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Definition: Native American from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

(1737) : a member of any of the aboriginal peoples of the western hemisphere; esp : a Native American of No. America and esp. the U.S. compare american indian

Native American adj

Native Americans: An Overview

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
The original peoples of North America collectively have been called Native Americans, American Indians , or Amerindians . These terms are European American inventions that obscure the diversity of peoples indigenous to the Americas. Members of many tribes, or First Nations, often embrace these terms but prefer their tribal names, such as Nee-Me-Poo (Nez Perce), Anishinabeg (Chippewa), or Tohono O'odham (Papago). Diverse Peoples Prior to the European conquest North America was characterized by an immense variety of languages, of material culture, of religions, of governance, and of economic relations. Originally there were close to three hundred distinct aboriginal languages spoken in North America, many more languages than in Europe. Linguists have organized these languages into fifty-seven families, further classified into six phyla, plus isolates. Most of these languages have become extinct or now lack communities of fluent speakers. The Diné (Navajo) have the greatest number of…
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Full text Article Native Americans

From Philip's Encyclopedia
A map of the main language groups of North...
Indigenous peoples of the American continent. North America Native North Americans are believed to be descended from Asian peoples who crossed via the Bering Strait or the Aleutian Islands around 20,000 bc or earlier. They may be divided into eight distinct cultural and geographic groups: the Arctic…
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Full text Article NATIVE AMERICANS

From Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures Full text Article The Americas
A term to describe all of the native nations of the New World, although often more specifically the native peoples of North America. (The term s ‘First Nations’ or ‘aboriginal’ are often used in Canada, while ‘Amerindians’ retains currency in parts of Central and South America.) ‘Indians’ and even…
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Full text Article Native Americans

From Chambers Dictionary of World History
Native Americans
The original inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere who arrived during the last Ice Age, estimated at 20,000 to 40,000 years ago. They came in several migrations over a land bridge connecting Alaska with Siberia, and spread gradually throughout the Americas. In what is now the USA, the Native…
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Full text Article American Indians

From Encyclopedia of Race and Racism
400th Anniversary of the Founding of Quebec City,...
From the moment Europeans encountered native peoples in the Americas, they were defined, classified, and placed in a hierarchical scale that held profound social implications under colonialism from the time of contact to the present. Initially, many of the terms applied to native peoples by early…
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Full text Article Society of American Indians

From Encyclopedia of the American Indian in the Twentieth Century
The Society of American Indians was founded in...
Founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1911, the Society of American Indians (SAI) was the first national pan-Indian rights organization in the United States. Since the turn of the 20th century, a small group of English-speaking, highly educated Indians had attempted to assert control over the movement to…
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Full text Article Crime and American Indians

From Encyclopedia of Race and Racism
Crime in Indian Country. A table holds weapons...
The racial concept of American Indians, extending back some 500 years, has always included labels of the “alien Other” or the “hostile enemy,” as well as a general criminalization of any resistance to conquest, cultural domination, or the discriminatory systems put into place to maintain their…
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Full text Article science, American Indians and

From Encyclopedia of the American Indian in the Twentieth Century
Not only did the rise of science have a great impact on American Indian life in the 20th century, but Indians also came to affect science, both as working scientists and as critics of the scientific establishment. Many modern scientists now recognize that traditional Indian cultures have much…
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Full text Article urbanization, American Indians and

From Encyclopedia of the American Indian in the Twentieth Century
Many contemporary American cities have large...
In 1900, there were only about 1,000 American Indians living in urban areas in the United States, representing less than half of 1 percent of the entire Indian population at the time. The country was still largely rural. Sixty percent of the American population, Indian and non-Indian, lived in small…
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Full text Article mining, American Indians and

From Encyclopedia of the American Indian in the Twentieth Century
Before the 1891 Indian Leasing Act, valuable mineral resources found on American Indian lands were simply sold outright by the government, generally without the tribe's consent and without compensation. Lands that contained gold and other precious metals, such as those found during the late 19th…
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Full text Article film, American Indians and

From Encyclopedia of the American Indian in the Twentieth Century
Will Rogers combined roping and riding skills...
Western themes were popular in American films from the very beginning of the silent era. Usually Indians were involved, whether as mass extras, as minor characters, or occasionally even as major ones. Films were a popular product, and in the earlier days of American movie production, had little…
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