The notion of tribe was appealing to us because it was community-centric, familial, and had strong social values. Recently, we’ve learned our use of the term “Tribe” can be offensive to indigenous people, due to the violent history they have endured in the United States.

The definition of a tribe is a group of people, or a community with similar values or interests, a group with a common ancestor, or a common leader. An example of a tribe is the dead heads who followed the Grateful Dead. An example of a tribe is the Choctaw American Indians.

In this page you can discover 51 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for tribe, like: clan, family, folk, kindred, kith-and-kin, phratric, deme, group, association, ethnocentric and division.

If the term “tribe” accurately conveyed and clarified truths better than other words, even if they were hard and unpleasant truths, we should use it. But “tribe” is vague, contradictory and confusing, not clarifying. For the most part it does not convey truths but myths, stereotypes and prejudices.

Original Tribal Names of Native North American People

There is no distinct difference between an Indian tribe and an Indian nation. Tribes are held to the same limitations as states (they don’t have the power to declare or engage in war, conduct independent foreign relations, or create their own currency).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people find the term offensive as it suggests that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia did not have a history before European invasion, because it is not written and recorded.