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.


Ottawa

[ˈɔɾ̥əwa(ː)]

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:


Mohawk

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

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

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.


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.


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


Papago

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

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").


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.


Chumash

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

bor

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


Ojibwe

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

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.


O'odham

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

der

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


Lakota

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

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.


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.


Illinois

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

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.


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


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.


Nuu-chah-nulth

/nuːˈtʃɑːnʊlθ/

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

uder

A people indigenous to Vancouver Island in western Canada.


Cheyenne

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

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.


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.


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.


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.


Mi'kmaq

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Mi'kmaq.wav

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.


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

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

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)

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

(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.


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

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

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.


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.


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.


Miwok

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

The Utian (Penutian) languages spoken by these groups.


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.


Wyandot

An unincorporated community in Wyandot County, Ohio, United States


Chinook

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

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)

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

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.


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”).

der

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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


Dena'ina

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

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

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

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

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

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.


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.


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.


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

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).


Kutenai

British Columbia
British Columbia#English

A river in British Columbia, Canada and Montana and Idaho, United States.


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”).

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

From Chinook Jargon Tlamatl (“either "swiftness" or "they of the river"”), with the first syllable's onset consonant cluster dissimilated and the coda of the second syllable changed to the somewhat similar-sounding interdental fricative during the process of anglicization.

bor

Del Norte County
Del Norte County#English

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


Oneida

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

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.


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.


Tuscarora

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.


Guale

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

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


Tillamook

From Chinook T-Elim-ook, meaning something like 'the many villages of Elim'.

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

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.


Atakapa

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


Ponca

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


Nez Perce

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Nez Perce.wav

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.


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.


Quileute

A Native American people in western Washington state.


Quinault

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


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

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Ho-Chunk.wav

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.


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.


Sandia

Borrowed from Spanish sandía (“watermelon”).

Jim Wells County
Jim Wells County#English

An unincorporated community in Jim Wells County, Texas.


Susquehannock

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).


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.


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.


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.


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.


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