What do you call the indigenous people of the Americas?

[NovaKart]

Are you sure that was entirely sarcastic civking? It seems like that might be the reason you really object to feather Indians using the word.

Don't Indians from India actually not really call themselves Indian in their own languages? Like in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi etc.

 

[civ_king]

Are you sure that was entirely sarcastic civking? It seems like that might be the reason you really object to feather Indians using the word.

Don't Indians from India actually not really call themselves Indian in their own languages? Like in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi etc.

It isn't entirely sarcastic, seriously this whole victim thing and needing hand outs is annoying. My mother's family is successful from very hard work and cooperation.

Correct, but how many people in the US speak Hindi, Bengali, Marathi etc? OTOH many people in the US understand that people from India are called Indians.

 

[BSmith1068]

European or African?

Native American.

 

[onedreamer]

Here they are most commonly known as "indians", formerly alternatively known as "reskins" but it's obvious too racist a term in 2011. I recently started calling them native americans, since we have a good number of really indian immigrants.

 

[warpus]

You know what? From now on I'm going to call every single nationality "Indian"

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

What about the Redskins?

It would explain their pattern of success and failure. Start out the season strong, win the first few games battles, but then half their offensive line army gets injured killed and they get progressively worse and finish with some last hurrah that makes you think they just might get the wild card beat the White Man, and then they throw it and crush your soul.

 

[Kyriakos]

In Greek there is a distinction of the terms used for native americans and people of India. The native americans are Indianoi, whereas the people of India are Indoi.

 

[Lillefix]

In Greek there is a distinction of the terms used for native americans and people of India. The native americans are Indianoi, whereas the people of India are Indoi.

Yeah, it seems to be like that in several European languages. The word meaning American Indians often have a couple of syllables more than the word meaning an Indian from India.

 

[UnendingRequiem]

American Indians

 

[Holycannoli]

Usually indians but it depends. When I was little I didn't play "cowboys and native americans", and I didn't join the YMCA "Native American Guides" I joined the "Indian Guides".

It does depend on who I'm talking to and what the nature of the conversation is.

 

[Zelig]

Same for me but I've never been confused or unable to make the distinction between the two (ymmv). It's hard for me to conceive a situation where such a misunderstanding would take place that doesn't involve ignorance, total lack of context or intricate set up. All this "confusion" really doesn't seem to be much of an issue.

So if someone says "That Indian stole my smokes.", you know it's a feather-Indian, and "That Indian stole my job." you know it's a dot-Indian?

 

[Bugfatty300]

So if someone says "That Indian stole my smokes.", you know it's a feather-Indian, and "That Indian stole my job." you know it's a dot-Indian?

Those five letter sentences would fall into the category of "lack of context." I mean yeah I can toss together ambiguous sentences too. But what does that prove?

In the real world I would most likely have enough information about my surroundings and the person saying it to unconsciously decide which kind Indian he is talking about and it would probably be a fairly accurate assumption too.

Even if I was confused for a moment as to what he was talking about then so what? A minuscule misunderstanding that would be solved in seconds. Am I going to alter my vocabulary to avoid a possible minor inconvenience? Probably not.

 

[NovaKart]

My point about Indians not calling themselves Indians in Hindi or Bengali, whatever, is that Indians were not always known as Indians either and the names of lots of nationalities are based on misconceptions, not just American Indians.

 

[civ_king]

My point about Indians not calling themselves Indians in Hindi or Bengali, whatever, is that Indians were not always known as Indians either and the names of lots of nationalities are based on misconceptions, not just American Indians.

The've been called Indians since the ancient Greeks

 

[PeteAtoms]

IIRC, "America" itself is named for a mistake. Word is, Amerigo Vespucci was a mapmaker or some shindig, and by signing his name on one of his products, made people believe that his name was the name for the landmass now known as USA#1.

EDIT: Haha, as long you can believe my 7th grade history teacher.... after some googling, that seems completely wrong, lol.

 

[Fuzzz]

Couldn't you name the indigenous people of America "Americans" and all the rest living in America "immigrants" for political correctness?

 

[Heretic_Cata]

I'm curious, how did the native americans name the landmass they were on ?

 

[NovaKart]

The've been called Indians since the ancient Greeks

And now they're so attached to the word they don't want anyone else to use it? They've been called that by the ancient Greeks but how long has the concept of Indian as a nationality existed?

 

[civ_king]

And now they're so attached to the word they don't want anyone else to use it? They've been called that by the ancient Greeks but how long has the concept of Indian as a nationality existed?

What is relevant is how they feel in the US, which has been around a century (ignoring the very small and irrelevant people earlier).

 

[NovaKart]

American Indians are irrelevant?