List of indigenous peoples


This is a partial list of the world's indigenous / aboriginal / native people. Indigenous people are "those ethnic groups that were indigenous to a territory prior to being incorporated into a national state, and who are politically and culturally separate from the majority ethnic identity of the state that they are a part of". There are internationally recognized definitions of indigenous peoples, such as those of the United Nations, the International Labour Organization and the World Bank.
This list is grouped by region, and sub-region. Note that a particular group may warrant listing under more than one region, either because the group is distributed in more than one region, or there may be some overlap of the regions themselves.

Definition

Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as coples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system.
This historical continuity may consist of the continuation, for an extended period reaching into the present of one or more of the following factors:

Africa

African Great Lakes

, South Sudan.

Asia

Middle East
festival at Lalish
, Afghanistan
Mainland Southeast Asia (Indochinese Peninsula)">Mainland Southeast Asia">Mainland Southeast Asia (Indochinese Peninsula)
Western China
Eastern Europe
is the supercontinent comprising North and South America, and associated islands.
List of peoples by geographical and ethnolinguistic grouping:

North America

includes all of the continent and islands east of the Bering Strait and north of the Isthmus of Panama; it includes Greenland, Canada, United States, Mexico, Central American and Caribbean countries. However a distinction can be made between a broader North America and a narrower Northern America and Middle America due to ethnic and cultural characteristics.
Northwest Plateau
Great Basin
Northeastern Woodlands
The West Indies, or the Caribbean, generally includes the island chains of the Caribbean Sea.
generally includes all of the continent and islands south of the Isthmus of Panama.
Araucania
Fire Land (Tierra del Fuego)
includes most islands of the Pacific Ocean, New Guinea, New Zealand and the continent of Australia.
List of peoples by geographical and ethnolinguistic grouping:

Australia

include Aboriginal Australians on the mainland and Tiwi Islands as well as Torres Strait Islander peoples from the Torres Strait Islands.
generally includes New Guinea and other western Pacific islands from the Arafura Sea out to Fiji. The region is mostly inhabited by the Melanesian peoples.
generally includes the various small island chains of the western and central Pacific. The region is mostly inhabited by the Micronesian peoples.
includes New Zealand and the islands of the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The region is mostly inhabited by the Polynesian peoples.
Polynesian outliers
is an umbrella term for the various indigenous peoples of the Arctic.
List of peoples by ethnolinguistic grouping: