I assumed Toot was talking about Native Americans. 
Possible; I don't think we have enough info.  It's also possible he means an "old country" reference -- the pixies are a very Euro/Brit sort of fae (not New-World) so he might have been talking about the Celts before the Anglo-Saxons, or the Picts before them, and so on back in time.
He also may have been making a more mythological reference -- maybe to the Tuatha de Danann or the like?
Or, on the Native American theme, to some of the mythical early-human / pre-human peoples of the new world.
Again:  I don't think we have enough info.  It'd make an interesting WoJ question at a signing or AMA event!
And, to return to the OP:
 ... throw away context or relevant? 
Yet again, I chant the refrain:  I don't think we have enough info. 
