Re: American Indian/Indian American/Native American
Lisa Mitten (lmitten@vms.cis.pitt.edu)
Thu, 12 Dec 1991 15:41:00 EDT
This use if Native American is constantly confused. To make matters
worse, very often you will see "native American" with a small "n" used in
print to refer to American Indians. In my mind, that is what someone born
in the US is - a *native* American. A *N*ative American is an American
Indian. It's no wonder that people are confused. Nevertheless, I feel
Native American is the preferred term, although I tend to use it only
when talking with non-Indians. We usually just say "Indian" or "Indian
people" or the tribal name or our own languages' words among ourselves.
But I think Native American is useful to make a point to non-Indians.
-- lisa mitten
[ At a conference I attended recently, someone suggested the definition
"American Indian" to refer to natives of the "lower 48" states, reserv-
ing "Native American" as a more inclusive term, to refer to the indigen-
ous people of all fifty states, including Natives of Alaska and Hawaii.
What do indigenous peoples of Canada or South America call themselves?
(Again, Manitoba MLA Elijah Harper uses the term "aboriginal people"
to describe himself and other Native people with no reservation or
apparent embarrassment.) --Gary ]