Zuni

From earlier Zuñi, from American Spanish, from Acoma Western Keres sɨ̂‧ni or a cognate thereof.

A member of a Native American Pueblo people, native to the Zuni River valley.


Indian

en-adj

Indian (comparative more Indian, superlative most Indian)

more Indian (comparative)
most Indian (superlative)

From Anglo-Norman indien, Middle French indien, corresponding to Ind + -ian. Applied to inhabitants of the Americas due to an early misconception that the Americas were the eastern end of Asia / the Indies (hence also the designation of Caribbean islands as the West Indies).

Indian bread

Indian meal

(Canada, US, of foods) Made with Indian corn or maize.

East Indian

of, or related to, the people of the Indian subcontinent

West Indian

of, or related to, the people of the Caribbean islands


Indian

en-noun

Indian (countable and uncountable, plural Indians)

We stigmatize the Indians, also, as cowardly and treacherous, because they use stratagem in warfare in preference to open force; but in this they are fully justified by their rude code of honor.

1820 July, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “Traits of Indian Character”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., New York, N.Y.: […] C[ornelius] S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC:

High Jack had been drinking too much rum ever since we landed in Boca. You know how an Indian is—the palefaces fixed his clock when they introduced him to firewater.

1909, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “He Also Serves”, in Options:

With savage desperation the Indian lunged his horse straight at Hopalong and, knife in hand, leaped for him!

1951, Louis L'Amour, Rustlers of West Fork:

(countable) An American Indian, a member of one of the indigenous peoples of the Americas (generally excluding the Aleut, Inuit, Metis, or Yupik).

Indiaan

individual of, or related to, the aboriginal people of the Americas

Mardi Gras Indian
Mardi Gras Indian#English

(countable) Ellipsis of Mardi Gras Indian.


Ottawa

From Ojibwe odaawaa (“traders”)/ᐅᑡᐙ, from Proto-Algonquian *atawewa (“to trade”).

A number of places in the United States:

A city, the county seat of LaSalle County, Illinois.

A city, the county seat of Franklin County, Kansas.

A township and unincorporated community therein, in Le Sueur County, Minnesota.

A village, the county seat of Putnam County, Ohio.

An unincorporated community in Ottawa County, Oklahoma.

A town and unincorporated community in Waukesha County, Wisconsin.

Some other townships, listed under Ottawa Township.


Chickasaw

Some place names in the United States:
A city in Mobile County, Alabama.

Some place names in the United States:
A village in Mercer County, Ohio.

Some place names in the United States:
A neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky.

Chickasaw County
Chickasaw County#English

Some place names in the United States:
Chickasaw County.


Hopi

From Hopi hopi (“Hopi, good in every respect, be wise/knowing”) (as in Hopituu sinom "Hopi people"). Popularized by J. Walter Fewkes as a replacement for the previously used and offensive name Moqui which sounds like Hopi mooki "dies, be dead".

der

A member of a particular tribe of North American natives.


Hopi

The Uto-Aztecan language spoken by this North American tribe.


Hopi

A Coal Mine capable of producing 450,000 tons of coal annually started operation in Hopi, Honan.

1960 September, “1957 April-December”, in E. Stuart Kirby, editor, Contemporary China, volume III, →OCLC, page 278:

Two other major coal-mining centers, each producing coking-grade bituminous coal, have been developed in Honan since the late 1950's. Hopi, in northernmost Honan, arose in 1957 on the site of a small, primitive operation in a deposit of lean coal, low in volatile content. A city was established in that year, and the mining complex was linked by a 12-mile rail spur with Tangyin, on the main Peking-Hankow line.

1972, Theodore Shabad, “The North China Plain”, in China's Changing Map, New York: Frederick A. Praeger, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 119:

Death certificates were tabulated to map morality from esophageal cancer in the 181 counties and cities of the survey. The counties with the highest incidences were Yangcheng and Hopi with rates, respectively, of 135 and 140 per 100,000. By contrast, in Hunyuan County the rate was under 2 per 100,000.

1975 June 17, Walter Sullivan, “CHINA STUDY LINKS CANCER TO REGION”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-10-05, page 66:


Sioux

From French Sioux, shortening of Nadouessioux, from Ojibwe naadawesiwag (“little snakes”), which could refer to the massasauga snake (Sistrurus catenatus), a small rattlesnake.

Various formerly nomadic Native American tribes of the North American Great Plains.


Sioux

de-noun

Sioux m or f (strong, genitive Sioux, plural Sioux)

Sioux (genitive)
Sioux (plural)
Sioux (definite nominative singular)
Sioux (definite nominative plural)
Sioux (definite genitive singular)
Sioux (definite genitive plural)
Sioux (dative definite singular)
Sioux (dative definite plural)
Sioux (accusative definite singular)
Sioux (accusative definite plural)

Diejenigen Indianerstämme, welche zur Zeit der hier erzählten Ereignisse den südwestlichen Theil Minnesotas bewohnten, gehörten sämmtlich dem großen, kriegerischen Stamme der Sioux oder Dacotas an.

1873, “Erinnerungen aus dem Indianeraufstand in Minnesota”, in Die Gartenlaube:


Mohawk

Mohawks (plural)
Mohawk (plural)
"Mohawks" in all other senses (plural)

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From Dutch Mohawk.
An exonym, probably from Narragansett Mohowaúgsuck, Mauquàuog, meaning “they eat (animate things)”, “cannibals”. The phoneme /m/ is not present in the Mohawk language; the Mohawk autonym is Kanien'kehá:ka (Kanienkehaka, Kanyenkehaka).

A member of an indigenous people of North America originally from the Mohawk Valley in upstate New York to southern Quebec and eastern Ontario, the easternmost of the Iroquois Five Nations.


Cherokee

/ˌt͡ʃɛ.ɹəˈkiː/

Most likely from the Cherokee autonym ᏣᎳᎩ (tsalagi). Derivation from a Choctaw exonym meaning "those who live in caves" (compare chiluk (“cave”)) has also been suggested — the Iroquois term for the Cherokee was Oyata'ge'ronon (“inhabitants of the cave country”) — as has derivation from a Creek term for "person(s) who speak(s) a non-Creek language" (see celokketv (“to speak a non-creek language”)).
Whatever its origin, the ethnonym entered European languages at an early date, perhaps as early as the 1670s; in Spanish, the people are called the Tchalaquei as early as 1755.

census-designated place
census-designated place

A census-designated place in Swain County and Jackson County, North Carolina, capital of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians


buck

From Middle English bukke, bucke, buc, from Old English buc, bucc, bucca (“he-goat, stag”), from Proto-West Germanic *bukk, *bukkō, from Proto-Germanic *bukkaz, *bukkô (“buck”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuǵ- (“ram”). Doublet of puck (billy goat).
Currency-related senses hail from American English, a clipping of buckskin as a unit of trade among Indians and Europeans in frontier days (attested from 1748).
The idea of rigidly standing implements is instilled by Dutch bok (“sawhorse”) as in zaagbok (“sawbuck”).
The sense of an object indicating someone’s turn then occurred in American English, possibly originating from the game poker, where a knife (typically with a hilt made from a stag horn) was used as a place-marker to signify whose turn it was to deal. The place-marker was commonly referred to as a buck, which reinforced the term “pass the buck” used in poker, and eventually a silver dollar was used in place of a knife, which also led to a dollar being referred to as a buck.

She got so she’d rather have a buck nigger than me!

Her curly red hair loose from its combs hangin' down her back and her freckled skin bare, and a big ole nigger buck was doin' things to her! He'd always known that Hootch Carter raped and killed Becky Nell, never had reason to doubt it.

2009, Carol C. Morgan, Wind in the Cotton Fields, page 460:

(US, dated, derogatory) A black or Native American man.


Papago

Borrowed from Spanish Pápago, itself from O'odham Ba꞉bawĭkoʼa (“they eat tepary beans”).

der

In the valley of the Gila and on its tributaries from the northeast are the Pimas, Maricopas, and Papagos.

1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 24:

(historical) A Uto-Aztecan people of southern Arizona and Sonora in northern Mexico. Today they are known as the Tohono O'odham ("the Desert People").


Amerindian

/ˌæməˈɹɪndɪən/

/ˌæməɹˈɪndiən/

Blend of American + Indian, attested since about 1900.

The Amerindians of South America; female Amerindians in Early Modern Spanish theater.


Apache

From American Spanish apache, most likely from Zuni ˀa˙paču (“Navajos”), or possibly from the Yavapai word ʔpačə, meaning "people". The web server software was named to honor the Apache people, although much has been made of the fact that its design was "patchy" (constructed by assembling software patches). See Apache HTTP Server § Name.

Apache, a town in Oklahoma, United States.


Apache

de-noun

Apache m (mixed or strong, genitive Apachen, plural Apachen or (dated) Apaches)

Apachen (genitive)
Apachen (plural)
Apaches (dated plural)
Apache (nominative singular)
Apachen (definite nominative plural)
Apaches (dated definite nominative plural)
Apachen (genitive singular)
Apachen (definite genitive plural)
Apaches (dated definite genitive plural)
Apache (dative singular)
Apachen (dative definite plural)
Apaches (dated dative definite plural)
Apache (accusative singular)
Apachen (accusative definite plural)
Apaches (accusative dated definite plural)

Probably from Spanish apache or English apache, from Zuni ˀa˙paču


Apache

Apache m (weak, genitive Apachen, plural Apachen)

Apachen (genitive)
Apachen (plural)
Apache (nominative singular)
Apachen (definite nominative plural)
Apachen (genitive singular)
Apachen (definite genitive plural)
Apachen (dative singular)
Apachen (dative definite plural)
Apachen (accusative singular)
Apachen (accusative definite plural)

Probably from apache, after the American tribe.


band

→ Japanese: バンド (bando)

→ Korean: 밴드 (baendeu)

Inherited from Middle English band (also bond), from Old English beand, bænd, bend (“bond, chain, fetter, band, ribbon, ornament, chaplet, crown”), from Proto-Germanic *bandą, *bandiz (“band, fetter”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to tie, bind”). Middle English band reinforced by Old French bande. Cognate with Dutch band, German Band, Danish bånd, Swedish band, Icelandic band (“band”). Related to bond, bind, bend.

inh

valence band;  conduction band

(physics) A group of energy levels in a solid state material.

band

(especially US) A ring, such as a wedding ring (wedding band), or a ring put on a bird's leg to identify it.


Chumash

From Ineseño čʰumaš (“the Santa Barbara Channel Island people”).

bor

A member of a particular Native American tribe of southern California.


Ojibwe

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First attested in English around 1700 (and attested in early French as Outchibouec), from the Ojibwe name of an individual band of Ojibwe, of unclear origin. The most widely accepted theory connects it to Ojibwe ojibwaakide (“it shrivels, it puckers in the fire”), in reference to the puckering or tightening of moccasins at their seams or near fire. Alternatively, Helen Tanner and Edmund Danzinger connect it to the Ojibwe practice of writing on birch bark or making pictographs, respectively; compare ozhibii' (“write (someone's name) down”).
Other, less credible theories:
Other, less likely suggestions include: Henry Schoolcraft derived it from a word *bwe "pertaining to voice" ((compare bedowe (“have a soft voice”)), and like George Belcourt, believed it referred to a peculiarity of the tribe's (language's) pronunciation. Some other works connect it to the word for puckering the lips, which however is bajiishkidooneni (“she or he puckers the lips”), or assert that it refers to roasting captives until their flesh puckered, but this was not a common practice and is improbable as a self-designation.

m+

The language spoken by the native Algonquin people of central Canada, one of a closely related group of languages and dialects of the Algonquian branch of the Algic language family.


hogan

Borrowed from Navajo hooghan (“dwelling, house”).

The wives of warriors were under strict instructions not to leave their hogans until the men had returned, hopefully successful, from their martial adventures abroad […].

2006, Hampton Sides, Blood and Thunder, Abacus, published 2014, page 27:

A one-room Native American (especially Navajo) dwelling or lodge, constructed of wood and earth and covered with mud.

wetu

used by the Wampanoag in the northeastern United States

wickiup

used in the southwestern and western United States


pueblo

From Spanish pueblo. Doublet of people and peuple.

Holonym: amérindien

Meronyms: hopi, zuñi


squaw

From Massachusett squàw (“woman”), from Proto-Algonquian *eθkwe·wa (“(young) woman”). Cognate with Abenaki -skwa (“female, wife”), Mohegan-Pequot sqá, Cree iskwew / ᐃᐢᑫᐧᐤ (iskeyw, “woman”), Ojibwe ikwe (“woman”). In the 1970s, some non-linguists began to claim that the word originally meant "vagina"; this has been discredited.
The first recorded version of the word was found in a book called Mourt’s Relation: A Journey of the Pilgrims at Plymouth written in 1622. The term was not used in a derogatory fashion but spoke of the “squa sachim or Massachusets Queen” in the September 20, 1621 journal entry.

der

(now offensive, ethnic slur) A woman, wife; especially a Native American woman.

en:Native American name controversy#Controversial terminology

индианка

a woman, wife; especially a Native American woman

mulher índia (especialmente norte americana)


O'odham

From O'odham o'odham (“person, man, human being”).

A person of Tohono O'odham (formerly Papago), Akimel O'odham (formerly Pima), or other O'odham ancestry.


Native American

en-noun

Native American (plural Native Americans)

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contiguous United States
contiguous United States

An Indigenous person of the contiguous United States.

His name, as given on the records, was Joe Slater, or Slaader, and his appearance was that of the typical denizen of the Catskill Mountain region; one of those strange, repellent scions of a primitive colonial peasant stock whose isolation for nearly three centuries in the hilly fastnesses of a little-travelled countryside has caused them to sink to a kind of barbaric degeneracy, […] their general mental status is probably below that of any other section of the native American people.

1919, H. P. Lovecraft, Beyond the Wall of Sleep:

(dated) A resident of the United States who is not an immigrant. (Often uncapitalized: native American.)


Amerind

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Blend of American + Indian or possibly blend of American + indigenous. First appears c. 1899 in the publication American Anthropologist.

The cultural hiatus associated with the Pine Pollen Zone suggests that Amerinds may have avoided the area.


Amerind

(linguistics, obsolete) Of or relating to a hypothetical higher-level language family including all of the indigenous languages of the Americas, excluding those that belong to Eskimo-Aleut or Na-Dene.


Lakota

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From Lakota Lakȟóta (“alliance of friends”).

A small city, the county seat of Nelson County, North Dakota, United States.


Maricopa

Borrowed from Spanish, of uncertain origin.

A city in Pinal County, Arizona, United States.


Iowa

From French Aiouez/Ayoés, an early transliteration of the name for the Iowa tribe, from Dakota ayúxba (“sleepy ones”).

I prefer to think of Iowa as I saw it through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy. Those were eyes filled with the wonders of Iowa’s streams and woods, of the mystery of growing crops.

1951, Herbert Hoover, The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover, Years of Adventure 1874–1920, New York: Macmillan Company, →OCLC, →OL, page 1:

A state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Capital and largest city: Des Moines.


Illinois

From a French adaptation of an Algonquian (perhaps Ojibwe) name derived from Miami ilenweewa (“he speaks the regular way”).

der

A state of the United States, named for the people.

A river in the United States that flows from Grundy County, Illinois, into the Mississippi River.

A river in Colorado, United States that flows from the Never Summer Mountains in the Rockies into the Michigan River.

A river in Oklahoma, United States that flows from the Ozarks into the Arkansas River.

A river in Oregon, United States that flows from the southwestern corner of the state into the Rogue River.

Some townships in the United States, listed under Illinois Township.


Delaware

The river in the northeastern United States was named for Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr (1577–1618). The people and the state were named for the river.

A river in the northeastern United States, running from the Catskills into the Atlantic Ocean at Delaware Bay.

The first state of the United States. Capital: Dover. Largest city: Wilmington.

A river in the United States that flows from northeast Kansas into the Kansas River.

Several places in the United States, named for the people or the state.

A city, the county seat of Delaware County, Ohio.

An unincorporated community in Ripley County, Indiana.

An unincorporated community in Shannon County, Missouri.

A ghost town in Keweenaw County, Michigan, in the Upper Peninsula.

A number of townships in the United States, listed under Delaware Township.


Alabama

From Alabama Albaamaha, the name of a people native to the area.

That’s right. In fact, a law which passed in Mississippi is so restrictive, it could close the one remaining abortion clinic they have in the entire state, meaning a Mississippi woman, right now, could be saying to herself, “I need to go someplace more progressive like Alabama.”

2014 November 2, “State Legislatures and ALEC”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 23, John Oliver (actor), via HBO:

A state of the United States. Capital: Montgomery. Largest city: Birmingham.

Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming

American Samoa · Guam · Northern Mariana Islands · Puerto Rico · United States minor outlying islands · United States Virgin Islands


Alabama

Borrowed from English Alabama, itself likely from Alabama Albaamaha.

Demain, je vais dans l’Alabama rendre visite à ma grand-mère.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Alabama to visit my grandmother.

États: Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · Californie · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · Floride · Géorgie · Hawaï · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiane · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · Nouveau-Mexique · État de New York · Caroline du Nord · Dakota du Nord · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvanie · Rhode Island · Caroline du Sud · Dakota du Sud · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginie · Washington · Virginie-Occidentale · Wisconsin · Wyoming

Samoa américaines · Guam · Îles Mariannes du Nord · Porto Rico · îles mineures éloignées des États-Unis · Îles Vierges des États-Unis


wigwam

Borrowed from Abenaki wigwôm (“house”) or Penobscot wigwom (“house”), from Proto-Algonquian *wi·kiwa·ʔmi (“house”). Doublet of wickiup.

A dwelling having an arched framework overlaid with bark, hides, or mats, used by Native Americans in the northeastern United States.


wigwam

wigwam (nominative singular)
wigwamy (nominative plural)
wigwamu (genitive singular)
wigwamów (genitive plural)
wigwamowi (dative singular)
wigwamom (dative plural)
wigwam (accusative singular)
wigwamy (accusative plural)
wigwamem (instrumental singular)
wigwamami (instrumental plural)
wigwamie (locative singular)
wigwamach (locative plural)
wigwamie (singular vocative)
wigwamy (plural vocative)

Borrowed from English wigwam, from Abenaki wigwôm or Penobscot wigwom, from Proto-Algonquian *wi·kiwa·ʔmi.


papoose

Borrowed from Narragansett papoos (“child”).

[…] a half-breed what they nicknamed "Splinters" 'cos of the way he fixed up her papoose which he stole on a raid […]

They say he has Indian blood in him. They say he has an Indian wife somewhere, and a lot of papooses. Cherokee.

In the empty Houston streets of four o’clock in the morning a motorcycle kid suddenly roared through, all bespangled and bedecked with glittering buttons, visor, slick black jacket, a Texas poet of the night, girl gripped on his back like a papoose, […]

1957, Jack Kerouac, chapter 8, in On the Road, Viking Press, →OCLC, part 2:

(US, dated, offensive) A Native American baby.


redskin

From red + skin.
References to indigenous Americans' skin being red can be found from the 1580s, although not consistently (another European in 1584 described indigenous Americans as "yellowish"); in some cases the reference may be not to their skin color per se but to their painting themselves with red paint. A letter ostensibly from 1699, which was formerly cited as the earliest reference to "red skins", was not published until 1900 and is now recognized as fake.
The earliest documented instance of the term "redskin" is from a 1769 discussion between the Piankeshaw and John Wilkins, this and other early uses appear to be translating terms meaning red + skin, flesh, or people that the tribes of the Illinois / Mississippi Valley area used to refer to themselves when communicating with the French (who translated such terms as French peau-rouge) and with English-speakers (whence redskin).
Piecewise doublet of Rauðskinna.

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(ethnic slur, offensive) A Native American.


wickiup

Wickiup-like structures were built by many Native American peoples throughout the Southwestern United States, and terms similar to wickiup are present "among Native Americans in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, and California", but the source of the word appears to be Fox wîkiyâpi (“house”). Alternatively, it may be a variant of wikiwam (“wigwam”). Either way, its ultimate origin is the Proto-Algonquian root *wi·kiwa·ʔmi (“house”). Doublet of wigwam.

They say his real name is Cimarron Seven, of the Choctaw Indian family of Sevens; he was raised in a tepee; a wickiup had been his bedroom, a blanket his robe.

At that time there were still indians camped on the western plains and late in the day he passed in his riding a scattered group of their wickiups propped upon that scoured and trembling waste.

1992, Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses:

A domed hut, similar to a wigwam, used by some semi-nomadic Native American tribes, particularly in the southwestern and western United States.

hogan

used by the Navajo in the southwestern United States


Navajo

en-noun

Navajo (plural Navajo or Navajos or Navajoes)

or Navajos (Navajo plural)
Navajoes (Navajo plural)

From Spanish navajo, from Tewa navahu (“field adjoining an arroyo”).

der

A member of the Navajo people, currently the largest Native American tribe in North America.


American Indian

en-noun

American Indian (plural American Indians)

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American + Indian. The noun is attested since 1702, the adjective since shortly thereafter.

A member of some indigenous peoples of the Americas, especially the continental United States, but excluding the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleuts.

(Canada) An indigenous person from the United States.


Nuu-chah-nulth

/nuːˈtʃɑːnʊlθ/

From Nootka nuučaan̓uł (“all along the mountains”).

uder

A people indigenous to Vancouver Island in western Canada.


Cheyenne

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Borrowed from French Cheyenne, from Dakota šahíyena, from Dakota šaia (“to speak incoherently”), from Dakota ša (“red”) and Dakota ya (“to speak”).

The capital and largest city of Wyoming, United States and the county seat of Laramie County; named for the people.

A river in the United States; flowing 295 miles from the confluence of the Antelope and Dry Fork creeks in Thunder Basin National Grassland, Wyoming into Lake Oahe, a reservoir of the Missouri River, at Mission Ridge, South Dakota.

Roger Mills County
Roger Mills County#English

A town, the county seat of Roger Mills County, Oklahoma, United States.


Cheyenne

fr-noun

Cheyenne m or f by sense (plural Cheyennes)


Crow

From French gens de corbeaux, calque of Dakota apsáaloke (“crow people”). Compare Crow Apsáalooke.

calque

A member of a Native American tribe of southern Montana.


Creek

* As an English surname, from Creake in Norfolk, a variant of the noun crag (“steep rugged cliff”).
* Also as an English surname, from the archaic noun cratch (“crib, manger”).
* As a German surname, Americanized from Krieg (“war, warfare”), Krück, Kruck (see Krug (“jug”) and Krücke (“crutch”)), Krick.
* As a Dutch surname, Americanized from Kreek (from the noun kreek (“creek”), see creek) and Kriek (from kriek (“cherry”)).
* The Native American tribe name is likely shortened from Ocheese Creek.

One of a Native American tribe from the Southeastern United States, also known as the Muscogee.


Cree

⇒ Irish: Craís

From a phonetic rendering of Canadian French Cris, short for Christinaux, from either Algonquin Kirishtinó, or Cree Kenisteniwuik.

historically reconstructed *nêhiraw and *iriniw are the sources of the decedents


Tewa

Borrowed from Spanish Tegua, Tehua, from Tewa Tewa or Hopi Teewa.

A member of an indigenous people of New Mexico and Arizona.


Tewa

The traditional language of the Tewa people.


Tewa

A Trans-New Guinea language of Indonesia.


navajo

pt-noun

navajo m or f by sense (plural navajos or navajo)

Borrowed from Spanish navajo, from Tewa navahu (“field adjoining an arroyo”).

one of the Navajo (indigenous people of southwestern United States)


navajo

es-adj

navajo (feminine navaja, masculine plural navajos, feminine plural navajas)

navaja (feminine)
navajos (masculine plural)
navajas (feminine plural)

Borrowed from Tewa navahu (“field adjoining an arroyo”).


navajo

es-noun

navajo m (plural navajos, feminine navaja, feminine plural navajas)

navajos (plural)
navaja (feminine)
navajas (feminine plural)

Y para pararse a comer en el Blue Pot Café, gestionado por indios navajos en Kayenta, de camino hacia Mexican Hat. Con ventiladores en lugar de aire acondicionado y con platos de cerámica en lugar de vasos de plástico, es único en la zona y, naturalmente, también el más sostenible.

2015 September 18, “Estados Unidos en 10 saltos”, in El País:

And to stop to eat at the Blue Pot Café, run by Navajo Indians in Kayenta, on the way to Mexican Hat. With fans instead of air conditioning and with ceramic plates instead of plastic cups, it is unique in the area and, naturally, also the most sustainable.


Mi'kmaq

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Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island

An Indigenous people residing in the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Quebec, and in the U.S. cities of Boston and New York City.


indien

fr-adj

indien (feminine indienne, masculine plural indiens, feminine plural indiennes)

indienne (feminine)
indiens (masculine plural)
indiennes (feminine plural)


indien

fr-noun

indien m (plural indiens, feminine indienne)


Cayuse

Adapted from French cailloux, a pre-existing French word. The reason this word came to be used for the tribe is unknown; see the Wikipedia article for theories.


Shawnee

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Ultimately from Shawnee Shawanwa (“Shawnee”) or shawanoki (“southerners”), a hypothetical intermediary term is sometimes supposed to have facilitated the entry into English, such as Munsee sawanow.

Pottawatomie County
Pottawatomie County#English

A city, the county seat of Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States.


Seneca

Seneca
Seneca language
Seneca people
Seneca the Younger

From Dutch Sennecaas, from Algonquian (probably Mahican [Term?]).

A number of places in the United States, including:

A city, the county seat of Nemaha County, Kansas

A town and unincorporated community therein, in Crawford County, Wisconsin.

Green Lake County
Green Lake County#English


Dakota

en-proper noun

Dakota (countable and uncountable, plural Dakotas)

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(historical) The Dakota Territory; an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North Dakota and South Dakota.


Dakota

Dakota (definite nominative plural)
Dakota (definite genitive plural)
Dakota (dative definite plural)
Dakota (accusative definite plural)

beide Dakota


Muskogee

A city, the county seat of Muskogee County, Oklahoma, United States.


Choctaw

An aboriginal peoples native to the area currently known as Mississippi, in the United States, with a sizable displaced population in Oklahoma


Chippewa

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From Ojibwe ojibwe (“Ojibwe”)/ᐅᒋᑉᐌ, specifically an eastern dialect with a reduced initial vowel. Compare earlier Ojibwa. Attested in English from the mid 18th century.


Tsimshian

A member of a Native American people who inhabited the coastal waters of western British Columbia and southeast Alaska.


rez

2016, Kalina Newmark, Nacole Walker, James Stanford, ‘The rez accent knows no borders’: Native American ethnic identity expressed through English prosody, Cambridge University Press, Published online.

(US, slang) Clipping of reservation (“tract of land set apart for native people”).


Chiricahua

en-noun

Chiricahua (plural Chiricahuas or Chiricahua)

Chiricahuas (plural)
Chiricahua (plural)

Via Spanish Chiricahua, most likely from Opata chiguicagui (“mountain of the wild turkey”).

der

A member of a particular Native American tribe.


teepee

From the Lakota word thípi (/ˈtʰipi/), which consists of two elements: the verb thí (“to dwell”), and pi, a pluralising enclitic (a suffix-like ending that marks the subject of the verb as plural), which means "they dwell". Lakota verbs can be used as nouns and this is the case with thípi, which in practice just means "house".

A cone-shaped tent traditionally used by many native peoples of the Great Plains of North America.


tipi

Borrowed from English teepee, from Lakota thípi.


Salish

Muriel said that the garden was ancient and had been cultivated by the Salish for generations, but now few people harvested there, which was a pity because the gardens benefited by frequent harvesting.

2013, Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being, Canongate Books (2019), page 199:

A broad Native American ethnolinguistic group, the Salish peoples.

(dated) The Bitterroot Salish people specifically.


Quapaw

Any member of a Native American people who once lived in the Arkansas river valley.


Kansa

From a Siouan ethnonym; related to Kansas and Arkansas, see the latter for more information.

A Native American people who used to inhabit parts of Kansas.


Miwok

Miwok means "the people" in the native Utian language.

The Utian (Penutian) languages spoken by these groups.


Wyandot

An unincorporated community in Wyandot County, Ohio, United States


peace pipe

to smoke the peace pipe

A tobacco pipe smoked ceremonially in certain Native American cultures that symbolizes peace among those who smoke it, and among whom it is passed around from person to person.


Chinook

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Chinook Jargon
Chinook, Montana
Chinookan languages
Columbia river

From Lower Chehalis c̓inúk (the name of a Chinook village on the Columbia river).

bor

A city, the county seat of Blaine County, Montana, United States.


Catawba

From catawba, as the tree was the people's totem.

There was a Catawba brave who took some pottery [to another tribe] to trade for bows and arrows. This chief [of the other tribe] had a beautiful daughter, and the Catawba brave fell in love with her, and she likewise fell in love with him. When the Catawba brave left, she asked her father for a bow and arrow. She shot it in the air in the direction the brave went, and then she went to get it. She kept shooting it in the air until she caught up with him.

1970, a Catawba origin story, told and retold by various individuals, and printed by Charles M. Hudson in his book The Catawba Nation

A member of a Native American people who inhabit the Carolinas: the Iswa.


Potawatomi

en-noun

Potawatomi (plural Potawatomis or Potawatomi)

Potawatomis (plural)
Potawatomi (plural)

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Borrowed from Potawatomi Bodéwadmi (“those who tend the fire”), from bodewadm (“hearth”).

bor

A member of a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region.


Erie

From an Erie word rendered in French as Erieehronon, Eriechronon, and Riquéronon and said to mean “long tail” or “long-tailed”, in reference to the eastern cougar (Puma concolor cougar).

A small city, the county seat of Neosho County, Kansas, United States.

A city, the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States.


Karuk

Borrowed from Karok káruk (“upstream, upriver (people)”), because they live upstream on the Klamath River while the Yurok live downstream.

bor+

The language spoken by this tribe, which is either a language isolate or perhaps Hokan.


Arapaho

/əˈɹeɪpəhoʊ/

From a Siouan language, perhaps Hidatsa arúpahu (“Arapaho person”) or Crow aaraxpéahu (“tattooed person”).

A town, the county seat of Custer County, Oklahoma, United States.


powwow

From an Eastern Algonquian language, probably Massachusett pauwau (“he uses divination; he practices magic or sorcery”) or Narragansett powwáw (“sorcerer, shaman”), ultimately from Proto-Algonquian *pawe·wa (“one who dreams”).

der

rada plemienna (Indian północnoamerykańskich)

A ritual conducted by a Native American shaman.

A Native American shaman. [from 17th c.]

(Canada, US) A large gathering during which Indigenous songs and dances are showcased for an audience, essentially a recital or concert. Often also doubles as a fundraiser, or can be held in conjunction with a non-indigneous fair or exhibition in order to attract a large crowd, as at the Calgary Stampede and K-Days.


Abenaki

From French abénaquis, either from Montagnais ouabanākionek (“people of the eastern country”) or from the Western Abenaki autonym Wôbanaki or an Eastern Abenaki/Penobscot cognate of the same, from Algonquin. Ultimately a compound word meaning "people of the east" or "people of the dawn-land", from Proto-Algonquian *wa·panki (“dawn”) + *askyi (“land”).

The Abenaki could also be brave warriors, but like most hunter-gatherers they probably did not go looking for trouble.

2000, Jan Albers, Hands on the Land: A History of the Vermont Landscape, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 57:

An Algonquian First People from northeastern North America, mainly Maine and Quebec.


Iroquois

/ˈɪɹ.ə.kwɔɪ/

/ˈɪɹ.ə.kwɑː/

Attested in American English since the 1660s, from French Iroquois, Hiroquois (attested since the early 1600s). The ultimate origin is uncertain.
theories
Missionary Charles Arnaud derived it from Montagnais irno-kué (“terrible people”). Linguist Gordon Day notes that though no form irno "person" is attested, one is plausible (given iriniou and ilnu), but application to a non-Montagnais is unlikely, and kué is too short: the root is kwet-. Day finds support for a longer form kwedɛč ("an Iroquois", lit. "terrible, frightening person") in Pacifique's Micmac grammar, in "goetètjg", and sees "fairly good indications that the name [i.e. kwedɛč] was an ancient one for Iroquoian peoples generally", but then "irno kwedɛč" would awkwardly mean "a person, an Iroquois", which could not have been a usual term. Day theorizes the awkward phrase may nonetheless have been uttered by some interpreter and used thereafter by the unaware French, or alternatively the Montagnais may have borrowed an Iroquoian autonym whereafter Montagnais folk-etymologizers adapted it to resemble those words; for example, Mohawk i-ih rongwe (“man”) would have entered Montagnais as /iːrohkwe/. (Some earlier scholars proposed that an Iroquoian term like the Mohawk term was the direct etymon of the French.)
Linguist Peter Bakker alternatively proposes that the etymon is a Basque pidgin word (h)ilokoa "killers" (mirroring Algonquian names for the Iroquois), from hil (“to kill”) and a suffix -koa (“those of”) which may be the source of some other tribal names ending in -quois. Hilokoa, as Brad Loewen notes, is ungrammatical in standard Basque (Loewen suggests irikoa (“those of the walled town”) as an alternative etymon).

A member of a confederacy of (originally) five Native American (Indian) tribes: the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas. Also known as the Iroquois League.


Makah

From Klallam màq̓áʔa (“generous with food”).

A member of an indigenous North American people in the northwestern Olympic Peninsula of Washington state in North America.


Comanche

Probably from Spanish comanche, a corruption of Old Ute kɨmantsi *[kɨˈman.tʃi] (“enemy”, “foreigner”) (compare Modern Southern Ute [kɨˈmaːtʃi̥] (“enemy”, “stranger”)). The Comanches’ autonym is Nʉmʉnʉʉ (“the people”).

A place in the United States:
A township in Barton County, Kansas.

Yellowstone County
Yellowstone County#English

An unincorporated community in Yellowstone County, Montana.

A small city in Stephens County, Oklahoma.

A city, the county seat of Comanche County, Texas.


Shoshone

An Amerindian ethnic group of North America, especially of Wyoming and Idaho.

A small city, the county seat of Lincoln County, Idaho, United States.

A census-designated place in Inyo County, California, United States.


Ute

A Native American people of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.


Rumsen

One of eight divisions of the Ohlone Native American people of northern California native to Monterey Bay Area.


Ohlone

A member of an indigenous population native to the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas, California.


Ohlone

The Utian (Penutian) family of languages of this people.


Omaha

The largest city in Nebraska, United States, and the county seat of Douglas County.


Chalakkiꞌ

Compare Choctaw Chalakki, Alabama Chalakki, Koasati Chalakki, Creek Cvlakke.


Chalakkiꞌ

anchalakkiꞌ (first-person possessive singular)
an-chalakkiꞌ (first-person possessive singular)
ponchalakkiꞌ (first-person plural possessive)
pon-chalakkiꞌ (first-person plural possessive)
haponchalakkiꞌ (first-person inclusive possessive tri-plural)
hapon-chalakkiꞌ (first-person inclusive possessive tri-plural)
chinchalakkiꞌ (possessive second-person singular)
chin-chalakkiꞌ (possessive second-person singular)
hachinchalakkiꞌ (plural possessive second-person)
hachinchalakkiꞌ (possessive second-person tri-plural)
hachin-chalakkiꞌ (plural possessive second-person)
hachin-chalakkiꞌ (possessive second-person tri-plural)
inchalakkiꞌ (possessive third-person)
in-chalakkiꞌ (possessive third-person)


Salinan

The Salinan were named after the Salinas River by Robert Latham first in 1856, and by John Wesley Powell in 1891.


Karkin

One of eight divisions of the Ohlone Native American people of northern California.


Aboriginal American

en-adj

Aboriginal American (comparative more Aboriginal American, superlative most Aboriginal American)

more Aboriginal American (comparative)
most Aboriginal American (superlative)

Of the original settlers of North America.


Osage

en-noun

Osage (countable and uncountable, plural Osages or Osage)

Evolved from a borrowing from French variations of Osage 𐓏𐓘𐓻𐓘𐓻𐓟 (wažáže), the name of a division of the tribe.

A city, the county seat of Mitchell County, Iowa, United States.

Four townships, in Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri, United States, listed under Osage.


Indianer

de-noun

Indianer m (strong, genitive Indianers, plural Indianer, feminine Indianerin)

Indianers (genitive)
Indianer (plural)
Indianerin (feminine)
Indianer (nominative singular)
Indianer (definite nominative plural)
Indianers (genitive singular)
Indianer (definite genitive plural)
Indianer (dative singular)
Indianern (dative definite plural)
Indianer (accusative singular)
Indianer (accusative definite plural)

Indian, American Indian, Native American


apache

Apache (one of the native Apache people of the southwestern United States)


apache

Felis yagouaroundi
Felis yagouaroundi#Translingual


Peoria

From Miami peewaareewa (“comes carrying a pack on his back”).

bor

A number of places in the United States:

A city in Maricopa County and Yavapai County, Arizona, named after Peoria, Illinois.

A census-designated place in Arapahoe County, Colorado.

A city, the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois.

An unincorporated community in Springfield Township, Franklin County, Indiana.

An unincorporated community in Butler Township, Miami County, Indiana.

An unincorporated community in Richland Township, Mahaska County, Iowa.

A township and unincorporated community therein, in Franklin County, Kansas.

Washington County
Washington County#English

An unincorporated community in Washington County, Missouri.

An unincorporated community in Liberty Township, Union County, Ohio.

A town in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, named for the Peoria people.

"If you love the theater and it's in your blood, it doesn't matter if it's Peoria. Can you play Peoria, Gil?"

1998, Wilton Barnhardt, Emma Who Saved My Life, Picador, →ISBN, page 424:

(figurative) A typical, unremarkable United States city; Anytown.


Massachusett

A Native American tribe who traditionally live in the Massachusetts Bay area in the state of Massachusetts.


Irokese

de-noun

Irokese m (weak, genitive Irokesen, plural Irokesen, feminine Irokesin)

Irokesen (genitive)
Irokesen (plural)
Irokesin (feminine)
Irokese (nominative singular)
Irokesen (definite nominative plural)
Irokesen (genitive singular)
Irokesen (definite genitive plural)
Irokesen (dative singular)
Irokesen (dative definite plural)
Irokesen (accusative singular)
Irokesen (accusative definite plural)

(hairstyle): Mohawk, Mohican, Iroquois (haircut)


Lenape

Endless generations of Lenape stretching down the lines of the past—changed, though not destroyed, by colonialism.

2020, N. K. Jemisin, The City We Became, Orbit, page 299:

A group of aboriginal Americans who were living in what is now New Jersey and along the Delaware River in Pennsylvania, the coast of Delaware, and the lower Hudson Valley and New York Harbor in New York, at the time of the arrival of the Europeans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.


First Nations

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Among the 1692 Australian species and subspecies on the BirdLife Australia Working List V3 (excluding vagrant and introduced taxa [...]), 18.7% derive from unrelated entities (e.g. shrike-tit that is neither shrike nor tit). Just 82 reflect First Nations names for birds (1.6%) or places (3.3%)

2022, Stephen T. Garnett, Golo Maurer, Georgia E. Garrard, “Why Australian common bird names should respond to societal change”, in Emu: Austral Ornithology, volume 122, number 2, page 150:

Torres Strait Islander
Torres Strait Islander

(Australia) The Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) peoples of Australia.


pow-wow

en-verb

pow-wow (third-person singular simple present pow-wows, present participle pow-wowing, simple past and past participle pow-wowed)

pow-wows (present singular third-person)
pow-wowing (participle present)
pow-wowed (participle past)
pow-wowed (past)


Dena'ina

Borrowed from Dena'ina Denaʼina (literally “the people”).

bor

A member of the Dena'ina people, a Native American tribe of the region surrounding Cook Inlet on the southern coast of Alaska.


Kiowa

A town, the county seat of Elbert County, Colorado.

A place in the United States:
A minor city in Barber County, Kansas.

An unincorporated community in Glacier County, Montana.

A ghost town in Thayer County, Nebraska.

Pittsburg County
Pittsburg County#English

A place in the United States:
A town in Pittsburg County, Oklahoma.


Menominee

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Borrowed from Ojibwe manoominii (literally “wild-rice people”); from Ojibwe manoomin.

Jo Daviess County
Jo Daviess County#English

A village in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, United States.

Menominee County
Menominee County#English

A city, the county seat of Menominee County, Michigan, United States.

