Time away from poor old American native (10)
I believe the answer is:
indigenous
'native' is the definition.
(similar in meaning)
'time away from poor old american' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'from' could be 'in' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'in' is found in the answer.
'old' could be 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English) and 'o' is present in the answer.
'american' could be 'us' (abbreviation for United States) and 'us' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Another definition for indigenous that I've seen is " Native".)