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Indigenous Peoples

For each people group, guess the modern day country in which their indigenous land is located. For instances where their land is now in more than one country, select the country that has the largest population of such people group. Does not include modern diasporas (e.g. for Irish people the correct answer is Ireland and not USA)
Quiz by
nsoper
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Last updated: January 24, 2023
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First submittedNovember 10, 2022
Times taken1,615
Average score85.0%
Rating2.43
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Hint
Answer
Maori
New Zealand
Persian
Iran
Cherokee
United States of America
Basque
Spain
Anglo-Saxons
United Kingdom
Inuit
Canada
Han
China
Tuareg
Niger
Tagalog
Philippines
Khmer
Cambodia
Hint
Answer
Boer
South Africa
Sámi
Norway
Kalmyk
Russia
Yoruba
Nigeria
Dinka
South Sudan
Hutu
Rwanda
Quechua
Peru
Aborigine
Australia
Tamil
India
Balts
Lithuania
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30 Comments
maur85
+20
Level 73
Jan 22, 2023
Boers being indigenous to South Africa is new to me. Especially as modern migrations don't count.
Islandcarver
+12
Level 82
Jan 22, 2023
I would advise to remove this answer because you will receive legitimate criticism about the implied neocolonialism.
nsoper
+4
Level 68
Jan 24, 2023
I don't understand your point? Many of these ethnic groups have colonised different areas at different times?
gogiants
+7
Level 55
Jan 24, 2023
The Boers came to South Africa only several hundred years ago, conquered and oppressed the actual native people, all while claiming that it was their homeland.
nsoper
+6
Level 68
Jan 25, 2023
Not so. The Boers only came into conflict with other peoples once they trekked east. The Western Cape had a few nomadic peoples (Koi-San) but no recognised settled groups. The original Boers purchased land and cultivated it (no oppression), all long before the state of South Africa was created, making them indigenous to the state.

Interestingly, how many years would it take for you to call a people indigenous? The Maoris have only been in New Zealand a few hundred years, would you challenge their status as indigenous?

Thanks for playing.

FurQ
+1
Level 67
Aug 16, 2025
Hunter gatherers don’t count now?
nsoper
+1
Level 68
Aug 17, 2025
I would say so since they don't inhabit a specific land as such. in the case of the koi san there were very few if any in the Western Cape when the Boers colonized it.

thanks for playing

maur85
+5
Level 73
Jan 25, 2023
Obviously all ethnic groups who settled somewhere came from somewhere else. Otherwise we'd all be huddled tight together in the Horn of Africa. But Maoris reached NZ a good 400 years before the Boers got to Cape of Good Hope. You also can't really add a caveat for recent diasporas, specifically pointing out Irish people going to America (started in the 1630s) and then accepting the Boer settlements (1652) as correct.
nsoper
+3
Level 68
Jan 26, 2023
The difference is that the Irish for the most part went to join a nation that had already formed and did not form a new distinct ethnic group in the USA.

However the Boer did form a new and distinct ethnicity (with its own new language) once settling in southern Africa. The Boers are not a diaspora of Dutch. They were the first settlers of the land they came too.

Thanks for playing.

Nadirj
+9
Level 81
Jan 28, 2023
Quite obvious now that you were trying to make a political point about the Boers when you made this quiz.
nsoper
+3
Level 68
Jan 30, 2023
I suppose all of these answers could be disputed by someone. But no, there was no political point being made by any of these. Thanks for playing!
sumguy
+5
Level 87
Jan 22, 2023
Boer is a Dutch word. Says Wikipedia: "Boers are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries."

Not indigenous.

nsoper
+4
Level 68
Jan 23, 2023
Yes they are indigenous according to this quiz because they were to first people to inhabit the Western Cape as a distinct people group.