An unincorporated community in Cedar County, Nebraska, United States.

A town in Menominee County, Wisconsin, United States, which is coextensive with and consolidated with the county.


Sts'Ailes

From Halkomelem Stsʼaʼí:les (the name of a village, literally “beating heart”). Doublet of Chehalis.

A First Nations people in the Lower Mainland of the Canadian province of British Columbia.


Haida

From Southern Haida X̲aayda /ħaːjd̥a/; compare Northern Haida xaad /ħaːd̥/.

The first recorded European contact with the Haida was by the Spanish explorer Juan Perez in 1774 at Langara Island in the Queen Charlotte Islands. Soon the Haida were caught up in the lucrative fur trade, and the time they spent hunting sea otters and other marine mammals greatly increased.

2003, Sharon Busby, Spruce Root Basketry of the Haida and Tlingit, Lucia Marquand Books, →ISBN, page 109:

A member of an indigenous people of the Northwest Coast of North America who live primarily in British Columbia and Alaska.


Yurok

Borrowed from Karok [Term?] (“downriver [people]”), as they live on the Klamath River downstream of the Karuk, whose name means "upriver [people]".

bor+

A member of a particular Native American tribe of Northern California.


Kickapoo

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Borrowed from Spanish Kikapú, further origins are contested; an Anishinaabeg source proposes giiwigaabaw (“stand here and there”), in reference to the tribe's migratory patterns.

A member of a particular Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe.


Pomo

Used in English since 1877, Pomo derives from the Pomo language words /pʰoːmoː/ and /pʰoʔmaʔ/, meaning "those who live at red earth hole". It was once the name of a village in Southern Potter Valley, possibly referring to the red mineral magnesite used for beads, or to the reddish earth and clay such as hematite mined in the area.
At the same time in the Northern Pomo dialect, -pomo or -poma was used as a suffix after the names of places for subgroups of people of that place.

An indigenous population native to Northern California.


Amérindien

fr-noun

Amérindien m (plural Amérindiens, feminine Amérindienne)

Amérindiens (plural)
Amérindienne (feminine)


Indianin

pl-noun

Indianin m pers (female equivalent Indianka)

Indianka (feminine)
Indianin (nominative singular)
Indianie (nominative plural)
Indianina (genitive singular)
Indian (genitive plural)
Indianinowi (dative singular)
Indianom (dative plural)
Indianina (accusative singular)
Indian (accusative plural)
Indianinem (instrumental singular)
Indianami (instrumental plural)
Indianinie (locative singular)
Indianach (locative plural)
Indianinie (singular vocative)
Indianie (plural vocative)

Indian, Native American (member of one of the indigenous peoples of the Americas)


Seminole

An unincorporated community in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States.

A city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States.

A city in Seminole County, Oklahoma, United States.

A city, the county seat of Gaines County, Texas, United States.


индеец

ru-noun+

инде́ец • (indéjec) m anim (genitive инде́йца, nominative plural инде́йцы, genitive plural инде́йцев, feminine индиа́нка)

инде́ец (canonical)
indéjec (romanization)
инде́йца (genitive)
инде́йцы (nominative plural)
инде́йцев (genitive plural)
индиа́нка (feminine)
инде́ец (nominative singular)
инде́йцы (nominative plural)
инде́йца (genitive singular)
инде́йцев (genitive plural)
инде́йцу (dative singular)
инде́йцам (dative plural)
инде́йца (accusative singular)
инде́йцев (accusative plural)
инде́йцем (instrumental singular)
инде́йцами (instrumental plural)
инде́йце (prepositional singular)
инде́йцах (plural prepositional)

→ Uzbek: indeys

From English Indian. Applied to inhabitants of the Americas due to an early misconception that the Americas were the eastern end of Asia / the Indies.


Pawnee

Borrowing from French Pani, from Algonquin pani, either from Winnebago pa꞉ní or Chiwere pányi.

A village in Sangamon County, Illinois, United States.

A ghost town in Geary County, Kansas, United States.

An unincorporated community in Harrison County, Missouri, United States.

An unincorporated community in Medina County, Ohio, United States.

A city, the county seat of Pawnee County, Oklahoma, United States.

A census-designated place in Bee County, Texas, United States.


Paiute

From Spanish payuchi, payuta, compare Spanish yuta (“Ute”).

(anthropology) Any member of two related groups of North American aboriginal peoples: the Northern Paiute of California, Nevada, and Oregon, and the Southern Paiute of Arizona, southeastern California and Nevada, and Utah.


count coup

en-verb

count coup (third-person singular simple present counts coup, present participle counting coup, simple past and past participle counted coup)

counts coup (present singular third-person)
counting coup (participle present)
counted coup (participle past)
counted coup (past)

count + coup (“quick, brilliant, and highly successful act”) (from French coup (“blow, hit, strike”), ultimately from Ancient Greek κόλᾰφος (kólaphos, “a buffet, a blow”)).

der

dǐ ki, v. t., to strike, to whip, to "count coup."

[1873, Washington Matthews, “dǐ ki”, in Grammar and Dictionary of the Language of the Hidatsa (Minnetarees, Grosventres of the Missouri). With an Introductory Sketch of the Tribe (Shea’s Library of American Linguistics; ser. 2, no. 1), New York, N.Y.: Cramoisy Press, →OCLC, page 80, column 1:

Sitting Bull, on horseback, with his brother behind him, counts "coup" on the soldier, and adds a new feather to his war bonnet and variety to the color of his legging fringes.

1876 July 29, Porte Crayon [pseudonym; David Hunter Strother], “Sitting Bull.—Autobiography of the Famous Sioux Chief.”, in Harper’s Weekly. A Journal of Civilization, volume XX, number 1022 (supplement), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 627, column 2:

No Sioux may wear an eagle's tail-feather unless he has counted a coup, or stroke, upon an enemy, dead or alive.

1915, Charles A[lexander] Eastman (Ohiyesa), “The Language of Feathers and Ceremonial Dress”, in Indian Scout Talks: A Guide for Boy Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company, →OCLC, pages 127–128:

A small band of Indians had ridden onto this irresistible opportunity and had counted coup with the whites' own unguarded guns.

1954, David Lavender, Bent’s Fort: A Historical Account of the Adobe Empire that Shaped the Destiny of the American Southwest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, →OCLC; Bent’s Fort, Bison Book edition, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, March 1972, →ISBN, page 90:

Only a damn fool counts coup on a kill he ain't sure of. That hombre could have us under his gun this very minute.

1994, Ralph Compton, “Prologue”, in The Shawnee Trail (The Trail Drive Series; 6), New York, N.Y.: St. Martin's Paperbacks, →ISBN, page 2:

I told him what I had done, how I had counted coup in a Pottawattomie, and he shook hands and said that he too had counted coup and that he was going to wear a head ornament.

1999, Sam Blowsnake, “I Take a Trip to Nebraska”, in Paul Radin, editor, Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of an American Indian, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, →ISBN, page 153:

To count coup a warrior had to strike an armed and fighting enemy with his coup-stick, quirt, or bow before otherwise harming him, or take his weapons while he was yet alive, or strike the first enemy falling in battle, no matter who killed him, […] [I]f a warrior was wounded in counting coup, the feather he wore to mark the event must be painted red to show that he bled.

2002, Frank B[ird] Linderman, chapter 3, in Plenty-coups: Chief of the Crows, new edition, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 31:

To a Plains Indian warrior "to count coup" meant, literally, "to touch the enemy." To count coup, a warrior might kill an enemy, injure him, struggle with him, or merely touch him.

2006, Joseph Medicine Crow, Herman Viola, Counting Coup: Becoming a Crow Chief on the Reservation and Beyond, Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Children's Books, →ISBN, page 21:

In this sham battle, Crow men pretend to count coup on their old enemies, the Piegan.

2012, Lillian Bullshows Hogan, Barbara Loeb, Mardell Hogan Plainfeather, “Memories of Youth”, in The Woman Who Loved Mankind: The Life of a Twentieth-Century Crow Elder, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 120:

The belief that a warrior could obtain some of the soul of his enemy, as well as some of his strength, courage, and energy, motivated warriors to count coup whenever the opportunity arose.

2012, GaWaNi Pony Boy, “Horse and Native American: The Relationship Begins”, in Ruth Berman, editor, Out of the Saddle: Native American Horsemanship, Irvine, Calif.: BowTie Press, →ISBN, page 28:

(intransitive, US, historical) To win prestige in battle by performing an act of bravery in the face of the enemy (such as touching him and escaping unharmed), a ritual of the Plains Indians of North America.


Wiyot

The now-extinct Algic language of the Wiyot people.


Iswa

From the tribe's autonym, ye iswa (“people of the river”), from Catawba ye (“people”) + iswa (“river”).

A Native American people who inhabit the Carolinas: the Catawba.


Pima

In the valley of the Gila and on its tributaries from the northeast are the Pimas, Maricopas, and Papagos.

1895, J[ohn] W[esley] Powell, chapter I, in Canyons of the Colorado, Meadville, PA: Flood & Vincent; republished as The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons, New York: Dover, 1961, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 24:

A member of a group of American Indians living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona (USA) and Sonora (Mexico).


Yakima

A city, the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States.


Natchez

A city, the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States.


Nootka

From Nootka nuučaan̓uł (“all along the mountains”).

uder

A member of the Nuu-chah-nulth people, an indigenous people from Vancouver Island, Canada


Yuchi

Any of a Native American tribe from the eastern Tennessee River valley, nowadays found mostly in northeastern Oklahoma.


Klamath

Del Norte County
Del Norte County#English

A census-designated place in Del Norte County, California, United States.


Narragansett

en-noun

Narragansett (plural Narragansetts or Narragansett)

Narragansetts (plural)
Narragansett (plural)

/ˌnɛrəˈɡænsət/

A member of an Algonquian Native American tribe that formerly inhabited the shores of Narragansett Bay.


Oneida

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Derived from Oneida Onyota'a꞉ka (“men of upright stones”).

der

A member of a tribe of Native Americans formerly inhabiting the region near Oneida Lake in New York, now often found in modern New York, Wisconsin, or Canada.


Tuscarora

en-noun

Tuscarora (plural Tuscaroras or Tuscarora)

A member of a Native American people with members in New York, Canada, and North Carolina.


