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Native Americans

Cultural  
  1. The descendants of the original inhabitants of North America and South America before the arrival of white settlers from Europe, also called Indians or American Indians. The term Native American is sometimes preferred over Indian because the latter is a misnomer that originated with Columbus, who mistook the inhabitants of America for the people of India. Both terms, however, are accepted.


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In recent years, Native American activism has taken the form of calls for the protection of their tribal or ancestral shrines and artifacts.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Yet Miles’ experience highlights a recurring problem: Native Americans, the first inhabitants of what is now the United States, are sometimes treated as foreigners by the very government their ancestors predated.

From Salon

She deplored the way local Native Americans were treated by ranchers and the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal

His gathered historians and scholars, including women, Black Americans and Native Americans, come at the subject from different angles, some with special areas of expertise.

From Los Angeles Times

This Winthropism, for the next two centuries, would be used as justification for “Western conquest of Native Americans, enslavement of Africans, and colonization of everyone else.”

From The Wall Street Journal

A 2014 study found External link that Native Americans experience more than double the rate of problem gambling compared with the broader U.S. population.

From Barron's