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The "Native American" so-called "controversy" was ginned up by a few people who desperately wanted to be noticed, and so tried to invent a "problem" to draw the attention of his betters for a few minutes.
They mostly failed.
But, as you can see, they still keep trying.
I know lots of them, and you're correct. Most don't care about what they are called. But those who do care prefer Native-American.
It's just like all the other hyphens. Most Americans of Italian heritage don't care what they're called either, but a few like the hyphen. Big deal. If adding 'American' to someone's heritage is something important enough to concern them, why not make them happy? No harm in that for both people.
The Canadians handle the name thing better.
They call their natives natives or aboriginals, both different words for the same thing- the people who were there before the white man showed up.
They call tribes First Nations, which is how the natives think of themselves.
If anyone has permission by the U.S. government to enter our country where have I ever said that's an issue? Duh, the nit-picking continues. If they aren't as individuals citizens of this country then they don't have the same rights as citizens, duh. We don't have treaties with every tribe on this continent and therefore they aren't deemed citizens of this country. What is so hard to comprehend about that?
If somebody refers to himsel/herself as American Indian - I will use the term, if Native American - will use that one. Or a tribal name.
In a conversation without anybody in particular I use whatever term comes in mind interchangeably.
But I also don't see any point in offending anyone if it makes them offended to be called one way vs another.
Simple rule of politeness.
A voice of reason in a sea of mostly well-intention-ed madness. Some participating in this convo identify as Native or Indian and some do not. In either event, none can speak for "all." I find it curious when someone says "I know a lot of Indians (or Natives) and they strongly prefer to be called (x)". Well....I am Native and I know a lot of Natives and they have as many different stripes and opinions as everybody else....meaning some prefer one, some prefer another, some don't care much either way, and many do have strong feelings about it one way or another. However, being as they are being the ones referred to, they should be the ones deferred to.
Yes, everyone is correct that both Indian and Native American are flawed terms as applied to the Indigenous peoples of the U.S. and we aren't stupid, we get that....but if we've been called a certain thing for x amount of years and oppressed under a certain term and our grandparents referred to themselves as this term then we also may feel we have earned a certain right to use a term if we want to despite its technical absurdity. At the end of the day I speculate many of the people most passionate about this debate do not have a tribal identity because that's where the real essence of our identity as Native people comes from. If you care about someone you are dealing with and have manners, just be respectful of what they consider themselves to be. Its not terribly rude to ask and if you do you may find the answer is simply "HUMAN" (note: many tribal names essentially translate to "the people" or "the real people").
I'm 1/100000000000000000th Indian (descended from a Cherokee Princess) and I want to be called a Native American that came over a land bridge a trillion years ago.
A voice of reason in a sea of mostly well-intention-ed madness. Some participating in this convo identify as Native or Indian and some do not. In either event, none can speak for "all." I find it curious when someone says "I know a lot of Indians (or Natives) and they strongly prefer to be called (x)". Well....I am Native and I know a lot of Natives and they have as many different stripes and opinions as everybody else....meaning some prefer one, some prefer another, some don't care much either way, and many do have strong feelings about it one way or another. However, being as they are being the ones referred to, they should be the ones deferred to.
Yes, everyone is correct that both Indian and Native American are flawed terms as applied to the Indigenous peoples of the U.S. and we aren't stupid, we get that....but if we've been called a certain thing for x amount of years and oppressed under a certain term and our grandparents referred to themselves as this term then we also may feel we have earned a certain right to use a term if we want to despite its technical absurdity. At the end of the day I speculate many of the people most passionate about this debate do not have a tribal identity because that's where the real essence of our identity as Native people comes from. If you care about someone you are dealing with and have manners, just be respectful of what they consider themselves to be. Its not terribly rude to ask and if you do you may find the answer is simply "HUMAN" (note: many tribal names essentially translate to "the people" or "the real people").
I'm def Ok with tribe names like Navajo, Cherokee and so on for members to describe themselves. But it's like Americans of Sub Saharan ancestry in the US: are they Black, African American, People of Color or Negro or even Colored? I use the word 'Black" since it's the safest. Back to American Indians: it must be an "age" thing; the older ones about 50 or older seem to like "Indian" and the younger ones like "Native" if the tribe name isn't known.
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Common sense
