I prefer to be called Badger
I remember a few years ago, they were voting on the Indian Casinos in California. There were plenty of ads on TV (from the tribal members) encouraging voters to support Indian Casinos. And they all called them Indian Casinos. Indian Casinos. I remember being corrected (with a huff) by some (non-American Indian) people when I talked about the Indian Casinos, which astonished me. I was being bombarded with TV ads, where the term Indian Casino was being used over and over and over again, by American Indians! So why is it incorrect to use the same term I heard used constantly by American Indians…?
Sheesh. Whatever. I don’t want to offend anyone, but some people are just too quick to be offended.
Because if we took that to the logical extreme no-one would be natives of anywhere except Africa.
yosemitebabe wrote:
I doubt that the Indians-from-India who “corrected you with a huff” were trying to defend American Indians. They were probably ticked off that “Indian” was being used to refer to someone besides them.
Say … if you’re from India, and you live in America, would that make you an American Indian? Or would it make you an Indian-American?
**Tracer wrote:
It doesn’t matter if they’re right from our point of view or not, we’re talking about them, not us. You can still respect their beliefs and if one way of doing that is calling them whatever they prefer, then that shouldn’t be a problem. After all European society has done to Native American society, it sure wouldn’t hurt to capitulate and call them whatever they prefer (whether it’s American Indian, Native American or Bob).
I am called “Dances with Vulvas”
Indian-American. Just like Chinese-American, German-American, African-American (another loaded label), whatever.
Now, if you’re an American living in India, then you’d be called an American-Indian, no? 
Native Americans != Indians
Columbus didn’t know. But we know that now! don’t we?
This is a good way to do it. I have friends who hate the term “African American” and prefer to be called “black”. Since they’d call me “white” instead of Euro-american or whatever other term might apply, which I’d consider equally stupid, I take their lead and we’re both happy.
I find this mind-blowing too. It’d be interesting if a group of Native American/American Indians got together and decided to purchase a team, and call it the “Georgia Crackers.” It wouldn’t fly, but I bet the Redskins would be re-named in a hurry.
Yeah, Ok, I know. I just needed to get people’s attention so I could get some replies.
Correct. I didn’t take that into account. However, it doesn’t really matter what they think about how they got here ,because a majority of the non “Native American” Poplulation doesn’t recognise that fact. Anyway, most people either call them Native Americans, because they want to be politcally correct, or they call them Indians because they don’t give a damn about being politcally correct.
I’ve been called a wagon burner before…Is that politically correct?
I don’t know, what race are you of? (Anything can be defined as Politcally incorrect). Please keep in mind that I have nothing against any races whatsoever.
Yeah, Ok, I know. I just needed to get people’s attention so I could get some replies. **
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It doesn’t work like that around here, sunshine. We’re not here to answer your questions unless we want to. You’ll find a polite, informative OP will get you more views and more replies. The only attention repeated, rude OP’s will get will probably be no replies or your very own dedicated Pit thread.
Yes. We also know that the country named “India” did not exist in 1492. So the myth about Columbus calling the natives “Indians” because he thought he was in India is false.
Given that, I don’t see how you can make the argument that the titling of the natives was based on false information. However, if the people in question do not want to be called “Indians” (for whatever reason), then we should call them whatever the heck they want.
Just as long as they play fair and call me an “American American”.
Part Cherokee, but I look more Cherokee than I am at times.
And, it was a joke, Of course. Wagonburner is racial slur against Native American/Indian whatever.
How about “the Real Americans”?
I thought that the supposed misindentification was with the ( East ) Indies which according to Merriam-Webster includes not just India but also a big chunk of Southeast Asia and the Malay Archipelago.
Just my 2sense
??? The word India appeared both in Latin and Greek in reference to the geographic region surrounding the Indus River. It had even made it into English before 893 C.E., so it is unlikely that it was unknown to Columbus.
The current speculations are that Columbus, (who actually was a very good mariner/navigator) simply screwed up his arithmetic and thought the world was much smaller than it is, believing that he had found the Indies/India,
or that Columbus knew that he had not really reached the Indies/India, but needed to fraudulently make that claim in order to declare his mission successful so that he could find funding for future voyages.
(The periodically speculated idea that Columbus referred to the people he met as living “in God” (in Dios) has no merit.)
SPOOFE wrote:
Huh? The Portuguese took over Goa (in India) in 1510 – surely, Europeans must have known about India before 1492!
The state known as India did not exist in 1492, but Europeans knew of a “country” of India. (There was no “Germany” or “Italy” in 1492 either, but the terms predated the political unification of either of those two countries.)