Nomadic people, also known as nomads, are communities of people that move from one place to another, rather than settling down in one location. Nomadism is distinguished from migration, which involves a major and permanent move from one location to another. Nomads, on the other hand, move periodically or cyclically, usually returning to their original location at various times.
There are three kinds of nomads: hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads, and peripatetic nomads. Nomadic hunter-gatherers are probably the original lifestyle of most indigenous people. They subsist harvesting seasonally available wild plants and game. Pastoralists raise herds and move with them so as not to deplete pasture beyond recovery in any one area. Peripatetic nomads are more common in industrialized nations traveling from place to place offering a trade wherever they go.

There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world today. Many cultures were traditionally nomadic, but the development of modern agriculture, industrialization, and national borders has changed their lifestyle. Nomadism has become a minority lifestyle for modern people. Those who dwell in stable fixed societies often look at nomadic people with suspicion. Nomadic people have historically developed strong ties within their communities, creating a strong sense of identity which enabled their culture to survive despite numerous interactions with others. Today, however, nomads of all kinds are facing problems in preserving their cultural heritage. As human achievements have advanced in recent times, bringing all people into greater contact with each other, the nomadic lifestyle has become endangered. Yet, those who continue to live this way often have knowledge and traditions that are of value to humankind as a whole. Efforts to preserve and include these in world-wide understanding have been initiated.

The hunter-gatherer lifestyle naturally imposes a certain amount of nomadism on those who practice it. However, this may be simply daily movements through the local environment, or it may involve seasonal travels to different habitats. Thus, where resources are abundant or where it is possible to store food and other supplies, the people may remain within a relatively small area. Generally, nomadic hunter gatherers are organized in small bands that develop great familiarity with their territory.
There are few true hunter gatherer societies remaining in the world. Many Native Americans and Indigenous Australians were nomadic prior to Western contact. However, their survival required alterations to their lifestyle as they were forced to live in reservations too small to support nomadism. Some can still be found in remote areas, places where the ecology remains pristine and political divisions are large enough to contain traditional areas that can sustain their lifestyle. Examples of indigenous nomadic peoples, some of whom continue to live a nomadic lifestyle, include tribes in Africa, Northern Europe, and Northern parts of North America.

Tibet
International research shows that, despite strong expert evidence that Tibetan nomadism is the most sustainable use of the Tibetan Plateau's fragile land, the PRC seems bent on eradicating nomadism within the next decade. This is causing not just poverty among Tibetan nomads but also leads to violent fights over land boundaries and hundreds of deaths.
Bushmen

The Bushmen, also known as the Khwe Khoe, Basarwa, San, or the !Kung, are nomadic peoples of Southern Africa. It is believed that they have lived there for 22,000 or more years. Their population today is estimated at 82,000. They are traditional hunter-gatherers with a unique language consisting of click consonants.
During the 1970s, with their land increasingly encroached and taken by the government for game reserves and cattle ranches, many gave in and abandoned their wandering lifestyle. Instead, they began to raise cattle in semipermanent villages.

Innu

The Innu are the indigenous inhabitants of eastern Quebec and Labrador, Canada. They are known to have lived on these lands as hunter-gatherers for several thousand years, living in tents made of animal skins. Their subsistence activities were historically centered on hunting and trapping caribou, moose, deer and small game. Their population in 2003 includes about 18,000 persons, of which 15,000 live in Québec.
The Innu people are frequently sub-divided into two groups, the Montagnais who live along the north shore of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, in Québec, and the less numerous Naskapi ("inland people") who live farther north. The Naskapi are traditionally nomadic peoples, in contrast with the territorial Montagnais. The Innu themselves recognize several distinctions based on different regional affiliations and various dialects of the Innu language.

Pygmies

Pygmies are nomadic peoples living in the equatorial rainforests of central Africa, with smaller numbers in south-east Asia. They are characterized by their short height (below 1.5 meters, or 4.5 feet, on average). They prefer their specific ethnic names, such as Baka or Mbuti, rather than the generic "pygmy." They are found in the Republic of Congo, Cameroon, northern Congo, northern Gabon, and the southwestern Central African Republic. The Asian Negrito inhabit the Philippines, Malay Peninsula, and the Andaman Islands. Pygmy tribes have received much attention from anthropologists, with varied results for the different tribes.

Sami

The Sami are indigenous to an area called Sapmi, which encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The Sami, who speak a language of the same name, are one of the largest indigenous groups in Europe. Their population is thought to be about 85,000.
The Sami were traditionally hunters, fishers and reindeer herders and farmers. Only a minority of Sami still have these occupations today, with very few having a nomadic lifestyle.
Despite great pressure to change, and even destroy, Sami culture, in August of 1986, the national anthem (Sámi soga lávlla) and flag of the Sami people was created. In 1989, the first Sami parliament in Norway was elected. In 2005, the Finnmark Law was passed in the Norwegian parliament. This law gives the Sami parliament and the Finnmark Provincial council a joint responsibility of administering the land areas previously considered state property. These areas, 98 percent of the provincial area, that have always been used primarily by the Sami, now belong officially to the people of the province, Sami or Norwegian, and not the Norwegian state.