The World's Indigenous Peoples

Autochthonous [au·toch·tho·nous]
Indigenous, native – (Inhabiting a place or region from earliest known times. Indigenous rather than descended from migrants or colonists.

Indigenous people are our pure connections to who we are… the direct ancestors of modern humans living today, Homo sapiens. That’s 100% US! We evolved from our earlier human species – known in science as Homo erectus– some 300,000 years ago during a time of histrionic climate change. That change had a profound effect on human evolution and culture.
The world’s indigenous people carry the direct DNA blueprint of who we are today.
Of all the human species that have lived since coming into existence some 2.4 million years ago, we – Homo sapiens – are the sole survivor.

Africa: The Epicenter of Modern Humans

While Homo erectus spawned out of Africa and migrated to Asia and Europe, it was one African population of the species that gave rise to our evolution, according to research by the Laboratory for Human Evolutionary Studies at University of California Berkely. From Africa, modern humans would migrate to all of Earth’s land regions. We are the only surviving species of humans that populate Earth today.

First human migration routes out of Africa based on archeological findings. (Wikimedia Commons, License 3.0,
courtesy of Libertas Academica Ltd.)

We are also the only species to have successfully migrated to and altered a broad range of Earth’s land regions… all of which was enabled by climate. But what all of our ancestors have in common is they established profound, conscientious connections with the land to adapt and survive. Instinctively, they knew that only the earth itself provided the basic needs for growth and survival: food, water, air, and shelter… all enshrined in fossil records and other archeologic findings. Today, humans still require these essentials for life just the same.

Welcome to Ecology Prime’s Indigenous Peoples Hub

This is Just the Beginning…

This is where the global community can converge around its human ancestry to see, feel and understand the intricacies of our human roots and embrace those roots as one people worldwide. Our purest origins lie with the world’s indigenous people, and they all share the same common value for growth and survival: Love of the Land.

This will be your gateway connection to the world’s indigenous people… up close and personal. They are the purest and deepest links to the origin and progression of our species, and their values hold the essential keys to our continued way of life and the quality of life we seek. Aloha ʻāina, for instance – which translates literally to Love of the Land – comes directly from the indigenous people of Hawaii.

This is not only the gateway to our direct ancestral links… this is about who we all are and where we came from!

Famed statue of native Hawaiian Hamana Kalili of La’ie, Oahu, Hawaii, serendipitous creator of
the global Shaka gesture of peace and goodwill. (From Aloha: The Spirit within the Shaka)

What Native Lands Might You Live On?
Click Here to Explore Native Lands!
Courtesy of Native Land Digital
(This map is a work in progress.)

The Real Facts of Indigenous Peoples!

476 million – the number of indigenous people living in the world today. They make up just over 5.4% of our current global population and live in all geographic regions. (Source: United Nations Development Programme and International Labor Organization)
Over 5,000 – The number of the different groups and cultures of indigenous people worldwide. (World Bank, United Nations Development Programme)
Homo erectus lived longer than any other human species. They existed about 1.9 million years from two million years to around 100,000 years ago. That’s currently over six times longer than our own species, Homo sapiens.
Yes, our species and Homo erectus co-existed for about 200,000 years from the time Homo sapiens evolved 300,000 years ago until around 100,000 years ago when the last of Homo erectus vanished on the island of Java. (The Journal Nature, December 18, 2019)
Greenland has the most indigenous people as a share of the total population. Almost 88 percent of the population are Greenlandic Inuit who call themselves Kalaallit and their homeland Kalaallit Nunaát. (International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs

Turkish Sakha People at Day of The World’s Indigenous People in Yakutsk, Russia. (*Wikimedia Commons cc 4.0*)

Indigenous People live in 46% of the world’s countries (90 countries out of 195) (UN Development Programme, November 2021)
The first modern humans began moving outside of Africa starting about 70,000-100,000 years ago, eventually spreading to all of Earth’s land regions around 13,000 years ago. (Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth; In Their Footsteps: Human Migration Out of Africa, National Geographic Society; and other sources)
Climate change during the period of the last ice age (~115,000 – ~11,700 years ago) allowed modern humans to disperse and begin to settle around the world. The colder climate caused the ocean levels to drop providing land bridges between continents allowing humans to cross. Climate change also provided for wide dispersion of vegetation and animal migration. (Reference: How Did the Last Ice Age Affect Humans? – Colors-New
York, 2/26/2021)

Boa Sr, the last member of the 65,000 year-old Bo tribe, one of the world’s oldest human cultures. (Andaman Islands, India)

The last member of the oldest existing indigenous tribe in the world – the Bo tribe of India’s Andaman Islands – passed away in 2010, taking one of modern humans’ oldest languages to the grave.