Cowboys and Indians

It has been a long time since John Wayne movies were popular, but I bet when you think of cowboys that is who you think of, and I would even go so far as to wager that like many, when you think of cowboys you cannot help thinking of Indians.  Generations of kids have grown up playing cowboys and Indians; even my own kids did.  In fact, I had one who was obsessed with playing the part!

  When my oldest two where 3 and 41/2 (they are 14 and 16 currently) they got out markers and as you might have already guessed they decorated each other; they were warriors.  So here in lies the question; in this politically correct world we live in, is it better to use the term Indian or Native American?

Within the past few years, I found out that I myself have native blood running through my veins, and to better educate myself I took a fabulous class at Utah Valley University: Intro to Native American studies (which I would highly recommend to anyone for their “G” class). In this class we learned a little more about being sensitive to native peoples, but the question still nagged at me; what is really preferred?  In class we used the terms Indian and Native interchangeably.  We learned that in the good ol’ USA the Government still calls this group of people Indians or Alaska Native, a lot use  Native Americans.  In Canada, the native people there refer to themselves as the First Nations People.  Historically speaking; the names that tribes have for themselves, regardless of what side of the boarder you dwell on simply translates to “the people” or something very similar.

So let’s take a walk down memory lane.  Where did the term Indian come from, well Christopher Columbus if you can remember he was sent by the Royals towards the region of India, so when Columbus landed in the west he called the natives he came across Indians. Thank goodness he wasn't headed for Turkey! ;)   Others, such as AIM activist Russell Means believe that this couldn't be further from the truth, that in fact the term Indian comes from a Spanish phrase “En Dios” translated means In God.  That; when Columbus landed he found gentle peoples whom he often referred to as people of God and yet there are others who feel this is also false.  What we do know is that the majority of European society at that time used the term “Indian” to refer to the peoples of the Indian subcontinent.

Back to America, it doesn’t take much digging to find a period of time when many native peoples of this continent were ashamed.  When a family member contacted me and told me the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) needed information I wrote her back and told her we were not native, imagine my surprise when she wrote me back and said, “Um, yes you are!”    While digging around in my own family history I found US census records from the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s  where my ancestors were marked down as being white, while on tribal rolls of the same year you can find their information and blood decree. So why the discrepancy; the father in this case was of German descent and the mother was Chippewa and from what I have been told, the children were marked as white so that they would not be looked down upon by society.  Most of the history books do not talk about this period of time, because it his history from the view of the Anglo, but if you are fortunate enough to learn actual native history you will be both shocked and saddened by how people were treated.  Though the title might throw you off, I highly recommend The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Native American History.  This was one of the textbooks we used in our intro class and it is written by a native and is surprisingly informative (and cheap which is a huge deal when it comes to textbooks).

So, back to the topic at hand the word Indian.  I really do believe it depends on who you are talking too.  I sat in on a panel discussion on campus and one of the speakers was pretty adamant that she was NOT Native America, but that she was Native.  She found the use of American with Native highly offensive and she did not like the term Indian either.  She is Navajo first, Native second. The young lady sitting next to her, who happened to be from the same town in New Mexico had no problem being called Native American nor did she have a problem with being called an Indian.  My professor says, “I’m Hopi”.  As for myself, I am still new at this, and I am one of those people who have a very diverse background from all over the place, but if someone asks me specifically if I am native I reply "I am Chippewa" (Ojibwa).  Most of my friends who are Native think of the Indies or India when they hear the word Indian, but they do not take offense if someone uses the term directed at them.  Alas, there are those who do find the term Indian offensive, and do so for a lot of various reasons. (Please see the great quote from my friend below, it explains a lot with very few words),.

I thought one of the best ways to get some great points of view on the topic was to take it to social media.  I posted a poll for all my Facebook friends and family to respond too.  When being asked regarding your heritage, do you refer to yourself as Native American, Indian or by particular tribe? As you might have already guessed not one of them said, “Yup, I’m Indian”  I was able to get thirteen friends and or family members to respond and of that eight replied tribe, four said Native American with tribal distinction as the way to go, and one said drop the American.  I have a wonderful friend who I grew up with who is Tlingit and I asked her if I could share her reply:

“This is going to be a very diverse answer. Most people prefer to be called the name they have for themselves, this is what we have been long before colonization.  As for the terms Native, Alaskan Native, Native American, American Indian, First Nations, Indigenous; it depends on that human beings personal story with those words. In Alaska you find that people commonly prefer to refer to themselves as Alaska Native before many of the others.  That term was given to us at a different time in history than the lower 48 Native people and we have a different government to government relationship.  That and not all Alaskan Native people are Indians.  There are Inuit or Eskimo people who do not refer to themselves and Indians.  And even then some of them don’t like to be called Eskimo, but some do. There is history in those words, and many people don’t take the time to learn the history of those words or the societal impacts not only historically but in modern times as well.” ~ Vivian Mork

As for myself, I find overall that Native is much more widely used and when you use Native you will have the smarter mouth!