Which is why “indigenous” is the best word in my opinion. Not just for the indigenous Americans, but for indigenous people the world over. It’s generally understood to mean “pre-colonial.”
Edit: The only exception I can think of is that the Vikings settled Greenland before the Thule (who became the Greenland Inuit), but Danes are not considered indigenous and Inuit are. Maybe because the Vikings that settled there all left or died out and also maybe because the Vikings and the Thule settled different parts of Greenland and had very little contact with each other even when they could clearly see each other across a fjord. The very Christian Vikings of that era were probably quite reluctant to interact with people they saw as heathens.
Which is why “indigenous” is the best word in my opinion. Not just for the indigenous Americans, but for indigenous people the world over. It’s generally understood to mean “pre-colonial.”
Edit: The only exception I can think of is that the Vikings settled Greenland before the Thule (who became the Greenland Inuit), but Danes are not considered indigenous and Inuit are. Maybe because the Vikings that settled there all left or died out and also maybe because the Vikings and the Thule settled different parts of Greenland and had very little contact with each other even when they could clearly see each other across a fjord. The very Christian Vikings of that era were probably quite reluctant to interact with people they saw as heathens.