[Aztlan] Indian ?

[Edward B. Hanna]

On 19 Sep 2006, at 7:08 PM, Sam Edgerton wrote:

> There's good reason why Columbus first called the "New World"  
> inhabitants "Indians."   Before "America" was known, named, and  
> mapped in Europe, the furthest extension of continental land mass  
> known to the east of Europe was Asia, but often called "India" on  
> the early Ptolemaic charts. Thus the two terms, "Asia" and "India"  
> in the fifteenth century were practically synonymous, and, of  
> course, that's where Columbus thought he was heading by sailing  
> west.  Since, we now know that the so-called "Indians" actually  
> migrated from "Asia/India" some eleven thousand years before,  
> what's wrong with identifying them still with their place of  
> origin?  Maybe "Indian/Asian- American" might be accepted as more  
> politically correct since it sounds like "African-American"?  But  
> then the latter suffix, "-/American" in this case implies, because  
> it bears a European name post-facto imposed upon these newly  
> revealed continents, a cultural domination of the latter suffix  
> over the former prefix. What about "Amerindian," shifting the  
> "American" implication to simply a prefixed geographical signifier,  
> while emphasizing on the suffix side the ancient ethnic origins of  
> our "indigenous" peoples?
> Or, as Greg Sandor hints, why nor just keep calling them "Indians"  
> and be done with it?
>
> Sam Edgerton
> _______________________________________________

Agreeing with Sam, I don't think I've ever met an American Indian who  
considered "Indian" to be a pejorative term.  "Redskin," yes.   
"Chief," yes.  Or, for the female, "squaw," definitely. While many  
would prefer "Native American" or "First Canadian," you'd be hard  
pressed to find any who strenuously objected to "Indian."

Curiously, though (although perhaps not all _that_ curiously), many  
take umbrage at the term "Amerindian," considering it anthropology- 
speak. Anthropologists, as a race, are not among the most welcome on  
most of the reservations I've visited over the years.  That's because  
most Indians I've met resent being the objects of "study,"  
considering it, at the very least, patronizing.

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/Ed
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  Edward B. Hanna
  edwbhanna at comcast.net
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