Why are there so many different types of Native Americans?

Answer 1

Because before we had motorized transportation- cars and trains and planes- people didn't move around as much. Cultures developed independent of each other. Think the developement of Europe. Each country has it's own language and culture. The US is geographically big!

Answer 2

There are many reasons for the huge number of tribal groups, all of them linked to historic and pre-historic factors.

Certain tribes split into two or more different groups within the post-1492 era (that is, in modern historic times). This is true of the Crow/Hidatsa and the Pawnee/Arikara, who were each originally one tribe; both groups relate stories of arguments between rival factions over hunted meat which resulted in one party setting off on their own to set up a new tribe.

More distantly, some migrant groups into the Americas seem to have separated in order to find more hunting grounds. This explains the distribution of some isolated Athapaskan-speaking groups in the southern USA (Navajo and Apache) with the bulk of their kindred remaining in the north (mainly in Canada).

Another factor is the basis of most native American cultures; warfare. Each tribal group would make war on its neighbours as a matter of course, since its men were raised to be warriors. In such a climate of rivalry, revenge and bloodshed there is every reason to remain separate and isolated from other groups and retain an individual cultural identity.

Another factor is food. In most tribal cultures, with hunting and gathering as the main sources of food, all other tribes were seen as rivals and a potential threat to be kept away from traditional hunting areas; this applies throughout South America as well as in the north. Each locality could only support a small number of people, leading to many small groups identifying themselves as a tribe. This can be seen clearly along the Amazon in Brazil and along the east coast of North America, where limited food resources dictated very large numbers of small local native groups.

There are many other factors involved.

Answer 3

For the same reason that you are different from your schoolmates, neighbors etc. Simply look at the different accents, words, and speech differences of your own tribe to see this; in New York, LA, and the southern states language patterns change to significant levels.