The Indigenous peoples of the Americas, also known simply as Native Americans or Amerindians, are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. In Canada, the term is First Nations and people who have both European ancestry and First Nations ancestry are known as Metis or Mixed-Bloods. The term Inuit or Alaskan Native is used for people who live in the arctic region.
Most scholars break North America—excluding present-day Mexico—into 10 separate culture areas: the Arctic, the Subarctic, the Northeast, the Southeast, the Plains, the Southwest, the Great Basin, California, the Northwest Coast and the Plateau. North American (Canada. USA, Mexico) is known as Turtle Island
