost.
An attempt to remove ALL land rights from ALL Native Americans was attempted in the courts. The basis of the argument was that if they had migrated from Asia then they were technically immigrants. If they were immigrants then they had very limited rights (immigrants at the time could not own land) and were subject to the same laws as newly arrived immigrants. According to this "logic" they were only OCCUPYING U.S. land because the United States was a nation that had laid claim to the land whereas the so called Native Americans were just being allowed to live on it.

It sounds silly, but a legal council had to prove in court that by religious right that Native Americans believe they were created here and that they were NOT immigrants from Asia, therefore they ARE indigenous and DID have rights to the land before it became part of the USA.

As far as scientists are concerned, the very complex diversity of ethnicities of Native Americans and their beliefs points to not just one cross-over but a series of several immigration waves separated by thousands (and even tens of thousands) of years between them. Genetic and archeological evidence shows that there are huge differences between some nations. Of the few Native American groups that have cooperated with genetic testing there have been differing results. Several nations have a genetic heritage that is East Asian and others have a heritage that is more Indo-European.

Add: There are, also, several additions and mysteries to the story.
The Con-Tiki expedition proved that Islanders from South East Asia could have reached South America on boats.
Vikings set up at least one colony in what is now know as Canada.
Chinese explorers and traders traveled to the north-west coast of the Americas. They never set up permanent colonies but definitely left proof of their passage.
Some archeologists believe that there is evidence of human dwellings in South America that predate the earliest migration evidence at the Bering Strait. That would mean that there were humans living on the continent BEFORE the migration!

Answer 4

Ultimately, yes, their origins have been traced back to emigration from east Asia, over land that used to be where the Bearing Strait is. But the populations have been separate and changed enough on their own that they're considered two separate races. It's kind of like how rock music is considered to be a different category than blues, even if rock n' roll has its roots in blues music. So American Indians are simply American Indian (personally, I've never known one who preferred being called a "Native American").

Answer 5

Native American. The process of migration probably started nearly 15000 years ago, when most of Asia was populated by small tribes. This means that genetically Native American may be more similar to Asians, but culturally they have their own which is not derived from any Asian culture.

Answer 6

Technically I don't know that their 'ethnicity' really has a name beyond what others have decided to call them. Better would be to call them by their tribe/Nation. We are all related to one another...maybe Asians are distantly related to them instead? Maybe they both broke off from another group they were both related to? Really you can't divide them up like that...while the people of some tribes may look a little Asian, there are plenty of others that don't at all. Either way, they became their own people and individual group distinctive from the others.

Answer 7

Erm...American? Todays Americans mostly immigrated from Europe, Native Americans are the only true , pure blood Americans.

Answer 8

yes they are, i learned this in college sociology, all ethnicities stem from only 3 races: Caucasion, black and asian

Answer 9

NO WE ARE NOT I think all of these different theories are concocted to justify the stealing of our lands.

Answer 10

yes,but long ago