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7 What name?
Generally, ethnic groups desire that others use the name they gave themselves. This preference has gained importance recently as a means of avoiding ethnic discrimination. The principle applies poorly to larger, multi-ethnic groups since different sub-groups often have incompatible preferences. English, like other natural languages, has traditionally ignored this principle, exerting its privilege to invent its own ethnic terms, such as German, Dutch, and Albanian, and disregarding the self-apellations and preferences of the subjects. Not surprisingly, English names for the pre-Columbian Americans are largely assigned by tradition, and are not always accepted by the peoples themselves.
The terms Indian or American Indian were born of the misconception by Christopher Columbus that the Caribbean islands were the islands in Southeast Asia known to Europeans as the East Indies. The replacement term Native American was introduced in the United States by anthropologists who considered Indian quaint and inaccurate. That word had also been tainted with a negative connotation by the 19th century American press and 20th century Western movies.
Nevertheless, Indian and American Indian continue in widespread use in North America, even amongst Native Americans themselves. Native American may be more preferable to academics than to Native Americans themselves. Although a relatively small percentage of Native Americans report being offended by the term Indian, the former term is more generally used today. Some people argue that Native American is inappropriate because "native of" literally means "born in", so any person born in America is "native" to it. A more serious difficulty with this term is that several ethnic groups traditionally excluded from the American Indians were just as "native" to the Americas as them. These groups include the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut peoples of the far north of the continent. Eskimos was once used for these groups, but this term is in disfavor because it is perceived by many of them as derogatory.
In Canada the term First Nations is used to refer to Native Americans, except for the Eskimos and the Métis. The Canadian Indian Act however, which defines the rights of recognized First Nations, refers to them as Indians. In Alaska, the term Alaskan Native predominates, because of its legal use in the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act ( ANSCA) and because it includes the Eskimo peoples. In Latin America, the preferred expression is Indigenous Peoples (pueblos indígenas in Spanish, povos indígenas in Portuguese). However, Indians (indios, índios) is often used too, even by the natives themselves. Red Indian is a common British term, useful in differentiating this group from a distinct group of people referred to as East Indians, but considered offensive in North America, where it is rarely if ever used. In the French language, the term Amérindien has been coined, and the English term Amerindian (sometimes abbreviated Amerind) is sometimes used in the social sciences to refer collectively to all Native American peoples or cultures.
Because the ancestors of the "Native" Americans are thought to have arrived from Asia, some people have proposed Asiatic Americans as being more historically accurate. This term is easily confused with Asian-American, and it is considered offensive by many natives whose religious belief is that they have been in the Americas since the dawn of time. Furthermore, there is a strong tradition in archaeological and anthropological nomenclature to name peoples after the geographical location where they were first documented, rather than for their hypothetical region of origin.
8 Further reading
- Veronica E. Tiller (ed.), Discover Indian Reservations USA: A Visitors' Welcome Guide. Foreword by Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Council Publications, Denver, Colorado (1992) Trade paperback, 402 pages, BooksEnthsiast.com.
- Arlene B. Hirschfelder, Mary Gloyne Byler, and Michael Dorris, Guide to research on North American Indians. American Library Association (1983). BooksEnthsiast.com.
- Roger L. Nicholes, Indians in the United States & Canada, A Comparative History. University of Nebraska Press (1998). Trade Paperback, 393 pages, BooksEnthsiast.com.
- David Wallace Adams, Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience 1875-1928, University Press of Kansas, 1975. Hardcover, BooksEnthsiast.com; trade paperback, BooksEnthsiast.com.
- John Bierhorst, A Cry from the Earth: Music of North American Indians. BooksEnthsiast.com.
- Snipp, C.M. (1989). American Indians: The first of this land. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
