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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 76
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 76 |
My reaction is that it's an adjective -- Indian what?
My response is that it's a short way to refer to Native Americans, acceptable in speech, and only in writing if the you use "Native American" in the first instance. It also means residents of India. (Even though there are probably more natives of India, maybe because my roommate is a Native American, I think of that first.) It also refers to a vast cultural lode of the work of Native Americans and (east) Indians.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 76
journeyman
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journeyman
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 76 |
So that my answer would be fresh, I wrote the above post without reading other's responses. Now that I have, a couple of more thoughts --
I was more more careful about using "Native American" in all instances until I began sharing my loft with Ken, who is purely Native American. We frequently discuss cultural, political, and social matters, and in my use of the terms in question, I followed his lead. He often uses "Indian," when he's not referring to members of specific tribes. This is not to say that all NAs agree with this....
BTW, I wonder how come Native American names are usually either common American names, or NA names rendered into English; i.e. Running Bear. Are there instances of NA names in the tribal language? Not that I've noticed....
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 2,379 |
My reaction is that it's an adjective -- Indian what?I should think you'd have answered, "Indian corn!" 
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Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
BTW, I wonder how come Native American names are usually either common American names, or NA names rendered into English; i.e. Running Bear. Are there instances of NA names in the tribal language?
Assimilation of native peoples was both a popular movement and governmental policy for many years in first half of the 20th Century.
It is my understanding that officials would not accept tribal or native names and insisted "American" names be used for school, jobs, etc.
That is one reason most older Native Hawaiians have "American" first names and Hawaiian middle names. Further I've been told Native Americans had an "American" name (Joe, Jane, Bob, Betsy etc.) and a Tribal Name used among their own people.
Times have changed, thank heavens.
If I have been misinformed I await correction in the expectation others will leap into the breach.
wow
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
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Even though there are probably more natives of India, Nice understatement, Blanche, unless there are a billion Native Americans! 
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Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
In reply to:
Even though there are probably more natives of India,
Nice understatement, Blanche, unless there are a billion Native Americans!
Now that the casinos on the reservations are raking in the dough, there are about a billion people claiming to be tribal members. And those people are - what? - pseudo-pseudo-Indians?
[suddenly-realizing-what-the-Phil-Collins-song-was-about emoticon]
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Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
I'm answering this before reading any other responses, so that it is my own, uncoloured by any other.
My reaction to "Indian" is very mixed, because it has meant so many different things over the years.
When I was a child, the word was inextricably linked to "Cowboy", and that is still the first image that comes to mind - however, as I lived near to Southall until I was a young adult, the word also brings at almost the same time, the image of men wearing turbans (Sikh and you shall find, as they say!)
Most of the Indians that I have known as friends or colleagues have been either professional men or business acquaintances, so have been educated and cultured.
(BTW, some of them have been from Pakistan, rather than India, but my early conditioning has caused me to lump them all together. Partly, I suppose, because the word "Pakistani" - or Paki - has such adverse connotations in most peoples minds)
Hope this is of use to you!
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
I would be inclined to agree with someone further up the list who said "Indian what?" I think it's an adjective in my mind. I've somehow dissassociated the word from a mental image of a "typical" North American Indian. In Manitoba, something like 4% of the population is Native so they're not some sort of mythical cultural group. They are a bit more mythical in Newfoundland because the Natives here, the Beothuks, were pretty much killed off by the usual colonization factors; disease, encroachment of their lands, alcohol, and so on.
The weirdest thing about reading the responses was this US usage of "Native Americans". In Canada we use Aboriginal or First Nations or Native. (I think we don't like the term Native Americans because they're Native Canadians!) I didn't know these words were not used south of the border until I read all the preceding messages. However, the government department which deals with their concerns, administers terms of treaties, etc., is still called The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. They haven't PCed their name yet.
My response in conversation would be "Indian? [blank look] Native or India-Indian?" (Still not terribly clear but anyone I would talk to would understand what I was asking.)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Posts: 163
member
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member
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 163 |
My reaction to the word Indian would be pretty similar to the other North Americans who responded, in particular Bean. I was surprised to note that someone mentioned the word autochtone as a description of indiginous persons; I am familiar with that being used in French but never in English.
I will admit to some difficulty with the term native, as I am a native Canadian albeit a caucasian one. I was born here in this country, therefore I am a native of Canada. How many generations back must your family trace its roots before its progeny can be called native? Are the descendants of William the Conquerer living in England today to be considered immigrants? Not an easy question, but one that bears some thought.
Finally, an example of how our sensibilities have changed can be seen in the changing titles of Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." It started out as "Ten Little N*****s" and then became "Ten Little Indians" before changing to its current form.
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