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Many of us do not like the term native american. Native, related to nativity, means born somewhere. When we use this term other people will inevitably say, "Hey

Many of us do not like the term native american. Native, related to nativity, means born somewhere. When we use this term other people will inevitably say, "Hey I just realized something, I'm a native american too - I was born here just like you." Use of the term Indian is considered rude in Canada where "First Nations" is widely accepted as the preferred term. However, Canada did previously use Indian, such as their law known as the Indian Act. The term "Aboriginal" in Canada has generally replaced Indian in legal and formal contexts outside of the Indian Act to inclusively refer to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples collectively. In the US, American Indian, Indian, and Native American are all used. Among younger indians NDN, and Skins are popular endonyms. These terms probably should not be used by those who are not Indian themselves though unless they have been given the go ahead, any more than one would use the term "homeboy" inappropriately. In both US and Canada indians generally prefer the names of their nation when dealing with issues specific to a particular nation or their own culture. But there is also a need for a term to distinguish indigenous peoples of the americas collectively, hence Indian, American Indian, West Indian, and First Nations. Why do we use an english word? Because there are hundreds of different indigenous american languages represented. English is now a commonality in the US and when we use the term we often do so when we find ourselves speaking the English language to someone. Historically, there was no one term used by all nations that had the same sort of meaning. Many of our native languages don't use any term exactly like "indian" in meaning. However, in many native languages of what is now called the United States, our own word to collectively refer to the original peoples of Turtle Island, distinguishing us from the invaders and occupiers (sometimes called white men), is red man, red skin, red person. So that would be the most appropriate sort of term were we to use something with an indigenous perspective. Unfortunately, these days there are some activists claiming these traditional concepts are bad. So it is quite common to find whites tell us that redskin is racist, to tell us that indian is wrong, and to tell us that we are all natives, including them, the illegal alien white occupiers of and squatters upon our sovereign lands. As far as the term "Indian" is applied to the many various peoples groups east of the Indus River Valley, that term used with them is a european construct as well. It was not used by people in that area to describe themselves until european colonialists and occupiers arrived and promoted the term. So to say it is correctly applied to people from that region, but not to us is a claim that comes from historical ignorance.

jessaustin 11y ago
Thanks for this comment! There is much here I haven't learned or considered before.
protomyth 11y ago
"Why do we use an english word?" Also because many members cannot speak their tribe's language. Its a real push to get the language(s) integrated into pre-K through 12 and college. Some tribes are much more successful than others (up to requiring fluency to hold tribal office).
rdtsc 11y ago
> Many of us do not like the term native american. Native, related to nativity, means born somewhere. When we use this term other people will inevitably say, "Hey I just realized something, I'm a native american too - I was born here just like you." Thanks for sharing that! That is interesting and would probably be surprising to most people in US. There is a joke Slavoj Zizek has, how he was told by a friend the term Indian is preferred, as it is a testament to white men's stupidy, who thought they found India when they came here.
- marshray 11y ago
  Probably 80%+ of my ancestry has been here in America hundreds of years, mostly since the Revolutionary War. I feel like the term 'native' ought to apply to me. But the same time, I recognize that there are other peoples for whom 100% of their ancestry has been here since the last ice age. I wish we had a term that recognized that they were more native than I am.
wutbrodo 11y ago
> As far as the term "Indian" is applied to the many various peoples groups east of the Indus River Valley, that term used with them is a european construct as well. It was not used by people in that area to describe themselves until european colonialists and occupiers arrived and promoted the term. So to say it is correctly applied to people from that region, but not to us is a claim that comes from historical ignorance. This is quite an odd claim. Most of the countries of the world that weren't named quite recently were named by outsiders, including most of Europe. This is probably just a function of the fact that, before the very recent notion of a map full of well-defined state lines, outsiders were much more likely to define them broadly as an entity than they themselves were. Using this as a litmus test for any useful notion of "correctness" is just silly, since it would invalidate the names of most of the world as "wrong". When people talk about one name being less "correct" than the other, they're talking about whether the naming has anything to do with the land being named. India comes from the Greek word, which is describing a feature of the terrain. Columbus deciding the people he encountered were Indians was based on mistaking the land for an entirely different one on the other side of the world. It doesn't require a condescending diagnosis of "historical ignorance" to explain why some hold the opinion that those two instances of naming may differ in their level of "correctness". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_India#India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_India#India

jessaustin 11y ago

Thanks for this comment! There is much here I haven't learned or considered before.

protomyth 11y ago

"Why do we use an english word?" Also because many members cannot speak their tribe's language. Its a real push to get the language(s) integrated into pre-K through 12 and college. Some tribes are much more successful than others (up to requiring fluency to hold tribal office).

rdtsc 11y ago

> Many of us do not like the term native american. Native, related to nativity, means born somewhere. When we use this term other people will inevitably say, "Hey I just realized something, I'm a native american too - I was born here just like you." Thanks for sharing that! That is interesting and would probably be surprising to most people in US. There is a joke Slavoj Zizek has, how he was told by a friend the term Indian is preferred, as it is a testament to white men's stupidy, who thought they found India when they came here.

marshray 11y ago
Probably 80%+ of my ancestry has been here in America hundreds of years, mostly since the Revolutionary War. I feel like the term 'native' ought to apply to me. But the same time, I recognize that there are other peoples for whom 100% of their ancestry has been here since the last ice age. I wish we had a term that recognized that they were more native than I am.

wutbrodo 11y ago

> As far as the term "Indian" is applied to the many various peoples groups east of the Indus River Valley, that term used with them is a european construct as well. It was not used by people in that area to describe themselves until european colonialists and occupiers arrived and promoted the term. So to say it is correctly applied to people from that region, but not to us is a claim that comes from historical ignorance. This is quite an odd claim. Most of the countries of the world that weren't named quite recently were named by outsiders, including most of Europe. This is probably just a function of the fact that, before the very recent notion of a map full of well-defined state lines, outsiders were much more likely to define them broadly as an entity than they themselves were. Using this as a litmus test for any useful notion of "correctness" is just silly, since it would invalidate the names of most of the world as "wrong". When people talk about one name being less "correct" than the other, they're talking about whether the naming has anything to do with the land being named. India comes from the Greek word, which is describing a feature of the terrain. Columbus deciding the people he encountered were Indians was based on mistaking the land for an entirely different one on the other side of the world. It doesn't require a condescending diagnosis of "historical ignorance" to explain why some hold the opinion that those two instances of naming may differ in their level of "correctness". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_India#India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_India#India