HitsRus;1532682 wrote:I would imagine "American" Indian would be doubly inacurate as "American" is a term coined by the 'invading' settlers from Europe. Moreover, I would think most that would actually care about accuracy that much would probably rather be called by their tribal name i.e. Cherokee, Chippewa, Navajo etc as there is quite a bit of difference in most cases among the tribes. Lumping them into such a broad category as "Indians" or "Native Americans" wouldn't be much different then calling an Irishman a slav.
Human>white skin>European>Hungarian.
It really is only taxonomy, so why all the hurt feelings?
Eh, I'd see it more as calling an Irishman a Caucasian European. Referring to the continent instead of the country. As for the "America" part, that's the modern term for the land. Lands change names all the time (Myanmar, Russia, Palestine, China, etc. have all had other names throughout history, for example).
Admittedly, while I know several Native American friends, they're mostly all of Navajo ancestry, so it's hardly a thorough cross-section, but the ones to whom I've spoken on the topic (which isn't all of them, because this topic isn't just falling out of their mouths) seem to prefer Native American. The one I know the best doesn't seem to mind 'Indian', but he has said 'it shows their ignorance' on more than one occasion about people who use it about people. Interestingly, he's a Cleveland Indians fan.
