Speaking with a native American

phenomenally

IMHO, neither term is accurate. "Indian" implies a connection to India, and "native American" is too much like "native-born" American.

In Canada we generally use Aboriginal Canadians or First Nations peoples to describe them. Some people still use the term Indian, but that's becoming less and less common. Native peoples is also in use.

Sounding like 'native born' is no problem to me, after all, they ARE native born.

Wow, what a great way to make money - you just sit there and talk, and you get paid!! lol

Native, when applied to a person, always means native-born.

Aboriginal Canadians sounds like a good term, since it means exactly what it appears to me. Aboriginal means "from the beginning," and when applied to people, means that they come from ancestry that has lived in an area since time immemorial. This is a perfect description of many indigenous ethnic groups in many countries.

Native is not sufficiently specific, since anyone born in a place is a native, no matter where his ancestors came from. I can't condone the deformation of English for political ends.

Of course, Indian is even further off the mark. And if you call aboriginal Americans Indians, what term do you use to refer to real Indians?

Other examples can be cited. African-American is often used to refer to Americans with dark skin, even if the past twenty generations of their familes have lived in the United States. And yet people object to it when it is used to refer to someone who actually _is_ an immigrant from Africa, as the term implies—especially if his skin is pale (many Arabs, white South Africans, etc.).

All of these distortions are designed to confuse rather than enlighten.

"And if you call aboriginal Americans Indians, what term do you use to refer to real Indians?"

Indians as well. It's merely a designated name that has stuck.

You are right, it is confusing. People from India are also called Indians... sometimes East Indians (although that term is now considered to be somewhat rude).

The Canadian government generally calls them South Asians, now, or uses religious designations, i.e. Hindus, Sikhs or Indo-Muslims.

Indian origin peoples living in Canada are usually called Indo-Canadians.

<<but since most Americans are too illiterate to know what that word means, they often call such people Indians instead (because when Columbus voyaged to the Americas and first met them, he thought he was in India).>>

I guess people call them as red indians not just indians, imho. My father has been in the united states for some time and he told me that majority of them resident in the American state called "Indiana". They are real Americans and others are just fake! I mean I can be called an American after residing there for 10 years. I also can bet that they are not into wars and fights - they run away from noise and people - so they live in jungle far away from cities.

Boy, I don't know exactly what your father has told you, but if it is anything like what you just regurgitated, you need to stop listening to him. None of that is in the least bit true.

Some Native Americans prefer to be called American Indians. Yes, this can be confusing in that people from India are also Indian, but the term has stuck since the days of Columbus...I don't think what Mxsmanic calls "illiteracy" has anything to do with it. One hears the term "indigenous people" all the time and that requires no more "literacy" than the term "aboriginal."

Boy,

As for most Indians living in the state of Indiana.....I don't think so. I'd say most probably live here in the Northeast (here in New Jersey there are quite a few people of Indian [that is from India] descent).

People from Indiana are called Hoosiers.

Indigenous peoples... yes that's right I forgot about that one.

In Quebec the term "autochtones" is used, which is roughtly equivalent to aboriginal (actually, there is a direct equivalent english word "autochthonous peoples" but I have never heard it used in English).

In my experience with Aboriginal Canadians, I have never heard anyone refer to themselves as Indians or Canadian Indians, and I think most of them think of the term as pejorative right now.

I know that is not the case in the United States, where American Indian still has some currency.

The most politically correct term right now is "First Nations" peoples, which is used to suggest that they were nations before the modern nation state.

In the modern Canadian system, the National (Federal) Government currently recognizes the various tribes as having sovereign powers within the Canadian system... a status, essentially, that recognizes them as nations within the nation.

<<The term Native American meaning only aboriginal Americans is a excess of political correctness and a deliberate slap in the face of the majority of Americans>>

Well whether you accept it or not Europeans are FOREIGNERS. And there is no bigger slap in the face than to steal someone's (after the hospitable treatment shown by the "real" natives when they first arrived uninvited and unexpectedly) and claim it as their own and then go on to call the original inhabitants of these lands by something they're not. I wonder how Europeans would react to being called Asians, Africans etc, etc, etc. It's just basic common courtesy, one would think it isn't that big of an ask.

Europeans are foreigners, but we're not Europeans...our ancestors were.

Just to clarify, I have absolutely no problem with the term "Native American" being used to refer to American Indians/indigenous peoples/aboriginal people etc. I just don't think Reggie's argument is very good.