Title: Is using the word 'tribe' or 'spirit animal’ offensive to Native Americans?
Headings: Is using the word ‘tribe’ or ‘spirit animal’ offensive to Native Americans?
Is using the word ‘tribe’ or ‘spirit animal’ offensive to Native Americans?
Question:
Native Responses:
Non-Native Responses
Takeaways
Do not use the word ‘spirit animal’ if that is not in your culture
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Content: So if another White person says, “Hey this isn’t OK.” I’m like “Oh, thank you, I can sit this one out.” I really appreciate this because this topic has been recently helping me continually develop my own Native American identity. While I will state that since we are talking to a White person, I used the tribe terminology for ease of not confusing them within my response, but I will be challenging them to change their use of tribe (s) to Nation (s) from now on. I would also like to talk on that the use of “tribe” or “Indian” is purely a personal thing. My family has used the term “Indian” in various ways and sometimes in reference of who they are because of the generation they are and the time they grew up in and also that can be used for the term “tribe” for my older relatives. They rarely take offense of being called Indian, referring to themselves as Indian and also being of a tribe. I’m also a Plains Native American of Montana and we use “tribe” as a way to teach how to distinguish Canadian First Nations people from Native American people. But I will be changing this within myself. I guess the gut feeling of knowing it is wrong should be enough.