It probably was the European colonists who started using the word Indian to imply a native population. Is that correct ? What’s the earliest recorded publication using the word Indian in this context ?
Thanks
My understanding is that Colombus thought he had landed in India.
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According to Merriam-Webster online Indian Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster the first usage recorded was in the 14th century associated with Columbus.
Dictionary.com agrees.
Yes, Wikipedia confirms that it goes back to Columbus:
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]
Application of the term “Indian” originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for Asia, thought that he had arrived in the East Indies. Eventually, those islands came to be known as the “West Indies”, a name still used. This led to the blanket term “Indies” and “Indians” (Spanish indios, Portuguese índios) for the indigenous inhabitants, which implied some kind of racial or cultural unity among the indigenous peoples of the Americas. … Even though the term “Indian” generally does not include the culturally and linguistically distinct indigenous peoples of the Arctic regions of the Americas—such as the Aleuts, Inuit, or Yupik peoples, who entered the continent as a second more recent wave of migration several thousand years ago, and have much more recent genetic and cultural commonalities with the aboriginal peoples of the Asiatic Arctic Russian Far East—these groups are nonetheless considered “indigenous peoples of the Americas”.
[/QUOTE]
Interestingly, one of Wikipedia’s references here is to a Straight Dope Staff Report:
Does “Indian” derive from Columbus’s description of Native Americans as “una gente in Dios”?
Right. (That’s my Staff Report BTW.) The first published use of the term was the original letter of Columbus announcing his discoveries in March 1493. By the time it was realized that the new lands were not part of India about a decade later the name had become established, and has been used ever since.
The 15th, unless he was a time traveller. The date of the Discovery is October 12, 1492.
Yeah, I was going to mention that but it slipped my mind after copying the links. They were close, right? 
Thanks Colibri. Could you please point me to some early texts where the word Indian is used to imply natives, outside of Columbus’s realm ?
Are you thinking that the term “Indian” was used to refer to native populations outside the Americas? I’m not aware that it was used that way.
Wait. They didn’t realize it wasn’t actually part of India until TEN years later??
I am not sure I understand your question. I was asking - if the term Indian was limited to the native populations discovered by Columbus or were new native populations (not discovered by Columbus) also called Indians ? If the latter was (is) true, then when did that practice start ? And is there a reference (or text) to such an early publication where this practice occurred (i.e. the discovery of a new indigenous people by someone other than Columbus being reported as Indians (for example the Uncontacted Indians of Brazil).
they called all natives from the new world Indians simply because Columbus did and it stuck although sometimes the English referred to them as natives in the east …
There are native populations outside the Americas. For instance, in Australia and New Zealand. Is your question about them? If not, then it’s hard to understand you question. What do you mean “were other populations not discovered by Columbus called Indians”? They still are called Indians, as you must know. Did you think they were called something else, and then only got called Indians in modern times?
They weren’t exactly sailing to India every other weekend back in 1492.
Vasco da Gama in 1499 was the first European to reach India by sea by going around Africa. World maps at the time looked like these:
I mean, sure, Columbus realized he wasn’t hitting the rich cities he knew existed in India and Cathay. But there were supposed to be a lot of islands in “the indies” and it was reasonable to expect that those peripheral lands were poorer than the cities stuffed with the riches of the orient. So finding what we now call the “West Indies” and expecting them to be the islands we call the “East Indies” isn’t that surprising. Other than being thousands and thousands of miles farther east than they should be, that is.
“Indian” doesn’t imply a generic native population. It only refers to native people from the Americas who were initially mistakenly identified by Columbus as from India, and to native people actually from India.
Native people from from other parts of the world are not called Indians.
I’m not sure what you mean. Columbus continued to explore the West Indies and the Caribbean basin on later expeditions. The other Spanish explorers who followed him simply continued to use his term, as did the Portuguese, French, and English later on as they extended explorations to other areas. Columbus’s letter was circulated throughout Europe, popularizing the term.
Columbus continued to push the idea that his discoveries were part of Asia until his death in 1506. Amerigo Vespucci was the first to widely promulgate the idea that the discoveries constituted a new continent in his letter Mundus Novus (New World) published in about 1502-1503, which is why the continents ended up named after him instead of Columbus.
And it sounds better than “Skrælings”, too.
The use of “Indian” in English to refer to the inhabitants of the Americas isattested to from 1553 as a noun, following Spanish and Portuguese use of indio.
Well hell. Not that I really looked or anything, but I always thought everyone knew he didn’t make it to Asia when he went back to Spain the first time.
Why would they? Only other explorers of the regions, like Vespucci, would be able to question Columbus’ assumption.