Native American

plural Native Americans

1. A member of any of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas.

   For quotations using this term, see Citations:Native American.

2. In particular, a member of any of the Indigenous peoples of North America, or sometimes in particular the United States.

   One of Chomsky's most recent books, Year 501: the Conquest Continues (1993), offers a panoramic view of what he sees as five hundred years of US terror and oppression, beginning with the treatment of the Native Americans and continuing through the Gulf War.

   1998, Philip Green, Robert Benewick (editors), The Routledge Dictionary of Twentieth-century Political Thinkers, page 43

3. datedAlternative letter-case form of native American

   Synonyms: American Indian, Amerind, Amerindian, First American, Indian, Indigenous American, Indigenous North American, Injun

comparative more Native American · superlative most Native American

1. Of the American Indians.

plural native Americans · alternative Native American

1. datedA resident of the United States who is not an immigrant.

   1 more example

   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