Passage Two The earliest immigrants to North America found Indians already living there. The Indians numbered about 500,000 at that time. Their society was a primitive society, but they lived peacefully and welcomed the white strangers to the land. However, these early immigrants from Europe didn't want to share the land with the natives. They killed off many of the Indians, seized their land or pushed them off to lands farther away. Today the Indians, not more than halfa million, live in poverty and misery on the land on which they were once masters. The earliest immigrants were the Spanish, who settled in the southern part of what is now the US The next large group were the English, after the English came the French, Dutch, Irish, Germans, and other nationality groups, mostly European. Another early group to arrive were the Negroes. But they were brought in as slaves from Africa. They didn't win freedom till generations later. 40. Who were the earliest people living in North America?