The Boers are a distinct people from the Dutch which formed once they settled in the southern Africa. If you go back far enough all of these people groups descended from someone (usually in prehistory). Being indigenous is not a binary "either or". A people group can be more or less indigenous than another. This quiz is not making any claim that a specific group is the MOST indigenous in that given area.

nsoper
+4
Level 68
Jan 23, 2023
The Boers are indigenous according to this quiz because they predate the modern state of South Africa and were the first people to leave any historical record in the Western Cape. There would have been some Koi-san people in the area at the time but we have no evidence of them forming a distinct people group in this area. The Zulu, Xhosa and other tribes arrived slightly later from the east.
Jiaozira
+4
Level 72
Aug 14, 2025
Then that means the Koisan people are considered indigenous here and not the Boers. I would go a step further and suggest that the concept of an indigenous people comes from the interaction between a settler population (in this case the Boers) and a population that predates them, even if the indigenous population were not the first people to live in that area.

That is why Inuit people are considered indigenous here in Canada, although they are believed to have migrated from Eurasia much later than other indigenous Canadians and in some areas replaced an older Thule population.

nsoper
+1
Level 68
Aug 14, 2025
an area can have more than one indigenous ethnic group. This quiz is not suggesting that any group mentioned here is the MOST indigenous to a given area.

The Boers have interacted with several other settler populations in the cape, namely British, Zulu and Xhosa amongst others.

Thanks for playing :-)

Badeghut
+15
Level 71
Jan 22, 2023
At the very least Boer is an ... interesting choice for an indigenous group in South Africa. Personally I would think that going with either Zulu or Xhosa would make more sense and be less controversial. Also I could be wrong but my understanding was that the term "aborigine" is often considered to be offensive so I would suggest changing it.
nsoper
+5
Level 68
Jan 23, 2023
no the Xhosa and Zulu migrated into the Western Cape at the same time the Boers did or actually slightly after.
sumguy
+6
Level 87
Jan 22, 2023
You should rethink the order. I got Tuareg while typing the answer for Yoruba, above it. Because, as they say on Sesame Street, "You can't spell Nigeria without Niger"!
nsoper
+2
Level 68
Jan 24, 2023
good idea thanks!
stylus
+3
Level 79
Aug 13, 2025
i think you should only have one or the other on this quiz, really. even though Nigeria is after Niger, i skipped over the latter because i didn't know it, but it still autofilled as i typed Nigeria, and there's no way round that. you could make the quiz yellow-box, or just switch out one of the two for something else
IWills2002
+7
Level 65
Jan 22, 2023
Would very much argue against Anglo-Saxons being used for Britain, considering they were from areas in Germany and Denmark. Would personally have used the Welsh, Cornish, Picts, Manx etc.
sumguy
+3
Level 87
Jan 22, 2023
Or Celts generally.
nsoper
+4
Level 68
Jan 23, 2023
The Anglo-Saxons (English) have been in the UK over 1000 years. That is longer than the Maoris in New Zealand. This is not to say that Celtic people are not also an indigenous group. A modern area can have more than one indigenous people. e.g. the Cherokee are not the exclusive indigenous people of the modern USA.
nerdalert
+5
Level 88
Jan 23, 2023
Great quiz. Might allow for Sweden or Finland with "Sami", agree with your points about the Boers and South Africa.
nsoper
+1
Level 68
Jan 24, 2023
currently there are more Sami people in Norway than Sweden or Finland (according to good ol' Wikipedia). Of course this might change in future. thanks for playing
GeneralZaroff
+3
Level 33
Mar 28, 2025
The framing of this quiz could have been better. By making you name the country, it almost sounds like the country owns the people, plus it ignores that peoples can migrate post-contact and treats Indigenous nations as things that once were.
nsoper
+1
Level 68
Mar 31, 2025
thanks for playing! The idea of the quiz is to name the modern day sovereign states in which the historical ethnic people groups are now located.

thanks again!

Benniereyyy
+3
Level 54
Aug 16, 2025
‘Aborigine’ is a bit of an outdated term and seen as offensive in Australia, aboriginal is more acceptable 👍
FurQ
+1
Level 67
Aug 16, 2025
It’s also not an etnnicity. It means “native”
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