Native American

Definition

Native Americans are members of any of the indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America. In U.S. history context, it often refers specifically to those groups who were living in what's now known as United States before European colonization.

Related terms

Tribes: These are social divisions within Native American culture made up of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious or blood ties with a common culture and dialect.

Reservation System: A policy established by U.S government which relocated tribes onto specific plots of land called reservations with an aim at assimilation into Euro-American society but resulted in loss of native cultural identity.

Trail of Tears: This term refers to the forced removal of Cherokee Indians in 1838 from their ancestral homelands in southeastern U.S. to areas west of the Mississippi River, resulting in thousands of deaths due to disease and starvation.