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The Southwest and Northeast of North America

Most Amerindian societies in North America lived by hunting, fishing and gathering. In this immense region, three cultural groups have been selected: the Pueblos Indians (Hopi or Zuñi), who mainly occupied the states of Arizona and New Mexico, the Indians of the Great Plains of North America, scattered between Canada and the United States and, further east, the Haudenosaunee, grouping six Iroquois nations.

The Plain Indians, war and peace

The recent history of the Plains Indians was disrupted by the shock of contact with the European world: diseases, wars, usurpation of territory, forced displacement and settlement in reservations. The introduction of the horse into the region in the eighteenth century transformed several of these groups of hunter-gatherers or semi-sedentary farmers, including the Niitsitapii, the Tsitsistas/Suhtai, the Apsaalooke and the Lakota, into nomadic hunters closely linked to the seasonal migrations of herds of bison. The classic stereotype of the “Redskins” in the cinema and popular imagination comes from these groups and their new equestrian lifestyle.