Native American Tribe Name Generator

There are 574 federally recognized tribes and nations in the United States alone, plus more than 600 First Nations in Canada and hundreds of state-recognized and unrecognized communities. Most have at least two names: the one they call themselves (an endonym) and the one outsiders attached to them. Navajo people are Diné ('the People'); the Sioux are Lakota, Dakota or Nakota; the Nez Perce are Nimiipuu; the Crow are Apsáalooke ('children of the large-beaked bird'); the Mohawk are Kanien'kehá:ka ('people of the flint'). Many English names come from what neighbors called them, sometimes unflatteringly, which is why nations increasingly use their own names in official titles.

Structurally, most tribal names are just a people-word: Anishinaabe means 'original people', Numunuu (Comanche) means 'the people', Ohlone comes from a village name. Others reference a place (Tohono O'odham, 'desert people'), a language family (Athabascan), or a confederacy (Haudenosaunee, 'people of the longhouse', covering six nations). Larger nations divide further into bands and clans, such as the Oglala, Sicangu and Hunkpapa Lakota.

This list gives real names only, mixing well-known nations with smaller ones from every region: Southwest pueblos, Northwest Coast, the Plains, the Great Basin, California, the Great Lakes, the Northeast and Southeast. Use it to identify a nation for research or to ground a story in a real place and people rather than a made-up 'tribe'.