Facts about Native Americans

1. 12

   Maize domestication by Mesoamerican peoples around 9000 years ago from teosinte grass transformed Native American societies and enabled population growth across North and Central America.

   Native AmericansMay 14shareagricultureancientdomestication
2. 11

   Navajo Code Talkers transmitted classified military communications in their native language during World War II, a code the Japanese military never successfully deciphered during the entire war.

   Native AmericansMay 14sharemilitarylanguagetwentieth-century
3. 10

   Sequoyah, a Cherokee inventor, created a syllabary of 86 characters in 1821 that enabled Cherokee speakers to read and write their language within months of learning it.

   Native AmericansMay 14sharewritingcherokeeinvention
4. 09

   Wampum belts, composed of shell beads strung in specific patterns, served as legal documents and currency among Northeast tribes and colonial traders during the 1600s and 1700s.

   Native AmericansMay 14sharetradematerialculturecolonialperiod
5. 08

   Pueblo people in the American Southwest developed sophisticated irrigation systems and check dams around 1000 CE to cultivate crops in arid environments receiving fewer than 10 inches of annual rainfall.

   Native AmericansMay 14shareagricultureengineeringancient
6. 07

   Ancestral Puebloans constructed Chaco Canyon's great houses between 850 and 1250 CE, with the largest structure containing over 650 rooms and serving as a ceremonial and trading hub across the Southwest.

   Native AmericansMay 14sharearchitectureancienttrade
7. 06

   Quipu, knotted cord recording devices used by Inca administrators, encoded numerical and narrative information across up to 2,000 individual strings in a single artifact.

   Native AmericansMay 14shareancienttechnologymeasurement
8. 05

   Mississippian culture built Cahokia near present-day St. Louis, which at its peak around 1100 CE housed approximately 10,000 to 20,000 people, making it larger than London at that time.

   Native AmericansMay 14shareancientsettlementmeasurement
9. 04

   Over 500 federally recognized tribes exist today in the United States, with the Cherokee Nation being the largest at approximately 390,000 enrolled members.

   Native AmericansMay 13sharegovernancedemographicscontemporary
10. 03

    Approximately 1,000 Native American languages existed before European contact in 1492, though only 300 survive today across North America.

    Native AmericansMay 13sharelanguagehistoryculture
11. 02

    In 1492, Taíno people inhabiting the Caribbean islands numbered approximately 250,000 before European contact dramatically reduced their population through disease and displacement.

    Native AmericansMay 13sharehistorydemographycolonial
12. 01

    The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, formed around 1142 CE, influenced the structure of the United States Constitution through its democratic governance model.

    Native AmericansMay 13sharegovernmenthistoryindigenous