Montagnais

Borrowed from French montagnais, from montagne (“mountain”) + -ais.

An Algonquian language spoken by approximately 11,000 people in Eastern Canada.


Chipewyan

Chipewyan (plural Chipewyans or Chipewyan)

From Plains Cree ᒌᐘᔮᐣ (Cīpwayān, “pointed skin”), from ᒌᐚᐤ (cīpwāw, “to be pointed”) + ᐘᔮᐣ (wayān, “skin, hide”) — a reference to the cut and style of Chipewyan parkas.

bor

In addition to their leatherwork, woodwork, stonework, and bonework, the Chipewyan also worked in metal.

2006, Carl Waldman, Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, page 65:

Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories

A member of a Native American tribe of Central Canada, in the regions of Alberta, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, and Saskatchewan.


Penobscot

An extinct Abenaki (Algonquian) language, spoken in parts of the northeastern United States and in Quebec, related to Western Abenaki.

A town in Hancock County, Maine, United States.


Penobscot

One of a sovereign people indigenous to what is now Maritime Canada and the northeastern United States, particularly Maine.


Modoc

From Klamath-Modoc moatokni (“southerner”).

Any member of a Native American tribe formerly living in California and Oregon, and now in Oklahoma as well.


Bannock

Derived from Northern Paiute Pannakwatɨ (“Bannock”).

A member of a tribe of the Northern Paiute, an indigenous people of the Great Basin.


Koyukon

A member of an Athabascan people of northern Alaska, whose traditional home is along the Koyukuk and Yukon rivers.


Meskwaki

From Fox Meshkwahkihaki (“red men”), from meshkwâwi (“red”).

A member of a Native American people of the Great Lakes region.


Cahuilla

Probably from Cahuilla kawi'a (“master”).

A member of a group of Native Americans of the inland areas of southern California.


Mono

Uncertain. The Monache, a related ethnic group, seems to derive their name from a common source as the Mono, as -chi occurs otherwise in the Yokutsan and Miwok languages as a relatively common suffix on tribal names.

A county in California, United States, see Mono County.


Sauk

From French Saki, from Fox Thâkîwa, itself from athâwâwi (“yellow”) + neniwa (“man”).

A tribe or group of Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands culture group.

The lect (variously considered a language or a member of a group of dialects) spoken by these Native Americans.


Sauk

Any member of this group of Native Americans.


Shuswap

A member of a First Nations people residing in the Canadian province of British Columbia.


Beothuk

(linguistics) The extinct language of these people.


wetu

Wetus ranged in size between about 10 to 15 feet in diameter. As many as ten people lived inside.

2001, Donald M. Silver, Patricia J. Wynne, The Pilgrims, the Mayflower & more; grades 1-3, page 17:

To make a wetu, the Wampanoag set poles made from cedar saplings into the ground. They bent the poles over and covered them with cattail reeds or bark. A wetu was either circular or oval. Most wetu were about 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 meters) […]

2003, Janet Riehecky, The Wampanoag: The People of the First Light, page 13:

Wetus were commonly about 12 feet (3.7 m) wide and 14 to 20 feet (4.3 to 6.1 m) long. Sometimes three or four families shared a single house. These wetus could be up to 100 feet (30.4 m) long and 30 feet (9.1 m) wide.

2005, Janey Levy, The Wampanoag of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, page 22:

In one corner of the village a man is emerging from a sweat-house; in the village's center a child sleeps in a wetu while a little boy on the roof hides from his dog, their only domesticated animal. A woman in mourning speaks to the sachem.

2008, Frances H. Kennedy, American Indian Places: A Historical Guidebook, page 31:

(US) A dwelling, a domed hut similar to a wigwam, used by some Native Americans in the northeastern United States, especially the Wampanoag.


Guale

Uncertain, has been connected to Creek wvhvlv (/wahála/, “south”).

A member of a historic Native American tribe of the North American Sea Islands.


First People

A First Nation; an indigenous North American people.


Tillamook

Tillamook County
Tillamook County#English

A city, the county seat of Tillamook County, Oregon, United States.


Coeur d'Alene

From French cœur (“heart”) + d’ (“of”) + alêne (“awl”).

Coeur d'Alene language
Coeur d'Alene people
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

A city, the county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States.


Lillooet

British Columbia
British Columbia#English

A district municipality in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada.


Coushatta

Borrowed from Koasati Kowassa:ti (“bobcat people”).

Red River Parish
Red River Parish#English

A town, the parish seat of Red River Parish, Louisiana, United States.


Cocopah

Borrowed from Cocopa kwii capáy (literally “cloud people”).

A member of a Native American people living in Baja California and Sonora, Mexico, and in Arizona in the United States.


Powhatan

An unincorporated community, the county seat of Powhatan County, Virginia, United States.


Nanticoke

en-noun

Nanticoke (plural Nanticokes or Nanticoke)

A member of an indigenous American Algonquian people whose traditional homelands are in Chesapeake Bay and Delaware.


Spokane

A number of etymologies of the name have been proposed, most frequently Sun children, children of the Sun, or muddy people. According to Barry Pritzker (2011), these interpretations are most probably popular etymologies derived from an actual self-designation of Spoqe'ind, meaning round head.

Any of various other places in the United States.


sipapu

A small hole or indentation in the floor of a kiva, symbolizing the portal through which the ancient ancestors emerged into the world.


Atakapa

Borrowing from Choctaw hatak apa (literally “man eater”).


Ponca

A small city, the county seat of Dixon County, Nebraska, United States.


iroquês

pt-noun

iroquês m (plural iroqueses, feminine iroquesa, feminine plural iroquesas)

iroqueses (plural)
iroquesa (feminine)
iroquesas (feminine plural)

Iroquois (a person belonging to an Iroquois tribe of North America)


Nez Perce

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A Native American people who live in the Pacific Northwest region (Columbia River Plateau) of the United States.


Tohono O'odham

A group of Native Americans who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of southeastern Arizona and northwestern Mexico.


Mohave

From a shortened form of the endonym, Mojave Hamakhaave (“beside the water”), spelled Mojave in Spanish.

A Native American people indigenous to the Colorado River in the Mojave Desert.


Hupa

From the Yurok name of the valley in which they reside (Hoopa Valley).

A member of a tribe residing in the Hoopa Valley.


Tolowa

From a Yurok term: either from tolowechek' (“I speak Tolowa”), or from the Yurok name of their principal town.


Syilx

A First Nations and Native American people whose traditional territory spans the U.S.-Canada boundary in Washington state and British Columbia in the Okanagan Country region.


Okanagan

en-noun

Okanagan (countable and uncountable, plural Okanagans)

(linguistics, uncountable) A Salish language which arose among the indigenous peoples of the southern Interior Plateau region based primarily in the Okanagan River Basin and the Columbia River Basin.


red man

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In reference to Native Americans, generally accepted to have originated as a reference to their skin color; see redskin for more.

Alternative form: redman

The Sacred Circles show was heavily into myth, especially the current myth of the Red Man as mystic.

1977, Angela Carter, “That Arizona Home”, in Shaking a Leg, Vintage, published 2013, page 337:

(ethnic slur, offensive) An American Indian; a Native American.


Yamasee

(historical) A member of a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans who lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida.


Hidatsa

A member of a Siouan people, part of the Three Affiliated Tribes.


Otoe

A village in Otoe County, Nebraska, United States.


Haudenosaunee

First used in 1851, a borrowing from Seneca Hodínöhšö:ni:h, an autonym shared among the Six Nations.


Mandan

An ethnic Native American tribe in North Dakota.


Quinault

A group of Native American peoples from western Washington in the United States.


Quileute

A Native American people in western Washington state.


Tonkawa

From Wichita tonkaweya (“those who stay together”), compare Tonkawa Tickanwa•tic (“(a) genuine people”).

cog

A city in Kay County, Oklahoma, United States.


Hia C-ed O'odham

From O'odham hia (“sand”) + -c'eḑ (“locative suffix”) + o'odham (“people”), thus "sand people".

A group of Native Americans who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of southeastern Arizona and northwestern Mexico; closely related to the Tohono O'odham.


Maidu

Borrowing from Northeast Maidu maidüm (“man”).

A member of an indigenous people of northern California, residing in the central Sierra Nevada.


Tataviam

A Native American group in southern California.


Kwakwaka'wakw

en-noun

Kwakwaka'wakw (plural Kwakwaka'wakws or Kwakwaka'wakw)

Kwakwaka'wakws (plural)
Kwakwaka'wakw (plural)

Before he leads me to his office to sit in on one of these appointments, Mr. Peterson shows me around the third floor of his home, which is filled with carvings made by Charles Joseph, a Kwakwaka'wakw artist.

2018 May 18, Nellie Bowles, The New York Times:

A member of an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast.


Sekani

A First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada.


Ho-Chunk

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A member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin, a Native American tribe that was formerly part of the Winnebago.


Cupeño

The American Indian people of Southern California who formerly lived at what is now Warner Springs, California.


Chehalis

From Lower Chehalis C̓x̣íl̕əš (“Westport, Washington”).

bor

A river in Washington, United States, flowing into the Pacific Ocean.


Pensacola

/ˌpɛnsəˈkəʊlə/

A city, the county seat of Escambia County, Florida, United States.


Ouachita

/ˈwɑːʃɪ.tɑː/

/ˈwɑːʃɪ.tɔː/

A Native American tribe who lived along the Ouachita River in Louisiana, affiliated with and now subsumed into the Caddo.


Umatilla

A city in Lake County, Florida, United States.

A city in Umatilla County, Oregon, United States, named after the river.


Hualapai

Borrowing from Havasupai-Walapai-Yavapai hwa:l pai, meaning "people of the tall pines" (Pinus ponderosa).

A member of an indigenous North American people historically located in northern Arizona.


iroqués

es-noun

iroqués m (plural iroqueses, feminine iroquesa, feminine plural iroquesas)

Iroquois (a person belonging to an Iroquois tribe of North America)


Walla Walla

/ˌwɒlə ˈwɒlə/

Walla Walla County
Walla Walla County#English

A city, the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States.

The Walla Walla River, a tributary of the Columbia River in Washington, United States.


Walla Walla

/ˌwɒlə ˈwɒlə/

A kind of sweet onion from Walla Walla County, Washington, United States.


