I have had somewhat a similar experience in my lifetime...
While attending high school in Dallas, Texas. I usually would talk with White
Americans. Because of our low representation now as well as in history books,
some of these people would assume that I am of Hispanic heritage. I would
negate their assumption and tell that I was not. Then, they would ask, "What
are you?"
I usually never replied, "I'm an Indian." because they then would possibly
confuse me. Also, I dislike the name personally because Christopher Columbus
ignorantly named us that. So, I usually replied, "I'm Native American."
Not knowing what I truly meant, the person would say, "So am I!"
In order to quickly clarify the discussion, I would retort, "I'm Native
American Indian!"
Finally, he would understand....
I have a possible solution to this problem; but, people would view it as too
radical. Therefore, I will not post it here. If you want, I can discuss the
name with you.
Jody Clark
(Dineh)