Tribal Name Meanings

Submitted by diaskeaus on Thu, 11/02/2006 - 09:05
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  1. abnaki: those living at the sunrise (easterners)
  2. achomawi: river
  3. acolapissa: those who listen and see
  4. ahtena: ice people
  5. akwesasne: land where the partridge drums
  6. alabama: i clear the thicket
  7. apache: enemy (zuni word)
  8. apalachicola: people of the other side
  9. apalachee: people of the other side
  10. arikara: horns or elk people, or corn eaters
  11. assiniboin: ones who cook using stones (ojibwa word)
  12. atakapa: man eater
  13. atikamekw: white fish
  14. atsina: white clay people
  15. atsugewi: hat creek indians
  16. avoyel: people of the rocks
  17. bayogoula: people of the bayou
  18. bidai: brushwood (caddo word)
  19. brule: burned thighs
  20. caddo: true chiefs
  21. cayuga: place locusts were taken out, people at the mucky land
  22. cayuse: stones or rocks (French-Canadian word)
  23. chakchiuma: red crawfish people
  24. chehalis: sand
  25. cherokee: cave people (choctaw word), people of different speech (creek word)
  26. chetco: close to the mouth of the stream
  27. cheyenne: red talkers (dakota word)
  28. chickahominy: hominy people
  29. chickamauga: dwelling place of the chief (creek word)
  30. chipwyan: pointed skins (cree word)
  31. chitimacha: they have cooking vessels
  32. chontal: stranger (nahuatl word)
  33. choula: fox
  34. chowanoc: people at the south
  35. chumash: people who make the shell bead money
  36. clallam: strong people
  37. clatsop: dried salmon
  38. cocopah: river people
  39. comanche: anyone who wants to fight me all the time (ute word)
  40. cowichan: basking in the sun that warms your back or warm land
  41. crow: crow, sparrowhawk, bird people
  42. dakota: allie
  43. erie: log tail or cat people (iroquois word)
  44. fox: red earth people
  45. git' lissums: people of the Lissums
  46. gitksan: people of the northern Skena
  47. gros ventre: big bellies, one who cooks with a stone,he cooks by roasting (see atsina)
  48. hach winik: true people
  49. han: those who live along the river
  50. havasupai: people of the blue green water
  51. hiute: bowmen
  52. honniasont: wearing something around the neck
  53. hopi: peaceful ones or well-mannered people
  54. houma: red
  55. huchnom: mountain people
  56. hunkpapa: campers at the opening of the circle
  57. hupa: trinity river
  58. huron: ruffian, head of a boar (french words)
  59. hwal'bay (hualapai): people of the tall pines
  60. ihanktonwan: dwellers at the end
  61. ihanktonwana: little dwellers at the end
  62. iowa: sleepy ones (dakota word)
  63. iroquois: real adders (snake) or we of the extended lodge
  64. jatibonicu: people of the great sacred high waters
  65. jatibonuco: great people of the sacred high waters
  66. jicaque: ancient person (nahuatl word)
  67. jicarilla: little basket weaver (spanish word)
  68. kainai: many chiefs
  69. kakwchak porcupine people
  70. kan-hatki: white earth
  71. kanienkahaka: people of the place of flint
  72. kanza: people of the south wind
  73. karok: upstream
  74. kato: lake
  75. kawchottine: people of the great hares
  76. ketsei: going in wet sand
  77. kickapoo: he stands about
  78. kiowa: principal people
  79. klallam: strong people
  80. klamath: people of the lake
  81. kotsoteka: buffalo eaters
  82. kutcha-kutchin: those who live on the flats
  83. kwakiutl: beach on the side north of the river or smoke of the rivers
  84. kwuda: people coming out
  85. lakota friend or ally (same with dakota & nakota)
  86. latgawa: those living in the uplands
  87. lenni lenape: genuine men
  88. lillooet: wild onion
  89. lipan: warriors of the mountains
  90. machapunga: bad dust
  91. mahican: wolf
  92. makah: cape people
  93. maliseet: broken talkers
  94. massachuset: at the hills
  95. mdewankantonwan: dwellers of the spirit lake
  96. menominee: wild rice men
  97. miami: people on the peninsula, cry of the crane, pigeon
  98. michigamea: great water
  99. miniconjou: planters by water
  100. missouri: great muddy, people with wooden canoes
  101. moapa: mosquito creek people
  102. moatokni: southerners
  103. modoc: southerners
  104. mohave: three mountains
  105. mohawk: the possessors of the flint, coward or man eater (abenaki words)
  106. mohegan: wolf
  107. moneton: big water people
  108. munsee: at the place where the stones are gathered together
  109. nahane: people of the west
