Original Tribal Names of Native North American People
Original Tribal Name In The People's Own Language
Tribal Names Today, And Their Origins
A'aninin ("white clay people")
Gros Ventre (French word for "big belly," unclear why the French called them this.)
Abenaki ("dawn people," or easterners), also Alnombak ("the people")
Abenaki
Absaroke ("children of the big-beaked bird")
Crow (English, from their tribal name)
Alabama ("cleared thicket")
Alabama
Anishinaabe ("original people")
Today the Anishinaabe have two tribes:Ojibway/Ojibwe/Chippewa (Algonquian Indian for "puckered," referring to their moccasin style) and Algonquin (probably a French corruption of either the Maliseet word elehgumoqik, "our allies," or the Mi'kmaq place name Algoomaking, "fish-spearing place.")
Aniyunwiya ("principal people")
Cherokee/Tsalagi (from a Muskogee Indian word for "speakers of another language.")