Civics question 74 of 128 65/20 set
Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?
2 accepted answers
- American Indians
- Native Americans
You only need to give one of these. The officer accepts any of them.
Source: official USCIS question list for the 2025 version of the civics test. This site is independent and not affiliated with USCIS.
Background
American Indians, also accepted as Native Americans, lived here before Europeans arrived. Settlement goes back at least fifteen thousand years, and by 1492 the continents held hundreds of distinct peoples speaking hundreds of unrelated languages, from farming societies in the Southwest to the large towns along the Mississippi and the confederacies of the Northeast. Estimates of the population north of Mexico run from about two million to well over five. What followed contact was catastrophic and mostly not military: smallpox, measles, and influenza, unknown in the Americas before, killed a large share of the population within a few generations, often before settlers reached a given region. Both terms in the answer remain in official use, and many people prefer the name of their specific nation, such as Navajo or Lakota.
This background section is written by US Citizenship Test Practice to explain the civics fact. It is not part of the USCIS question list, and the official answer above is the one to give at the interview.
Where this question sits
It is part of Colonial Period and Independence, inside the American History section of the test. It is also one of the 20 questions in the 65/20 set, so it is worth knowing well.
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