American people taking old islander from East to West (6)
I believe the answer is:
navajo
'american' is the definition.
(I have seen 'Native American' mean 'navajo' so perhaps 'american' could also mean 'navajo')
'from east to west' is the wordplay.
'from' becomes 'o' (I've seen this in other clues).
'east' becomes 'javan' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'to west' says the letters should be written backwards (the letters are written right to left).
'o'+'javan'='ojavan'
'ojavan' backwards is 'NAVAJO'.
'people taking old islander' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for navajo that I've seen before include "A native American Indian people" , "N. American native language" , "N American Indian tribe" , "A N. American Indian people" , "Native American - on Java (anag)" .)