The European colonization of the Americas that began in 1492 resulted in a precipitous decline in Native American population because of newly introduced diseases (including weaponized diseases and biological warfare by European colonizers ), wars, ethnic cleansing, and enslavement. census tracks data from American Indians and Alaska Native separately from Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders, who include Samoan Americans and Chamorros. The United States Census Bureau defines Native American as 'all people indigenous to the United States and its territories, including Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders, whose data are published separately from American Indians and Alaska Natives'.
Native Americans, sometimes called American Indians, First Americans, or Indigenous Americans, are the Indigenous peoples of the United States or portions thereof, such as American Indians from the contiguous United States and Alaska Natives. Comanche Indians Chasing Buffalo with Lances and Bows, a mid-19th century portrait depicting the Comanche tribe by George Catlin, now on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
