Title: Native American vs. American Indian: Which Is Preferred?
Headings: ‘Native American’ or ‘American Indian’? How to Talk About Indigenous People of America
‘Native American’ or ‘American Indian’? How to Talk About Indigenous People of America
Where these terms originated
Which should you use?
What about ‘Alaska Native’?
Can I just say ‘Indigenous’?
What about tribe names?
How to talk about it
If someone corrects you
Terms to avoid
The bottom line

Content: On its own, “Indian” refers to people from India, so you wouldn’t use it to describe an Indigenous person. “Natives.” Someone might say, “I’m Native,” dropping the “American,” but white oppressors have traditionally used the plural “natives” in negative and dismissive ways. Don’t call people “natives,” even if they refer to themselves with that term. “Eskimo.” Many Alaska Natives, Inuit, Yupik, and other Indigenous peoples from the Arctic region consider this colonial term racist and derogatory. “Spirit animal.” Don’t refer to anything as your “spirit animal,” no matter what level of affinity you feel for it. This term isn’t just appropriative. It also turns Indigenous cultural traditions into jokes and meme fodder.