Indigenous people

Also called: indigenous peoples, native people, aboriginal people, first peoples

Indigenous peoples have a long, continuing tie to a particular land and keep their own languages, customs and institutions, at least in part. The United Nations has deliberately not adopted a fixed definition. It relies instead on self-identification: a group says it is indigenous and is accepted as such by its own members. The United Nations estimates there are about 476 million indigenous people in some 90 countries.

Related words

Answers that use this word

• What is the difference between a tribe, an ethnic group, an indigenous people and a nation?
• Who counts as indigenous, and who decides?
• How many indigenous people are there in the world?
• How many tribes are there in the world?
• Where do most indigenous people live?

Lessons that use this word

• What is a tribe?
• Indigenous, tribal, ethnic group, nation: what the words mean and who decides