[Aztlan] Indian

[Beth Spencer]

Thank you Justin.  I was just about to copy that to the list.

A wonderful writer / poet / humorist  is Jim Northrup.  His column, 
Fond du Lac Follies, appears regularly in News From  Indian Country (an 
independent Native journal published twice monthly out of Hayward, 
Wisconsin). Mr. Northrup is Anishinaabe (Ojibwe / Chippewa).  As the 
hoopla over the 500 year anniversary of Columbus' voyage grew prior to 
1992, Jim decided to forgo the word 'Indian' in his writings for the 
entire year.  Everywhere the word would have appeared in his column, 
Jim used a blank space.  When the calendar turned to 1993 he resumed 
use of the word.

  I see this as confirmation of Mann's use of the word  'confusing' in 
regards to the word in question.  Also, Jim's return to the usage 
conforms to Mann's experience that the majority
of Indigenous peoples do refer to themselves as Indian, while also 
prefering their
own names for themselves.   But Mr. Northrup would be better able to 
speak to that
topic than I can.

For more about Jim Northrup see
http://www.jimnorthrup.org/

Beth Spencer