In that case, Philcore, we're all monkeys. Except we're obviously not. Anyway, it's safe to say that every land has been stolen at some point. The problem stems from when a country like the United States or Canada signs treaties designating certain lands to certain people and then occupies them anyway.

You can be native American. You're native to the USA, so why not? Take that title away if you like; I have no issue with that.

What are you lot all bickering about?

Native American is the term used to refer to the natives of America as opposed to its colonists. This is generally accepted to be pre-colonial natives (who were obviously originating in Africa, but that's besides the point) and everyone who came to America after from other countries is called a *colonist*.

Indian is a term used to refer to the same people by Columbus et al because of a misunderstanding but it's not a racist term - he simply thought he had discovered India and their native people.

Neither are really offensive, unless you start calling them Injuns...

It is understandable that following the big mix-up, the natives of America would wish to be called Americans instead of Indians for accuracy's sake. Then all the colonists wanted to be called Americans as well. So we differentiate natives from colonists by using the phrase "native American", which is mainly to their benefit as it establishes their prior right to the land.

The only problem is we seem to have a word for every type of American except the white Irish/German/British/Russia hybrid. Which implies that they are the standard "American" and all derivatives "arab american, african american" are outsiders.

They're both offensive because people make them offensive, SYnapse. In a perfect world we'd all just be content with "indigenous peoples" and then we would differentiate between tribes but no one can spare 10 seconds of their life to figure out whether someone is Navajo or Cherokee.

Well the Navajo and Cherokee have a great characteristic in common compared to a German-American; they resided for a few millenia on that continent. That's why I think it's not unreasonable to place them in the same group and give it a name. I mean yeah we're all individuals if you want to go to extremes, but categories help us to compose thoughts and things without articulating every single fact.

Consider that "Shawnee" is just a word to group together people who are directly or indirectly related associating themselves with a particular group, tribe with cultures and values. Using the term "Indian" just enlarges the scale you're doing that on. From "The Jones's" to "Humanity" we categorise humans into groups and they are damn well gonna have to get over it.

I had originally typed in Shawnee for Cherokee and changed it for that reason. Navajo and Cherokee cultures are quite distinguishable though. It's like clumping France and Senegal together because they have a similar system and are influenced by one another but they obviously aren't the same place.

It's more like clumping African tribes together and calling them Ugandans. Which almost all of us do.

More importantly though: krellin, you said: "+1 Agree..." about one of my posts... So where's my +1??

I would like a +1 on that post as well to compensate for the long waiting time.

Great. Thanks. Seems like this thread had a purpose after all.

Eh, no, I go with Acholi and Bugandan. But you know.

"It is understandable that following the big mix-up, the natives of America would wish to be called Americans instead of Indians for accuracy's sake. Then all the colonists wanted to be called Americans as well. "

Most native American's actually prefer the term "American Indian".

If we are going to be pedantic about etymology, as Philcore pointed out earlier, the word "native" means some one who was born in a particular location. So if you were born in America then you are a native American. In fact the term "Native American", in the 19th century used to be used to distinguish between people who were born in America from immigrants.

A more precise word would be aboriginal American or indigenous American. But as I mentioned most native American's say they prefer American Indian. The term has been around for centuries now. They're comfortable with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-sOGJ978d0