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North Americans are a very diverse group of people. People from all over the world have settled in North America over the last five hundred years. Native Americans, or Indians, were the earliest people to settle in North America. There were dozens of different groups who spoke hundreds of different languages. Today most North Americans speak English, Spanish, or French.

North Americans participate in a variety of recreational activities. Many people in North America enjoy watching professional sports teams as well as playing sports with family and friends. Basketball, baseball, and hockey were invented in North America and are now played all over the world.

The Rocky Mountains are the largest mountain system on the continent. They stretch 3,000 miles along western North America from the Brooks Range in Alaska to the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico. Most of the Rockies are more than 10,000 feet high. A popular tourist spot, the Rockies also contain rich deposits of minerals in the south and thick forests in the north. The Rockies are higher and more rugged than the Appalachian Mountains, the largest mountain range in eastern North America.