:: People yes. A nation no. ::
And the indigenous animists were not interested in claiming large tracts of land as a “nation”, per se.
Nor could they even if they had wanted to. The absence of any governmental structure would have made administration of sovereignty impossible.
Plus, they were largely nomadic and recognized no individual property rights. Nor did they have wny court system or legal code under which to ajudicate disputes. In other words, they were tribes, not nations.