DCHP-1 Online

Indian country

• 1 a region inhabited by Indians.

  See also: Indian territory (def. 1)  

  • c1752  (1852)  Wether they came thro the northern Indian country . . . our interpriters are not clear in.
  • 1690  (1929)  [But making all y^e hast I could upon our way Gott on y^e borders of y^e stone Indian Country.]
  • 1812  (1906)  All White persons are forbidden to establish themselves or reside in an Indian Village or country within this province, without such License, under a Penalty for the first Offence, of Ten Pounds.
  • 1948  I have mentioned the caribou in relation to the Eskimos and Indians because he is to be found in both the Eskimo and Indian country, though they are very distinct peoples, live far apart and differently, and neither encroaches on the territory of the other.

• 2 Hist. See 1948 quote. Also Indian countries.

  See also: Indian territory (def. 2)  inland (def. 1)  interior (def. 1)  Pays Sauvages  

  • 1749  If . . . People were allowed to go into the Indian Country to trade, by the Rivers and Lakes in Summer, and upon Sledges in Winter, the Trade might be increased Ten-fold.
  • 1824  (1931)  He had amassed a fortune of about £7,000 & returned to Canada but so enchanted was he with the roving life of a Freeman and the charms of some half Doz Wives (natives of the Soil) that he could not sit down quietly at Home to enjoy his good fortune but must revisit the Indian Country since which time he has met with nothing but reverses.
  • 1948  The "Indian countries" is a term one often encounters in reading the old journals and letters of the early fur traders of the west. "Canada" at that time lay entirely to the east of the Great Lakes. All West and north of that to the far distant Pacific and Arctic oceans, was called "the Indian Countries."
  • 1957  He was a little homesick, for the fur traders were often away in the Indian country for two or three years. . . .