First Nation

English

WOTD – 1 July 2025

Etymology

From first (adjective) +‎ nation,[1] coined in the late 1970s in place of the word Indian which had become regarded by some as derogatory (though it is still used: see the usage note).[2]

Pronunciation

  • (General Australian) IPA(key): /ˌfɜːs(t) ˈnæeʃ(ə)n/
  • Rhymes: -eɪʃən
  • Hyphenation: First Na‧tion

Noun

First Nation (plural First Nations) (often in the plural)

  1. (Canada) A community of indigenous peoples of Canada (typically not including the Inuit or Metis), especially one officially recognized by the federal government. [from late 1970s]
    • 1980 December 18, Eugene Steinhauer, President of the Indian Association of Alberta, witness, Minutes of Proceedings and Evidence of the Special Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Commons on the Constitution of Canada: Respecting the Document Entitled “Proposed Resolution for a Joint Address to Her Majesty the Queen Respecting the Constitution of Canada” Published by the Government on October 2, 1980 (First Session of the Thirty-second Parliament)‎[1], number 29, [Ottawa, Ont.]: Queen’s Printer for Canada, archived from the original on 4 August 2024, page 101, column 1:
      Today we speak as the descendants of our grandfathers who signed treaties with the Commissioners representing Her Majesty Queen Victoria in the late 1800s. […] The various governments of this country have made attempts to abrogate our treaties in one way or another. In spite of this, our treaties stand stronger than ever because we have had to rise as First Nations to defend them.
    • 2008 April 4, “Band sues for waterfront property”, in Edmonton Sun‎[2], Edmonton, Alta.: Sun Media Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC:
      The Campbell River First Nation claims the 40 hectares of prime real estate has been illegally acquired, and it wants the land returned to it, along with damages.
    • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, “A Worldwide Faith (1500–1800)”, in A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, London: Allen Lane, Penguin Books, →ISBN, part VI (Western Christianity Dismembered (1300–1800)), page 714:
      The prolonged sufferings and ghastly deaths of Jesuit missionaries at the hands of hostile First Nations on the borders of the French colonies in Canada in the early seventeenth century rank high in the history of Christian suffering.
      Rendered as first nations in MacCulloch’s earlier work, Reformation: Europe’s House Divided 1490–1700 (2004), page 440.
  2. (by extension, less common) A community or settlement of indigenous peoples of any country or region.
    1. (Australia) A community of indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) peoples of Australia; a group of Indigenous Australians.

Usage notes

In Canada, First Nation and First Nations are the usual terms in official use, news media, and polite conversation. Indian has come to have a stigma attached to it because of its origin from the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) thinking he had arrived in India when he reached the Americas in October 1492, but it remains in common use officially (for example, in the name of the Indian Act (enacted in 1876) which provides for the exercise of federal jurisdiction over First Nations peoples; and in the name of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, replaced in 2019 by Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada), as well as informally by First Nations people themselves.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

First Nation (not comparable)

  1. Alternative form of First Nations
    • 2008 April 4, “Ontario Chiefs unite against jailing”, in Kenora Daily Miner and News‎[3], Kenora, Ont.: The Klein Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:
      First Nation leaders in Ontario will support demonstrations and protests, until six band councillors are released from jail.

References

  1. ^ “First Nation, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2024; “First Nation, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ Stefan Dollinger, Margery Fee, editors (2017), “First Nation, n.”, in DCHP-2 Online: A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, 2nd edition, Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia, →OCLC.

Further reading

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