Get to Know the Cultures of American Indians and Alaska Natives
Roberta Duyff, MS, RDN, FADA, FAND
The chapters in this section address the common food practices, related health conditions, and nutrition counseling considerations for many American Indians and Alaska Natives—America’s Indigenous people who link their ancestry back to those who settled in the Western Hemisphere at least 15,000 years ago and to their forebearers, likely much earlier.1,2
T
here are many terms for people with Indigenous ancestry who inhabit land that is the continental US
today including Native Americans, Amerindians, and First Nation people. Because the use and meaning of the term Native American has broadened in recent decades to include all Native (Indigenous) people in the US, its trust territories, and elsewhere in the Americas,American Indian is generally preferred for those who belong to Indigenous tribes of the continental US, and Alaska Native is preferrred for people of the Indigenous tribes and villages of Alaska.3
Indigenous people of Hawaiʻi are referred to as Native Hawaiian (refer to Chapter 5).