2006 College Football

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by kstar

Most Native Americans that I know take great offense to being called an "Indian," and the few Indians I know also don't like the term being used to refer to Native Americans.

And tribal members that I know use "Indian," "American Indian" or perhaps, when speaking of all American Indians as a group, "native" or "indigenous people" -- or they get specific and say "Cherokee" or the like. So this proves . . . ?

BTW, been to the National Museum of the American Indian lately?

When in doubt, one can always consult that omniscient source, The Wiki:

The term Native American was originally introduced in the United States by anthropologists as a more accurate term for the indigenous people of the Americas, as distinguished from the people of India. Because of the widespread acceptance of this newer term in and outside of academic circles, some people believe that Indians was outdated or offensive. People from India (and their descendants) who are citizens of the United States are known as Indian Americans.

However, some American Indians have misgivings about the term Native American. Russell Means, a famous American Indian activist, opposes the term Native American because he believes it was imposed by the government without the consent of American Indians. Furthermore, some American Indians question the term Native American because, they argue, it serves to ease the conscience of "white America" with regard to past injustices done to American Indians by effectively eliminating "Indians" from the present. Still others (both Indians and non-Indians) argue that Native American is problematic because "native of" literally means "born in," so any person born in the Americas could be considered "native". However, very often the compound "Native American" will be capitalized in order to differentiate this intended meaning from others. Likewise, "native" (small 'n') can be further qualified by formulations such as "native-born" when the intended meaning is only to indicate place of birth or origin.

A 1996 survey revealed that more American Indians in the United States still preferred American Indian to Native American. Nonetheless, most American Indians are comfortable with Indian, American Indian, and Native American, and the terms are now used interchangeably. The continued usage of the traditional term is reflected in the name chosen for the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened in 2004 in Washington, D.C..

Recently, the U.S. Census introduced the "Asian Indian" category to more accurately sample the Indian American population.

Don't hurt yourself getting off that high horse.

[xo_kathy]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Don't hurt yourself getting off that high horse.

ha ha ha ha ha

Sorry, but that was funny!

Thanks for the info (as always), MysticCat!

[Kevin]

Guys, this is a college football thread. I don't see how the potential offensiveness of this term has much to do with anything in this thread unless you want to talk about the NCAA's stance on indian/native american mascots which is ridiculous. A local D-II school just played their last game as the "Redmen" which they had been called for 81 years. The funny thing is that the school is in the same town as the Cherokee Nation's capitol, and it was the NCAA, not the Cherokee nation which forced/asked for this change.

The unfortunate Native American mascots out of football movement began in earnest in Oklahoma as they did away with the "Little Red" mascot. Little Red was usually a native American/indian student who dressed up in full indian regalia and performed a lot of native american/indian dances and such to cheer on the football team -- a pretty cool tradition IMHO, a lot better than the wagon. My brother used to date the daughter of a former Little Red, and my father was good friends with another in law school.