The Real-Life Stories Of Native American Warrior Women Print Collector/Getty Images "Native American" means many things. There were an extraordinary number of cultures present within the Americas before European contact. And, unfortunately, there are very few historical records remaining today. Before the first European contact of 1492, there were approximately 60 million people living in the Americas. Today, sources such as the Daily Herald tell us that there are 562 Native American tribes within the United States alone. It remains a mystery what happened to these cultures between 1492 and now, for a variety of reasons. First, because histories were transferred orally, they were particularly disruptive to change. Initiatives such as the Trail of Tears led to widespread upheaval of Native American culture. Displaced Native Americans often had their cultures (and histories) erased and eradicated, and records by outsiders lumped them in together.