American Indian Wars
The 2010 United States Census found 2,932,248 Americans who identified themselves as being American Indian or Alaskan Native, about 0.9% of the US population. The Canada 2011 Census found 1,836,035 Canadians who identified themselves as being First Nations (or Inuit or Métis), about 4.3% of the Canadian population. No consensus exists on how many people lived in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans, but extensive research continues to be conducted. Contemporary estimates range from 2.1 million to 18 million people living on the North American continent prior to European colonization, but the US Census Bureau stated in 1894 that North America was an almost empty continent in 1492 and that Indian populations "could not have exceeded much over 500,000."
First Nations
Collectively, "First Nations", "Inuit", and "Métis" peoples constitute "Indigenous peoples in Canada," Indigenous peoples of the Americas, or "first peoples." "First Nation" as a term became officially used beginning in 1980s to replace the term "Indian band" in referring to groups of Indians with common government and language. The term had came into common usage in the 1970s to avoid using the word "Indian", which some Canadians considered offensive. No legal definition of the term exists.