noun A member of any of the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. The ancestors of the Native Americans are generally considered by scientists to have entered the Americas from Asia by way of the Bering Strait sometime during the late glacial epoch.
Related Forms:
Usage Note: Many Americans have come to prefer
Native American over
Indian both as a term of respect and as a corrective to the famous misnomer bestowed on the peoples of the Americas by a geographically befuddled Columbus. There are solid arguments for this preference.
Native American eliminates any confusion between indigenous American peoples and the inhabitants of India, making it the clear choice in many official contexts. It is also historically accurate, despite the insistence by some that Indians are no more native to America than anyone else since their ancestors are assumed to have migrated here from Asia. But one sense of
native is “being a member of the original inhabitants of a particular place,” and Native Americans' claim to being the original inhabitants of the Americas is unchallenged. • Accuracy and precision aside, however, the choice between these two terms is often made as a matter of principle. For many,
Native American is the only choice for expressing respect toward America's indigenous peoples;
Indian is seen as wrong and offensive. For others, the former smacks of bureaucracy and the manipulation of language for political purposes while the latter is the natural English term, its inaptness made irrelevant by long use. Fortunately, this controversy appears to have subsided somewhat in recent years, and it is now common to find the two terms used interchangeably in the same piece of writing. Furthermore, the issue has never been particularly divisive between Indians and non-Indians. While generally welcoming the respectful tone of
Native American, most Indian writers have continued to use the older name at least as often as the newer one. •
Native American and
Indian are not exact equivalents when referring to the aboriginal peoples of Canada and Alaska.
Native American, the broader term, is properly used of all such peoples, whereas
Indian is customarily used of the northern Athabaskan and Algonquian peoples in contrast to the Eskimos, Inuits, and Aleuts.
Alaska Native (or less commonly
Native Alaskan) is also properly used of all indigenous peoples residing in Alaska. See Usage Notes at
American Indian,
First Nation,
Indian.
