Many tribal names mean "People," "Us," "human beings," or similar words. The names below are for those groups whose name means something other than "People," "Us," "human beings," or similar words.

     Some tribes names were acquired from Europeans usinging a second tribe's name for the first tribe. The "New Name" was used so much, it gained an "official" status or became the common name. In many cases, tribal name origins are lost in the mists of history. Some definitions below are based on conjecture by historians. In some cases, some tribal members would agree with the names below, while other members will not. In essense, this is a list of commonly used definitions.

abnaki:                 those living at the sunrise (easterners)
achomawi:               river
acolapissa:             those who listen and see
ahtena:                 ice people
akwesasne:              land where the partridge drums
alabama:                i clear the thicket
apache:                 enemy (zuni word)
apalachicola:           people of the other side
apalachee:              people of the other side
arikara:                horns or elk people, or corn eaters
assiniboin:             ones who cook using stones (ojibwa word)
atakapa:                man eater
atikamekw               white fish
atsina:                 white clay people
atsugewi:               hat creek indians
avoyel:                 people of the rocks
bayogoula:              people of the bayou
bidai:                  brushwood (caddo word)
brule:                  burned thighs
caddo:                  true chiefs
cayuga:                 place locusts were taken out,
                           people at the mucky land
cayuse:                 stones or rocks (French-Canadian word)
chakchiuma:             red crawfish people
chehalis:               sand
cherokee:               cave people (choctaw word),
                           people of different speech (creek word)
chetco:                 close to the mouth of the stream
cheyenne:               red talkers (dakota word)
chickahominy:           hominy people
chickamauga:            dwelling place of the chief (creek word)
chipwyan:               pointed skins (cree word)
chitimacha:             they have cooking vessels
chontal:                stranger (nahuatl word)
choula:                 fox
chowanoc:               people at the south
chumash:                people who make the shell bead money
clallam:                strong people
clatsop:                dried salmon
comanche:               anyone who wants to fight me all the time (ute
word)
cowichan:               basking in the sun that warms your back or
warm land
crow:                   crow, sparrowhawk, bird people
dakota:                 allie
erie:                   log tail or cat people (iroquois word)
fox:                    red earth people
git' lissums:           people of the Lissums
gitksan:                people of the northern Skena
gros ventre:            big bellies, one who cooks with a stone,
                           he cooks by roasting (see atsina)
hach winik:             true people
han:                    those who live along the river
havasupai:              people of the blue green water
hiute:                  bowmen
honniasont:             wearing something around the neck
hopi:                   peaceful ones or well-mannered people
houma:                  red
huchnom:                mountain people
hunkpapa:               campers at the opening of the circle
hupa:                   trinity river
huron:                  ruffian, head of a boar (french words)
hwal'bay (hualapai):    people of the tall pines
ihanktonwan:            dwellers at the end
ihanktonwana:           little dwellers at the end
iowa:                   sleepy ones (dakota word)
iroquois:               real adders (snake) or we of the extended
lodge
jatibonicu:             people of the great sacred high waters
jatibonuco:             great people of the sacred high waters
jicaque:                ancient person (nahuatl word)
jicarilla:              little basket weaver (spanish word)
kainai:                 many chiefs
kakwchak                porcupine people
kan-hatki:              white earth
kanienkahaka:           people of the place of flint
kanza:                  people of the south wind
karok:                  upstream
kato:                   lake
kawchottine:            people of the great hares
ketsei:                 going in wet sand
kickapoo:               he stands about
kiowa:                  principal people
klallam:                strong people
klamath:                people of the lake
kotsoteka:              buffalo eaters
kutcha-kutchin:         those who live on the flats
kwuda:                  people coming out
lakota                  friend or ally (same with dakota & nakota)
latgawa:                those living in the uplands
lenni lenape:           genuine men
lillooet:               wild onion
lipan:                  warriors of the mountains
machapunga:             bad dust
mahican:                wolf
makah:                  cape people
maliseet:               broken talkers
massachuset:            at the hills
mdewankantonwan:        dwellers of the spirit lake
menominee:              wild rice men
miami:                  people on the peninsula, cry of the crane,
pigeon
michigamea:             great water
miniconjou:             planters by water
missouri:               great muddy, people with wooden canoes
moapa:                  mosquito creek people
moatokni:               southerners
modoc:                  southerners
mohave:                 three mountains
mohawk:                 the possessors of the flint, coward or
                           man eater (abenaki words)
mohegan:                wolf
moneton:                big water people
munsee:                 at the place where the stones are gathered
together