A Native American will have ancestors who have lived in North America for thousands of years - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_Mexico Whilst someone who calls themselves Mexican will tend to be of European ancestry, such as Spanish, Italian etc. I assume that some people are mixed, being both Native and European Mexican.

Many Mexicans are descended from indigenous people who were in that area long before the Spaniards came to it. So, there may be little difference, or there may be a great deal of difference. Many Americans have Native American blood in their ancestry, but may be physically or culturally much like other Americans with European ancestry.

uh a lot

The biggest difference is where they live. The name "Native American" is used primarily in the United States to refer to the indigenous people from the area now known as the United States, and the name Mexican is used to refer to indigenous people who live in the area now known as Mexico. In Canada, the indigenous people are called First Peoples. All of the aboriginal peoples of the Americas, both North and South, are also known as Indians, based on the mistake made when the Americas were first encountered by Christopher Columbus, because he thought he had reached India.

Most modern day Mexicans are a mix of native peoples and Spaniards.

First of all you have to rephrase the question. You'd be better calling them "the native bbloodline that the Mexicans came from before being conquered by the Spanish." NOW, Mexicans are just another vein of Hispanic and though a lot of them retain the look of their ancestors, they are not fully Indian anymore. Now that i've talked my ass off, I think they are from similar lines that started a couple millenia ago. OK, I've read the lame answers and bottom line is this; it's either Aztec, Toltec, Mayan or Ican blood. I never remember which it is. For all we know, they could have been part of the Tainos that populated the greater and lesser antilles so many years ago.

If you move away from the bloodline there are also other differences. Us Native American people practice different ceremonies and traditions. We do things in honor of our ancestors and elders. We dance for them at Pow Wows and pray for healing and guidance while dancing. Some animals are sacred and their fur or feathers are used in ceremonies. I can go on and on but there are many things that are "different".

"Mexican" actually refers to the country of Mexico and as such has nothing to do any particular racial or ethnic group. Regardless, the vast majority of Mexicans are, in fact, full blooded Native American people, genetically no different from Apache, Crow, Navajo etc. The Spaniards were obsessed with spreading Christianity and therefore were quick to force the "Indians" to abandon their native names and adopt Christian (often Spanish) names, sometimes at the point of a sword. Genetic research confirms that perhaps as high as 75% of the people of Mexico and the "Hispanics" or "Latinos" living in the United States are genetically identical to the various Native American tribes found in the USA. There are mixed blooded people in Latin America (Mestizos) but they are not as abundant as some scholars would have us believe. Again, genetic studies contradict those assertions. Lastly, about 15% of Mexico is made up of European people, the remnants of early migrations and recent transplants. These people are invariably of Rh Negative blood type (all of Europe was Rh Negative at one time) and also have the common phenotypical features of Europeans.

there realy isnt too much becauseway back when america wasnt discovered by the "old world" settlers, we were all natives, mexicans are native american and spaniard or 100% native american. Its only the america calssyfies it differently and when an american hears native american they think only north america, but the only diference of native south americans and native north americans is where they lived, but if you think about it, every native tribe was different! hope this helped, -Andres C.

well a native american indian would be your chrokees and what not, indians that lived in the usa hence native american, mexicans are the offsring of aztec indians and the spaniards, way way far from america, so they have nothing in common.

1) Native Americans, also referred to as American Indians, are members of various ethnic groups of indigenous people descending from the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas. Mexicans are the citizens of Mexico. 2) "The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Americas, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples. They are often also referred to as Native Americans, First Nations, Amerigine, and by Christopher Columbus' geographical mistake Indians, modernly disambiguated as the American Indian race, American Indians, Amerindians, Amerinds, or Red Indians." "Many parts of the Americas are still populated by indigenous Americans; some countries have sizeable populations, such as Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, and Ecuador." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas 3) "Mexico is ethnically diverse. The second article of the Mexican Constitution defines the country to be a pluricultural nation - Indigenous, Mestizo, European - originally founded upon the indigenous peoples. Even though there are no official statistics for ethnicity (other than those reported for indigenous peoples), it is estimated that around 40% of the population is ethnically White or European, those having Spaniard, French or other Mediterranean ancestry, mestizos are similarly represented with 45% and 10% is purely Amerindian. Whites or Europeans make up about 9% of the population, mostly descendants of Spaniards, whereas other ethnic groups -namely Afro-Mexicans and Asians- make up less than 1% of the total population. Admixture levels in Mexico have been studied in multiple studies and have shown a strong presence of Amerindian and European genetic contributions with a small African contribution as well." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Mexico#Ethnography

A native american indian is an AMERICAN..A mexican is someone from Mexico...DUH!

Same differences as a Native Mexican Indian and an American.

Native Americans have reservations. Mexicans have to make their own 😉

The PC term "Native American" replaced American Indian in our vernacular a few decades ago. It was originally used to designate an enrolled tribe member of a federally recognized ndn tribe. Federal recognition means there is at least 1 treaty between the Americans and the tribe. We are related to the Mexican ndns too. I read once that the indigenous of the western hemisphere are more closely related to each other, from Alaska to south America, than we are to any other people on earth. So, the Mexican ndns are our relatives too. They are not actually Native Americans though, because they don't have a treaty relationship with the US govt. The current trend has become to now call ALL the indigenous of the western hemispheres "Native Americans. That now makes it more confusing than it was when they called us Indians. 1/22

"Native American" is a specifically U.S. term that is TYPICALLY used to describe aboriginals living (at some time) in territory that is now controlled by the U.S. The term is not used in the rest of the Americas (not even by English-speakers such as Canadians and Belizians). *** A Mexican is a resident of Mexico, regardless of their relation (or lack thereof) to aboriginal Americans.

Mexicans are from Mexico. There were originally Aztec Indians, but they were conquered by the Spaniards, which is why they speak Spanish instead of Aztec.