What is the difference between a Native American Indian and a Mexican?
Many Mexicans are descended from indigenous people who were in that area long before the Spaniards came to it. So, there may be little difference, or there may be a great deal of difference. Many Americans have Native American blood in their ancestry, but may be physically or culturally much like other Americans with European ancestry.
The biggest difference is where they live. The name “Native American” is used primarily in the United States to refer to the indigenous people from the area now known as the United States, and the name Mexican is used to refer to indigenous people who live in the area now known as Mexico. In Canada, the indigenous people are called First Peoples. All of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas, both North and South, are also known as Indians, based on the mistake made when the Americas were first encountered by Christopher Columbus, because he thought he had reached India.
“Mexican” actually refers to the country of Mexico and as such has nothing to do any particular racial or ethnic group. Regardless, the vast majority of Mexicans are, in fact, full blooded Native American people, genetically no different from Apache, Crow, Navajo etc. The Spaniards were obsessed with spreading Christianity and therefore were quick to force the “Indians” to abandon their native names and adopt Christian (often Spanish) names, sometimes at the point of a sword. Genetic research confirms that perhaps as high as 75% of the people of Mexico and the “Hispanics” or “Latinos” living in the United States are genetically identical to the various Native American tribes found in the USA. There are mixed blooded people in Latin America (Mestizos) but they are not as abundant as some scholars would have us believe. Again, genetic studies contradict those assertions. Lastly, about 15% of Mexico is made up of European people, the remnants of early migrations and recent transplants. Th
1) Native Americans, also referred to as American Indians, are members of various ethnic groups of indigenous people descending from the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. Mexicans are the citizens of Mexico. 2) “The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples. They are often also referred to as Native Americans, First Nations, Amerigine, and by Christopher Columbus’ geographical mistake Indians, modernly disambiguated as the American Indian race, American Indians, Amerindians, Amerinds, or Red Indians.” “Many parts of the Americas are still populated by indigenous Americans; some countries have sizeable populations, such as Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and Ecuador.” Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas 3) “Mexico is ethnically diverse. The second article of the Mexican Constitutio