Hitchiti

A member of an indigenous tribe formerly residing chiefly in a town of the same name on the east bank of the Chattahoochee River, in present-day western Georgia, United States.


Naskapi

An Innu-speaking First Nation in eastern Quebec and Labrador.


Assiniboine

en-noun

Assiniboine (plural Assiniboines or Assiniboine)

Assiniboines (plural)
Assiniboine (plural)

From French Assiniboine, transcription of Ojibwe asinii-bwaan (“stone Sioux”)/ᐊᓯᓃᑇᐣ.

A member of an indigenous people related to the Sioux living in the Great Plains in the United States and Canada.


Tübatulabal

Tübatulabal (plural Tübatulabals or Tübatulabal)

Tübatulabals (plural)
Tübatulabal (plural)

Borrowed from Tübatulabal tɨbatulabal (“the Tübatulabal people”), from tɨbatul (“single-leaf pinyon”) + ?.

bor

A member of a people of the Kern River Valley, California, United States.


Tongva

A member of a group of Native Americans who inhabited the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands, thought to be descended from Uto-Aztecan-speaking peoples from Nevada.


Arikara

Possibly from Arikara aríka (“horn”), or árikaraahkucuʾ (“bull elk,” literally “ones with big horns”).

A member of a tribe of Native Americans in what is today North Dakota, who are today enrolled with the Mandan and the Hidatsa as the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation.


Cahokia

Borrowed from Miami kahokiaki (“wild geese”).

bor+

Cahokia
Cahokia (disambiguation)
Cahokia people

St. Clair County
St. Clair County#English

A village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, across the Mississippi River from Saint Louis, Missouri.


Chilcotin

en-noun

Chilcotin (plural Chilcotins or Chilcotin)

Borrowed from Chilcotin Tŝinlhqut’in (literally “river man”).


Shinnecock

en-noun

Shinnecock (plural Shinnecocks or Shinnecock)

Shinnecocks (plural)
Shinnecock (plural)

A member of a Native American tribe in the Town of Southampton, New York.


cheyenés

es-adj

cheyenés (feminine cheyenesa, masculine plural cheyeneses, feminine plural cheyenesas)

cheyenesa (feminine)
cheyeneses (masculine plural)
cheyenesas (feminine plural)

Cheyenne (of or relating to the indigenous Cheyenne people)

(relational) of Cheyenne; Cheyenneite (of or relating to Cheyenne, Wyoming)


cheyenés

es-noun

cheyenés m (plural cheyeneses, feminine cheyenesa, feminine plural cheyenesas)

cheyeneses (plural)
cheyenesa (feminine)
cheyenesas (feminine plural)

Cheyenne (a member or descendant of the indigenous Cheyenne people)

Cheyenneite (native or resident of Cheyenne, Wyoming)


Turtle Island

From turtle + island, based on the role of a turtle's back acting as the base for the world while being surrounded by water in the creation stories of multiple tribes of the Northeastern Woodlands region of North America as well as Algonquian- and Iroquoian-speaking peoples. Specific groups with such myths include the Lenape people, the Haudenosaunee, the Ojibwe people, and the Cree.

Turtle Island (Native American folklore)

If dispossession has defined recent centuries of Turtle Island history, then this fact has been well accommodated in official U.S. discourse.

1992, Gordon Brotherston, Book of the Fourth World: Reading the Native Americas Through Their Literature, CUP Archive, →ISBN, page 174:

Native peoples see the continent as Turtle Island (a concept brought to a wider audience by ecospirit poetry of Gary Snyder). The continental Turtle can be seen in two ways, with its head either to the north or south.

1999, Peter William Champoux, William Stuart Buehler, Gaia Matrix: Arkhom and the Geometries of Destiny in the North American Landscape, Gaia Matrix, →ISBN, page 62:

Tears had flowed with the tide of settlers all the way to the western shores of Turtle Island. When Chief Seattle signed the 1855 Port Elliott Treaty, surrendering his lands to the Washington governor,[…]

2003, Sheila Seclearr, A Tree on Turtle Island, PageFree Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, page 250:

For me, Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars' Club represents a coming together of the concerns of my published work as a scholar and my personal journey home to learn from my elders.

2012, Christopher B. Teuton, Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liars’ Club, UNC Press Books, →ISBN, page 3:


Sandia

Borrowed from Spanish sandía (“watermelon”).

Jim Wells County
Jim Wells County#English

An unincorporated community in Jim Wells County, Texas.


Chikashsha I̠yaakniꞌ

From Chikashsha (“Chickasaw”) + im- (3rd-person alienable noun possession prefix) + yaakniꞌ (“land, country”).


iroquès

ca-adj

iroquès (feminine iroquesa, masculine plural iroquesos, feminine plural iroqueses)

iroquesa (feminine)
iroquesos (masculine plural)
iroqueses (feminine plural)

Borrowed from French iroquois. Perhaps ultimately from Algonquian–Basque pidgin hilokoa (“killer”), from Basque hil (“to kill”).


iroquès

ca-noun

iroquès m (plural iroquesos, feminine iroquesa)


hair pipe

Obscure, possibly from hair + pipe, as a description of one of its uses. Earliest known usage from 1767.

Wampum, Weoka / “ hair pipes, Waebosndata

1850, Caleb Atwater, “Rudiments of the Grammar of the Sioux Language”, in The Indians of the Northwest: Their Maners, Customs, &c. &c,, Columbus, →OCLC, page 168:

About 1850 he, in connection with his brother James, invented a machine for drilling wampum hair-pipe, which is manufactured from conch-shells and clam-shells.

1882, “XXIV: The Bench and Bar of Bergen County”, in W. Woodford Clayton, William Nelson, editors, History of Bergen and Passaic Counties, Philadelphia: Everts & Peck, page 107:

The Kiowas used brass earrings, from each of which was suspended a hair pipe, which in turn supported a brass chain with a German-silver ornament at the end.

1977, Ronald P. Koch, “5: Native Ornaments”, in Dress Clothing of the Plains Indians, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 41:

Straight dancers wear ribbon shirts with bandoliers made of bone hair pipes and beads, generally from one to four strands wide, […]

2012, “Powwow Dance”, in Elizabeth DeLaney Hoffman, editor, American Indians and Popular Culture, volume 1, Preager, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 299:

A type of long, cylindrical bead from North America used in the creation of personal adornments, principally by Native Americans.


Susquehannock

en-noun

Susquehannock (plural Susquehannocks or Susquehannock)

Susquehannocks (plural)
Susquehannock (plural)

Of Algonquian origin, said to mean "people of the muddy river."

A member of a group of Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries.


Tahltan

A First Nations people of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group who live in northern British Columbia around Telegraph Creek, Dease Lake, and Iskut. They constitute the fourth division of the Nahane (People of the West).


jossakeed

From Ojibwe, likely Ojibwe jaasakiid, third person singular subject changed conjunct of jiisakii (“s/he operates a shaking tent”).

A prophet or medicine man among certain Native American peoples.


Kaska

Ellipsis of Kaska Nation.; A tribal nation in Canada


Wanapum

A member of a tribe of Native Americans who formerly lived along the Columbia River, from above Priest Rapids down to the mouth of the Snake River, in what is now the state of Washington.


Jemez

An indigenous Pueblo people of New Mexico.

A Tanoan language spoken by the Jemez people.

The Jemez Mountains, a small mountain range in New Mexico.


Tamaroa

A Native American people in the central Mississippi River valley.


Cusabo

(historical) A now-extinct group of American Indian tribes who lived along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in what is now South Carolina, approximately between present-day Charleston and south to the Savannah River, at the time of European colonization.


Edisto

census-designated place
census-designated place

An unincorporated community and census-designated place in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, United States.


kalumet

kalumet (nominative singular)
kalumety (nominative plural)
kalumetu (genitive singular)
kalumetów (genitive plural)
kalumetowi (dative singular)
kalumetom (dative plural)
kalumet (accusative singular)
kalumety (accusative plural)
kalumetem (instrumental singular)
kalumetami (instrumental plural)
kalumecie (locative singular)
kalumetach (locative plural)
kalumecie (singular vocative)
kalumety (plural vocative)


Indian taco

Ostensibly from Indian + taco, based on the use of frybread, an American Indian food, similarity of toppings to those in tacos, and the fact that the frybread is sometimes folded as part of the dish.

If you stay for lunch, local Society of American Indian members will be home - cooking such native delicacies as puffy fried bread, thick Indian tacos and spicy chili beans.

1976 April 21, Pat Kennedy, “Indian festival set May 1”, in The Pleasanton Times, volume 90, number 116, Pleasanton, page 4:

when I'm having an Indian taco day / I discover it's just about too late / not to educate the oppressor / but am I ever good at doing it

1992, Annharte, “Coyote Columbus Cafe”, in Terry Goldie, Daniel David Moses, editors, An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, published 1998, →ISBN, page 195:

"Lony, you like the taste of Indian tacos, right?" Orvil says.

2018, Tommy Orange, There, There, 1st; Everybody Reads edition, New York: Vintage Books, published 2020, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 131:

A dish made of fry bread topped with ingredients such as beans, cheese, and lettuce.


blood quantum

blood quantum (plural blood quantums or blood quanta)

blood quantums (plural)
blood quanta (plural)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-blood quantum.wav

(US, sometimes proscribed, sometimes offensive) The fraction of a person's ancestors, out of their total ancestors, who are documented as full-blooded Native Americans.


Snoqualmie

Snoqualmie (plural Snoqualmie or Snoqualmies)

Snoqualmie (plural)
Snoqualmies (plural)

Anglicization of Lushootseed sdukʷalbixʷ (“people of the moon”), the autonym of the Snoqualmie people, a proper noun derived from Lushootseed sɬukʷalb (“moon”). In early maps of the Pacific Northwest, the indigenous etymon was anglicized as "Snoqualmoo", a spelling no longer used.

bor

A member of an indigenous Coast Salish people of North America native to the Snoqualmie and Skykomish river valleys of central Washington.


