SOMEBODY ANSWER MY QUESTION!!!!

Great Debates
41

Because the evidence points to their ancestors walking
across the Berring strait. The rest of us would be sailors.

 Seriously, I use the American Indians. I hold the fossil record and the theory of evolution as fact. The evidence shows that the genus homo first appeared in Africa. Thus, only those humans whose families have always lived in that area of Africa are truly natives. The Amerinds/Aboriginal Americans/Native Americans had ancestors who came here just like the rest of us.
 Slight Hijack- My parents recently became even more stereotypically Jewish by buying a winter condo in Florida. My father has always been interested in studying other cultures, and has been reading up on the Seminoles and attending various Seminole festivals. He noticed that many members of the tribe were dressed in southwestern clothing. He asked, politely, why a tribe in Florida was wearing fashions from Arizona. The answer was "Because this is the way most Americans expect Indians to dress."
42

You know, that’s a point right there. It’s kind of silly to even have a name for all the American Indians/Amerinds/Native Americans/American Aborigines/Noble Red Men/Whatever, which we apply to everyone from the Cherokee to the Sioux to the Inca. It’s about like talking about “Eurasians”–you know, those people who live in yurts and herd reindeer and have all those quaint customs like foot binding and Bushido and building Gothic cathedrals. I suppose most Americans mainly apply the name (whichever name they use) to the people who used to live in what became the United States–although as far as I know neither the Rio Grande nor the 49th parallel had any particular significance before the boundaries of this country were set out–but even so, that covers a lot of territory. We still get this great big muddled picture of “the” Indians, who lived in tepees, hunted buffalo on horseback, taught the Pilgrims how to grow maize, and greeted each other by saying “How”.

43

Actually, a lot of the evidence seems to suggest now that the ancestors of the native americans came to America when there was no land bridge, meaning that they probably sailed.

44

This is silly. Are you asking a serious question or just attacking all the SDMB members, PC culture, and Native Americans? (no implied connection between those 3 things)

Why is it such a problem to call people Native Americans who directly descended from the original human settlers of the Americas.

You want to take it back a step? Why stop at Asia? Before that it was Africa. But why stop there? Why not go back to the first self replicating molecules 4 billion years ago? Of course, current maps would be of no service. I guess we could just call every living thing (since we’re all related) “Earthlings” (or a cooler name may be Terrans).

45

“Native” means “born in a place.” My maternal great-grandfather was born in Poland. My paternal great-great-grandfather was born in Germany. (Of course, neither country was called that at the time.) I was born in Chicago. I am a native American (or, more specifically but just as properly, a native of the United States of America).

“Indigenous” is a biological term meaning “evolved in a place,” used when refering to a species. Homo sapiens evolved in Africa, though there are some scientists who argue our species evolved more-or-less simultaneously throughout East Africa and southern Asia. In any event, no human populations are indigenous to the Americas. Cultures, on the other hand – Hopi culture, Navaho culture, etc. – are certainly indigenous. But for that matter, so is the culture that produced the Big MAc, MTV, and the First Amendment.

“Aboriginal” means “first inhabitants of a place.” This is the most proper generic term for the first human settlers in the Americas. However, given that it is so strongly linked to the Australian Aboriginals, it is unlikely to ever catch on. That’s why First Peoples or First Nations, which means the same thing in plain English, is my preference.

(When I visited Australia some years ago, I had a fascinating chat with an Aboriginal community leader. She said “We have learned so much from your Red Indians. We’ve dealt with oppression for only a hundred years or so; they’ve dealt with it for over 500.” Being the polite guest, I did not correct her terminology. But I asked her, if a Cherokee or a Sioux is a “Red Indian,” then what is a native of Bombay or Calcutta? She stated flatly, “a Black Indian,” and went on with her story.)

Oh, and if we’re going to be calling people by whatever name they wish to be called, then I would like to be referred to as The Master Race, Inc. Is that OK with everybody? :wink:

– Beruang

46

[interesting aside]
Actually, there was a very successful minor league team called the Atlanta Crackers (1901 - 1965). They had the only black player in the Southern Association in 1954. There was also a Negro League team called the Atlanta Black Crackers.
[/interesting aside]

47

For the same reason Joey is called an “American” (or “US citizen”), even though his father immigrated from Italy/Russia/Egypt/Japan/whatever.

Who cares if the original original Native Americans came from somewhere else? They came here, they settled down, then they had kids and grandkids. There’s your “native Americans”.