  110. narragansett: people of the small point
  111. nanticoke: people of the tidewaters
  112. natsit-kutchin: those who live off the flats
  113. navajo: cultivated field in an arroyo (tewa word)
  114. nipmuck: freshwater fishing place
  115. nisga'a: people of the Nass River
  116. nokoni: those who turn back
  117. nooksack: mountain men
  118. nootka: along the coast
  119. oglala: scatters their own
  120. ojibwa: to roast till puckered up
  121. okelousa: blackwater
  122. okmulgee: where water boils up
  123. omaha: upstream people or people going against the current
  124. oneida: a boulder standing up, people of the standing stone
  125. onondaga: people on top of the hills
  126. opata: hostile people (pima word)
  127. ottawa: to trade
  128. otto: lechers
  129. pahodja: dusty nones
  130. pakiutlema: people of the gap
  131. pamunkey: rising upland
  132. pantch-pinunkansh: men altogether red
  133. papagos: desert people, bean people
  134. papinashuash the ones who like to laugh
  135. pascagoula: bread people
  136. passamaquoddy: plenty of pollock
  137. paugusset: where the narrows open out
  138. pawnee: horn people, men of men, look like wolves
  139. penateka: honey eaters
  140. pennacook: down hill
  141. penobscot: it forks on the white rocks or the descending ledge place, at the stone place
  142. pensacola: hair people
  143. people of the lakes: tribes near the great lakes
  144. peoria: carrying a pack on his back
  145. pequot: fox people or destroyers
  146. piegan: scabby robes
  147. piekuakamit the ones from the flat lake
  148. piikani: poor robe
  149. pilthlako: big swamp
  150. pima: river people, (papago word for "I don't know")
  151. pojoaque: drinking place
  152. potawatomi: people of the place of the fire, keepers of the fire, (fire nation, fire people)
  153. powhatan: falls in a current of water
  154. pshwanwapam: stony ground
  155. puyallup: shadow
  156. quahadi: antelope
  157. quapaw: downstream people
  158. quinnipiac: long water country
  159. sac: people of the yellow earth or people of the outlet
  160. salish: flatheads
  161. sans arc: without bows
  162. schaghticoke: at the river forks
  163. sekani: dwellers on the rocks
  164. seminole: separatist, runaway or breakaway, peninsula people
  165. seneca: place of stone, people of the standing rock, great hill people
  166. shawnee: south or southerners
  167. sihasapa sioux: blackfeet
  168. siksika: blackfeet or black foot
  169. sioux: snake (french version of other tribe's name)
  170. sisitonwan: dwellers of the fish ground
  171. skokomish: river people
  172. taino: we the good people
  173. takelma: those living along the river
  174. tanima: liver eaters
  175. tangipahoa: corn gatherers
  176. tantawats: southern men
  177. tatsanottine: people of the copper water
  178. tawakoni: river bend among red hills
  179. tejas: friendly
  180. tenawa: down stream
  181. tennuth-ketchin: middle people
  182. teton: dwellers of the prairie
  183. tewa: moccasins
  184. thlingchadinne: dog-flank people
  185. tinde: people of the mountains
  186. titonwan: dwellers of the plains
  187. tonawanda: confluent stream
  188. tonkawa: they all stay together or most human of people
  189. tsattine: lives among the beavers
  190. tsetsaut: people of the interior (niska word)
  191. tsimshian: people of the river
  192. tsuu t'ina: great number of people
  193. tubatulabal: pinenut eaters (shoshone word)
  194. tuscarora: hemp gatherers, the shirt wearing people
  195. two kettle: two boilings
  196. unalachtgo: tidewater people
  197. vunta-ketchin: those who live among the lakes
  198. wahpekute: shooters amoung the leaves
  199. wahpetonwan: dwellers amoung the leaves
  200. wailaki: north language (wintun word)
  201. wakokai: blue heron breeding place
  202. walapai: pine tree people
  203. wallawalla: little river
  204. wampanoag: eastern people
  205. wappo: brave
  206. waptailmin: people of the narrow river
  207. wasco: cup, those who have the cup
  208. wichita: big arbor (choctaw word), raccoon eyes
  209. winnebago: filthy water people
  210. wiwohka: roaring water
  211. wyandot: people of the peninsula, islanders
  212. yakama: runaway, pregnant people, people of the narrows
  213. yamparika: rooteaters or yapeaters
  214. yavapai: people of the sun, crooked mouth people
  215. yoncalla: those living at ayankeld
  216. yuchi: situated yonder
  217. yuki: stranger (wintun word)
  218. yurok: downstream (karok word)