Not all were tribes to begin with.. Some were bands and clans.. others had full tribal nations.... Native American is an over used term. If you are studying a certain tribe, band, clan, or nation. They prefer you to use the names of these particular tribe, bands, clan, and nations so they are not lost in a over generalized term.. that can refer to other than what many call themselves as Natives, or First Nations people.. So to get a better answer to your question... Choose a certain Tribe, band, nation, or regional area at a certain time to study.. It really is a wild variation... As Mayans, Azetcs, Lakota, Dakota, Nakota, Dine, Anasazi, Tsalagi, .. all fall into the Native American catagory.. but all are very much different people. - DNatureofDTrain

Do you mean what cultural aspects of their communities are pervasive? It's actually very broad to think of "Native Americans." What that term actually describes is thousands of cultures, some no longer alive, which can have traditions and practices that vary greatly from tribe to tribe. Technically, a tribe in the United States is a sovereign government (a reservation is the land that the tribe agreed to recede onto, while "reserving" certain self-governing rights within those borders).

In order to learn about the culture of any given tribe, you need to focus narrowly on that tribe, its traditional lands, its stories, and how emigration affected its history.

It is also important to note that due to what happened when Europeans started populating the Americas, and some of the political stances that a young United States government took, many tribes were shaken apart and though descendants of those tribes may still be alive, the history and traditions of the tribe may be lost. As such, you will sometimes see traditionally land-locked tribes adopting practices of coastal tribes, etc.