Another name for "Indians"/"Native" Americans?

Discussion in 'Race Relations' started by AltLightPride, Jul 11, 2019.

  1. AltLightPride

    AltLightPride Well-Known Member

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    They're not Indians. That was a mistake by explorers who thought they had reached India.

    They're not native either. They came from the north and took over the continent.

    So why not call them what they call themselves? I know several tribes call themselves names that translate to "human beings", so why name them with the word in their language for that?
     
    Last edited: Jul 11, 2019
  2. Imnotreallyhere

    Imnotreallyhere Well-Known Member Donor

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    For that matter why not call them aborigines? Terminology makes little difference
     
  3. AltLightPride

    AltLightPride Well-Known Member

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    They're not aborigines anymore than they are natives.

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aborigine

    "Aborigine : a member of the original people to inhabit an area especially as contrasted with an invading or colonizing people"

    They are not the original people to inhabit the area. They were the invading people in their time themselves.

    I think it matters a lot actually. You're forced to choose between PC nonsense and politically incorrect nonsense. There isn't a single name for these guys that isn't based on a massive mistake.
     
    Last edited: Jul 12, 2019
  4. Imnotreallyhere

    Imnotreallyhere Well-Known Member Donor

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    Who did they displace?
     
  5. edna kawabata

    edna kawabata Well-Known Member

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    Are you saying there were people here before the Native Americans arrived some 20 to 40,000 years ago or simply moving to new lands like the aborigines did 50,000 years ago to Australia does not make them "native"?
     
  6. jay runner

    jay runner Banned

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    Call them ecological geniuses who knew the right way to live and didn't contribute to global warming or pollution like people who use computers and batteries.

    Call them good warriors.
     
  7. Skruddgemire

    Skruddgemire Well-Known Member

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    That definition applies to the Native Americans.

    “Original people to inhabit an area, especially contrasted with an invading or colonizing people.”

    Let’s look at that as it applies to the Australian Aboriginal tribes. When they came to Australia, no one else was there so they were the original people to inhabit the area. They did not invade as there was no one to invade.

    Same with the Native Americans. When they came over, there was no one else here so they became the original people to inhabit the North and South American continents.
     
  8. Obamamania

    Obamamania Banned

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    I don't know of any reputable anthropologists or archeologists who claim that Native Americans invaded North and South America displacing an aboriginal group of people. The only people I've heard make this claim are White Supremacists who claim that Kennewick Man was Caucasian and that ancient Caucasians wandered in to America thousands of years before Native Americans. The consensus of modern scholars is that the "Red Man" (I agree that American Indian is a misnomer) is indigenous to the continents of North and South America. There were no other people here before they arrived and on the off chance that some other group crossed the Bering Strait or island hopped to the Americas first they were clearly the dominant culture when European settlers arrived and pushed them off their lands.

    Who is to say who were the first inhabitants of a particular area when much of human history was not recorded. All we have are archeological records. Without written history or pictures and videos in prehistoric times all kinds of theories have been constructed from myths to religious text to ancient Aliens building the civilizations of the past. So White Caucasians being the true Native Americans is yet another racist myth to go a long with a long line of vicious attacks on indigenous Americans including denigrating mascots such as the Washington Redskins, children playing "Cowboys and Indians," media portrayals of modern Native Americans as angry casino owning drunks, cultural appropriation in the form of Native American costumes for Halloween and inaccurate movie depictions such as Disney's Pocahontas (whose name is also used as a racial slur by President Trump).

    Leave the Native Americans alone and let them have their culture and their heritage.
     
  9. xwsmithx

    xwsmithx Well-Known Member

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    I prefer AmerIndian as the best term to use. It's shorter than American Indian and doesn't have the unclear problems of "native American", a term better used to describe Americans who were born here rather than naturalized American, those who came here from somewhere else and became American citizens. American Indians themselves don't actually have a problem with the term. Among themselves, they refer to themselves as "the people".

    Edit to add: It also has the advantage of including Canadian and Central and South American Indians, people not covered by the term, "native American".
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2019
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  10. JakeStarkey

    JakeStarkey Well-Known Member

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    'first peoples' catch their general historical narrative
     
  11. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

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    Who was here when they invaded?
     
  12. Capt Nice

    Capt Nice Well-Known Member

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    There are no native Americans. Since they came here by way of the Bering Straits I consider the American Indian to be the 'First Americans'
     
  13. Foxfyre

    Foxfyre Well-Known Member

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    New Mexico has lots of Indians/Native Americans--Navajo, Hopi, Apache, a few Ute and Comanchi, and numerous distinctly unique Pueblo tribes that absorbed and descended from the Anazazi most scientists believed some seven to eight hundred years ago. The politically correct from any of the tribes may use the politically correct term Native American to refer to themselves, but most just call themselves Indian if they don't use their tribal designation: Jicarillo Apache et al. They rather like the term Indian. Which is why they chose not to change the name of the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center which is a big deal here in Albuquerque as is the annual Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial but most of the pow wows around the country are called "Native American" so the ambiguity continues.

    P.S. Off topic but worth mentioning: our local Indians don't mind sports teams using Indian names either but it is white liberals who seem to be demanding that those be phased out.
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2019
  14. JakeStarkey

    JakeStarkey Well-Known Member

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    "Indians" is a fine term, but I know such in NM and elsewhere who oppose, along with some who do not, native names for sport teams. I for one think it is silly. I am fine with the Utes.
     
  15. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

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    I think native American is a decent term when referring to an individual. I think First People (like used in Canada) is a good term to use for native Americans as a group. Otherwise, use their tribe name. Locally we have a lot of Choctaw and Creeks.
     
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  16. Obamamania

    Obamamania Banned

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    That's the same thing. Native American. First Americans. Indigenous American. Whatever you want to call them they are the original people who inhabited America. Indian was a misnomer since Columbus incorrectly believed he had sailed to India. Red man is considered derogatory although I'm not sure why as it seems to be ok to designate Europeans and Africans by skin color but not East Asians or Native Americans. Native American is considered the polite (politically correct) term so that is what I will go with. Otherwise they should be designated by the name of their tribe.

    Also humans arose on the continent of Africa and migrated to other regions so saying that Native Americans came from Asia to the Bering Strait should be irrelevant. All human populations had original inhabitants from another region before they occupied the land they do today.
     
  17. Foxfyre

    Foxfyre Well-Known Member

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    That's a reasonable solution. But again, whether or not the name was attached to them as a misnomer, our New Mexico Indians mostly refer to themselves as Indians. So around here we have Indians and those with an India (Asia) heritage we refer to as "East Indians." And so far nobody seems to mind. :)

    Then again those Indians who harken from the country in Asia are Asian but are not referred to as Asian as only people of a particular race are referred to as Asian which, for those who have lived outside Asia for generations, makes no more sense than calling indigenous peoples of America Indians. :)

    And so goes the ambiguity overall. :)

    It would get nice to get away from all forms of hypenated people and everybody just be American I think.
     
    Last edited: Aug 13, 2019

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