(Of course, you could just call them all “Beverly” and be done with it, too. Would be amusing, at least for me. :smiley: )

48

The accepted legal term in the United States is “Indians” or “American Indians.” Witness the Indian Health Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Therefore, I think one can argue that “Indian” is in fact the “politically correct” term.

However, in the past fifteen years or so, the term “Native American” has on occasion found its way into legislation. Legal purists fear that term does not convey the legal rights inherent in the original term, and also fear the day when some asshole delays a project for a decade because it used “Native American” instead of “Indian” in the title. It’s probably already happened.

In addition to the fallacious definition inherent in the term, there is another, more disturbing reason why I do not personally use “Native American” for official purposes. There are two basic kinds of Indian bills in Congress: those that help Indians, and those drafted by ignorant, hateful individuals with the intent of restricting, marginalizing, and exploiting American Indians. Yes, this does still happen, all the time.

For whatever reason, the bad bills almost always use the term “Native American” in the title or description of the bill, perhaps in the naive assumption that the intent of the bill will be masked by the use of the supposedly “PC” term.

This of course doesn’t mean that good bills don’t use that term, or that all bad bills do, but it is still a valuable rule of thumb.

There are over 550 federally recognized tribes, bands, and native villages in the United States, and almost 2 million Americans who identify themselves as either Indians or Alaska Natives. Each tribe is at least as different from one another politically as the various states differ from each other, and we all know that no two people’s sensibilities are alike. Therefore, I’m not going to try to guess who prefers what term when. “Indian” is perfectly acceptable, even preferred, among federal lawmakers and lobbyists, and among a vast number of tribes themselves for legal purposes.

49

No! I don’t want to! And you can’t make me!

50

Well you can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay…

51

Just following up what SOFA said, the correct legal term, whether PC or not, is “American Indian” or just “Indian” – as in “Indian Country” and the Indian Child Welfare Act. (And, yes, “Indian Country” does have a specific, precise definition.)

Interestingly, most of the Native Americans I’ve known don’t really care a whole lot what they are called so long as it’s respectful. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say they would prefer to be called by their tribal affiliation (like for example, Salish-Kootenai or Lakota), “Native American,” “American Indian,” and then “Indian,” in that order of descending preference. To say that “Native American” is not strictly correct is probably true but IMO hypercritical to the point of irrelevance. The term “American” is not strictly correct either, in light of the fact that it could refer to any citizen of any country in either North or South America. What matters is that you use a term that is generally understood and that doesn’t offend the people about whom, or to whom, you are speaking.

52

I call the Indian people I know “wagon-burners” or “chief” depending on my mood. Of course they call me “heathen” or “filthy Irishman”. We all just have good time laughing at the trivialness of labels compared to what people really are…

53

I seldom actually call anyone a native, but when I do, I apply the term to mean a person who currently lives in the same locale in which he was born. That makes me a native American. I also happen to be a native Virginian, and a native Fairfaxian. I am probably not politically correct, but I am factually and linguistically accurate. Perhaps we could decide to call ourselves Indigenous Pangeans.

My uncle, who was a Sioux, seldom called himself a Sioux, or an Indian, or a Native American. He did mention being from South Dakota, a few times, but he left there, so he did not consider himself to be a native. He used to call me paleface, though. (At the time, that too, was accurate.)

Tris

“Swat my hind with a melon rind, That’s my penguin state of mind.” ~ Opus ~

54

First Nations (after all, it is a little tiresome to assume that that many language groups all belong to the same political entity and “tribe” has developed some pretty negative connotations).

Of course each of those language groups has their own name for the people who speak/spoke them, strangely enough, a lot of them translate as “the people” or (my favourite part of Little Big Man) as “human beings”. So if you weren’t say Inuit, you were something other than one of “the people”, and if you weren’t a Siouan speaker, you were strictly speaking “a human being”.

55

Like that person whom Beruang quoted, I’ve also always thought of them as “Red Indians” (due to spending a lot of time in early childhood reading my grandparents’ old history books). For me it conjures up images of great chiefs riding horses through vast expanses of land, understanding the mysterious ways of nature, etc. What a pity that the term contains the name of a colour and is thus, I have to admit, pretty racist. So now I’m learning the names of different tribes as that is even more romantic. I just learnt “Choctaw” and I’m trying to remember it now…

56

I’ve found the activists in this population to have quite a sense of humor about…well, this issue and their issues in general.

One AIM member I knew insisted that AIM stood for “Assholes in Moccasins”.