Title: Native Americans - What did they call themselves? [Archive] - Straight Dope Message Board
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Content: Dogface
05-06-2003, 12:52 PM
My old fencing master called himself a "Lakotah". I think the concept of a "continental" identity that transcended tribe boundaries was introduced by the Europeans, although the Haudenosaunee* were beginning to develop a confederation identity--but even that identity denied equal status to anyone not of the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onandoga, or Seneca (even the Tuscarora did not have voting rights). *aka "Iroquois", which actually means "rattlesnakes" or "bad snakes"--they were a very expansionistic empire in their day. Xema
05-06-2003, 01:55 PM
What Dogface says agrees with what a Cherokee man (who claimed to have studied the issue) told me some years ago: that tribes typically has an "us and them" worldview and there was little or no tendency toward a collective term for all native peoples. I've also been told that the term "Indian" is now in common use among Indians, and that they find "Native American" to be affected and effete. ( Anyone know if this is so?) light strand
05-06-2003, 02:35 PM
My SIL is Hopi. If you ask her what she is, she'll tell you she's Hopi. If you call her an Indian, she's not offended, nor is she offended if you call her Native American.