Sakonnet

A Native American tribe related to the Wampanoags, from the area of Little Compton, Rhode Island.


czerwonoskóry

pl-noun

czerwonoskóry m pers (female equivalent czerwonoskóra)

czerwonoskóra (feminine)
czerwonoskóry (nominative singular)
czerwonoskórzy (nominative plural)
czerwonoskórego (genitive singular)
czerwonoskórych (genitive plural)
czerwonoskóremu (dative singular)
czerwonoskórym (dative plural)
czerwonoskórego (accusative singular)
czerwonoskórych (accusative plural)
czerwonoskórym (instrumental singular)
czerwonoskórymi (instrumental plural)
czerwonoskórym (locative singular)
czerwonoskórych (locative plural)
czerwonoskóry (singular vocative)
czerwonoskórzy (plural vocative)

redskin, American Indian, Native American


peyote gravy

During the ritual, held in a living room of a dwelling, the leader sits, at the west of the room; […] Peyote is usually ground fine and mixed with water to make a “gravy.” One button or one spoonful of peyote “gravy” is taken each round.

1987, Omar C. Stewart, Peyote Religion: A History, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, published 1990, →ISBN, page 269:

I am lost in the songs and the firelight, and so I don't see the Fireman begin the first serving of the sacred plant. […] Next comes the tea, […] and at last a mason jar full of a mixture of tea, powder, and shredded cactus affectionately called peyote gravy.

[2002 October, Jerry Mader, The Road to Lame Deer, University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page unknown:

I can speak generally though and will speak of the Peyote ceremony which came to our people [Osage] through the Dineh (Navaho) in relatively recent times. […] A peyote gravy is passed around and you may eat as little or as much as you wish.

2005 January 5, Blackbear, “Re:smatterings”, in alt.horror.werewolves (Usenet), retrieved 2022-08-24:

You'd always had skin problems. Since you can remember. Your dad used to rub peyote gravy on your rashes. That worked for a while. Until he wasn't around anymore.

2018, Tommy Orange, There, There, 1st; Everybody Reads edition, New York: Vintage Books, published 2020, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 217:

A mixture of peyote and water used ceremonially and medicinally.


algonquí

ca-adj

algonquí (feminine algonquina, masculine plural algonquins, feminine plural algonquines)

algonquina (feminine)
algonquins (masculine plural)
algonquines (feminine plural)


algonquí

ca-noun

algonquí m (plural algonquins, feminine algonquina)

algonquins (plural)
algonquina (feminine)


Nambé

From Spanish Nambé (“Nambé”), from Tewa Nąngbeʼe (“rounded earth”).

A federally recognized tribe of Tewa-speaking Pueblo people in Santa Fe County, New Mexico.


indeys

Borrowed from Russian инде́ец (indéjec). Doublet of hind.


Wigwam

de-noun

Wigwam m (strong, genitive Wigwams, plural Wigwams)

Wigwams (genitive)
Wigwams (plural)
Wigwam (nominative singular)
Wigwams (definite nominative plural)
Wigwams (genitive singular)
Wigwams (definite genitive plural)
Wigwam (dative singular)
Wigwams (dative definite plural)
Wigwam (accusative singular)
Wigwams (accusative definite plural)

Unadapted borrowing from English wigwam, from Abenaki wigwôm (“house”) or Penobscot wigwom (“house”), ultimately from Proto-Algonquian *wi·kiwa·ʔmi (“house”).


パイユート人

パイユート人 (canonical)
Paiyūto-jin (romanization)

[pa̠ijɯ̟ːto̞ʑĩɴ]


peace belt

An ornamental belt traditionally presented by certain Native American tribes as a symbol of peace.


Chahtaꞌ

Compare Choctaw chahta, Alabama Chahta, Koasati Chahta, Creek Caktv.


Cochiti

/ˈkəʊ.tʃəˌtiː/

Borrowed from Spanish Cochití, from Eastern Keres Kotyit

A people and federally recognized tribe of Pueblo Native Americans in northern New Mexico, speaking a dialect of Eastern Keres.


Cochiti

/ˈkəʊ.tʃəˌtiː/

A census-designated place and pueblo inhabited by the Cochiti people located in Sandoval County, New Mexico.


fajka pokoju

fajka pokoju (nominative singular)
fajki pokoju (nominative plural)
fajki pokoju (genitive singular)
fajek pokoju (genitive plural)
fajce pokoju (dative singular)
fajkom pokoju (dative plural)
fajkę pokoju (accusative singular)
fajki pokoju (accusative plural)
fajką pokoju (instrumental singular)
fajkami pokoju (instrumental plural)
fajce pokoju (locative singular)
fajkach pokoju (locative plural)
fajko pokoju (singular vocative)
fajki pokoju (plural vocative)


łapacz snów

łapacz snów (nominative singular)
łapacze snów (nominative plural)
łapacza snów (genitive singular)
łapaczy snów (genitive plural)
łapaczowi snów (dative singular)
łapaczom snów (dative plural)
łapacz snów (accusative singular)
łapacze snów (accusative plural)
łapaczem snów (instrumental singular)
łapaczami snów (instrumental plural)
łapaczu snów (locative singular)
łapaczach snów (locative plural)
łapaczu snów (singular vocative)
łapacze snów (plural vocative)


Szoszon

pl-noun

Szoszon m pers (female equivalent Szoszonka)

Szoszonka (feminine)
Szoszon (nominative singular)
Szoszoni (nominative plural)
Szoszony (derogatory nominative plural)
Szoszona (genitive singular)
Szoszonów (genitive plural)
Szoszonowi (dative singular)
Szoszonom (dative plural)
Szoszona (accusative singular)
Szoszonów (accusative plural)
Szoszonem (instrumental singular)
Szoszonami (instrumental plural)
Szoszonie (locative singular)
Szoszonach (locative plural)
Szoszonie (singular vocative)
Szoszoni (plural vocative)

Shoshone (member of the Amerind Shoshone tribe)


dahu·bšatx̌

From Lushootseed sduhubš (“Snohomish”) + -ʔatx̌ (“man of a tribe, band, tribe”). Cognates include Lushootseed sduhubš, Twana sədəhubəš, English Snohomish

The Snohomish people, they inhabit the eastern side of the central Puget Sound region, in primarily what is now Snohomish County, Washington State.


ƛaʔukʷaʔa·tx̌

From -ʔatx̌ (“man of a tribe, band, tribe”). Cognates include Nootka ƛaʔuukʷiʔatḥ

The Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation, also known as Clayoquot, inhabit western Vancouver Island.


qʷidiččaʔa·tx̌

From qʷidičča-q- (“Makah”) + -ʔatx̌ (“man of a tribe, band, tribe”), said to mean either "the people who live by the rocks and seagulls", "the people who live on the cape by the seagulls", or "people of the point". Cognates include Nootka qʷiniščiʔatḥ.

af

The Makah people, they inhabit the northwestern part of the Olympic Peninsula


maq̓a·

From Klallam màq̓áʔa or Klallam məq̓áʔaʔ meaning, "generous with food". Cognates include Lushootseed bəq̓a, Twana baq̓əʔəə, Twana baq̓aʔa, Twana baq̓q̓aʔ, English Makah


ƛ̓a·laba·tx̌

From ƛ̓a·lab (“Klallam”) + -ʔatx̌ (“man of a tribe, band, tribe”). Cognates include Klallam nəxʷsƛ̕áy̕əm̕, Saanich xʷsƛ̕éʔləm̕, Saanich šxʷsƛ̕él̕əm, Lushootseed dxʷsƛ̓álb, Twana dusƛ̓aʔələm, English Klallam, English Clallam

cog

nəxʷsƛ̕áy̕əm̕

The Klallam people, they inhabit the northern part oof the Olympic Peninsula in what is Washington State.


Isleta

Borrowed from Spanish isleta (“little island”).

Bernalillo County
Bernalillo County#English

An unincorporated community and Tanoan pueblo in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States.

Coshocton County
Coshocton County#English

An unincorporated community in Coshocton County, Ohio, United States.


Picuris

Borrowed from Spanish Picurís, possibly from Eastern Keres Pikuli

A historic Pueblo inhabited by the Picuris people located in Taos County, New Mexico.


Pueblo Indian

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Pueblo Indian.wav

Any member of the eponymous Native American people from the Southwestern United States


Pojoaque

From Spanish Pojoaque, from Tewa Pʼohsųwæ̨geh (“water drinking place”).

der

An unincorporated community in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States.


Chʼortiʼ

the indigenous language of the Ch'orti' people


Kirikuruks

head

Kírikuruks (combining form kiriku(u)ruks-)

Kírikuruks (canonical)
kiriku (u)ruks- (in-compounds)

[ˈkɪɾɪkʊɾʊks]

From kirik- (“eye”) + kuruks (“bear”), perhaps reflecting Wichita kirikirʼiis (“racoon eyes”), their self-designation.


en-proverb

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-no matter how much milk you put in coffee, it's still coffee.wav

There’s a saying among blak mob, ‘It doesn’t matter how much milk you put in tea, it’s still tea'.’ I am a descendant of genocide survivors, a child of the oldest living culture on Earth. Nothing, no amount of milk, can change that.

2021 November 7, Claire [G.] Coleman, “Not quite blak enough: ‘The people who think I am too white to be Aboriginal are all white’”, in The Guardian:

One's blood quantum (percentage of person's ancestors who are full-blooded Native Americans) does not nullify indigenous identity.


sash belt

Over 90 per cent of these were of the lap-sash type in which the sash belt cannot be separated from the lap belt.

1975, Proceedings - International Congress on Automotive Safety, page 844:

The relationship between sash belt force and the angle of recline of the sash also helped to explain other observations from the electronics results.

1996, Proceedings: The Fifteenth International Technical Conference on Enhanced Safety of Vehicles, page 1100:

Always use a lap/sash belt rather than just a lap belt, and make sure the belt fits properly; the lap belt should sit over your child's hip and the sash belt should sit on the shoulder without touching the neck.

2010, The Choice Guide to Baby Product, page 123:

The portion of a lap sash seatbelt that goes over the shoulder and down to the hip.


Indian paint pot

en-noun

Indian paint pot (plural Indian paint pots)

So called because of local folklore and historical speculation in which they are said to have been used by indigenous people as sources of paint or dye. While iron oxides were indeed used as an ingredient in paints, the “pots” are a natural geological formation, and the extent to which these specific formations were utilized is unknown.

(chiefly eastern US, Long Island) a concave, iron oxide–containing mineral concretion such as red shale which sheds a chalky, reddish debris when wet and rubbed, often found along beaches