See Indigenous peoples of the Americas, which discusses Native Americans and all other Indigenous (original) peoples in the Americas.
Most World Book articles use the term Native Americans primarily to refer to Indigenous peoples in what is now the continental United States. In Canada, the term First Nations is used to refer to one of the main groups of Indigenous peoples there.
In the late 1400’s, the first peoples to live in the Americas were given the name Indians by the explorer Christopher Columbus, who thought he had reached a place called the Indies. At that time, each group of Indigenous peoples in the Americas had a name for itself. But these peoples did not have a name for themselves as a whole. Over time, the terms Indian and American Indian became widely used.
In recent years, Native Americans, First Nations, and a number of other terms have been used to refer to Indigenous Americans. However, there is no general agreement among the Indigenous groups as to which term is preferred.
