Native Americans according to the United States Census are members of the indigenous tribes who migrated from the continental United States of America as well as the natives of the region of Alaska. They are also the indigenous people of the United States of America who are not American-Indians but they include the native Hawaiians, Samoans, and Comoros people. It can often get complicated to define who exactly the American natives are though they are the ones who occupied the country centuries back.
So, Can the Native Americans Grow Beards?
Yes, Native Americans can grow beards but they tend to remove them from their faces as they grow. Hair growth will largely depend on the tribe.
Native Americans and Facial Hair
Asking a Native American if they grow facial hair or beards could be an ignorant thing to do but a lot of these people do have facial and body hair growth in different parts of their bodies.
The popular belief that Native Americans don’t grow beards is wrong. What makes the non-natives believe that Native Americans don’t grow beards is that many of these natives still keep their facial hair sparse by removing as much of it as they can. The head is not the only part where Native Americans have sparse hair growth, they hardly keep the hair on most other parts of their bodies. They do have hair growth on their faces, just that they prefer to keep it sparse.
The Native Americans share some similarities with Asians when it comes to ancestry, they simply don’t have thick hair on their faces and the rest of their bodies. Many centuries ago, Native Americans use to pluck out even the little hair that grew on their faces. It used to be a tradition for these Native Americans not to grow hair on their faces but times have changed and it is common to see descendants of Native Americans growing some hair.
Not all Native Americans have issues with growing mustache, beards, or any other type of facial hair, there were several tribe leaders of the Navajo tribe who partake in the long-walk era and had hair growth on top of their upper lips.
Today, many Native Americans, especially the native American-Indians do have facial hair like beards and mustache, and the reason for this is the ever-mixing culture and there are even many Mestizos out there. The increasing mixed heritage can explain the reason why more descendants of Native Americans are keeping their facial hair today. Individual people who have Native American blood are believed to have trouble growing very long and full beards.
What You Should Know About Native Americans
According to the US Censors Group, the first Native Americans are those Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders. The ancestors of these native Americans arrived in the USA some 15,000 years back, and possibly much earlier especially from Beringia in Asia. From the earliest settlements of Native Americans, vast varieties of societies, and cultures subsequently developed.
Native Americans were also referred to as American-Indians, Amerindians, Amerind, or Aboriginal Americans. They are also referred to today as first nation Americans. These terms often connote members of the groups residing in original territories located in present-day Canada and the United States of America.
The Hopi Indians were believed to be the first Native American tribe. Just like the ancient Mayans and Egyptians, archaeologists and historians have been able to trace the roots of Hopi Indians to the lost civilization era of the Atlantis.
The Native Americans were known to consume staple foods like corn, squash, beans, wild rice, tomatoes, sunflowers, peppers, peanuts, pumpkins, cacao, avocados, and papaya. The Native American cuisines were recognized for their use for domesticated purposes and for their wild ingredients by the indigenous people of America.
Documents gathered from early periods of Native American contacts with African, European and Asians have helped in the recovery of indigenous food practices by American tribes, though, many of such culinary practices have since disappeared.
Aside from their Asian food practices, the indigenous Native tribes used to call America “Turtle Island”. This name was given to entire North America by nations of people inhabiting the region.
Most Native Americans were Polytheists which means they believe in several deities. Though a lot of these natives were monotheists serving one major god or goddess, they still believe in the existence of minor gods directly connected to the major ones.
In the early development of Native Americans, a confederacy was eventually formed with a great council comprising of 50 peace chiefs, also known as “Sachems”, who meet in a longhouse. There were six Native American tribes that existed in the ancient era, these are; The Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca, Cayuga, and Tuscarora. The confederacy was known as the “Iroquois”.
Interestingly, the majority of Native Americans were known to belong to the “O” blood group. The pre-Columbian Americans were also reported to be the first groups to have used material culture and medieval technology like a fire drill, stone, and domesticated animals to survive. They were known for developing spear-throwers, bow and arrows, and harpoons. They also developed basketry, cordage, netting, and pottery skills.
Culture Of The Native Americans
The Native Americans inhabited the land of America before Christopher Columbus’ ships landed on the Island of Bahamas. The nomadic ancestors’ hikes on the land of America from Asia and began their voyages in the region of Alaska. The European adventurers only arrived in the 15th century AD. It was believed that an estimated 50 million Americans were already living in America before European voyagers landed.
There were ten different cultural areas evolving from the Native American era, these are; The arctic, The Southwest, The Northeast, The Southeast, Sub Arctic, The Plains, The Northwest Coast, California, The Great Basin, and the Plateau.
The arctic cultural area was characterized by a cold, flat, and treeless region and frozen dessert. These people were descendants of the Eskimo-Aleut scholars who spoke dialect. Their lands were almost inhabitable and were scattered. They lived in dome-shaped homes and they were mostly fishermen and women.
The Subarctic Native Americans were those that lived in the swampy, water-logged Tundra and Pine forest regions. They were referred to as Algonquian speakers. They lived in small and easy-to-move tents. The subarctic people were opened to trade with Europeans and dealt in Fur trade during the early development stage.
The Northeast cultural region was the first to have sustained contact with European migrants. They inhabited the coast of Canada, through the Missippi region, and North Carolina. These people were rather aggressive and warmongers. They were the first to be colonized by Europeans.
The South Eastern Native Americans lived in the North of the Gulf of Mexico. They lived in the humid and fertile Agricultural region. These were the first group of Native Americans that grew stable crops like corn, tobacco, squash, and beans.
The people of the Plains were those that lived in the Prairie region. They lived in-between the Missippi River and Rocky mountains. They spoke the Siouan Caddoan and Aztecan languages. The Spanish colonialists brought the horse to this region in the 18th century. These people were more nomadic in their lifestyle.
The people of the Southwest lived in the region today known as New Mexico and Arizona as well as some parts of Texas and Colorado. They were mostly Navajo and Apache and they are mostly peasant farmers.
The great basin people lived in the Rocky Mountains of the east. These people spoke Shoshonean. They were mostly Equestrian hunters.
The California Native Americans were comprised of more than 1000 tribes and spoke over 200 dialects. They spoke the Uzo-Aztecan dialect. The Californian natives were more of hunter-gatherers and practiced little agriculture.
Native Americans And Current Situation
Today, the United States of America still recognizes the Native Americans and the descendants of these people still enjoy certain privileges till today. Residents who are at least a quarter Native American and enrolled in a federal institution get a waiver for tuition, and this waiver absolves descendants of Native Americans from paying tuition in any 2-4 year public in-state college or university. The situation is such that each individual person will have to be scrutinized by their association to any of the earliest Native American tribes before a decision is made.
In addition to free tuition in schools, descendants of Native Americans do enjoy a number of other social benefits today.
Conclusion
Native American history is quite complicated as there are inter-woven especially with little information on the influence of Europeans, Asians, Africans, and Central and South American. Native Americans have mixed with dozens of foreign cultures in such a way that they have changed a number of ancient cultures, including the way they lived, eat and practice spiritual rites. Today, it can be very hard to find 100% Native American descendants. It is still possible to find individuals with half and a quarter of the Native American gene.