While the U.S. government and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) denies their existence, Native American tribes have been telling stories about mermaids from time immemorial.
From the Halfway People of the Mi'kmaq and the Lampeqinuwok of the Maliseet, to the story of Ne Hwas told by the the Passamaquoddy and the story of the first merman told by the Potawatomi, there is no shortage of tales about the half human creatures.
The Mi'kmaq tell the tale of Lone Bird who stumbles upon a cove of five beautiful maidens swimming and playing in the water: "They were lovely, it is true, but they looked nothing like human maidens, for humans do not have pale skin, spotted with silvery scales. They do not dress their hair with strands of seaweed. And though maidens adorn themselves with necklaces of bright shells, humans have legs. Their bodies do not end in long fish tails," from the book Spirits, Fairies, and Merpeople: Native Stories of Other Worlds by C.J. Taylor.